my goal was, and still is being able to do the mile shot in an affordable-ish way. i went with a savage fcp 338 lapua. i scoped it with a vortex viper pst 6-24 mrad. i put it on a murphy precision 30 moa rail and seekins low rings. all on the advice i received here. I'm new to long range shooting, and here is what I've found so far...
shooting off of a bipod and using a squeeze bag in back, i started with 2 boxes (40 rounds) of 300 gr HSM ammo. getting on paper at 100 yards was a bit of a fiasco. i was all over the place. the best i could do was a 3" group. i zeroed the best i could, and moved to 300 yards. my groups didn't get any better. they were roughly 9" and i was getting discouraged. having burned through 40 rounds, i realized this was going to be an expensive venture.
i bought rcbs fl and neck dies, and decided to hand load the next 40. i already had a lee hand press (thigh master) from my early pistol loading days, and wanted to see if i could make it work. I'm still using it, but plan to upgrade to a bench mounted single stage soon. i neck sized and loaded the next 40 with 89 grains of h1000 using my lee safety scale. i used 215m primers and 300 gr sierra match king bullets. i realize my setup is ghetto, but the results were great!
on the next outing, my groups were about 1.5" at 100 yards. i decided to skip 300 yards and go straight to 1000. shooting at a 12" gong, i missed the first 2 shots, but they were consistent. i dialed in a couple windage and elevation clicks, and shots 3 through 5 were hits. i was ecstatic. i dialed back to 600 yards and instantly hit an 8 inch gong multiple times. went home happy and out of ammo.
reloaded again neck sizing, and fast forward a week. started at 100 to verify zero and scope tracking. first 3 shot group was touching! moved straight out to 1000 with 7.8 mils and had another couple of misses. windy day. dialed in a few clicks and was back on the gong consistently. left shortly afterwards due to cold temps.
now, i can't wait to move out further. there is a 1400 yard 12" gong that i will be going for next. i also plan on taking a 24" x 24" steel plate so i can see group size. if all goes well, i'll be setting up for the mile within a couple of weeks.
it seems that my hand loads are better than the factory HSM loads i began with...or my barrel is broken in. it could also be that i now have a good feel for the rifle, and its recoil and trigger pull. either way, i couldn't be more pleased. i am approx $2,500 into the gun/scope/mount, and a few hundred in ammo and reloading supplies. i know 338 lapua is never cheap, but I'm not too deep into it. I'm glad that i didn't get too discouraged early on, and appreciate the advice i received on this site.
here are some pics (rifle, 1000 yard range, reloading setup & 100 yard group):
shooting off of a bipod and using a squeeze bag in back, i started with 2 boxes (40 rounds) of 300 gr HSM ammo. getting on paper at 100 yards was a bit of a fiasco. i was all over the place. the best i could do was a 3" group. i zeroed the best i could, and moved to 300 yards. my groups didn't get any better. they were roughly 9" and i was getting discouraged. having burned through 40 rounds, i realized this was going to be an expensive venture.
i bought rcbs fl and neck dies, and decided to hand load the next 40. i already had a lee hand press (thigh master) from my early pistol loading days, and wanted to see if i could make it work. I'm still using it, but plan to upgrade to a bench mounted single stage soon. i neck sized and loaded the next 40 with 89 grains of h1000 using my lee safety scale. i used 215m primers and 300 gr sierra match king bullets. i realize my setup is ghetto, but the results were great!
on the next outing, my groups were about 1.5" at 100 yards. i decided to skip 300 yards and go straight to 1000. shooting at a 12" gong, i missed the first 2 shots, but they were consistent. i dialed in a couple windage and elevation clicks, and shots 3 through 5 were hits. i was ecstatic. i dialed back to 600 yards and instantly hit an 8 inch gong multiple times. went home happy and out of ammo.
reloaded again neck sizing, and fast forward a week. started at 100 to verify zero and scope tracking. first 3 shot group was touching! moved straight out to 1000 with 7.8 mils and had another couple of misses. windy day. dialed in a few clicks and was back on the gong consistently. left shortly afterwards due to cold temps.
now, i can't wait to move out further. there is a 1400 yard 12" gong that i will be going for next. i also plan on taking a 24" x 24" steel plate so i can see group size. if all goes well, i'll be setting up for the mile within a couple of weeks.
it seems that my hand loads are better than the factory HSM loads i began with...or my barrel is broken in. it could also be that i now have a good feel for the rifle, and its recoil and trigger pull. either way, i couldn't be more pleased. i am approx $2,500 into the gun/scope/mount, and a few hundred in ammo and reloading supplies. i know 338 lapua is never cheap, but I'm not too deep into it. I'm glad that i didn't get too discouraged early on, and appreciate the advice i received on this site.
here are some pics (rifle, 1000 yard range, reloading setup & 100 yard group):
