338 Lapua Mag Reloading

[Old Ret. Army 1SG]

I picked up a Savage Elite Precision 338 Lapua Mag and wanted to know for those out there reloading, what powder and projectile are you having the best results with for long range 1000 and up? Looking for a starting point and have heard others using H-1000 powder and Sierra Match king bullets but would like some other opinions. I also would like to hear about seating pressure as others have said higher is better. Currently reloading 284 with anywhere from 8-12 lbs. Thank you for any input.

 

[mudpig]

I've had great luck with Hornady 285gr and Retumbo. As for neck tension, I go with .002.

 

[Hollywood 6mm]

You should take a look at the reloading forum and the reloading depot for load data.

 

[Steel head]

You should take a look at the reloading forum and the reloading depot for load data.

 

[ShootnFool8]

Ramshot Magnum, and 300 gr Berger Hybrid have worked for me.

 

[Thor2j]

H1000 , with either 300gr scenars or bergers. Both work well.

 

[Howland]

I'm using H1000 with the 285 gr. ELD-M and having decent results. A shooting partner chose Retumbo and cannot find any to replenish his stock right now.

I got a set of mandrels in 0.0005" increments and the 0.3350" (0.003" interference fit) gave me noticably better groups.

I'm not convinced that measuring seating force will strongly correlate to unseating force. There are multiple factors that combine to add up to seating force. Neck thickness, neck size, friction between the bullet and neck, bearing surface area and degree of work hardening/springback. Any amount of force used to resize the neck is not present at release. I would expect the remaining factors to remain very similar at ignition to force during seating. If none of your seating force goes toward resizing the neck, then there could be good correlation.

I also found horrendous velocity ES at low powder charges despite seeing some really good groups. So much so that when I tried the 300 gr. A-Tips I didn't even bother trying anything below midway between book start and maximum. I suspect the lower powder charges weren't enough pressure for reliable and repeatable ignition.

 

[CNC-Dude]

I've had a lot of people recommend to buy a variety of factory ammo in different bullet weights and see which shoots the best. Then try to handload to duplicate and hopefully improve on that.

 

[LapuaLove338]

Right now for powder I’m running whatever I can get. I’ve been using IMR 8133 at around 94gn on 250 Hornady SP but just today I found a couple pounds of n165 that I’m going to pair with some 300gn Sierra match kings. As we all know, H1000 is hard to find or absurdly priced so I’m just in Frankenstein mode combining whatever I can, documenting results on my new Savage 110 Elite Precision 338

 

[rustyinbend]

Working up some test ladders now for my .338-LM (Barrett MRAD).
QuickLOAD says best bet for stuff I have available is:

• Hornady 285 ELD-M
• Accurate MagPro
• LR Magnm Primers

An 84.6gr charge gives me 95% fill, 2628 fps, 99% pre-ejection burn, and OBT of 1.356. I'm building some ladder tests around that to look for some velocity nodes to do group testing. Data follows.

If you don't have QuickLOAD and want me to run some numbers for you, let me know. It's awesome for finding starting points for load development. Just need bullet, powder, and barrel length.

 

[BPGuru]

I tried several powders before deciding that N570 loaded to book max and beyond was the best choice. I also finalized on 300 grain class of bullets. Great chrono numbers and waterline groups at 2k yards. Use Federal 215M primers but one friend is really happy with 210M in his. Best of luck and hope you can find the components to give this load a try. Please report back with your results.