338 lapua reload advice

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grant6395

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hello,im new to reloading and have a few questions..first of all,my rifleis a savage 110ba 26 inch barrel/1,9 twist.ive reloaded and shot some 300 grain pills with moderate sucsess.my second batch is with imr 7828/250 grain barnes tsx pills.87 grains of powder.now ive checked the books(several different ones,all conflict with the load requirements.i feel im right in the middle.the coal is listed as 3.500-3.550.ive checked my headspace repeatedly and came up with a coal of 3.580 wich gives me .020 to the lands.ive been instructed to be carefull of the load with tight coal,as the pressures increase.i would like to know if im on track.i will load some with the same coal,but gradually less and more powder,shoot them all and compare .what should I be looking for as far as the groups?.im only shooting 300meters,as this is all my range is.i plan on stretching the distance once I can find a good combo.thanks in advance..is a .020 distance to the lands a safe place to be realisticly?oh,one more question.my berger 300 grain pills,wich are a boat tail only requires a beginning load of 73 grain,yet the 250 pill are 85 grains...why more powder for a smaller projectile?
 
Hello! I suggest you consider the latter test and the OCW techniques for load development. Google the internet for more details. For the 338 caliber, 0.020 off the land is a good start and should be, to my oppinion, the last parameter to fine tune. The reason why you can use more powder for lighter projectiles is related to pressure decrease rate as the projectile travels down the tube versus the burn rate of the powder. Pressure decreases more quickly for lighter projectiles because they accelerate faster so you can maintain pressure within safe limit with more powder. This is a simple way of explaining it without getting into the physics and mathematics behind it. Hope this helps! :)
 
With the same setup I had terrible luck with the 300gr Berger hybrids which is funny because in other rifles they are fantastic. I finally switched to 300 scenars and nothing but good since. Agree with the ladder test, once I zeroed at 200m I stretched out to 600 for the test and it really shows up then to the tune of 6" elevation change per half gr of powder till I hit the sweet spot. I settled on 81.5- 82 gr IMR 7828 but that said work up your own load carefully and don't just jump up to what some swinging #### like me says on the Internet. Happy shooting.
 
My Savage 110 FCP HS seems to like the 250 grain bullets better than the 300. Waiting for a new powder scale to continue the load development.
I believe our guns have the same barrel. Keep trying different bullet / powder combinations till the sweet one is found. Right now my sweet one is a 285gr Hornady hunting bullet. I have not tried any Bergers or Barnes, only Lapua, Nosler and Hornady. My go to powders are H1000 and RL22 or 25. Moving and unpacking is no fun. Can't find things.
 
I have found that the Sierra 300gr MK's are very accurate.

The 250gr Scenars were OK

The Hornady 250gr loaded ammo was accurate, but I found the brass way too soft. I only Lapua brass for this caliber.
 
I ended up buying some factory nosler match ammo that I will keep the brass from vs getting lapua brass right off the bat. I have read that hornady brass is soft but have not heard about the nosler stuff at all. Anyone have any experience with the nosler stuff?
 
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