Range report- 338 Lapua magnum

[davidlt89]

Well, earlier this year I decided to get a caliber I have been wanting for a long time, the 338 Lapua magnum. Thought I might reload for it and try some "long" range shooting with it for fun. I could of definitely done this with my 7mm mag, or even 25-06, but the 338 lapua mag was an "itch" I had to scratch and we will leave it at that.

So, I didn't really want to break the bank on a rifle, so I decided to go with the Savage 110 Long Range Hunter. Also not wanting to spend more on a scope than I did the rifle, I decided to top it off with a Burris Signature HD 5-25x50 scope.

Once the rifle and scope were attained, it was time to get components together, which as you as you all know, is not the easiest thing to do right now. I ran powders on quickload and IMR 7828ssc seemed to be my best choice, followed by Vihatavouri N570. I set alerts on ammo seek and shootingbot.com and N570 became available first, so I ordered 3lbs.

The bullet I chose was the Berger 300gr Elite Hunter. I have used Berger bullets before and really like them, plus they were readily available. I also used Lapua brass and CCi Large rifle magnum primers.

I was going to wait till spring to test this out, but temps were in the 40's the other day, so I got my numbers off of quickload and got them loaded up to test.

I didn't measure all the groups, just the closest one, which was the 85.8 grains. This group came in at .762. All in all, that is not to bad for 20 test rounds.

I will play with this a little in the spring and see if I can tighten them up just for fun. When doing the initial test rounds, I had taken my measurement with my hornady AOL gauge, then remembered that I had a clip for this gun. So instead of starting 20 thousandths of the lands, I just measure the clip  and used that COAL in quickload. I would be interested to see if this tightens up right off the lands, who knows!

I also have room to keep loading hotter as I am 12,000psi from the supposed "max pressure" of the 338 lapua. And, if for some reason, this load does not tighten up any, I am good with .762.

338 by David LeTourneau, on Flickr
338 3 by David LeTourneau, on Flickr

338 2 by David LeTourneau, on Flickr

[Hunterbug]

A couple of the loads show some promise with a little tweaking. How far of a range do you have available?

[davidlt89]

on my property, pretty much limited to 100 yards. But, down the road 1/2 mile I could easily get out to 500 with a portable target. A mile down the road, I think I might get 1,000 yards if I play my cards right, which is something I plan on doing later.

[gitano]

Looking forward to updates!

Paul

[branxhunter]

My teeth ache at just the thought of shooting that rifle but I too am interested to see the results.

Marcus