Anyone have an AR in 338 Federal?

[JRucker2004]

I'm thinking of doing an AR10 build, and found some info on 338 Federal. It looks like it would be an awesome close/medium range round, and would probably work great for deer and maybe even for stuff as big as elk.

From what I can tell, you can use the regular dies to neck up 308win brass, which is relatively cheap and plentiful. Hornady offers quite a few options for 338 bullets.

I see DPMS makes a barrel chambered in 338 federal, so it would just be a matter of putting it together.

I'd like some input though. Anyone have experience with this round, in the AR platform or otherwise?
Seems like a pretty good round, but there has to be some compromise... what's the catch?


Some load data from wikipedia:

180 gr Accubond ; 2,830 ft/s ; 3,202 ft·lbf
210 gr Nos Part ; 2,630 ft/s ; 3,226 ft·lbf

 

[Calibur6918]

Re: Anyone have an AR in 338 Federal?

The (308)180 grain bullet leaves the muzzle at 2,620 fps. how are they getting a larger diameter bullet to accelerate more than the standard 308 of the same weight?

 

[MLC]

Re: Anyone have an AR in 338 Federal?

The bearing surface of a a 180 grain 338 bullet is shorter than a 180 grain 308 bullet and requires less pressure to push a larger diameter bullet with the same amount of propellant.
If you look at other chamberings based on the same case you will see that a step up in caliber will always result in equal or higher velocities.

 

[JRucker2004]

Re: Anyone have an AR in 338 Federal?



Think of it in terms of hydraulics: a larger hydraulic ram takes less oil pressure to move a given amount of weight. Same principle with a larger bore: it takes less pressure to push a given weight bullet the same velocity. This means we can safely increase pressure to get a higher velocity.

 

[J-Hon]

Re: Anyone have an AR in 338 Federal?

Wish they made a 338 AMAX somewhere around 200gr...

They do make a 7mm version though.......