338 Lapua

[tcaven]

Tossing around the idea of a .338 Lapua. I'm looking for advice or recommendations on what you have seen, heard or assume as a decent rifle in that caliber. Any thoughts for or against the .338 are welcome. I'm thinking about changing from the close range (3-400yards) to a longer reach. Again any advice is welcome. If you have an opinion on it let 'er fly. thanks

[870TC]

Talk to the "other" John at Gunstop Reloading Supplies.

[MNGunner]

Just posting what I've HEARD and then shutting up to read to learn:
1) TRG-42 is a solid choice
2) If you don't already have one, consider if 300 Win Mag could possibly meet your actual needs (or "scaled down" needs) instead. Hard to beat a rifle that is affordable to shoot.
3) If you need 338 Lapua and will handload, research the .338 EDGE.

Edit: oops, meant 300 Win Mag.

[Seismic Sam]

There was only one member here who had one that I know of, and it was RAGGED, and I haven't heard from him in ages. I have the equivalent Remington cartridge, which is the .338 Ultramag, and my rifle is a Remington 700 Sendero SF that is a full JP custom job, back when he was still doing bolt action rifles. The .338 Lapua is a slightly larger case, but less efficient, so for both rounds the maximum spec for the 300 grain Sierra Matchking bullet (BC of .762, which is equal to some 50 BMG bullets!) is 2750 PFS with about 102% powder density. You MUST have a gun with a brake, and having a Picatinny rail with 30 minutes of slope in it is also a plus. The big Savage bolt action is probably the one to buy these days, and the original Sendero SF is no longer made.

As far as going with a 30 caliber round, forget about it! the BC's of the 30 caliber bullets just cannot compare with the 300 grain Matchking, which BTW is pretty much the same diameter and length as a .223 CASE! In particular, nobody uses the 300 Weatherby Mag for any long range work, because the barrel has is freebored, meaning that you cannot seat the bullet 10 or 20 mils off the lands, which is one of the tricks you have to employ to get the real accuracy out of a long range gun. You will NEVER see a Weatherby at any long range competition for this reason.

I think Retumbo is the powder to use, but some of the new manuals says H1000 is better. Only primer to use is Federal 215M Match.

Now then: The 338 is a full-on benchrest cartridge for EXPERT reloaders only, and if you don't know all the tricks and tweaks, forget about it. YOu MUST have a chrono, period. It's best if you buy your brass from a single box, (like 500 or 1,000 cases) weigh them all and select the half that are closest together in weight, and then sell the other half to some n00b who doesn't know any better. You may or may not have to neck turn all your brass. You will need a runout gague to measure case concentricity, and know how to use it. In addition, the easiest thing to do for dies is just buy the Redding benchrest comp dies for BOTH resizing and seating, which is probably about $300 these days. If you buy any other dies, like Redding S neck dies, you are in for a world of pain and confusion, because a neck die does NOT guarantee tht a fired case with a resized neck only will even be close to being concentric. You also meed to figure out the seating depth so that the bullet is consistently x mils off the lands, and how to measure that accurately. if you accidentally screw up and jam the bullet into the lands, you can have a nice big KABOOM! We're talking about lighting off a full 100 grains of powder here per case!!

I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.

[MNGunner]

As far as going with a 30 caliber round, forget about it!

First, to be clear, your knowlege clearly trumps my lack thereoff. With that said, so far it's only know that he wants to go further than 3-400 yards and THINKS that he may want a .338 Lapua.
How much further than 3-400 yards? Once he gets there, does he want to make a hole into paper or into an animal? If animal, how big an animal? (Hoping to not turn this into a discussion on whether or not it's ethical to take "pot shots" at animals. A discussion on the ethics of taking "pot shots" at paper is fine. )

[FJ540]

Arnzen has a sexy Barrett in .338 as of last night.

[Seismic Sam]

Arnzen has a sexy Barrett in .338 as of last night.

At six grand plus, and with the folding stock it's interesting, but hardly cut out for 1,000 yard stuff with that stock. You'll spend less than half of that for a Savage...

[Seismic Sam]

As far as going with a 30 caliber round, forget about it!

First, to be clear, your knowlege clearly trumps my lack thereoff. With that said, so far it's only know that he wants to go further than 3-400 yards and THINKS that he may want a .338 Lapua.
How much further than 3-400 yards? Once he gets there, does he want to make a hole into paper or into an animal? If animal, how big an animal? (Hoping to not turn this into a discussion on whether or not it's ethical to take "pot shots" at animals. A discussion on the ethics of taking "pot shots" at paper is fine. )

Um, excuse me, but the OP was asking specifically about the pros and cons of the 338 Lapua. YOU drifted the thread over to 30 caliber rifles, and there's an distinct line between the two, and they don't belong in the same group or the same discussion, any more than a Ford F250 and a Ford Explorer belong in the same discussion. All the stuff brought up later is all fine and well, but it opens up the subject so far that you essentially have a 45 vs. 9mm debate based on shooting at distance.

[FJ540]

I was less than thrilled with the stock functionally too, but with how rare bullets, brass, and powder are these days - having a nice wall hanger might be the next best thing.

[MNGunner]

Um, excuse me, but the OP was asking specifically about the pros and cons of the 338 Lapua. The side talk of 30 caliber rifles was not part of the original question.

Any thoughts for or against the .338 are welcome

You're welcome.

[MNGunner]

I was less than thrilled with the stock functionally too, but with how rare bullets, brass, and powder are these days - having a nice wall hanger might be the next best thing.

The funny thing is I can think of at least 3 guys I am aware of who have one that they have probably never shot and think that in some kind of an armageddon situation they will just quickly practice and use it to keep foes at a distance, when the reality is that in such a situation an experienced foe with a lesser rifle would gladly trade shots with them and then hike over there to pick up a barely used .338 Lapua rifle...

[FJ540]

My first rifle acquisition after I get my range cleared to full length will be a .338, and I'm gonna shoot the barrel out of it.

Now for a real thread bender - why would anyone have a gun meant for that long of range for SHTF? Do they really think roving marauders are going to be traipsing by giving them clear shots? And do they really think people will be sporting the jolly roger and announcing their bad intentions at distance?

If I was going to spend $3-5K on a single piece of hardware specifically for SHTF, it'd be a NVG with the newest technology I could get my hands on. Running around looting in the daylight is how people get shot.

[Seismic Sam]

Well, my .338 Ultramag is well broken in, and where I live shots out beyond 1,000 yards would actually be available. My immediate worries only to extend to 985 yards, which is the farthest telephone pole at the beginning of the dead end farm road I live on. I have a table of the telephone pole distances and bullet drops taped to the stock. The scope is a Leupold Vari-X III long range target scope 8x25x50mm with mil-dot reticle...

The cold bore shot is the center one that's about 50 mils off dead center, and the next four are an honest .3 MOA group...

[PRS]

How is the Barrett stock not a functional stock?

[crbutler]

Depends by what you mean in "functional."

The gun will fire and be reliable for function with a folding stock. The issue is will the minute changes in hold position that a folding stock causes give issue with shooting at 1000 yards as in trying to get MOA or less performance.

The short answer is it probably will.

The real purpose of a "big gun" in SHTF situations is having antivehicular capability at range, not 1000 yard sniping. For anti material purposes the .338 is not as good as a .50, but its a lot better than a .300. Given what a .338 Lapua costs, both gun and ammo, I would want 1000 yard shooting capability, not tacticool.