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Pet loads for .338 Lapua

muleman69

USMC -1st marine Div. RVN
Just bought a .338 Lapua and need a place to start? Any special recipes out there? What components and loads have worked best for you ? Hunting and long range
 
Mine likes 300 SMK/93 gr RL-33/Fed 215M/Norma or Lapua brass. This is an uncompressed full case loading. You will get higher velocities with 250 gr. bullets, but at the expense of barrel wear. The cheaper PPU brass is fine for barrel breakin. Use blems that are cheaper (about .30 each) for that and readily available at present. H1000 and Retumbo are good powders as well. Buy powder in 8# but be advised that barrel erosion starts to show up quickly in big magnum calibers.
 
shortthroat said:
Mine likes 300 SMK/93 gr RL-33/Fed 215M/Norma or Lapua brass. This is an uncompressed full case loading. You will get higher velocities with 250 gr. bullets, but at the expense of barrel wear. The cheaper PPU brass is fine for barrel breakin. Use blems that are cheaper (about .30 each) for that and readily available at present. H1000 and Retumbo are good powders as well. Buy powder in 8# but be advised that barrel erosion starts to show up quickly in big magnum calibers.
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Thank you, I have the smk and the rl 33.I will start with your load. What velocity are you getting? What would you think the average barrel life would be with this load?
 
93 gr. RL-33 should give you around 2650 fps with a 28" barrel (Magnetospeed measured muzzle velocity). Be careful working to a higher load and go slow because these are all going to be compressed loads.
Barrel break-in with Hornady 285 gr. ELD-M/H1000/85 gr. or similar measured just below 2700 fps and is pleasant to shoot. You can find these or similar ELDs as blems for around .30 each (compared to .80 or more for first run). I am using a Big Bastard 4-port brake and recoil is quite like a .308 or .270. Barrel life is going to depend on lots of things, but mostly your bank balance.
 
muleman69 said:
Just bought a .338 Lapua and need a place to start? Any special recipes out there? What components and loads have worked best for you ? Hunting and long range
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What is your set up? FB, is it a single shot ? Your loads can vary too much to throw data out there without knowing. As you can see from the responses with R-33 some are compressed at 93 others are +5 grains.
 
300gr Berger, Lapua Brass!!, H-1000 at 89.5, Fed 215, Velocity is 2790, Barrel is 30 inches. Mine is a Savage action with a Bartlein barrel. This rifle is used for elk hunting and will shot a 5 inch group at 1,000 yards.
 
Drop Port said:
What is your set up? FB, is it a single shot ? Your loads can vary too much to throw data out there without knowing. As you can see from the responses with R-33 some are compressed at 93 others are +5 grains.
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It is a Savage 112 single shot 28"
 
I chambered a #5 Brux for a good buddy and he hit paydirt. 100 yd target, took it to S. Dakota and killed a whitetail near 600 yds.

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muleman69 said:
Just bought a .338 Lapua and need a place to start? Any special recipes out there? What components and loads have worked best for you ? Hunting and long range
Click to expand...

Caliber: .338 Lapua Magnum
Rifle brand: PGWdti
Rifle Model: Timberwolf C-14
Barrel length and twist: 26" 1:10" Krieger
Projectile brand, model and weight: Sierra Match King 300gr
Powder brand and weight: Retumbo 93.6gr
LOAD CONSIDERED HOT OR CLOSE TO MAX: No
Primers: Federal 215 Magnum
Coal: N/A (too long to mag feed)
Ogive length: 2.966" (.010" jump)
Brass: Lapua
Brass trim length: 2.714"
Distance to lands: .010"

Results at 1600m: 5.75" (.314moa) 5 shots

Velocity (average): 2810fps
Outside temperature: 27c
Wind and direction: N/A
Barometric pressure and other relevant data: 1124m ASL, 100.8kpa, 40% RH, .002" shoulder bump
 
muleman69 said:
Yes it is ,scope will be here tomorrow. I have never been a Savage fan but I'm liking this already. Trigger is not all that bad. Yes I will let you no, if I forget just ring my bell
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What scope are you going to use? I read elsewhere there's something different on this one's rail, bigger mounting holes I think. Would 20MOA rail/base be enough tilt to hit steel at 1760 mile. Some of my 6.5 Creedmoor friends have 40MOA base but this is more powerful and not needed I'd expect. Thanks HB
 
Scope is the Athlon ares ETR 4.5-30 ffp. The receiver took bigger screws than my mount. We drilled mount out and sanded head of screws to fit counterbore holes. I went with 20moa base as I have a lot of up and 30-40 Moa in hash markets.Hope this makes since
 
jimbo88mm said:
I have the same rifle. H1000 with hornady 285 elds and peterson brass work real well.
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I'm just getting started so bullet and brass selection is not the greatest. I did find some Norma yesterday and already have some cheap Priv. How much 1000 are you stuffing in and at what velocity? What are you getting for groups?
 
muleman69 said:
Scope is the Athlon ares ETR 4.5-30 ffp. The receiver took bigger screws than my mount. We drilled mount out and sanded head of screws to fit counterbore holes. I went with 20moa base as I have a lot of up and 30-40 Moa in hash markets.Hope this makes since
Click to expand...

Makes sense to me, your on the road to lots of long distance fun. Ha I heard some bases had to be drilled out but otherwise they will fit ok. Nice scope for long distance. Thanks.
 
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