I am looking for information on the best/proper bullet for my .338 Win. Mag for big game hunting in North America (Bear, Elk, Moose, etc.) and Africa (Plains game, Lion, etc.). Not only from a lethal perspective but accuracy as well.

I am sure there is lots of experience in here.

For the accuracy edge, I'd be looking at the Nosler 200 gr Ballistic Tip.

For a great all-around, do it all bullet, I'd go with the Nosler Partition in either 210, 225 or 250 gr, whichever you find that your rifle prefers.

I have seen some great test results from breaking in my 338 bar and shooting those Trophy bear claw bullets, Nosler partitions so far,they sure stay together and mushroom almost perfect. I will be trying some others later on very soon.

If you're planning to include elk and moose, not to mention African lions and coastal brown bears in your future hunting plans, restrict your list to premium 250 gr. bullets. That big, heavy slug is what makes the .338 Winchester do its stuff best on large herbivorous animals, plus big predators that can fight back. Start with Nosler Partitions of that weight, and also experiment with Swift A-Frames and Trophy Bonded Bear Claws. All of them were designed with your brand of hunting in mind.

Any sort of accuracy advantage the Ballistic Tip might offer is worthless in light of its unsuitability for many of the animals on your list. You're not hunting statistics or pocket gophers, you're hunting big game animals that require a high level of structural integrity from your bullet - for their sake as well as your own. Besides, the bullets I mentioned are all cabable of delivering all of the accuracy you'll ever be able to take advantage of for any sort of hunting you'd undertake with the .338 Win. Mag.

AD

There are so many excellent .33 bullets that perhaps what you should do is find the best one for your type of hunting and stick with it.

The 250-grain NOS Partition is a great bullet to start with. If you want a bullet that is tougher that the Partition, then you may want to consider Swift 225 and 250-grain A-Frame. Swift 275-grain A-Frame should be a great big bear bullet (I just got a box of 50), but they have cannelures so crimping may be required.

Winchester 230-grain FS and Barnes 225 and 250-grain X bullets are even tougher than those above. But since the heavier X may be on the long side, you may have to seat it deeper into the case (with some rifles, not all). But you could come down to a lighter weight such as 225-grain X, and still have a deep penetrating bullet.

TBBC is another tough bullet, perhaps close to the Swift A-Frame. Speer GS bullets are close to NOS Partition bullets (according to what I hear from hunters).

Woodleigh makes some excellent bullets for the .338, in weights up to 300 grains (solids and softpoints).

Bigbore67,
Ray from Alaska pretty much says it all. I live here in Montana and have taken all big game except moose and grizzly. I shoot a .338-06 and have a .338 Winchester "Maximum" on the way. (This is nothing more than a throated .338 Win to take 250 Nos Ptn, 275 Speers and 300 Woodleighs seated to the base of the neck.)
Don't worry about accuracy....period. Any rifle that shoots 2 1/2" at 100 yards is good enough for big game. Large animals have an 18" area behind the shoulder that is the killing zone. Up close a spine/neck shot is instantly fatal.
All of the bullets that Ray mentioned will deliver less than 1 1/2" groups at 100 yards.
Also, remember that much NA big game is hunted in colder to bitterly cold weather. So, one should probably stay away from ball powders as they are much more sensitive to cold and lose considerable velocity in very cold weather.
The new Hogdons "extreme" powders and the Reloader series powders work very well and show little velocity variation with temperature.
Hope this helps.
Great Shooting and Hunting.
The Bearman

The "put a hole through a buffalo and the tree behind it" crowd loves to deride the performance of ballistic tips. The fact is that B.T.'s DO expand more rapidly, and don't penetrate as deeply as some "harder" bullets. But you won't find any of these same critics volunteering to stand on the far side of an elk while you shoot it with .338/200 Ballistic Tip.

In my tests in various media, the .338/200 Ballistic Tip gives about 90% of the penetration of a similar partition, and does so with a devastating wound channel which, on most big game, would extend beyond the far side of the body cavity. The solid base on the BT provides surprising penetration even when two-thirds of the front portion has been launched into the animals vitals as shrapnal.

I have successfully hunted black bear and elk with the .338/200 BT, and feel it is totally adequate for any of the plains varieties up to the size of elk, as well as all bears other than polar and coastal grizzlies (a typical adult inland grizzly will weigh 450 pounds wringing wet -- less in the spring, and a ballistic tip will turn him inside-out).

That said, the Nosler Partition will do everything the BT will do, but it may give a slower kill on lighter game (a friend of mine was down-right dejected after seeing a smallish whitetail run 75 yards after being whacked in the boiler room with a 210 Nosler at 3200 fps). For big bull elk, I would PREFER a partition (210 will do, 225 is nice, 250 okay but unnecessary).
For moose and brownies, the 250 might be the first choice, because they really can be big.

You can't go wrong with Partitions, but for stuff on the smaller end of the scale, if you want to use B.T.'s, go ahead. As for the other premium bullets, most of them are just expensive copies of the Partition, so why not go with the original?

[This message has been edited by Stonecreek (edited 03-22-2002).]

I shoot two .340's. I have shot everything from Sierra and Hornady to Swift A-Frame including Barnes X and XLC, Nosler Partition and Nosler Partition Gold, Kodiak, Woodleigh. The most accurate and toughest is the North Fork. In the .338 they offer a 200, a 225, and a 240 gr. A bonded core lead front and a solid rear shank, much like the TBBC, but acccurate and available. Good shooting.

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Ray Alaska your right about those Winchester Fail Safes.....just tried them yesterday at the range, boy do they penetrate well. They wouldn't shoot well in a friends gun, so he gave me a 1&1/2 boxes to try. They shoot well too. I got 1.5 inch group at 100 yards, not bad for factory stuff.

T/Jazz: I have only recovered one FS bullet from moose so far; the rest have passed right through. I believe this bullet is much like a Barnes-X, except that it has lead at the base. The lead makes it just a little heavier.

On top of all, .33 bullets benefit from excellent BC and SD. One can select softer bullets for slower .33's, or very tough bullets for the faster .33's. It is not a bad idea to choose a few to experiment with, and to match a couple of bullet styles to the game to be hunted. The Partition (and others like it) provide a good midpoint, since it is not too tough nor too soft. Those who don't reload can buy excellent factory ammo with any of the bullets mentioned here.

I have not used some of the bullets Phurley mentioned in his response above, but I have no doubts he is correct.

A great number of manufacturers produce all sort of bullet styles in different weights for very fast to slower .33's. Woodleigh produces soft point and solid bullets up to 300 grains for Africa hunting, the Swift A-Frame goes up to 275 grains in weight, then Sierra produces match bullets. The list of manufacturers is long, and I have only mentioned a few.

Here's another MT hunter with a .338 that's tackled deer, elk, impala, warthog, kudu, sable, eland, waterbuck, leopard, gemsbok, zebra and jackel.

I used 250 grain Woodleigh Weldcores in Africa last June and recovered about 6 bullets which looked like perfect button mushrooms. The cat died with a 250 gr. NP through the heart. The exit wound was over an inch wide.

I tried 230 grain Failsafe's last fall and had complete pass through's on deer and buffalo. Large exit wounds generally provide more blood so the FS will accompany me on the return trip to Africa.

Ski+3

Have you checked out the Match King thread?

Using the 338WM on anything but the big bears, I'd stay with 250 grain (sorry not the MK) for the heavy stuff and not be too concerned about the fancy bullets. You have the weight, and the power to do the job regardless.