forgive my newbiness. .338 Lapua?

A .338 wm has roughly the same flight path of a .300 wm with 225gr and 180gr respectivly. Both are considered lethal at over 1000y by the military... A .308win has won "alot" of compations over the years and even some 1000y comp's. If a .308 does not tickle your fancy (and it does not tickle mine) a 7mm Remington Magnum is one heck of a chambering and uses half the powder of a .338LM. The 7mm bullet simply has the best ballistics .30 cal and down. After the 7mm the rest of the calibers fight among themselves for second place. A 7mm-08 shoots a great lil bullet and is lighter recoil yet?

So what do you consider accurate, what do you consider long range, and what do you consider light weight?

My personal opinion is this; a high end tactical .338LM with all the wiz-bang bells and whistles will not be shot to its potential by anyone except the most practiced and best trained individuals. Also of the men I personally know that used this cartridge for a living all left this cartridge when they left the military.
My $.02
 
338 ?

By now, you should have figured out that the .338 Lapua Magnum is not the way to go for a long range hunting rifle.

To give you the benefit of 55 years of hunting, from Coast to Coast, and 25 years in Alberta and BC, and a lot of game animals taken, I would say FORGET ABOUT IT.

Although I have lots of rifles available for hunting, the one I used most was a Ruger Mannlicher stocked carbine, in .308 Winchester, with a 18 inch barrel. It was adequate for everything up to a big furry thing that can eat you.

A .308, 30-06, .270, 280, or anything that will fire a 150 grain bullet at 2700 fps will take anything in North America. Ammunition is generally available anywhere, in a great variety of factory loads, at a reasonable price.

If you just HAVE to go to a Magnum, then the 7mm. Remington Magnum is the way to go. It is accurate, affordable, and ammunition can usually be found in most larger populated areas. The 7mm Remington also makes a very good long range rifle.

Again, with 55 years of hunting under my belt, I would say that over 95% of all the game animals you shoot will be under 200 yards. Even out on the Prairies where you can get a long shot, the Deer are hiding in the sloughs and bush and you can usually get to within less than 200 yards of ones out in a field if you sneak up on them using available cover. In the woods, you are lucky if you can see 50 yards, and your big, heavy, long and heavy barreled target rifle will develop your muscles from carrying it, but not put meat into your freezer.

Don't get seduced by the ballistic tables, or some of the so called hunting shows. It takes a lot of shooting to hit distant targets, and you are going to have to practice a lot with your rifle to be able to hit something at longer ranges. I have done a lot of target shooting at long distances, and did quite well on the 1000 yard range, but for every round fired in Competition or at a Game Animal, I have probably shot 100 in practice. That is a lot of ammo, and expense.

From what I have seen from the previous answers in this thread, you have been given some excellent practical advice. Think about it.
 
338 edge

Got a friend who has been building some 338 edge's , seem to have close to same spects as 338lapua , I don't know all of them but I think they use a 300 mag and size up from there.......... I do know that they were making 1200 yard hits on target.......................seems this would be the way to go:sniper: b:
 
Lettuce be reality, I know I posted 7mmRM as the preferred long range bullet but I hardly use it. Too expensive and recoil sucks monkey balls. A new shooter needs to start with the basics first. I guarantee that a 338LM would prolly turn you off from shooting forever after paying $125 for a box of bullets and getting your ass kicked and not even hitting the barn door.

Step one.
Rimfire. Get lots of cheap trigger time.

When starting with centerfire I would strongly recommend 223. Its cheap to shoot and you can use factory ammo until you get enough nerve up to start reloading. Again a great round to learn how to reload with. I wouldn't even move up from that until you learn to reload as it is too expensive buying factory ammo to shoot it enough to get good, that and most factory ammo sucks.

Oh, and if you want to go hunting, buy a sporting rifle. I have learned that 99% of target rifles don't work in the bush. Target rifles are heavy, the optics are too high powered and over-all to awkward. There is no use in trying to make a multi-purpose rifle.

Use the right tool for the job. If you try to build a rifle to do both it will suck at both. Or you can buy 2 that will be exceptional for what they were intended for.
 
MagnumPeanut said:
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I got a really good laugh outta this one, thanks!
 
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