Remington 700 338Lapuas are coming!!!!

The man who shall not be named assured me that if things went sour for Nesika (which he assured me wouldn't happen) he'd make sure to not just refund me but also give me more choices as backup. Do I hear customer service????? That impressed the sh*t out of me. What more can be said for business practice.
 
My understanding of the Nesika/Dakota issue is that they have filed for bankruptcy protection, to resolve some issues with a partner leaving the company. They claim that business will go on as usualand that no employees will be lost, strictly a company restructuring, is what Richard Spruill ( ops mgr) of Dakota/Nesika told me personally 3 weeks ago when I ordered another action from them.
KK
 
Rembo said:
what's the big attraction to a Rem 700 in 338 Lapua?....isn't the 338 RUM close enough?....I don't get it...

somebody enlighten me please...
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I am not certain that the Lapua has much more to offer than the 338 RUM or 340 Wby, many sources say that there is an advantage, but then again this is also claimed to be the case with 300RUMs versus 300 Win Mag. I guess time will really tell the story.
1 thing I do find is that it is a very precise caliber and has truly outstanding capabilities. So far I have not been disappointed with the Lapua for real long range shooting.
Whether the many military forces adopting it ,is relevant is questionable, afterall 30 years ago the formidable 308 was displaced by 223, and now we are seeing a turnaround there.
Lapua seems to have gone to great lengths to seemingly perfect a cartridge to be accurate and effective to 1500 yards and better, and there seems to be lots of documentation attesting to its performance, yet little has been produced extolling the merits of the 338RUM or the 340Wby, in the same manner, this may just be marketing, but I personally do not think this to be the case. The documented capabilties of the Lapua
seem to speak for them selves.
KK
 
There's starting to be more noise around the 338/300 RUM in the longrangehunting forum down south - they've dubbed it the 338 Edge. There's not much to it really, just a 300 RUM opened up to take the .338 300gr SMK's.

Appears to be very accurate, with 1/4 - 1/2 MOA the norm, and at a fraction of the cost of the Lapua.

Jay
 
Jay Kyle said:
There's starting to be more noise around the 338/300 RUM in the longrangehunting forum down south - they've dubbed it the 338 Edge. There's not much to it really, just a 300 RUM opened up to take the .338 300gr SMK's.

Appears to be very accurate, with 1/4 - 1/2 MOA the norm, and at a fraction of the cost of the Lapua.

Jay
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This may be another more affordable option, I too have heard good feedback on the 338 Edge, the 1 major advantage here is that Rem 700 actions are affordable and easy to work with.
Nice to see more 338 options evolving now, I really like the caliber as the high BC bullets are becoming far more readably available.
KK
 
bronco_mudder said:
wierd.........military you say? well my Lapua did just fine taking out a moose last year.
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Actually the Finns developed the .338 Lapua as a military sniper round probably 30 years ago, and - as with all successful military rounds - it is now finding favour in sporting circles. While it was based on the .416 Rigby, a heavier case was developed for it, designed to withstand much higher pressures such as was the the case with .460 Weatherby class of cartridges. The .416 Rigby was designed large to keep pressures down, and was never designed for the pressures handloaders (me included) have been able to develop with it.
 
Glock-a-maniac said:
The man who shall not be named assured me that if things went sour for Nesika (which he assured me wouldn't happen) he'd make sure to not just refund me but also give me more choices as backup. Do I hear customer service????? That impressed the sh*t out of me. What more can be said for business practice.
Click to expand...

I had my hands on that Nesika action, what a piece of work. It is a real thing of beauty. Rock solid, what ever rifles wear this action will be great performers and increadably great looking. :D :dancingbanana:
 
knockknock said:
I am not certain that the Lapua has much more to offer than the 338 RUM or 340 Wby, many sources say that there is an advantage, but then again this is also claimed to be the case with 300RUMs versus 300 Win Mag. I guess time will really tell the story.
1 thing I do find is that it is a very precise caliber and has truly outstanding capabilities. So far I have not been disappointed with the Lapua for real long range shooting.
Whether the many military forces adopting it ,is relevant is questionable, afterall 30 years ago the formidable 308 was displaced by 223, and now we are seeing a turnaround there.
Lapua seems to have gone to great lengths to seemingly perfect a cartridge to be accurate and effective to 1500 yards and better, and there seems to be lots of documentation attesting to its performance, yet little has been produced extolling the merits of the 338RUM or the 340Wby, in the same manner, this may just be marketing, but I personally do not think this to be the case. The documented capabilties of the Lapua
seem to speak for them selves.
KK
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Old badger and I have been over and back with the ballistics between the 338RUM and the lapua
( he has a lapua.)
Really zero difference except for maybe a few FPS , till you get to the very heavy bullets.
The big difference is brass cost, and rifle cost
In a good barrel the 338RUM would be just as accurate.
Cat
 
catnthehatt said:
Old badger and I have been over and back with the ballistics between the 338RUM and the lapua
( he has a lapua.)
Really zero difference except for maybe a few FPS , till you get to the very heavy bullets.
The big difference is brass cost, and rifle cost
In a good barrel the 338RUM would be just as accurate.
Cat
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I am sure that the accuracy is quite dependant on the quality of barrel and how well the gun is put together. From my limited experience with my Lapua I find it thrives on 300 grain bullets. I am told by some (PGW and several magazine articles) that barrel life in the Lapua is longer, but have nothing hard to back this up.
My biggest complaint with the RUMs is that so far I can only find Remington brass, which is pathetically random in qualty compared to the Lapua brass, but the cost difference is also significant.
KK
 
Be that as it may, a lot of us will have a lot of down range time to work on before we've exhausted the potential of either caliber. I for one look forward to cutting tight groups out to as far as my insanely expensive scope can handle; whos with me here???
 
Boomer said:
Actually the Finns developed the .338 Lapua as a military sniper round probably 30 years ago, and - as with all successful military rounds - it is now finding favour in sporting circles. While it was based on the .416 Rigby, a heavier case was developed for it, designed to withstand much higher pressures such as was the the case with .460 Weatherby class of cartridges. The .416 Rigby was designed large to keep pressures down, and was never designed for the pressures handloaders (me included) have been able to develop with it.
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Actually it wasn't the "Finns" that started the developement of this cartridge. In the early 1980's Jerry Haskins of Research Armament Industries, Jim Bell, and Boots Obermeyer, began development for the U.S. Navy long range sniper program, the cartridge being called the .338/416. Further developement was undertaken by Lapua in the mid 80's. The improved version carrying the name we know it by, the .338 Lapua Magnum, was introduced in 1987.
 
So let's do a practical comparison between 338 Lapua and the 338 Edge (338/300 RUM) assuming 300gr SMK:

Ballistics and Accuracy
---------------------
Nearly Identical (only a 1 grain difference in case water capacity, the Edge has the edge.)

Brass Quality
------------
Lapua is better, but is it really relevant? The ES numbers are coming out below 10 fps for the Remington/Federal brass, folks are finding the real kicker is the difference between bullets of the bearing surface area, if you group your bullets based on contact area (length between boattail and ogive is a good proxy), your ES will decrease.

I've personally done water capacity measurements on about a hundred NEW remington cases and have found them very close. A good ladder would negate any difference.

Rifle Cost
--------
The 338 Edge would generally be less expensive as the difference boils down to the action.

Component Cost
---------------
Again the only difference is the cost of brass if your handloading, and the number of reloads per shell you can get out of them. Lapua will give more reloads. Remington/Federal 300 RUM brass is far less expensive.

Availability
----------
Lapua brass - difficult to find , 300 RUM brass everywhere! (simply neck up 300 RUM and your done).

Applicability
-----------
Military - Lapua - due to taper in case design
North American hunting - Either
Dangerous Game - Neither (want bigger gun!)

Bragging Rights
-------------
Lapua - High
RUM - Med
Edge - High


Jay
 
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bronco_mudder said:
Actually it wasn't the "Finns" that started the developement of this cartridge. In the early 1980's Jerry Haskins of Research Armament Industries, Jim Bell, and Boots Obermeyer, began development for the U.S. Navy long range sniper program, the cartridge being called the .338/416. Further developement was undertaken by Lapua in the mid 80's. The improved version carrying the name we know it by, the .338 Lapua Magnum, was introduced in 1987.
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The credit for developing the .338 Lapua goes to the Finns, because they had to redesign the Rigby case to make it strong enough. Research Armaments simply wildcatted an existing case - something any of us could do . . . well OK - some of us. Thanks for the dates - I wasn't sure what year it was actually intoduced.
 
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That info comes right from my Lapua reloading manual. The history given at the beggining of the load data. Guys are bumping up the 300 RUM to .338, Lapua lists a necked down version of the .338, called the 300 Lapua, looks like they're all pretty much in the same boat performance wise. It basically comes down to personal preference. I've got a 300 RUM, and a .338 Lapua. The thing is, being the "gun nut" that I am, if the opportunity came up to own a .300 Lapua, or .338/300 RUM, I'd probably get one of those too:D
 
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