Just wondering?

[effendude]

Had one of those conversations today with a fellow shooter whose opinion I value. We were discussing the thought of building a 22# F-Open rifle in .338 Lapua/Norma/UltraMag to take advantage of the awesome 250 and 300 grain bullets from Berger. His comments were directed towards recoil and the ability to shoot 88 shots per day with such a heavy recoiling rifle. I don't disagree with him, but shooting 200 or 215 gr. bullets out of a .308 is much recoil too.

Has anyone tried this? Since calibers up to .35 are allowed, I would assume I am not the only fool to have contemplated such folly. Anyone?
Scott

 

[Immike]

Someone just tried it at the Oak Ridge regional. I only heard about the effects of recoil on his vision. I have shot a 300rum all day and can sympathize.

 

[BigDMT]

Yeah that sounds like it would be a pretty rough ride ;D

 

[FroggyOne2]

Mike,

I heard that that fellow was walking around with a bloodied nose!

 

[LHSmith]

Mike,

I heard that that fellow was walking around with a bloodied nose!

From his scope....or a shooter on the bench aside of him?

 

[Immike]

Mike,

I heard that that fellow was walking around with a bloodied nose!

I was too far down the line to witnesses the beating he took. The human brain is not designed to absorb shock as in some animals. The first signs are blurred vision and focusing problems. You have to wear heavy shoulder pads and allow your shoulder to give with the recoil. That is not possible laying straight behind the gun. You can minimize the effects by laying at a angle and placing the gun further out on the softer joint area. After shooting a few barrels up on a 300rum I was able manage the recoil effects on my body but long strings of fire would destroy the barrel.

 

[Erik Cortina]

There is a reason you don't hear about 338's on the line even though they are allowed.

 

[mgdietrich]

Scott:

Tubb and the rest of his team shot 338 Norma Mag's at Perry a few years ago in LR. We shot our Palma rifles right next to them. They used half the wind we were running, but only one of their guns shot even half way decent.

They only shot that thing one year at Perry, Tubb was back to his 6XC the following year. When those things went off, it was loud and it looked like it was not fun. Remind me sometime and I will tell you a few funny stories about the whole thing...

Morgen

 

[effendude]

Guys,
Thanks for reminding me that I too am only human. Nosualc (Jon Clausen) and I were having the discussion on the way to the Gunstop yesterday. Without a doubt, effect on a shooter has a great deal to do with a rifle's potential. I was looking for an excuse.....
Scott

 

[Steve Blair]

I'm shooting a .300 WSM with 230 Hybrids at ~2950. The rifle weighs 21.75 pounds and is about the manageability limit. I am not recoil sensitive but it does move a lot and requires focus to obtain consistent tracking. [br]
We had a guy come out to a Camp Pendlton match and shoot a 30 pound .338 Lapua. Obviously, he was not legal for competition but was allowed to shoot, minus his muzzle brake. By the end of the day, he looked pretty unhappy. He didn't even come close to my scores at 1000 with .284 Shehane.

 

[Mr. Ten-X]

We have a fellow here in mid-WI that was greatly responsible for the .33 cal rule. He felt that if he could shoot those high-BC bullets, he'd rule prone shooting. Never mind the fact that we had to pound a horseshoe stake between his legs to keep him from sliding off the line during a 20-shot string and he wasn't shooting anything the likes of a .338 Lapua.

Never saw him hit the deck with that rifle too much once that rule changed and never saw him shoot a good score with it either. That rifle is gathering dust in a corner someplace today.

The End

 

[Mr. Ten-X]

We also had a very unique individual that decided to come to a 4X600 match at the Appleton 600 many years ago with his 460 Weatherby...this is not a joke. He fired one of those 20-shot matches for the blue-blazing hell of it (not for official score obviously). He felt pretty proud of himself that he was able to keep all 20 shots on the paper It may be just my opinion, but I believe that recoil has affected him to this day.

Yes, there are some folks in Oiusconsin that are plainly as weird as a football bat.

 

[effendude]

I grew up in Wisconsin, so that maybe explains my affinity to pain. While I wasn't a Packer fan per se, I cheered for anyone but the Vikings as my parents were MN fans. I cleaned many barns after losing bets to my father between those two teams in the late 70's.

Randy Gregory has built me an awesome tube rifle in .338 Ultra, but it has a brake on it. It is too heavy for hunting too, but it sure gets attention at the range. Thanks again for talking me out of spending a couple grand on a bad idea.
Scott

 

[wwbrown]

Scott,

The biggest concern I would have with shooting upwards of a 100 rounds in a day with an unbraked 338L would be detached retina. There have been reports of people getting detached retinas after shooting big boomers. I have had a number of people show up on Thursday night saying they can shoot their 338 L without a brake and I have them just leave the brake on and shoot 4-5 positions away from everyone else.

Shoulder damage is really no big deal, surgeons are doing really great work on shoulders now, I have had 3 shoulder rebuilds in the last 35 years and everything works good. Losing a portion of my vision would would be a whole different thing.

wade

 

[KT]

Mike,

I heard that that fellow was walking around with a bloodied nose!

I was too far down the line to witnesses the beating he took. The human brain is not designed to absorb shock as in some animals. The first signs are blurred vision and focusing problems. You have to wear heavy shoulder pads and allow your shoulder to give with the recoil. That is not possible laying straight behind the gun. You can minimize the effects by laying at a angle and placing the gun further out on the softer joint area. After shooting a few barrels up on a 300rum I was able manage the recoil effects on my body but long strings of fire would destroy the barrel.

I was scoring Bill (the guy shooting the 338 at Oak Ridge) and the only thing I can say is there is no way I would even attempt it. The third relay he was having problems with double vision. He also had a brusied shoulder and nose.

He shot four relay's before he threw in the towel. He is a tough *** Marine. The wind blew his rounds alot more than you would expect.