I have been loading the Bulldozers a good bit, not the same bullet but I have a feeling some of the general characteristics I have found with the bulldozers will transfer to the match line as well, as I believe they use the same alloy, and same or similar bearing surface to the SBDII's.
So far I have loaded......
.338 270 Super Bull Dozer - .338 Norma Mag
.338 250 Super Bull Dozer II - .338 Norma Mag
.277 140 Super Bull Dozer II - .270 Sherman
.277 128 Bull Dozer - .270 Sherman
From that, this is what I have gathered......
General info -
They pressure up quicker, which means you can use a slower burning powder for a lighter bullet and still have an appropriate case fill. I am running 250 SBDII's with Retumbo in my .338 Norma, and have plenty of room in the case at max pressure. Around 93ish grains is max for me, I know people normally run around 88-90 grains with the 300 berger for max, to give you a comparison. If you use a "normal" burn rate powder for the bullet weight, you will need to use much less. For instance, with the 265 ABLR, using IMR7828ssc, I loaded up to 87 grains, and still had a little room to go. With the 250 SBDII, 86 grains of IMR7828ssc was about max, wouldn't want to go up any more.
The ones I have loaded do not like being close to the lands, as would be expected, most monolithics (outside Hammers) generally shoot better with a little more jump, and considering these are a very hard alloy copper, it makes sense, the extra distance helps to lower initial pressure before the bullet begins engraving in the rifling. I have seen .050" or more to be the best.
Depending on your action, they may need to be single fed, but if your shooting match bullets, that likely isn't a consideration anyway.
Pros -
They are capable of being very accurate, though in my experience it takes a little tuning, but nothing outside the norm fortunately.
The advertised bc's have been correct in my testing, so because of that, pretty much any other hunting bullet can't touch them for long range trajectory and wind deflection, and especially on the match bullets, the BC's are outstanding.
Customer Service with George and Jason is fantastic. I have both of their personal cell numbers in my phone, they are receptive and responsive, and very good to work with. If you have any questions, just call and ask.
They are actually readily available to purchase!!!!
Cons -
They are EXPENSIVE!! You can shoot almost double the amount of Bergers, and especially Hornady's for their cost. High BC numbers, high price numbers!
Load tuning, in my experience, is about the same as other bullets, so to meet my expectations, it takes a little shooting, so this kind of comes back to the price....I figure on around $100 for bullets to get a fully developed, tuned up load. I could probably do it for a little less, but in the back of my head I would know that I might not have fully exploited the accuracy potential of the bullets, which is the point of spending the extra $ for the high bc very consistent lathe turned bullets.
They require a tighter than normal twist, and I prefer, when possible, to go a little tighter than they suggest. For the .338 250 I think they state a 10 twist? I'm running them in a 9 twist, and it gives me the warm and fuzzies.
So that is kind of my break down on them, I like em for a hunting load. However in my .260 AI, I still shoot Bergers, because that gun gets more rounds through it, and they are more affordable. If I was going to build an ELR .338, those bullets your looking at would certainly be towards the top of my list as well. But if your wanting to shoot a lot, and money is somewhat of a consideration, that is where I might look at something else. Hope this helps a little!
