338 Lapua with Heavy Cast

Missionary

Well-Known Member
Good morning
Getting geared up to shoot next time north heavy cast (270 - 335 grain) gas checked down the long barrel of a Savage 110 338 Lapua sniper type rifle. I forget the real numbers or name. It is sitting in AZ at my son's place.
Goal is to get the heavy slugs starting at 2200 FPS then faster for practice on unsuspecting Yotes and wabbits.

Any one here having happy trails with this caliber and the Savage rifles? Any information will be helpful. Have been shooting a 375 HH with 300-340 grains GC in a Interarms rifle made by CZ so do have some experience with long torpedoes launched with slow powders. But this 338 Lapua is a whole new ball game .
Thank you ! Mike in Peru
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
That should work quite well on marauding coyotes and wabbits. And marauding cars, planes, and small naval vessels.
I have no experience with the cartridge but will be very interested to hear how it goes. This is definitely gonna be interesting to follow.
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
Winelover shoots the 338 but I don't know if he has any experience shooting "heavy" cast. Maybe he will chime in here.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Oh dear. That isn't a rifle, it's crew-served artillery. I would seriously consider full-power paper-patched cast bullets at the low end of jacketed velocity.
 

KHornet

Well-Known Member
Now with age dictating that I no longer appreciate heavy recoil, sort of have to agree with Ian, and Brad on this one.
 

Missionary

Well-Known Member
Greetings
My son will be doing the "full power" shooting of that beast. He has visions of hitting targets far, far away. He also weights 100 pounds more that me and is near a foot taller. Me I like the challenge of another cartridge with cast.
Ian... I will consider PP and lead. I have shoot some in BP ( 43 Spanish and 45-70) and have read about 2700 fps with pp. At first I want to see if my little body wil handle the recoil of 2200 and up some. See no reason why as that 338 Lapua weights at least 2 pounds more than the 375 HH.
Mike in Peru
 

Ian

Notorious member
The Savage .338 Lapua has what is reported to be a very effective muzzle brake and recoil is supposed to be very manageable with full-power jacketed loads. The reason I mentioned PP loads is a shortcut to happiness. The barrel should be a one turn in 9" twist IIRC which is purpose-built for long, heavy bullets but the combination of somewhat large bore with very fast twist rate will complicate matters of accuracy for standard, lubricated cast bullets at any sort of decent velocity. Wet patching exactly per Pdawg Shooter's simple and effective directions on the CB forum should save a lot of headaches. If you go this route I have a little experience with it and maybe can offer some specific tips.
 

KHornet

Well-Known Member
A great ctg for sure, as many snipers know well. Have a friend who shoots one for elk! Would be fun shooting with cast!
 

harrympope

Active Member
I know I'm replying to an old thread but I just picked up a 338 lapua Savage 110 ba law enforcement very cheap and have a Lee 220 338 mold warming up by the lead pot so I'm thinking of starting out with about 30g of 4227 .I will keep you guys posted.
 

Ian

Notorious member
Cool. If I had room to stretch its legs I would have bought one of these years ago.
 

Rootmanslim

Banned
Too bad his barrel is so short. My 338 RUM, 36". Have not tried cast but get 3000 fps w/300 Bergers.

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fiver

Well-Known Member
they kicked the pooch on the savages with that 20" barrel length.
I had one in my possession last year for about 9 months and got to play with it for the price of a die set plus some powder and projectiles.
I was pretty disappointed in the 1 to 300 yard drop.

anyway your loads will be real close to the 375's I'd just cut them back to the 75% level and work ahead.
 

waco

Springfield, Oregon
I run 285gr ELD’s at 2700fps in my 26” Savage 12 in .338 LM
It’s fast enough to stay super sonic out to 1800
 

Missionary

Well-Known Member
Howdy harry
Your rifle looks a lot like what my son Steve has out in AZ. He shoots his out at some "open desert range" where the basic rule is do not start any fires. Hitting a 8 in round plate at 600 yards got to be real easy once the dials were properly set.
I was surprised how the recoil with his 270 grain ammo was not at all bad.
 

harrympope

Active Member
I went out this afternoon close to the house at 75 yards I just ran 10 of the Lee bullets with 18 grains of Trail Boss just to see what would happen. Both of the 5 shot groups were nothing to write home about.(1.75" 5 shot groups)
I didn't think Trail Boss was the best powder but it was in the measure. But at least I was shooting.8910
 
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