Why 338 Lapua instead of 338 WM, RUM or Wby?

Papaclaude

Papaclaude

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
36   0   0
Location
Ottawa
I'm half-considering building or buying a rifle for target use out to 1000 yards/meters. I know the standard is the 338 Lapua, but what would one gain with the Lapua instead of, say, a 338 WM, for which brass and ammo are more readily available? Also, does the Lapua use the same action length as the WM?
 
The bigger the case, the more barrel length required and the higher the velocity, and the higher the cost.

The .338 Lapua is flavour of the year... mostly due to the high quality very strong brass and the military.

I think there are better 1000 yard target cartridges if cost and recoil are a consideration. Punching a hole in paper does not require a lot of energy.
 
The whole point of going to a larger cal is to push heavier bullets at elevated speeds to improve down range impact energy and to reduce drift.

So in the 338 world, the base is the Lapua and get's BIGGER... but with this much horsepower, cost and recoil also elevate in a big hurry.

If you want a 1000yds/m target rifle, look at the F Open world. Here the 7mm reigns with the 284 Win case the most popular. Recoil is moderate, bore life is very good, costs are not bad. Accuracy can be stunning...

Then there are plenty of 6.5's, 6mms and even the good old 308 as used in FTR that get out to 1000yds very well

Now if you want to put a hurt on something, bigger can be a whole lot of good.

For punching paper, I know the 7's are more accurate then the Lapua at 1000yds but somedays, you just want to make a big impression....so boils down to goals and priorities.

If you have your mind set on a 338cal something or other, the lapua is the easiest to set up if willing to get a action specific to the case. Otherwise, the RUM family can use reg magnum bolt heads... see 338 Edge or 338 RUM.

Anything smaller, may as well get a 300WM or 7RM/284

Jerry
 
I think the Lapua has been the flavor of the year last ten years running.

There's only one reason to use the 338L though, and it's neither accuracy nor ease of use.
 
I got into the .338 Lapua back about 5 years or so ago and started out with the Savage 110BA which I upgraded in 2015 to the PGW T-Wolf. The .338 is an excellent cartridge with, as Dennis said, the availability of first-class brass BUT as much as I like it (and I've invested a lot of money into it) if you simply wish to punch holes into a target at 1K then as Jerry said the 7's and the 6.5's have it beat hands-down and for significantly less cost. So why do I still have a .338L - well, likely for similar reasons people like to shoot the big fifty; because I can and on some days you just want to teach that paper a lesson :)
 
The 338 Lapua was designed to meet criteria set forth by a military contract. It did. And I've had one for close to 20 years, so they've been around at least that long. I think the military connection has made it more attractive to a lot of people. Push a heavy, long, high BC bullet at high speed, and you're going to pay with recoil, generally speaking. But if you don't like the military version, there are other 338's of equal or larger case capacity to use. - dan
 
Thats only true if your trying to load them from a mag. If your running a single shot with the proper freebore for the 300grs then the lapua is faster.
 
And it depends on barrel length just how fast the big ones are... don't bother with 26 inch barrels if you want maximum velocity.
 
Posters above got it right with down range impact energy. If you need something that can do real work at those ranges, not just punch paper, that is the real "need" for larger calibers
 
If you are just punching paper I think the 338 is to big and expensive to load. As said earlier the 338 starts to shine after 1000 yds. If you want to hunt long range then I'd say go for it. My practice gun is a 6.5X47 Lapua. Extremely accurate and virtually no recoil. I can only shoot out to 910 yds but it has not been a problem with the X47. Another combo hard to beat is the 300 Win Mag and 215 Bergers. Both these rifles are full customs and drive the 215 and 130 gr Berger at 3000 fps out of 26" barrels. Run the numbers on these bullets at 3000 fps, it's not to shabby. A 300 WM and a 215 Berger will kill anything in Canada out to 1000 yds. Wouldn't recommend you try that on big bears though.
 
beeman2 said:
Both these rifles are full customs and drive the 215 and 130 gr Berger at 3000 fps out of 26" barrels. Run the numbers on these bullets at 3000 fps, it's not to shabby. A 300 WM and a 215 Berger will kill anything in Canada out to 1000 yds. Wouldn't recommend you try that on big bears though.
Click to expand...

300 Win Mag pushing a Berger 230 @ 3000fps?

RL26?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom