You guys that shoot the 338-06 ... Anyone load up with barnes bullets? If so, which style bullet, and what weight? I am thinking about loading some tsx in the 210gr. Anyone want to share some load recipes. ?
I've shot my 338-06 on 4 of my 5 trips to Africa I have probably tried 40 to 50 different loads since 1999 in it and I always come back to Nosler Partion 225 gr bullets. They shoot the most accurate out of my barrel and perform outstandingly on game animals. Accubonds at 225 gr are second. I can't get ANY Barnes bullets to shoot accurately with my rifle. Tried 5 or 6 different ones. Not knocking them, just can't get them to shoot in this rifle. Now, I may have too long a throat in it so I'm going to do some more work on seating depth this year to see if that makes any difference. Love my Thumper!
210 TTSX shoot great in mine. Ditto the 185s. Did not take this rifle to Africa, I purpose built it for shooting hogs and black bear but I have used it on two elk, a cow last year and a bull this year, in both cases one shot took care of things and neither animal ran away. Complete pass throughs at 100-150 yds. Shoulders broken in both cases. Really like RL 15 powder in this cartridge
Thanks. I will pencil that down. My rifle should be done by spring thaw. I will more than likely take it to Zimbabwe in July as long as I get a proper load worked up.
Zimbabwe is where I took mine the first time. It worked great. Find a good load and the cartridge will do the job Keep us posted I used Rl15 then and I'm playing with RL 17 next.