338 -180gr loads

[rutten]

Hello I am new to the board and am having a great time searching around the site. Was wonering if anybody may have a suggested load for the 338 win mag using the 180 gr. BT. My father in law just asked me to work something up for him but have never used this light of a bullet in the 338. Hope you can help.
Scott

 

[huntingmandan]

I just worked up 2 diff loads....

69 gr of IMR 4350 with a COL of 3.370 (.025 off the lands in my rifle)
or 70 GR of H4350
Savage rifle, 24 bbl, Win cases Fed primers

Both will group .5 inches at 100 yds, and shoot almost in the same holes. in fact i put 13 shots into 0.9 " using both loads together...

as far as i can tell, it looks like they are flying at 2900-3000 fps. You wouldn't want to shoot them into an animal any faster than that....

dan

 

[huntingmandan]

sorry, forgot to mention, that was with the 180 gr BT in .338...just to clarify....

 

[rutten]

Thanks for the information. I have a couple of cans of IMR 4350 so it looks like I will be working a load this weekend. Will reduce a couple of grains and work my way up if needed. Gives me good information to get started and one of my favorite powders. Use alot of it in my 300 Weatherby.
Scott

 

[huntingmandan]

Acutally, according to my Nosler manual, those loads i gave you are about 2 gr below the lowest listed loads, so you might not want to go down too much! Let me know how they work for you !

Dan

 

[rutten]

Thanks for the added information. I will start one grain under your lightest and go from thier.
Scott

 

[rutten]

huntingmandan- Wow did the 180's shot well . Started at 68 grains and worked up to 72 of IMR4350. The magic # seems to be 71.5 grains although all loads seemed to shoot respectable. I am going to play with seating depths the next go round to see if I can improve at all. Best group with the 71.5gr. was .57. The gun will outshoot me so I am happy with that. Thanks again for the load information,
Scott

 

[huntingmandan]

Glad you found a shooter! I did some testing with mine at 300 yds the other night and shot a group of 3 that were about 1.5 inches. I can't remember what my COL is at, but usually longer is better, but i had to make mine somenwhat shorter then my chamber could handle since my magazine was the limiting factor there. Let us know how it turns out for you!

Dan

 

[Rick Wolf]

I have loaded the 180 Bt in my 338 and it shoots great. A ragged hole at 100yds and under 2 inches at 300 yds. I use the nosler manuals max load for IMR 4350. Nosler really has good bullets. I have never shot any of their bullets that did not perform great.
It gives instant kills on Texas Whitetail deer.
Nosler is discontinueing this bullet however, as mention on the Midway Web Site. So get as many boxes as you can because this is a great bullet and it shoots great but is going to be hard to find.
The 180 BT would compete directly with the 180 gr AccuBond bullet so I can understand why it is being dropped.

Happy shooting
Rick Wolf