Long Time Long Ranger
Well-Known Member
I agree the barnes would be the best with the 338 win mag and his purpose. But he said he must look at the sst or accubond only. Price wise the 225 sst will do anything he wants out of the 338 win mag to 500 yards with the least expense.
My personal 338 win mag is a tikka t-3 light and shoots the 185 barnes ttsx at 3300 fps. BC is around .44 or so. This load will knock anything in north america flat to 500 yards. You can go lighter with the barnes because they retain all of their weight and have deeper penetration. Performance wise this is the best combination I have found for shooting out to 600 yards with the 338 win mag.
In the past Barnes bullets were known for two things. Guaranteed the best performance on game and the worst accuracy in the business. Basically you couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with them from inside the barn. Then a few years ago they learned to cut those pretty little grooves in the bullet. Now they are as accurate as any big game bullet on the market while retaining there hold on the best performance on big game. Also with the grooves and excellent cleaning agents on the market now copper fouling is no longer an issue. Another thing I love about the Barnes bullets is you do not have to seperate your bullets by weight which is a time consuming issue. All others, even the match bullets, must be weighed individually and seperated by weight for top accuracy. Every Barnes bullet in the box will be virtually identical in weight. I end up throwing several bullets away out of each box with most manufactures because they are just to far outside the norm. BC's are slightly lower for the Barnes but I am a hunter and not a target shooter. I want performance on game the #1 issue. Barnes are #1 in that respect. Then I work up accurate loads for those bullets. 95+% of my hunting is inside a half mile and the Barnes BC's are adequate inside that range. A couple extra clicks or in my case with a mil dot scope the BC difference is just not an issue for me. If I want to go beyond a half mile I have 338-378's launching 300 grain smk's at 3050 fps that will kill stuff at a mile.
I have loads for Barnes bullets in all the calibers I shoot and most of my rifles will put five shots into 2" at 400 yards with those loads. That is good enough for hunting accuracy.
Thanks for mentioning the Barnes bullets. It seems on here now most people are just looking at BC's and ballistic charts. There is so much more to it than that. The bullet must perform perfectly on every shot to be 100% succesful. There will be a certain percentage of long sick faces when you just look at the ballistics side of hunting. It takes a lot of experience to know what kills stuff best. Then you find the best flying bullets around that criteria.
My personal 338 win mag is a tikka t-3 light and shoots the 185 barnes ttsx at 3300 fps. BC is around .44 or so. This load will knock anything in north america flat to 500 yards. You can go lighter with the barnes because they retain all of their weight and have deeper penetration. Performance wise this is the best combination I have found for shooting out to 600 yards with the 338 win mag.
In the past Barnes bullets were known for two things. Guaranteed the best performance on game and the worst accuracy in the business. Basically you couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with them from inside the barn. Then a few years ago they learned to cut those pretty little grooves in the bullet. Now they are as accurate as any big game bullet on the market while retaining there hold on the best performance on big game. Also with the grooves and excellent cleaning agents on the market now copper fouling is no longer an issue. Another thing I love about the Barnes bullets is you do not have to seperate your bullets by weight which is a time consuming issue. All others, even the match bullets, must be weighed individually and seperated by weight for top accuracy. Every Barnes bullet in the box will be virtually identical in weight. I end up throwing several bullets away out of each box with most manufactures because they are just to far outside the norm. BC's are slightly lower for the Barnes but I am a hunter and not a target shooter. I want performance on game the #1 issue. Barnes are #1 in that respect. Then I work up accurate loads for those bullets. 95+% of my hunting is inside a half mile and the Barnes BC's are adequate inside that range. A couple extra clicks or in my case with a mil dot scope the BC difference is just not an issue for me. If I want to go beyond a half mile I have 338-378's launching 300 grain smk's at 3050 fps that will kill stuff at a mile.
I have loads for Barnes bullets in all the calibers I shoot and most of my rifles will put five shots into 2" at 400 yards with those loads. That is good enough for hunting accuracy.
Thanks for mentioning the Barnes bullets. It seems on here now most people are just looking at BC's and ballistic charts. There is so much more to it than that. The bullet must perform perfectly on every shot to be 100% succesful. There will be a certain percentage of long sick faces when you just look at the ballistics side of hunting. It takes a lot of experience to know what kills stuff best. Then you find the best flying bullets around that criteria.
