Monday, February 20, 2012

.338 Federal 200 Grain Trophy Bonded Tip

When doing a recent post on bear hunting loads, I LEFT OUT a real good one. I did mention the 210 grain Nosler Partition for the .338 Federal, however I left out the Federal Vital Shok 200 grain Trophy Bonded Tip which is also an excellent load for bear hunting. These loads are in high demand, however they normally sell for around $39 to $44 per box of 20 at the time of this writing.

If you own a .338 Federal and you are planning a bear hunting trip whether spot and stalk, or black bear over bait, you might want to buy a box of each load (210 grain Nosler partition & the 200 grain Trophy Bonded tip) and take whichever one shoots the best in your rifle.

Muzzle velocity of the Trophy Bonded Tip load is 2630fps
Muzzle energy of this load is 3071 ft. lbs.

Muzzle velocity of the 210 grain Nosler partition load is 2630fps
Muzzle energy is slightly higher at 3225 ft. lbs.

NO bear or other appropriate big game animal (wild boar, elk, moose etc.) is going to notice the difference so I would try them both and take the one that shoots the most accurately out of your particular rifle and never look back.

Again I own a Ruger Hawkeye synthetic stocked stainless action .338 Federal topped off with a Bushnell 3200 Elite 3X9X40 scope. The rifle came with the newer LC6 trigger from Ruger, however I had mine worked on anyway as I am accustomed to a trigger pull in the 2 1/2 lb range.

Dan

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