338 270gr ELD-X

My brother and I have both switched over to the 270 grains this year. We were both shooting 300 accubonds before. Both of our rifles shoot the ELDX better than they did the ABs or SMK's. We took 4 deer this year with them and the bullet did great. 1.5" exits on broadside shots.
With my 29" benchmark barrel I'm shooting 2904 fps with 93gr of Retumbo with great accuracy around 3/8 moa.
My brothers 26" is shooting 2875fps with 94 gr of Retumbo with accuracy around 1/2 moa.
We will be sticking with them.

CA48 said:

When tuning/trueing ballistic apps with actual drops sometimes to make it all line up I will have to increase/decrease velocity's and BCs. I think a lot of this comes from the weight of a rifle, bi pod being used, and how much a shooter preloads their bi pod. I tested this once by switching bi pods then shooting for drops. Each bi pod required a different amount of elevation adjustment to hit the center line of my steel plate vertically at 750 yards but not by much. I also noticed the heavier the rifle the more drops matched with the advertised bc and velocity from my chronograph or that it took less tuning from advertised bc's and velocity's chroned. I state this because sometimes it may seem like manufactures aren't advertising an accurate bc for a given bullet but really there is more at play as to why everything might not match up as advertised.

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Certainly something to keep my eye on as my rifle is relatively light weight for a big 338.

I used to shoot the 300 EH and it shot to Berger's advertised G7 in my rifle.

jcoop said:

My brother and I have both switched over to the 270 grains this year. We were both shooting 300 accubonds before. Both of our rifles shoot the ELDX better than they did the ABs or SMK's. We took 4 deer this year with them and the bullet did great. 1.5" exits on broadside shots.
With my 29" benchmark barrel I'm shooting 2904 fps with 93gr of Retumbo with great accuracy around 3/8 moa.
My brothers 26" is shooting 2875fps with 94 gr of Retumbo with accuracy around 1/2 moa.
We will be sticking with them.

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Great to hear. About how far were the shots on the deer, or about what was the impact velocity?

Timber338 said:

Great to hear. About how far were the shots on the deer, or about what was the impact velocity?

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Not very far, 2 were about 200 yards and the other 2 were around 260. So impact velocity was around 2575-2650. I was glad to see they didn't come apart as 2 of them hit ribs and still appeared to stay together at that speed. No massive bloodshot and shrapnal.

CA48 said:

When tuning/trueing ballistic apps with actual drops sometimes to make it all line up I will have to increase/decrease velocity's and BCs. I think a lot of this comes from the weight of a rifle, bi pod being used, and how much a shooter preloads their bi pod. I tested this once by switching bi pods then shooting for drops. Each bi pod required a different amount of elevation adjustment to hit the center line of my steel plate vertically at 750 yards but not by much. I also noticed the heavier the rifle the more drops matched with the advertised bc and velocity from my chronograph or that it took less tuning from advertised bc's and velocity's chroned. I state this because sometimes it may seem like manufactures aren't advertising an accurate bc for a given bullet but really there is more at play as to why everything might not match up as advertised.

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Just shooting from a bench to shooting prone you can change your fps by a bunch. Not to mention sd and es can also change due to the recoil management of the 2 positions. Prone I can keep my 7# unbraked 270 from moving more than about 4moa off target. On a bench I can't keep it within 15moa it seems.

Capt RB said:

Just shooting from a bench to shooting prone you can change your fps by a bunch. Not to mention sd and es can also change due to the recoil management of the 2 positions. Prone I can keep my 7# unbraked 270 from moving more than about 4moa off target. On a bench I can't keep it within 15moa it seems.

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Yes, I've seen this as well! The lighter the rifle the more pronounced the effect. That's why I packed my bipod in with me on my elk hunt... I shoot at the range prone with a bipod so that's how I hunt too.

I'm a bit puzzled with the BC discrepancy since every other bullet I've shot out of this rifle has been spot on to the advertised BC. It might not be BC, I'll figure it out eventually... but right now using a .4 G7 BC is working very well.

Agree with using what is working in your rifle. You're connecting just fine @ 1,100+! A guy can be off a little at 550, but not 1,100.

If you can download the Hornady 4dof into your phone. Punch up the numbers and use the bullet out of their library. I don't have an answer other than you lost 25fps due to temp da brass. Looking at the bullet and the fact that you drilled that bull all 4 times. I would still have my head stuck in my truck a week later.

phorwath said:

Agree with using what is working in your rifle. You're connecting just fine @ 1,100+! A guy can be off a little at 550, but not 1,000.

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Agree!

On this forum I like to show all my cards because we all learn together. My rifle has always been very accurate but it's not perfect. I know it's consistent enough to kill at long distances, but this BC thing is puzzling. I have not written off the scope changing POI, but don't have enough data to prove any theory one way or another. I'll get out and shoot more after the holidays and we will see how things go.

I took my 338 RUM to 1000 yards on Wednesday morning. The 270 matched 2965 fps and a .376 G7 to hit my 2/3 IPSC plate with four shots center mass.

I have shot two animals now with the 270 out of a 338 Norma. Muzzle Velocity is about 2870, I believe. Either way, first shot 406 yds, good sized "mulie" buck. Hit him a little far back. through the liver, and back of the lungs. He ran about fifty yards, down hill, and piled up. The bullet had disintegrated his liver, and passed through the other side. Not a huge exit hole so I assume the bullet stayed together fairly well.

Second animal, good sized cow elk, 200 yds. Last five minutes of the season, she started to turn and walk over the hill away from me. I was trying to sneak the bullet in behind her last rib and up into her chest. However, I gave her the old Texas Heart Shot, right at the base of the tail. The bullet went into the top of her pelvis and just crushed it. However, it didn't go much past the actual hip bone itself. I would consider that pretty good performance considering it penetrated probably a good ten inches of solid bone, and at a relatively high velocity still. The bullet really didn't fragment and really bloodshot a very minimal amount of meat.

That's all I've done with it so far, hope that helps.

brentc said:

I took my 338 RUM to 1000 the on Wednesday morning. The 270 matched 2965 fps and a .376 G7 to hit my 2/3 IPSC plate with four shots center mass.

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This is great to get a data point that is very close to the published BC.

Timber338 said:

This is great to get a data point that is very close to the published BC.

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It's the average of the three BCs hornady provides. I do the same for all of the ELDs. My 300 RUM cold bored the same plate with the 212 ELD-X with the averaged BC and the Magnetospeed velocity.

I got to put a 270 ELD-X from my new 338 RUM into a critter tonight. We had a choice encounter with a West Texas free range Oryx as he stepped out of cover right before sundown. A single shot from 60 yards put him down. I was expecting a longer shot, but I guess you have to take them where they are. The 270 passed through, destroying the Oryx vitals on the way through.