Since I hunted with a .338 win mag all the time here in Alaska, I used to download my 250gr loads to use when I went to visit my Dad in Tennessee. We always went to my Gradmothers farm and hunted whitetail. Our shots were from the barn loft, or out of the dinning room window. There was a spring back there that the deer came to drink from. Usually 80 to 100 yard shots from the house, and 40 to 60 yards from the barn. I remember I used a slow burning powder, but I don't remember which one or how much. It worked well tho. It would make a nice hole all the way through, little expansion, little if any hydrostatic shock. Recoil was comperable to my 30-06.