408-338 reloading questions - Help requested!

[justinwatt]

Guys,

Let me start by saying while I am a FNG on this site, I have done a signifigant ammount of research on this topic allready. If I somehow missed a thread on here with all the answers, I apologize, it is not my intention to waste anyones time. I have seen too many a FNG get spitroasted on this site by the search nazis to not put this in the disclaimer. I would be grateful for any type of information I could get - and kudos to all of you for creating such a amazing source of information for somebody getting into long range shooting.

To give you the cliffs notes of where I am at - I am basically getting into this thing all at once. I fell in love with shooting during my stint in the army (11b - 1 deployment with 1/502 101st), and I want to get into ELR shooting now that I have time and some spare $$$ lying around. 338.-.408 was the route I ended up picking, and lawton is putting togeather a stick for me.

This leaves me with the reloading issue. Because of the fact that this isnt a mainstream round, and because to get the best performance out of your stick it seems that reloading is almost necessary anyways - I am also purchasing the reloading equipment to get myself going.

What I need is advice. From the research I have done (and advice recieved - thanks bud), i have come to a FEW conclusions about the directions I need to go. Any questions you guys could answer would be greatly appreciated.
Also - any advice for a new reloader/elr shooter in general would be appreciated.

1. Primers - federal 215 match? From what I have read so far, this seems to be the way to go. The downside is, everybody and their mother is sold out. I was hoping to get some secrets from some of you guys about how to get your hands on these things. Also - what is the difference between these and the gold match? Any other RELIABLE primer suggestions?

2. Powder - retumbo seems to be the way to go from what ive seen. The question is - which version of retumbo? I will be shooting a 300 grain projectile - probably the lapua 300grain hollowtip boattail or the federal 300 grain.

3. RCBS makes fine quality products, and I have not read many complaints in regaurds any of their equipment. That being said, I was hoping to get a list of what you guys would reccomend in terms of a COMPLETE reloading kit that would meet my needs for this one specific round. I have the dies incoming allready from lawton, and the RCBS press is pretty self explanitory. The hard part I am having is when it comes to the necking/cutting machine. The machine seems to be designed for 408 rounds, .50 rounds etc. Is this the machine I need? I ask because my round is a varient of the 408, but not listed specifically on the site in terms of supported rounds. I apologize if this is a dumb question. I also see everybody reccomending a hand primer, not a machine. Is there any that you reccomend above others? Also, I do not intend to manipulate or measure powder charges by hand. What machine do you like the best for spitting out/auto measuring the loads?

Also - I fully intend on buying some reloading books to help me along - however I have never been the type of guy that can learn stuff to the point of expertise from a book. I have a guy that is going to be giving me some reloading classes here and once I master the basics/theory Ill start reading up before I start.

Thanks a ton guys - I appreciate the help.

Justin

 

[Wild_Bill]

Re: 408-338 reloading questions

hi use the standard Fed 215 primer they are slightly hotter than the Match primer and work well in the chey tac case. as for Retumbo their is only one versian it is manufactured here in Australia as AR2225 and repackaged there in the US by Hodgdon as Retumbo. it is temp sensative and a great powder. for projectiles the go to is the Sierra 300gr MatchKing but try the Lapua as it is supposed to have a higher BC. as for presses get a rock Chucker Supreme and a RCBS hand primer LAwton will sourt you out with dies and then measure the powder with a digital powder scale to get the best performance with Retumbo you need to measure not throw powder to get the most from the loads at long ranges. what scope are you getting? i would recomend a Premier 5-25 they are awsome you need great optics not good optics or the whole project is flawed.

GoodLuck hope it hammers.

 

[justinwatt]

Re: 408-338 reloading questions

for one - jesus you guys are fast haha =) and thanks a ton bill =)


I am going to be running nightforce optics 5x25 or 12x42. I appreciate the detailed info on the powder - half of the information you find on here is abbreviated and completly unrecognizable to me haha. Now I know how my civilian friends feel when I talk about army stuff... thanks a ton man =)

 

[Dogtown]

Re: 408-338 reloading questions

Good timing. I'm moving to Australia early next year for quite a while and am looking to offload some, if not all of my loading gear and supplies (.338LM and used to do .408 as well). I've got LOTS of F215M primers, brass, RL25, Giraud with all the calibers...

 

[ChrisGarrett]

Re: 408-338 reloading questions

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Dogtown</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Good timing. I'm moving to Australia early next year for quite a while and am looking to offload some, if not all of my loading gear and supplies (.338LM and used to do .408 as well). I've got LOTS of F215M primers, brass, RL25, Giraud with all the calibers... </div></div>

Yes, if you're unloading 215Ms let me know, I'll be in Los Angeles at the end of February, lol!

Those are tough to come by these days. I reload the 338LM and still have half a carton left, but I'm getting low.

For the OP, I've used CCI 250s(?) and WLR-M, as well as the standard 215s and seem to do well with the Ms, although I'm not spending a lot of time ABing them against one another.

For a 338/408, you're pretty much stuck with the 300gr SMKs, the 300gr Scenars and then the 250s. Until Berger comes out with their 338s, that's about it, as far as I can see. Hornady does makes a 250gr HPBT Match .338 tip and Lapua makes a 250gr LockBase, so there's 5 choices in the 250gr category.

Powders: VV-N570, VV-170, H-1000, RL-25, Retumbo and AA-MagPro(?) all might be good choices. Also, VV is making a series of 50cal powders, that might be an option in your class.

Chris

 

[Wild_Bill]

Re: 408-338 reloading questions

dont bother about any 250gr projectiles they are to light and they will wear out your barrel to fast as you will have to run them to fast stick with the Lapua and Sierra 300gr's that is all you will need. if you have one projectile that works that is all you need.

Dogtown where are you moving to? i am in Victoria will help you out if you need any info especialy if you want to bring any of your rifles over we are licneced importers so can help with that. The 338 lapua is no problem the 408 can be a problem depending where you are.

 

[bigmac125]

Re: 408-338 reloading questions

I've found that anything faster than us869 is almost to fast for the 338Chey-Tac. Just my .02.
GOD BLESS,
Mac's