Reeder Custom Guns - In all the bullet talk below on the .338 cal

here is some about the .358 cal. I have a thing for .358 win and have had three of them. The FTX 200 gr Hornady "gummy bear' bullet will start expanding at 1800 fps and up so says Hornady.You can get 2700 fps from them also, again says Horn.
The Speer 220gr soft point has a jacket thickness of .018 if I measured right several years ago, and can go 2500. The Jacket has inner fluting too. It and the 250 sp share this same thickness and flutes. The the 250 can go 2350 fps. Both are just looking for a reason to expand. The 225Serria soft point shoots great and can go 2500, but its jacket is thicker and can separate leaving the lead to go on its merry way. It is still a good deer killer. Sierra told me that they would not come apart on a WT deer but they can. Last the Hornady 200 spire point is has a thicker jacket even with inter grooving .028. so for me it is good in the woods but not the field. Remember this was my measuring
For deer all I use is the 200 flex tip @ 2700for open woods or fields as in the woods I normally use my 16.5" Henry .41

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Also the reason I jumped on the 355 GNR. I also agree that the 200 grn FTX is the best bullet for whitetail hunting.

Have a nice Ruger Hawkeye 77 in 358 Winchester. It's quite a woods gun that shoots flatter than most think.

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I hunted this year the opening week of deer season with my Marlin 308 ME using the 140 grain FTX. On Sunday the second day, a nice 16" 175 lbs buck steps out and I get a 200 yard shot. Deer runs off. I find chunks of shoulder meat and up to 1" long pieces of bone. No blood trail. Search for 3 hours to no avail.
In the evening I was on a different stand, near sun down a 7 point buck steps out, bang flop and kick at 136 yards. Could not find entry or exit, not one drop of blood. At the skinning rack found that I hit where I aimed right behind the shoulder. The bullet struck behind the left shoulder through both lungs and broke the off shoulder bones and stopped there.
The jacket separated from the lead. The lead was found next to the shoulder bones. I traded for this rifle and got a sweet deal that included two other rifles and the dies for the Marlin 308. I will be pulling all of the bullets and find a bullet that will have better terminal performance.
So two weeks later my friend and his father were hunting and seen a buck in a clear cut. Father shoots the deer and made a bad shot, son follows up with a shot. They walk up to the deer and have to shoot it again in the neck. When they were dragging it the son noticed one of the antlers fell off. He went and tracked it down. When he returned the father said the deer seems poor and had a bad odor. They rolled him over to find a hole in the front right shoulder that was infected. I showed him pictures of the deer I shot from my game cam and that was him. Broke my heart he suffered so long.

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Lead I found in the shoulder. Jacket probably in the gut pile.

The buck on the left is the one that got away to later be shot.

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Makes them great in the Contender Pistols. It's the exact reverse of what WB said about the heavy jacketed 338s acting like solids when fired at too low of velocity.

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Doug and I loaded up the .429 GNR with the 265 gr. rubber pointy bullet and shot Sika at the Y-O. It has enough mass that it blew a big crater right through and the buck didn't go far, fantastic since the shot was right at dark. Really tore up the meat though and Sika are a lot tougher than Whitetails. Later at HHC with the same ammo it didn't phase a big hog. Likely barely made it into the vitals, if it did at all. A back up shot with a 310 FNGC blew right on through and pole axed the big hog.

The loader is part to blame with poor bullet performance, you chose it! The velocity data is listed in the manuals but can you blanket promise it's 100% correct? No, no one can. A big hole in and out is not always the best, fastest killer, but it has that. A big hole in and out.

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for my.358 FT bullets they may frag some at that speed. So far my 3 kills were all pass through and no movement from the deer after the shot. I am surprised at that distance the bullet problem you had. Sounds like you found a tuff buck. .
I like the .338 Fed also do not have one but I might some day. TAC and X
terminator perk this one up... .338 marlin is interesting too, I like medium bores

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Thinking on adding a Marlin 338 but I prefer a 35. I am back to the Marlin .270 on stands I have range on. I use the .41 mag Marlin 1894 and carry my 41 GNR on my brush stands. No luck this year on the brush stands where I shoot muzzle load and pistol calibers and my .35 Marlin. That ole 336 with a 200 grain is named ole bang flop.

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On hogs at the Hhc using 35 Remington Leverevolution ammo.Mine was around 300 lbs and my sons about 225. Internal damage showed good performance, but it was at 35 Remington velocities also.

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just developed the 338 GNR and pretty much used it on everything from Impala to Gemsbok and Kudu. I used the Nosler Partition bullet on everything. Later on I switched to the Accubond which I consider the best bullet made for big game. This was back when we could bring as many guns with us as we could pack in our gun case. I brought a couple of Contenders, (no Encores back then), one for longer range and a short barreled one in 338 GNR for the close range shots. I also brought a couple of revolvers and an extra barrel or 2. We hunted down in the Northern Cape and hunted a couple of days in the snow.
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