1450 yard whitetail last year...

[COBrad]

Like I said, my experience with 338's is based on 250 gr. bullets at a few hundred yards. I would need to see what you have seen to become convinced.
With the experience you are describing, I would expect you to be an expert tracker, and find most of the reasonably hit animals you shoot.
Maybe one day I'll have the chance to see for myself. My next LR rifle is going to be a 338 something, but that won't be for a least another year. I haven't reached the limit of the 7 mag I'm currently shooting, yet.

 

[toddc]

Like I said, my experience with 338's is based on 250 gr. bullets at a few hundred yards. I would need to see what you have seen to become convinced.
With the experience you are describing, I would expect you to be an expert tracker, and find most of the reasonably hit animals you shoot.
Maybe one day I'll have the chance to see for myself. My next LR rifle is going to be a 338 something, but that won't be for a least another year. I haven't reached the limit of the 7 mag I'm currently shooting, yet.

I understand your skepticism and even started a thread here when I first used this combo as damage was much worse than I figured. Three barrels later I realize what Elmer Keith meant.
The smk usually sheds 50% and doesnt stop so you have deep penetration + 150 grs of detonation. Its nasty.
Gut hit animals usually have 10" holes in them as the lack of bone causes them to spllit open like a prairie dog.
Speaking of prairie dogs I have seen quite a few deer hit in the chest facing you and the bullet blows out both sides of them just back of the ribcage with the bullet exiting out the rear or piling up under the shin if it hits big bone in the back. The shock alone splits the hide and blows guts out the skin ruptures. This is on smaller deer but still impressive.
I dont like saying what I say because I beleive in shot placement. I have almost never had to rely on horsepower but when I did the 338 300 smk is just a different level. Makes a big 300 look like a varmint gun. 300 grains is a bunnnnnnch of weight. It sheds more weight than most people start out shooting and still has 150 grs to continue on.
Shot placement on a prairie dog doesnt matter. A 300 smk on a 150lb deer is getting mighty close.

 

[COBrad]

That is a description I can relate to. I shoot bunches of PD's and know just what you are talking about. The 7 mag I mentioned is used for long range marmot hunting. I shot about a dozen this year from 920 to 1156 yards. Even at those ranges the 180 gr Berger hunting VLD's are amazingly effective, but when I get out around that 1K mark they are usually not explosive, unless shots are in the chest length-wise.
I'll have to see it, but what you describe is an incredible killing machine.
Next question, what's left to eat!?

 

[toddc]

And just so its totally clear shot placement is the end all of hunting but I am relaying my experiences on a bunch of dead deer and I have come to the opinion that a solid body shot =dead deer. Not something I rely on with a sub .5MOA gun but it makes me feel certain when the shot gets taken that something is dead ya just gotta pick it up.
3-400 were killed by others with these guns and more than one wasnt hit right. Every one was recovered. Ive seen it kill a bunch at 700+ with a back of diaphragm hit many of which just dropped drt style. Nothing else like it in my experience. That 300 is more devastating than the 50 bmg amax from what ive seen.

 

[toddc]

eATIN GETS TUFF ON A SMALL ONE with any raking shot. Ive only seen 2 shot with this more than once. 1st time a slut (doe) jumped with the bullet in the air at 670 and it blew her guts 15 ft behind her but she was still moving so my cousin shot her again. We got 1 front shoulder total. The other one a guy shot her in the *** from the side because he didnt hold wind at 850. Most other rounds=clean miss. She spun and was layin there and I could see her eyes going unfocused when BLAM he shoots her in the brisket which from how she was laying wiped both front shoulders both backstraps and blew her sirloin cuts on exit. The 1st shot scranbled the lower legs and the last took out everything else.
If I want clean meat its a head shot.

 

[toddc]

Im kind of an internet idiot but we have doe season next week and I'll try to post some photos. I never take pictures because hunting is usually more work than play and I havent killed a deer I care to photo for ages but I would like some pictures especially now I have a phone with a camera. WOW

 

[alcesgigas]

If I didn't know the Edge really didn't appear until the 21st Century I'd be inclined to think that somebody in this post spent some time in NZ during the early 60s'. Memory might be off some, but bounties were paid on all cervids (non-native species without predators) and helicopters were used to eradicate the excess. Sort of like neighboring Australia's earlier rabbit problem.

 

[captacademy]

The 338 bullet performance sounds interesting, I would like to see the pictures, like the way Broz posted them!