338 win mag starting load

[Klemm]

Want to try 230 grain Hornaday ELDX with H-4350. Anyone have a starting load? Will be using federal 215m unless a Magnum primers is not recommended. This will be shot in a factory Remington 700.
Just need a starting load for the H-4350, I will work up from there, what does the books say is max?

 

[BurnOut]

Per Hodgdon, starting is around 63.0, max is 69.5. Personally, my experimentation had me at 70.4, but I just couldn't get consistently decent grouping. Velocity was decent enough, though, at 2900-ish out of a 26" 9.4-twist barrel.

 

[VDVSNIPER]

This is what I got out of my rifle, this is my first load development for this bullet and powder charge. After a seating depth test the groups got smaller. My max load was 74gr of H4350, that started giving me a sticky bolt lift so I stoped and didn't go further.

 

[lestersurv]

The Federal 215m primer was designed to fuel the Big Weatherby 378 cases. For failsafe-sure ignition of big-ass powder charges. Overly hot primers have detrimental effect on powder charge dynamics. The benchrest guys look for mild powder action sufficient for complete, but stable ignition.

Starting loads for the .338 win mag are not that much larger than .30-06. The .30-338 was at one time The Choice for longrange 30 cal matchwork.

Owning a Quality loading manual is a minimum requirement for any handloader. Sierra or Berger are the primary choices, although lots of very good info also in the Lee #2. Sierra, unless they have released #7 is about 20yrs long in the tooth, still great info; but tons of new powders they just don't care to work with...

If you are pursuing precision with low standard deviations, read up on primers and their effect on powder charge ignition.

If you are looking for hotter performance, the wildcat .338/300 win mag is right there with the .340wby and other bigboy magnums, but also allows moderate loads due to its lesser case capacity. Call it very efficient. Just have to ream your chamber and load some .300win brass.