.338 Lupua Rifles

Cheapest place I saw factory .338 Lapua was $129.00 for a box of 20! :eek::runaway:Great round, but you have got to reload if you ever want to shoot the biatch! Those thinking about buying one, I'd suggest you buy your reloading gear first! At something like $6-$7 dollars a round, you've either got to have money to burn or you married rich, 'cause that's the only way you could afford to shoot 'er on a regular basis.:D
 
wow!
and here i am doing my research, trying to find which .338 LM i want. and it costs that much to shoot!!!!
 
FWIW, cost per shot drops to approx $0.93 when reloading -- Brass (initial cost /10 uses) + powder (7000 grs per lb. / approx 100gr /load) + primer + bullet. I was pretty leary before laying out $9500.00 for a rifle and scope, but ran the numbers on MS-Excel and found that its not so bleak.

Even better, I hear from some guys who shoot it regular -- they are getting more than 10 reloads from gen Lapua brass.


My budget is for 20 rnds /weekend. That's 80 rnds a month, or 960 rnds /yr. At $0.93 /rnd it will cost me a mere $1k this year. In perspective, that is roughly equall to 2 cases of SA .308 surplus at today's market rate. And believe me, my .308 runs dry FAR more quickly than the .338LM.


My reloading gear cost me $1,000.00, but saved me almost $5000.00 over the cost of factory loads. Plus, it turns out that reloading can be a fun sideline hobby in and of itself, so #### it. Advantage Greg.

Somewhere around the year 3 mark I expect the likelihood of cost of a barrel replacement. Par for this course. With the money I've saved, it will be a much easier pill to swallow.
 
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I've had my TRG-42 for awhile now and love it. Everyone raves about the TRG trigger for good reason. I have no trigger pull gauge and havn't adjusted the trigger, (which you can do), but its been light as a feather and crisp as a cracker right out of the box. You can adjust just about everything on this rifle.

Because of my schedule I havn't been able to take the TRG to the range that often and am just now starting to work up loads. So far, I'm getting sub MOA 5 shot groups with 250 gr lockbase over 89gr Retumbo. MV = 2550. Factory 250gr lockbase, MV= 2850, doesn't seem to perform so well in my TRG. I've still got a lot of shootin to do :).

When you compare the TRG to others pricewise, I'd add about a grand to the list price of the basic TRG for the "options ??" you'll need. The integral bipod is costly as are the sloped scope base and muzzle brake.

This is a great rifle! :D
 
Est. cost per rd.

Bullet 50 to 60cents each (250gr Lapua, 300grMK)
Powder 70 to 80rds per lb at $25 to 35/lb - 35cents per bang
Primer 5 cents each
Cases $3 each with approx lifespan of 5 to 15 shots. If you size and anneal properly, you might be able to go longer. Just depends on how hot you load and sloppy the ammo/chamber fit. At 10 shots - 30cents.

Roughly $1.20 to 1.50 per bang. This will vary more depending on how well you shop.

That is substantially cheaper then a BMG but more then everything else.

A RUM based rifle of equal/more performance will drop the case cost to $1 for approx 10cents per bang. You can get to $1 per shot. Much easier to put into a common commercial action.

Like popcorn, hard to just shoot a few rds. Better budget up to 50rds per session.

Jerry
 
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Going on holidays this week, and I will be to Genesse this weekend. In appropriate form, I did up 45 rounds tonight with a load of:

Hogdon H1000 @ 88.9gr
Hornady #3335SP @250gr

Nominal velocity for this combination specs out @ 2600FPS.

To bump up to 2700, the H1000 would require 92.6gr, and will have reached max load, whereas the slightly slower burning H4831 will push the same round at 2800 fps with a mere 90.9gr.

A friend emailed me a recipe for a better load with the HPBTs he sold me with his rifle, but I haven't been able to get appropriate powder for it yet, as it calls for an obsoleted powder.

Going to have to make up an order for more brass soon, as I'm using 5 cases as dummy training rounds.



On a side note, I trim my cases to 2.714" and am constantly having them expand to (or beyond) the Max case length of 2.724"

Has everyone else's experience been roughly the same?
 
The DND round is Lapua 250 grain Lockbase FMJBT. An advangae of the .338LM is that Lapua makes the brass. Very accurate round.

Regards,

Peter
 
B said:
Go big or go home, DSR-1.
Click to expand...


You buying? OK, we'll all have one, thanks.

On the subject of 338 LM loads, the fastest I've found in mine with 250 gr bullets was 2960 fps from a 26" barrel. That's about 20 fps quicker then my 340 Wby. Maybe my Sako has a slow barrel, I don't know, but this cartridge isn't the magic pill that everyone makes it out to be. I think the "cool, it's a sniper cartridge" factor weighs in a lot more with this one then a lot of others. You can ballistically equal it for a lot less money with the 338 RUM, and the 338 Edge, 338-378, 338-416 Improved will all outspeed it. FWIW - dan
 
I"m running US869 (50BMG powder) which is cheaper then all the rest when you buy it bulk (8lb) and since it's a slow burning ball powder it meters awesome and is really easy to work with.

Regarding the 338LM being a 'cool' caliber because our snipers are using it, holds NO appeal. I could give a sh!t if they're using 416s or 408s. Out of my 31" Rock Creek 5R barrel, with a 1:9.250 twist, I'm getting my 300gr SMK out the business end at 3050fps. Granted this is an Ackley Improved cartridge which holds 111.5gr with no signs of pressure. Also, I'm not having to trim my casings either because of the sharp shoulder. That's awesome velocity and destructive power. At 1000yds I only drop 17MOA from my 100yds zero which again is astounding.

I've come to understand that if you're going to get you gun rebarreled, do the research on what bullets you want to shoot before picking your barrel because it makes all the difference. I'm getting a 308 built right now and the gun will be based around shooting a 175gr SMK just because of the ballistic difference between the 168 vs 175. I could care less about flat shooting fast bullets unless I'm hunting coyotes. When it comes to dropping bullets down range, BS and weight play such a huge role.

If any of you haven't tried US869 yet, get 1lb to try or talk to the same guy I deal through and find out whether or not it will be advantageous to go that route or to stick with the powder you've been using.
 
It seems there are odd flyers every now and again.But not an odd flyer out of the group...an odd flyer right off the paper.And not nessisarily at extended ranges either.My question would be if this is the intermeidiate range SWS then why aren't they using a 300 gr smk or similar that has better balistics?
 
Longshot said:
It seems there are odd flyers every now and again.But not an odd flyer out of the group...an odd flyer right off the paper.And not nessisarily at extended ranges either.My question would be if this is the intermeidiate range SWS then why aren't they using a 300 gr smk or similar that has better balistics?
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Well first of all, who is getting odd fliers with what? I have yet to see one.

Secondly, the military requirement was for hits on individuals at 1250m or so. 250gr bullets work just fine. The paired AP, Tactical, enhanced expansion bullets available all offer flexibility for the platform. Yes there are always better cartridges, but if the military kept picking a new one everytime it offered a small increase in range, penetration or accuracy, they would never be able to adopt a standard.
 
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