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Just dove in head first with .338 L.M., advice and wisdom!
- Thread Starter Ura-Ki
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well, i dont have a .338lm-YET! i do infact have a couple savage hunting rifles. one in 308win and one in 300winmag. both exceed my expectations by far. accurate and dependable. congrats on your purchase. savage makes great rifles.
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Love it! You got yourself a nice one!
I had a 110BA in 338 Lapua, which I had to sell to a buddy to pay for my wife surgeries. I still get to shoot it but not nearly as much as I would like to - man do I miss that gun!
As you reload for it and you start to push pressures, you may find that you'll get stuck cases. If that happens to you, it's a good idea to have someone like @Velzey take a look at it and perhaps finish ream the chamber.
For brass I have Lapua, Hornady, Norma, and S&B. The Norma and Lapua brass brands are by far the best. I would anneal the necks every third loading.
Bullets: Hornady 225 grain SP projectiles are fantastic for plinking and will accurately stretch out to 800 yards. I never tried them any farther. Lapua Scenarsrs in 250 grain and 300 grain are fantastic. My favorites are Burger VLD hunters and OTM hybrid bullets in the 300 grain weight. The problem with Berger bullets is that your overall length will be too long to fit in your magazine and your rifle will be a single shot.
For powders, I use Retumbo, RL26, N570 and also H870. For me retumbo is the best. I found that N570 produced a serious muzzle flash. The cartridges I made using H870 surplus powder produced slower velocities, (100fps-), yet were still very accurate.
I had a 110BA in 338 Lapua, which I had to sell to a buddy to pay for my wife surgeries. I still get to shoot it but not nearly as much as I would like to - man do I miss that gun!
As you reload for it and you start to push pressures, you may find that you'll get stuck cases. If that happens to you, it's a good idea to have someone like @Velzey take a look at it and perhaps finish ream the chamber.
For brass I have Lapua, Hornady, Norma, and S&B. The Norma and Lapua brass brands are by far the best. I would anneal the necks every third loading.
Bullets: Hornady 225 grain SP projectiles are fantastic for plinking and will accurately stretch out to 800 yards. I never tried them any farther. Lapua Scenarsrs in 250 grain and 300 grain are fantastic. My favorites are Burger VLD hunters and OTM hybrid bullets in the 300 grain weight. The problem with Berger bullets is that your overall length will be too long to fit in your magazine and your rifle will be a single shot.
For powders, I use Retumbo, RL26, N570 and also H870. For me retumbo is the best. I found that N570 produced a serious muzzle flash. The cartridges I made using H870 surplus powder produced slower velocities, (100fps-), yet were still very accurate.
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Man, thanks, great information! I purchased 250 rounds of Lapua brass and 400 of Norma ( I have a lot of good experience with Norma! ) Still shopping Bullets but will take your advice and see how we do! One of the very first things I did when I got her home was to check chamber specs, and found it was nice and tight but well finished. I did run emery cloth through stopping short of the throat. This rifle seats factory spec loads about 7 thousands off the lands, so I imagine it should have slightly higher speed with slightly higher chamber pressures, so I will load accordingly. Other then that, a check of the barrel crown and cleaning up the muzzle brake and she should run as good as any! Sure a nice rifle, Savage has this rifle thing DOWN! I am waiting for Master Class Stocks to ship my new stock, I have run several of there stocks in past builds, and all have been well worth the wait! Should be the end of this month! I was able to get the exact specs to them for a partial inlet and barrel channel, saving my self a lot of work!
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What scope did you get?
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Night force NSX light seaker 3.5X15X50 with GG&G QD rings. I really LOVE Night Force Optics!
Nice pairing.
You've got yourself a potent man-killer there.
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This is just for fun and educational purposes.
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It's the sound more than the blast, that is, unless you're standing right next to the muzzle.
The tanker brake on the savage seems to make it worse. On my 338 Edge, I use a different one and the muzzle blast is decidedly less, though the recoil is that of a stiff 308.
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Yea, that break looks cool, but doesn't really work, I am looking at different brakes that re direct the blast pressures back as well as out. Man, that thing IS loud, but your right, even with 300 gr, the recoil is only about .30/06 with a stiff load under 180 gr! I can spot my hits, so that's a good thing!
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I run .338 300gr Sierra match kings thru mine. The .338 Lapua is still one of my favorites. Love hitting that steel plate at 1500!!
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HA! Not even close to getting that far yet, but I do have the tool, Now I gotta work on the Shooter, give him a tuneup, new spark plugs, and such, should be a hoot when ready! Hell, that's half the fun, building up a nice rifle, rolling your own ammo, practicing as much as you can!
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That one is at the top of my list! Thanks for the link, I have trouble with my favorites file, its friggin huge!!! I gotta figure out how to make a file for each type of gun so I don't have to spend an hour digging through them all looking for that one part!
That's what I'm talking about. This particular rifle and the brake it comes with from the factory. It's miserable for innocent bystanders. And they don't have to be standing right next to the muzzle.
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Bro, push it out another 500. You'll love it more
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World record kill is what? 2470 meters with .338 l.m. Even half that is something! Videos of more then 3k!!!! Man, that s insane! If I can get to 1760, I'm a happy guy!
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Yah - my buddy and would take turns standing in the the blast of the muzzle gasses coming out of the side of the tanker, moving closer to see what point it was dangerous.
I'm talking parallel with the front of the stock relative to the firing line.
The blast comes backward pretty forcefully. The noise became painful before the gasses were too hot, and I'm talking wearing muffs and plugs.
In doing that, I discovered what a dick I was shooting that thing at the range when other shooters were there. The dang thing is a boomer.
The muzzle brake in my video is much quieter. The gas ejects at more of a right angle to the barrel, and with the top ports on the brake, the muzzle blast and consequently noise is noticeably lighter.
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