.338 Lapua Magnum for plinking

Matt762

Matt762

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
53   0   0
Location
Edmonton
I may have made the unwise decision to pick up a .338 Lapua bolt gun for plinking and some long range shooting… not kidding. I am not a competition shooter, but I want 338 because it is COOL and big and awesome.

Any suggestions for rifles/scopes?

I will 100% be reloading and plan to shoot in the 100-800m rangeIMG_0185.jpeg
 
You want to own a blaster and can afford it so it makes sense to me, just don't think you're going to be shooting it all that much at least after the initial rush wears off. You know that"plinking" is a misleading term. You'll need a high quality scope (there's lots of candidates) just to stand the recoil, but it sounds like you want to put some money into the scope anyway. You're lucky to have access to 800 yards, not much of that in Ontario.
 
Matt762 said:
I may have made the unwise decision to pick up a .338 Lapua bolt gun for plinking and some long range shooting… not kidding. I am not a competition shooter, but I want 338 because it is COOL and big and awesome.

Any suggestions for rifles/scopes?

I will 100% be reloading and plan to shoot in the 100-800m rangeView attachment 794515
Click to expand...
Matt…A .338 Lapua is cool and will be a very wise and fun rifle!! BUT without a decent muzzle brake the fun part starts diminishing after about 5 rounds. ‘Insite’ makes great, very effective brakes with up to 4 and 5 ports and threaded for all sizes.
For rifles and scopes there are many options but at the top of the heap I’d recommend a TRG42 with a Nightforce or S&B scope in Near 20 moa mounts.
 
Go with a quality scope and build the gun heavy. The lap mag is a boomer, double up on ear protection.

Mine ate a few cheap scopes when I first got it.

Get into reloading.
 
I have the 110 precision variant with 24 inch barrel in 338. My thought was that I was going to use it since I'm not allowed to use my fiddy. I used to plink alot with the 50, even made up 700 grain powder coated gas checked cast lead projectiles, I could push them to around 1700 ft/sec with reasonable good accuracy. Nonetheless they would always land on target like the Hammer of Thor. I could crank those rounds out at around $1.50 a pop when cheap Russian primers were available. It was alot of fun. The Savage is OK. Looks cool, good trigger and reasonably good accuracy. The bolt is not so smooth, typical Savage but I guess I was hoping it would smooth out with use. The factory ammo is crazy bad from a cost perspective and general availability. I reload for it but sadly I have no desire to develop lead mouse fart plinking loads for it.

un7sRUo[1].jpg
 
I expect the Savage will keep you happy for a while. It's a big rabbit hole though, I'll wager you will be upgrading soon enough.
 
apu said:
I have the 110 precision variant with 24 inch barrel in 338. My thought was that I was going to use it since I'm not allowed to use my fiddy. I used to plink alot with the 50, even made up 700 grain powder coated gas checked cast lead projectiles, I could push them to around 1700 ft/sec with reasonable good accuracy. Nonetheless they would always land on target like the Hammer of Thor. I could crank those rounds out at around $1.50 a pop when cheap Russian primers were available. It was alot of fun. The Savage is OK. Looks cool, good trigger and reasonably good accuracy. The bolt is not so smooth, typical Savage but I guess I was hoping it would smooth out with use. The factory ammo is crazy bad from a cost perspective and general availability. I reload for it but sadly I have no desire to develop lead mouse fart plinking loads for it.

View attachment 794595
Click to expand...
That’s the one I’ve been looking at, and yeah I hear it’s generally a good gun minus the bolt being not very smooth. Thanks for the picture and info
 
I'm a big fan of big and ridiculous for fun guns. Every time I bring my .50AE Desert Eagle or me .460 mag XVR revolver to the range, everyone has a blast.

Precision rifles aren't really my thing, so I don't have any good rifle/optic suggestions for you there. Just adding my support for buying the big dumb thing, lol.
 
I had one, aftermarket 30” barrel, loads of fun, it was a hobby gun, not for hunting,
To keep budget in line, I ran an Athlon, tracked and held zero, pretty good glass,
One of the better budget beta scopes that nips at the alpha scopes for a fraction of the price,,
 
I have a NightForce NXS 5.5-22X56 on mine. Mine really likes the 285gr Hornady target bullets. Made hits at 2000 but haven't connected at 3000 yet!
 
I found with my 338 RUM that 200 gr bullets are noticeably lighter in recoil than the 250.

Have fun "plinking" with it!

Oh yeah, hopefully your recoil pad has some give to it.
 
Question is do you have magnum large rifle primers.
338lm for 800'm is an overkill, unless you want to feel the recoil, you can easily to nail anything with a 6.5, 7 or 300 prc at that distance, much cheaper to load and shoot too.
 
sonichanxiao said:
Question is do you have magnum large rifle primers.
338lm for 800'm is an overkill, unless you want to feel the recoil, you can easily to nail anything with a 6.5, 7 or 300 prc at that distance, much cheaper to load and shoot too.
Click to expand...
THIS! The problem w big long range calibers is that smaller rounds can easily do better at closer ranges. To have any hope at long range requires a lot of practice and that costs money to feed the cannon. Its a double edged sword.

800m isn't actually all that far for a decent rifle. I have two different 308Win loads that will stay supersonic out to 1250 yds. The boring old 308Win is more capable than most people think. There is no need for a big magnum at anything under 1000 yds.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom