New 338 is Finally Done! :)

[BigDMT]

Thank you Bill. I'm sure she'll serve me well for many years. And from time to time, I expect her to give me a kiss on my right eye brow

The new 338 Berger bullets have the hybrid ogive which is supposed to allow more jump with good accuracy. But believe it or not, I have always had good luck with the original VLDs either jamming the lands or using long jump to fit in a magazine.

I have heard from a few folks that Bergers shoot best within 0.010" from the lands or you have to back them out over 0.040"
I have never tried any amount of jump in between those measurements, so I would have to agree with that statement.

 

[mattri]

Great looking rifle- and great shooting!

Maybe I missed it but what does the rifle weigh? You said recoil was pretty stout, anything you can compare it to? Also, what are you using for dies? Thanks, Matt.

 

[BigDMT]

Thanks Matt.

Rifle as fired during break in without bipod, but sling still attached weighed in at 12.760 lbs. I personally like all my hunting rifles around 10-13 lbs for steadiness when taking long range shots in the field. So it's just barely light enough for the high country hunting I like to do in the Rockies.

I am just using a standard set of Redding dies because that's what Redding had on hand and I did not want to wait forever to get a set. The seater has a roll crimper in it, but I have not used it yet.

As for recoil? I've shot bigger rounds, but they had breaks and barely felt like a 30-06.
It is definitely apparent that it kicks a good bit harder than my old 300 win mag and even a little more than my 358 Norma Mag. But the recoil is definitely manageable.

I started early with heavy recoiling magnums. Shot my third mulie buck and first cow elk with a 7mm Rem Mag at the age of 14. So heavy recoil is pretty familiar to me. The key is knowing your scope's MAXIMUM eye relief. If you don't figure that out early on, your eyebrow will figure it out for you ;D
Do I enjoy the recoil? Hell no. But Ill take recoil over a muzzle brake any day of the week on any hunting rifle.

 

[mattri]

Good to know, thanks.

 

[BigDMT]

Gettin' down to the wire on powder elimination. All loads tested today shot pretty decent with the group from RL-17 being exceptional. I upped the charge on RL-17 two grains from 72gr to 74gr and she was right about 2900 fps with no pressure signs and excellent hunting rifle accuracy. ES on velocity was fairly big, but the accuracy remained. I will give it another .5gr bump next time and see what happens. Not to concerned with ES as long as it doesn't affect it too bad at long range.

RL-19 almost had a "robin hood" group ata round 2960 fps, but the last round went haywire and dropped over 50 fps from the other two rounds in the group making it a .510" CTC group. Don't know what happened there? Rounds can start doing weird things when pushed to the upper limits of pressure.

RL-22 with .5gr more charge shot OK, and a new recipe of H4350 shot OK, but I think it's gonna boil down to either RL-19 or RL-17. So farr looks like RL-17 is on it's way to the win, which wouldn't be bad because I have a lot of that powder and it is more temperature stable than RL-19.

RL-17 group pics. 1)Group next to dime. 2)Group covered by dime. Formed a beautiful triangle shaped group with no fliers. Not too bad when you can cover three 338 cal bullet holes with a dime




RL-19 Group. Notice the haywire speed on the 3rd round and how it hit lower than the first two.



RL-22 with 1/2gr increase in charge from last test. Don't like the 2 and one groups at all. Last group showed that same pattern and accuracy is getting worse with increased charges.



H4350 group. Not bad, but I think I'm just gonna let this one lye because of the 2 and 1 flier pattern.



All groups together.

 

[mattri]

Looks great. Are you plannng to stretch its legs anytime soon?

 

[BigDMT]

I'm thinking 2950 fps is gonna be my top speed because with RL22, RL19 and 7828 I was getting some ejector marks on the brass at around 2960-2980 fps. That may be ok if the primer pockets hold up, but I have not re-primed those cases yet to determine that.

I am planning on pushing RL17 a little more since it has been the most accurate so far. I'm hoping I can hit the 2950-3000 fps mark with no pressure signs. But ill just have to wait and see.

375 Ruger brass is not the easiest stuff to come by right now. And although I have 200 pieces, I still don't want to waste any from running red line loads. But RL17 is an amazing powder so it may surprise me. I have yet to try RL17 in any rifle where it didn't shoot with great accuracy and speeds at acceptable pressures. I hope it stays that way when I bump the charge up a bit.

 

[CRYPTOCHIEF]

BigDMT,

Was your load data for any one particular bullet/bullet weight? Noticed you mentioned 200 gr and 250 gr but didn't specify on your group data. My rifle is still being built, but I have everything to work up some loads. Just don't have much information on bullets. I have mostly Barnes TTSX in 225, 265 and 280 and Hornady in the 225 Interbond. If you have the time, I would greatly appreciate any information you might be able to shoot my way. 338-375 Ruger (338 Newton) appears to be a superb chambering, and from the looks of things, can be very accurate and hard hitting. Anxious to give mine a try when it's all put together.

CC