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I have mixed emotions about muzzle brakes......particularly in hunting rifles. We hunt without ear protection most of the time and they make the rifle so loud to the shooter. My brother uses a suppressor on his Lapua, he was on a range in AZ where they were not allowed, he was made to move to the farthest station because it was so loud. Ad I stated, I am not really recoil sensitive, especially in a hunting rifle.
I like big guns and I cannot lie. That said, my buddy hand loads 405 grain lead over 57.5 grains of holy hell that really hurts to shoot. Deer, elk, Russian tanks, duck and cover!I'm not a recoil sissy but those 45/70 lever action rifles are definitely not plinkers.
View attachment 386852
...from left to right; .17 Rem., .223 Rem., .30-30, .25-06, .30-378 Weatherby, .338 Lapua, .375 H&H
Not to take anything away from the Lapua, but do you really wanna mess with that monster Weatherby case?
Dean
Which Weatherby cartridge ballistics did you compare the Lapua to?
.378, .30-.378 or .338-.378?
Dean
In my experiance,Run the ballistics with hunting bullets and you will see that they are pretty much identical at 1500 yards for both speed and energy and still slightly above Mach 1 with the Lapua having a very slight edge and also a tiny bit flatter with better wind performance as well.
The truth is that the 30 cal Weatherby, while a great cartridge is so overbore for the 30 caliber bullet that it's also very inefficient. Lots of flash and bang in wasted energy. I'd also expect those hot gasses to burn out the barrel much faster than the Lapua as well.
Between those two I'd pick the Lapua, but in reality I'd take my elk with a well placed 6.5x55 and it'll be every bit as dead with less potential for wasted meat.
That's what I thought.30-378, the one in the picture from your post. The ballistics were based on the Nosler reloading manual choosing the most accurate loads for the bullet having the highest ballistic coefficient for each cartridge. The .338-.378 should outperform the Lapua as it has a larger case capacity. Interestingly, both the Weatherby and Lapua's most accurate loads were nearly identical. Data from other sources may be different.
I'd still personally go with a 6.5x55 unless I was planning very long range hunting, but then other things can come into play that aren't there at shorter ranges.
That's what I thought.
That conversation was referencing Argonaut's .378 Weatherby, but I couldn't find a pic of both it and the Lapua, so I posted the one I did instead.
I was just trying to show the difference in case size.
Apologies for not explaining that better in my other post.
Dean
The last few years I have hunted elk I have been in an area where a 100 yd shot is a LONG shot. I plan to remain hunting in this area for a while. I still hunt elk with my 300 win mag, but I would like to get something that isn't really for long range yet has a heavy bullet, say starting at 250 grain (just to give an idea). Don't really care about bullet drop after 150 yards.
What caliber should I look into?
I'm wondering just WHO or WHY , anyone in their right mind, would be even considering or concerned with the ballistics at 1,500 yards!!! I certainly hope nobody is even thinking about Shooting an Elk or anything else at that range during the Hunting Season.Run the ballistics with hunting bullets and you will see that they are pretty much identical at 1500 yards for both speed and energy and still slightly above Mach 1 with the Lapua having a very slight edge and also a tiny bit flatter with better wind performance as well.
That I understand, so WHY is this in a Elk Hunting thread???We reserve that range for people
I'm wondering just WHO or WHY , anyone in their right mind, would be even considering or concerned with the ballistics at 1,500 yards!!! I certainly hope nobody is even thinking about Shooting an Elk or anything else at that range during the Hunting Season.