Anyone else get their hands on the new 338 lapua from ruger? This is my first rifle chambered in that caliber. 24" barrel 9 twist. Frank said the hornady 285gr Ammo was doing well so I got 3 boxes of that.plan on getting a box or two of prime. Any other factory Ammo I should consider? And how about reloading data ?????? I tried to navigate to the reloading section of the form but couldn't find it.
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Ruger precision 338 lapua
- Thread starter Kcombe265
- Start date
Curious to hear how you make out with it
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This may be what you were looking for :
https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/338-lapua-magnum.6252692/
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This may be what you were looking for :
https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/338-lapua-magnum.6252692/
Hsm 300 smk load has done well for the one 338 guy i know. HSM also did amazing in my 300 win mag. So I would say give it a shot.
Shoot that thing and let us know how it goes.
Shoot that thing and let us know how it goes.
IMI has some 250 SMK’s that are relatively inexpensive. There are plenty of other factory ammos available, if your willing to pay between $5-$8 per round
Yeah the IMI is a great deal plus it's decent brass. Going to have to pick one of these up...only $1600 for a quality .338LM is crazy
If you wait, they’ll start popping up used relatively quickly I’m betting... that low of a cost of entry, coupled with the high cost/round. There will be a lot of mistaken purchases by people who think they want a “sniper rifle” and don’t know what they’re getting into
Well, I haven’t run the calcs in a few years, but I recall the I was right around $1.67, using 285 Hornady, 215M and H1000 and the assumption of just 5 reloads per piece of Lapua brass. Since then, I have over 9 reloads on my first 100 pieces of brass and 2 on a second batch. The brass with 9 loads on it shows no signs of failure or loose pockets yet. So that number is a bit lower in reality.
Bear in mind that I don’t shoot my .338 at 100 yards except for load development and usually don’t take it out unless I plan on shooting 1000+ yards. The last 400 rounds have all been with 155.5g Flatlines running a relatively slow 2945 FPS for use at the mile and over, still supersonic.
My point was, that the majority of people who buy a rifle that’s inexpensive and marketed to the masses won’t be reloading and will quickly find it’s an expensive toy. It will be the first thing to go when someone needs to free up some cash
I agree with you completely on that point. In fact I purchased my Savage LRP used with just 50 rounds on it, complete with the reloading dies, for $500 less than new, for just that reason. Many newish rifle shooters still have the mindset that if they are going to buy a long range rifle, then they should buy one that the ‘real’ snipers use. Then they often find out that they cannot handle the recoil, they develop a bad flinch so they shoot like crap, and it costs too much to feed.
The big boomers are not everyone’s cup of tea and for everyday enjoyable shooting a .308 or 6.5 is a much better bet. I shoot my .260 about 10 times more than the .338, if not more, but still love the feel and the sheer performance of the bigger round now and then. Plus, I simply don’t have the frequent access to the ELR ranges needed to use the .338 much more often.
The big boomers are not everyone’s cup of tea and for everyday enjoyable shooting a .308 or 6.5 is a much better bet. I shoot my .260 about 10 times more than the .338, if not more, but still love the feel and the sheer performance of the bigger round now and then. Plus, I simply don’t have the frequent access to the ELR ranges needed to use the .338 much more often.
I actually grabbed this one for 1525 and another gun shop just got one in and I believe they had it priced around 1550. It's cool and a little weird you can get a 6.5 for 1300 and a 338 for 1500.
Ran a box through it so far. 285gr a-max factory loads and it did well. 3/3 at 825 and 4/5 at 1100yds
Only ran one box or 285gr A-max bullets through it but it did well. 4 shots to get zero'd at 100, then 3/3 at 825 and 4/5 at 1100yards. Let my wife shoot the rest of the box.
Still more to play with on the muzzle break tuning. With a solid load on the bipod i didn't notice the gun getting away from me with all the ports of the muzzle break on and no noticeable difference with them all out. Either way I was able to see my impacts at 200 825 and 1100 without the help of a spotter.
Agree with ya there, 96$ per box was the advertised price for factory hornady Ammo but they were older boxes with a-max bullets. After busting the gun shop owners balls a little on having outdated ammo he cut me a deal and I got 3 boxes for 240$. Way better than the full price which would have landed me much closer to 300$ for the 60 rounds.
It's my understanding that hornady is now producing all the 285gr bullets In factory Ammo with the ELD-m or ELD-x and no longer offered them in the A-max. At least that's the story I sold the guy and what landed me a 60$/box price over the original 96$
My buddy quoted me 3$/round but that was about 2 years ago and I don't know what bullets or powder he was running. With the varied cost of different bullets, powders, and brass I think that's a hard question to stick a solid # to.
Okay, I just did the math using today’s prices for components: 94.1 gr H1000 powder at $220/8# = $0.37, 5 reloads on brass at $2/each initial cost = $0.40, $36/50 for 285g ELDM = $0.72, large magnum primers at $39/1000 = 0.039.
Total cost = $1.529 per round. And I can tell you that I often get my components for less than the above list prices. Then figure that you will likely get more than 10 loads per piece of brass. Not so bad as some make it to be.
Total cost = $1.529 per round. And I can tell you that I often get my components for less than the above list prices. Then figure that you will likely get more than 10 loads per piece of brass. Not so bad as some make it to be.
Seems legit to me ?You know of a larger framed press that people gravitate toward when loading for the bigger calibers? I've got to rcbs rock chuckars right now and was going to invest in a 3rd press that's big enough to easily work over 50bmg all the way down to 338.
Thats about what I have figured for .338... about 1.65 per round. 94.1 sound like a Hot Load! What rifle are you running it in? What kind of velocity?
Just thought I would throw this out there imi 338 Lapua for $2 a shot. https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1...rain-sierra-matchking-hollow-point-boat-tail#
Lol, I was being conservative when I did the math so that I wouldn’t understate the cost. For 285s I’m actually using 92.5g H1000 for 2780 fps. The 94.1g load is for my 255.5 Flatline solids. It’s as reasonably warm as makes sense to push these to a relatively sedate 2945 FPS in my factory savage 110 LRP with its short throat. There are people pushing these much faster with a longer OAL and upwards of 95-96 grains of H1000, as long as they have a normal throat.
My accuracy load of Hornady 285s actually costs me less than $1.50 each, by a good bit.
Good catch on the load info!
The RCBS Ammo master-2 will handle the 50BMG - I use it to load my .300 WM at 3.700" OAL - plenty of room, no need to angle the bullet up into the die. Midway has them for $339
Picking a 338 Ruger next week. Price for $1600. I have Norma brass, Hornady 338 and H1000 on their way.
A friend has a Savage 338 and it is a beast. We shoot in the desert , first started at 1000 yards, it got easy so we placed targets at 1600 yards. At 1600 the 6.5CM was getting there, although some loads appears to be tumbling. Then some smart elbow said "a mile is less than 200 yards more" . Time to upgun, 6.5 will not make it
A friend has a Savage 338 and it is a beast. We shoot in the desert , first started at 1000 yards, it got easy so we placed targets at 1600 yards. At 1600 the 6.5CM was getting there, although some loads appears to be tumbling. Then some smart elbow said "a mile is less than 200 yards more" . Time to upgun, 6.5 will not make it
I like my .338 boomer, though it doesn’t get out to play near often enough as I’d like. Florida currently doesn’t have many places that I can get out to a mile plus more than a couple/few times a year. Worth it though.
I bought one on 11/21/18 but haven’t had a chance to shoot it yet. I ordered 120 rounds of Hornady ELD Match 285 gn from the Black Friday special at PSA. I will use that brass to reload. I will be putting a Vortex Gen2 Razor 4.5-27 on top. I’ll shoot some rounds past my LabRadar as I am sighting it in to check the speed. Biggest holdup now is waiting for PSA to deliver the ammo but I won’t complain too much given the great price they had.
Any new info on what to shoot with this thing? I picked one up recently and have been looking everywhere for best pill weight, best powders, best lands for the cartridge and I am coming up with nil.
I have found that the journalists who reviewed the rifle are showing the Hornady 285 and the FGMM 300 are performing the best out of it.
Taking this sucker out to TX at the end of April to put it through its paces, would like to build my own rounds to take down there...
I have found that the journalists who reviewed the rifle are showing the Hornady 285 and the FGMM 300 are performing the best out of it.
Taking this sucker out to TX at the end of April to put it through its paces, would like to build my own rounds to take down there...
Retumbo or h1000 seems to be the most liked powder from what I could find. I just loaded 25 rounds with 91.5 retumbo, 285 eld m, nosler brass, cci250 primers. CBTO 2.740. Going to try them this Sunday at 100, 500, 600 and 1000 for groups. I just got the rpr last week, this is the first load and shots with this gun. Will update when I get results!! Hopefully others comment as well cause there isnt a lot out there right now
There is tons of information available for reloading .338 LM out there. Here’s a sticky thread on SH:
338 Lapua Magnum
pyrofx XSergeant Rating: 3.0/5 this site 388 posts this site >338 Lapua Magnum 10/08/2014 (1 vote) Just tried the reloader 33 powder in the 338 . 99.0 gr Kreiger 9.3 x27 fed 215mag hornydaddy 285 2789 es of 6 with hornydaddy brass. bolt lifts fine untill the cam over . then it takes a bit of...
www.snipershide.com
If you want someone to tell the perfect load for your specific rifle, then you may be waiting a while. Buy some 250, 285, and 300 grain loads and see what your rifle likes. If reloading, you have to do the work, like everyone else. Look through the various loads posted, get an idea of where you want to start, and what bullet weight you prefer, using H1000 or Retumbo, measure where your lands are and start about 0.020” off the lands.
Then just do it.
If you have a specific purpose for this rifle or preferred bullet you want to use, post it up and then those that actually have experience with that bullet may be able to assist.
I am personally using 255.5g Flatline solids for mile plus. I get to 2000+ supersonically. They shoot really well in my gun. A mile and in, I’m still a fan of the 285s as they are so consistently accurate in my rifle. I do weight sort the 285s though, into 0.2g difference batches. Typically out of 100 bullets, 80+ will be in one batch with others sorted into much smaller batches that I either combine with those from previous boxes or just use for shorter range use.
Appreciate it Lash,There is tons of information available for reloading .338 LM out there. Here’s a sticky thread on SH:
338 Lapua Magnum
pyrofx XSergeant Rating: 3.0/5 this site 388 posts this site >338 Lapua Magnum 10/08/2014 (1 vote) Just tried the reloader 33 powder in the 338 . 99.0 gr Kreiger 9.3 x27 fed 215mag hornydaddy 285 2789 es of 6 with hornydaddy brass. bolt lifts fine untill the cam over . then it takes a bit of...
If you want someone to tell the perfect load for your specific rifle, then you may be waiting a while. Buy some 250, 285, and 300 grain loads and see what your rifle likes. If reloading, you have to do the work, like everyone else. Look through the various loads posted, get an idea of where you want to start, and what bullet weight you prefer, using H1000 or Retumbo, measure where your lands are and start about 0.020” off the lands.
Then just do it.
If you have a specific purpose for this rifle or preferred bullet you want to use, post it up and then those that actually have experience with that bullet may be able to assist.
Yeah I started loading the other day to start getting a baseline. I'm going with the 300gr Sierra BTHP's with 90gr of H1000. Should be a little on the hotter side, but according to the Hogdon site should be well within the safe range. My reasoning is that the 300gr pills worked well for the journalists as well as my 243 RPR loves the heavier side bullets. As for the amount of powder, I'm just trying to get close to the FGMM velocity...
Not much really to go on with this rifle, just trying to make a somewhat educated guess and will go from there!
Thanks for the reply!
It’s been a while since I had the .338 out. You’re making me want to set something up for some ELR practice. Damn you and thank you both...why, I aughta...
Since no one else is talking much about this thing I guess I'll throw out an opinion on it:
This thing is a tack driver. I used the above load and apparently got really lucky. It's almost hard to miss with. I think once I chronograph this load and get my dope card figured out it'll be impossible to miss with.
In 15-25mph constant wind with some pretty big gusts we were hitting clay pigeons at 1004 meters. The standard 12" target was getting too easy at that range so we improvised.
The only complaint I had while going through 100 rounds was the feeding of this thing. For some reason it just did not want to feed from the magazine consistently. I'm super happy Ruger decided to not do the "bolt stop on empty" like my 243 has, because I might have thrown this thing in the garbage. It was almost doing a double feed and if I was muscling the bolt it got jammed and caused all kinds of headaches.
So be on the look out for that, or just single feed the rounds for each shot and that seemed to be the best way to operate.
This thing is a tack driver. I used the above load and apparently got really lucky. It's almost hard to miss with. I think once I chronograph this load and get my dope card figured out it'll be impossible to miss with.
In 15-25mph constant wind with some pretty big gusts we were hitting clay pigeons at 1004 meters. The standard 12" target was getting too easy at that range so we improvised.
The only complaint I had while going through 100 rounds was the feeding of this thing. For some reason it just did not want to feed from the magazine consistently. I'm super happy Ruger decided to not do the "bolt stop on empty" like my 243 has, because I might have thrown this thing in the garbage. It was almost doing a double feed and if I was muscling the bolt it got jammed and caused all kinds of headaches.
So be on the look out for that, or just single feed the rounds for each shot and that seemed to be the best way to operate.
