Savage .338 Lapua Magnum

#53
Hey Thanks!
REALLY appreciate info
Got very similar results to you using John McQuade's method so this info definitely makes me feel better.
300 SMK 3.703
250 SMK 3.720
300 Scenar 3.709
NOT AT ALL sure of the Hornady Gauge method.
smd
 
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#54
I purchased my 110 BA Lapua just over two years ago. Wasn't happy with it over all. Something tells me it was built by someone who had a very bad day of some sort. I won't bore you with specifics. Was so disappointed my first .338 Lapua was a dud i went out and ordered a custom .338 LM and been happy since day one.

First Savage and last Savage.

If you produce a sub standard product and when I call for help your inexperienced female technician tries to tell me I'm the issue then you are telling me you do not want me as a repeat customer.

No problem - Done.
 
#57
I got a Savage 110FCP .338LM about 2 years ago. My short reply would be look elsewhere. Through a lot of trial and error, load development, bore lapping, stock bedding, action screw loktiting, 30moa custom optic rail mounting with Devcon, and just general tinkering around, it's ALMOST worthy of the components that it consumes. If I had it to do over again, I would just drop the cash on a custom setup, and save myself a lot of time & fuel. Even handloading, you are still dropping mad cash everytime you fire. Also, consider that there are some who believe that the action of this rifle is barely adequate to accomodate the maximum average pressures that this round will generate. For that reason, I will never push the heavies to the higher accuracy nodes, which puts my .300WM & 230gr Bergers doing 2800fps, in contention with the 110FCP .338LM, at half the cost.

If I ever get another .338 LM, it will be a lefty, single load setup. Even though the detach mag setup is really nice, it limits seating OAL, and the harmonics of these big magnums seem to require less shit jiggling around on the stock and action, to really take advantage of the extreme range capability of the round.

I will concede that, being my first ultra magnum, I was not prepared to execute the level of shooting discipline that this round requires to be accurate at the longer ranges. It's just not the same as shooting lesser calibers. That being said, the journey has made me a better shooter.
 
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#58
I loved mine and it was really accurate once I found the right components a load for it. The crazy part is it produced the lowest SD of all my rifles, once I tuned the load. It's a heavy rifle, but it turns out good since that absorbs recoil. Trigger is great and the stock is adjustable. The only downside to them is if you insist on using Hornady factory ammo. They are notorious for bit tolerating the soft brass Hornady uses.

The only reason I stopped using it is I went with an AX338. I'm actually selling my 110ba in the classifieds right now for a good deal, if anyone is looking for one.
 
#60
Timelinex....You like it, but your selling it....Okay. That makes a statement.

Tristian19, no shit. Those 110BAs go for about $600 more than my 110FCP. Last month, I screwed on a 29.5" Rock Creek pre-chambered 5R, and am developing loads for it right now. Of all the barrel makers, Rock Creek is the only one that will make a pre-fit for the Savage .338LM, that I know of. That also makes a statement.
 
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#61
Ishallbie O'Cullkillin said:
Timelinex....You like it, but your selling it....Okay. That makes a statement.
Click to expand...

I had the opportunity to buy an accuracy international instead, I'm pretty sure that's an obvious choice...... Just because it was a great rifle, doesn't mean there isn't better....

You can look at all my previous threads, before I got my AI and you will see I always raved about my 110ba, once I figured out what components to use.

So your implications are wrong.
 
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#63
I would sell mine, If I had to. With full disclosure of all things stated above, as only my humble opinion, the buyer making an informed decision.

For my old factory barrel , I will pour a lead slug in the bore, impregnate it with lapping compound, and lap out the tool marks that all the copper is hanging up on, and polish the chamber. Roughest bore I've ever seen.

Timelinex, life is too short to look up who said what. Nothing but love here bro.
 
#64
timelinex said:
I loved mine and it was really accurate once I found the right components a load for it. The crazy part is it produced the lowest SD of all my rifles, once I tuned the load.
Click to expand...

Would you mind sharing components and load you found that worked for 110 BA 338 you are selling? I had NO luck with mine so I had a custom built. I am intrigued on your successful load.

I tried 300 SMK's over H1000, Retumbo, 7828 and Ramshot Magnum inside Lapua brass sparked by 215M. She never held any consistency. Even had the old time Big Bore veterans at local range take her for a spin on various occasions using HSM, S&B, and BVAC Match Grade ammo and nothing.

Took me two range visits to find a load my custom 338 LM really likes. with very good consistency.

Thanks,
T19
 
#65
Tristian19 said:
Would you mind sharing components and load you found that worked for 110 BA 338 you are selling? I had NO luck with mine so I had a custom built. I am intrigued on your successful load.

I tried 300 SMK's over H1000, Retumbo, 7828 and Ramshot Magnum inside Lapua brass sparked by 215M. She never held any consistency. Even had the old time Big Bore veterans at local range take her for a spin on various occasions using HSM, S&B, and BVAC Match Grade ammo and nothing.

Took me two range visits to find a load my custom 338 LM really likes. with very good consistency.

Thanks,
T19
Click to expand...

Sure. It's lapua brass, 300gr bergers otm, retumbo and 215m primers. Make sure to use minimal neck tension and most importantly jam the bullet into the lands atleast .01". That definitely made a big difference. It shrunk groups and took ES from 30s to single digits. My velocity was around 2805 if I remember correctly, which is very good and I had no pressure signs.

I did have to single feed since the bullet is too long, but that's generally not an issue for long range shooting.

Hsm? S&b? Maybe that's why your having so many issues. This is an expensive cartridge meant for long range, cheaping out on ammo is counter productive. Just like many other savages, it doesn't do well unless you find the right load for it. But that's because your not buying a custom or expensive rifle that shoots everything well. You still do get what you pay for in that regard. For the record, I tried Hsm ammo with my rifle and it did horrible.
 
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#66
timelinex said:
Sure. It's lapua brass, 300gr bergers otm, retumbo and 215m primers. Make sure to use minimal neck tension and most importantly jam the bullet into the lands atleast .01". That definitely made a big difference. It shrunk groups and took ES from 30s to single digits. My velocity was around 2805 if I remember correctly, which is very good and I had no pressure signs.

I did have to single feed since the bullet is too long, but that's generally not an issue for long range shooting.

Hsm? S&b? Maybe that's why your having so many issues. This is an expensive cartridge meant for long range, cheaping out on ammo is counter productive. Just like many other savages, it doesn't do well unless you find the right load for it. But that's because your not buying a custom or expensive rifle that shoots everything well. You still do get what you pay for in that regard. For the record, I tried Hsm ammo with my rifle and it did horrible.
Click to expand...
Thank you for info. Much appreciated.

Outside of 300 SMK's my new rig likes I have about 200+ 300 grain OTM's, 800+ 285 grain Match Hornady along with plenty Retumbo, H1000, Ramshot Magnum powders and 215M so I just may retry LD again based on your loading data.

My reload's did not work well though I did not go into the Lands or anywhere close as you did. I do recall throat was way long.

I proofed all three factory brands of ammo in an AICS 338 and shot no worse than .5 MOA. Best was .3xx if I recall so I figured Savage wasn't built well.

Thanks again. I just may give it another try and see what happens.

sent via Tapatalk
 
#67
I was having major accuracy issues with my 110BA as it was from the factory. Difficult/impossible to find a load (tried 300gr SMK, 300gr Berger OTM, and 285gr Hornady BTHP), ridiculous vertical stringing, etc. Sent it in for warranty work but nothing of substance came back. They dicked with the headspacing a bit but this had no effect on accuracy. Also got it back with the recoil lug canted about 20 degrees off center. Wound up buying a headspace gauge, borrowing a barrel nut wrench + vice and fixing that myself.

Taking mine apart though I could clearly see paint rubbed off on the side rails inside the stock that cradle the action, right where the front of the action was making contact with them. It looked like quite a bit of movement so this meant one or more of the following possibilities:

- The action wasn't sitting on the aluminum pillar area consistently at the bottom of the stock.
- The action/barrel may have been getting forced down every time I fired from the upward pointing muzzle brake.
- The action was getting pulled down in the front enough to wear off paint by the front action screw torque, introducing a lot of stress.

I wound up using a Dremel with a carbide bit to grind off a ton of aluminum from inside the stock, the tops off the side accustock rails in the stock, all the paint, etc and did a full length Devcon bedding job on it (minus the tang). Next time out it was super easy to get a load going with it, first time out I hit a load with 300gr SMK's that shot 0.5MOA (89.5 gr Retumbo, Federal 215M, Lapua brass, 0.020" off the lands). Velocity 2735fps. Good enough for me, and much better than where I started. A friend of mine's shot really good from the factory but also had the same paint rubbed off the accustock rails, now that he bedded his it shoots even better too.
 
#68
mnr,

I have found the same with mine in the action now i never rebeded it but i did have to shorten the rear action screw 0.020 so that i could tighten it to a torque of 35 inch pounds. Now i have thought about bedding it with devcon but have not yet but that is the next step. I know being abke to tighten the rear action screw to 35 inch pounds helped a ton. Before i shortend the screw i could not tighten it more than 11 inch pounds and i felt that was no nearly tight enough to secure the rear tang.
 
#69
Tristian19 said:
Thank you for info. Much appreciated.

Outside of 300 SMK's my new rig likes I have about 200+ 300 grain OTM's, 800+ 285 grain Match Hornady along with plenty Retumbo, H1000, Ramshot Magnum powders and 215M so I just may retry LD again based on your loading data.

My reload's did not work well though I did not go into the Lands or anywhere close as you did. I do recall throat was way long.

I proofed all three factory brands of ammo in an AICS 338 and shot no worse than .5 MOA. Best was .3xx if I recall so I figured Savage wasn't built well.

Thanks again. I just may give it another try and see what happens.

sent via Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Try it out and let me know how it goes. My load ended up 92.0 gr . At first I used 92.8 gr but it was showing just a bit of pressure signs, so I backed it down to my next accuracy node of 92.0 and I only lost like 10fps but gained the advantage of no pressure at all.

Everyone's rifle handles charge differently though. So load one round up, jammed into the lands, in .5 gr increments from 89 to 94 to see where you start getting a hard bolt lift. Then do an OCW at 100 yards of 3 shots each from 89 to where you started getting a hard bolt lift in .4 grain increments or so. As long as you do your part, I bet you will start seeing results.

The reason jamming into the lands is so important is it compensates for bad concentricity of the ammo and even chamber. There's a reason most of the top shooters jam bullets into the lands.

Many people swear that they find success in jumping their bullets in all their rifles. If it works for them, great. However many times you will find that they are using high quality rifles and/or meticulously loading their ammo to high concentricity. When you do that, the advantage of jamming diminishes. However as you know, savages do not have the best tolerances, so you need all the help you can get. The best LR shooter I know shoots his bullets with a jump since when he was originally load developing he didn't know you can safely jam bullets. But he also has a very expensive custom surgeon rifle and meticulously loads.

Lastly, don't blow off making sure you don't have too much neck tension. If you have too much, then it will prevent jamming from doing its job. I remember that one of the things that shrank my groups is when I realized I was sizing the necks to small and had too much neck tension. I got a bigger bushing and voila.

I think many people are dissipointed with savages because they expect 10k performance from a 2k rifle. It's not a 10k rifle. It won't feed any load and just shoot great out of the box. Most likely you will have to do you due diligence in finding what works for it. That kind of ties into what one of the other posters implied about me selling the rifle (basically saying, if it was so accurate why are you selling it). It sure was accurate and a great rifle. Great for someone that does some occasional LR shooting. But I got more serious about long range shooting and had the opportunity to upgrade, so I did. I wanted something that will take drive whatever I feed it and with a virtually indestructible action. Hence that's where the AX338 comes in. They are two different animals. However at the end of the day, being honest, on a routine shooting day, I don't feel any perceptible advantages sitting on the line with my ax than with my savage and tuned load. At the end of the day, if I hit or miss, it was more about whether I made a bad wind call.
 
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#70
timelinex said:
Try it out and let me know how it goes. My load ended up 92.0 gr . At first I used 92.8 gr but it was showing just a bit of pressure signs, so I backed it down to my next accuracy node of 92.0 and I only lost like 10fps but gained the advantage of no pressure at all.

Everyone's rifle handles charge differently though. So load one round up, jammed into the lands, in .5 gr increments from 89 to 94 to see where you start getting a hard bolt lift. Then do an OCW at 100 yards of 3 shots each from 89 to where you started getting a hard bolt lift in .4 grain increments or so. As long as you do your part, I bet you will start seeing results.

The reason jamming into the lands is so important is it compensates for bad concentricity of the ammo and even chamber. There's a reason most of the top shooters jam bullets into the lands.

Many people swear that they find success in jumping their bullets in all their rifles. If it works for them, great. However many times you will find that they are using high quality rifles and/or meticulously loading their ammo to high concentricity. When you do that, the advantage of jamming diminishes. However as you know, savages do not have the best tolerances, so you need all the help you can get. The best LR shooter I know shoots his bullets with a jump since when he was originally load developing he didn't know you can safely jam bullets. But he also has a very expensive custom surgeon rifle and meticulously loads.

Lastly, don't blow off making sure you don't have too much neck tension. If you have too much, then it will prevent jamming from doing its job. I remember that one of the things that shrank my groups is when I realized I was sizing the necks to small and had too much neck tension. I got a bigger bushing and voila.

I think many people are dissipointed with savages because they expect 10k performance from a 2k rifle. It's not a 10k rifle. It won't feed any load and just shoot great out of the box. Most likely you will have to do you due diligence in finding what works for it. That kind of ties into what one of the other posters implied about me selling the rifle (basically saying, if it was so accurate why are you selling it). It sure was accurate and a great rifle. Great for someone that does some occasional LR shooting. But I got more serious about long range shooting and had the opportunity to upgrade, so I did. I wanted something that will take drive whatever I feed it and with a virtually indestructible action. Hence that's where the AX338 comes in. They are two different animals. However at the end of the day, being honest, on a routine shooting day, I don't feel any perceptible advantages sitting on the line with my ax than with my savage and tuned load. At the end of the day, if I hit or miss, it was more about whether I made a bad wind call.
Click to expand...

First I would like to thank you for taking time to break down and manifest as you did. Very much appreciated.

Your initial steps is almost exactly how I ran with my new 338 LM custom build I just received. I initially started with 285 Hornady from 88.x to 94.6 without any signs of pressure and went as high as 93.6 with 300 SMK's if I recall correctly - when looking for pressure signs. Never found any at all. 92.8 was looking promising but ultimately went with 92.1 of Retumbo with 300 SMK's after my last round of LD. To me it only made sense. My new rig really does well with this load.

With respect to 110 BA I shall rerun LD same way using your extra tips and report back. I will not blow off Neck Tension. One thing I did NOT do with the 110 BA Lapua Brass was neck turn it. I will neck turn to remove tension from necks and see how that works. If needed I'll pick up a few larger bushings as well. I'll gauge and make moves accordingly. IF anything, this neck turning will serve as practice for Custom Rigs Lapua Brass as I do not intermingle brass between rigs.

As for $10k vs $2k 338 LM, I DID have higher expectations. I was not expecting $10k workmanship but did find workmanship to be SLOPPY. My factory rig prior was a CZ 750 .308. Once again, $2k rig BUT I found her to be worth the $2k I spent. Granted NOT a $5K to $6K rig but she did good by me. Enough time guys with custom rigs or higher end factory rigs had mentioned they were pleasantly surprised how well she shot and kept consistency. This is probably another reason why I was so disappointed with the 110 BA - which came after. In comparison the 110 BA was nothing close in performance.

Going further, I will report back within next few weeks with an update. I will also strip her down and make sure all bolts, mounts et cetera are set to correct torque before LD.

Thank you again.
 
#71
Bought mine about a year and half ago. Put about a 1000 rounds through it now. Love it after having gone through some rounds with a scope setup that was my issue and fault. Had nothing to do with the gun itself. After sorting that out it was easy hitting 12" square and round steel at 400 and 600 yards. Even my boys who don't shoot regularly were hitting easily. Great gun for the money and getting into this caliber. There was a couple of ealier rounds prior to the scope issue I was getting good hits on steel consistently between 800 and 900 yards as well.
 
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