This is what mine did today first time out worked up from 87gr to 92gr of H1000.They are 3.91 jumped .025 with 300gr berger otm out a 32" barrel.Es in teens to twenties going with 92gr the velocities where 2898,2917,2904 and 3/4" group.At 2650 feet elevation.The other edge we were shooting topped out at 90.5 gr.I'm might try 92.5 and 93gr of h1000 after hunting season and RL 33.You defiantly got something different.Soon as I get some more loads ready going to 1000,1250,1500 and 1760 or so.
338 EDGE @3146 with 300 Berger
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HuntFarther
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This is what I have seen possible out of a edge with the 300 berger and H1000 with a normal throat. Short or long case length. I would love to know what makes this one different.
I agree that they are all over the place, I did zero load development because I have plans to run rl33 or n570, but had neither of those on hand. Should have them late this week. I built a bdl magazine with follower that will run 4.050" COAL. I looked at the wyatts but they would not put the bullet near the lands in case this one wanted to jam the bullets. This brass is not sorted but just some left over from last edge load development. JFI, the primer pockets are still GTG, that puts them at 6 reloads shot and I will load them today for the 7th. AS I said earlier, this one is way faster than my other edge's and this one is the first one from Danny.
If they have the shoot in Townsend this weekend, I will bring it with me and you can shoot it over your chrono and look at the primers.
Here is the info from this morning. It is 92.7 grains of H1000 and unlike the last batch, I hand weighed these. They others were thrown and not weighed. Primer pockets are good so far, this is the 9th reload on this brass in this gun. This brass was weight sorted since I thought that the ES was the result of just using any brass and not brass that was of similiar weight.
highridge1
Well-Known Member
I hope you have quite abit of that batch of Powder because it is producing miracle numbers I would conserve it carefully !! lol Although your primers do not look very good at all what is that ripple/ring effect I am seeing outside of the primer strike?
All the H1000 I have is multiple lots, results are not in the powder. It has something to do with the chamber and rifling in that area. My RL33 and 570 have not shown up yet, so those will be next week. There is a small ring around the firing pin and the primer is flowing into that. I will turn it out next week some time since that is simple operation to face in the lathe, have no real hurry on getting it out of there since it only affects the primer. I am in the process of changing over to Nosler brass and be done with this remington junk. Brass from same lots has 8 grains weight difference. If anybody is in the Helena/Townsend area and wants to shoot it over your chrono, let me know and I will bring it out. You can shoot it for a group at the same time, no hot air here.
Tumbleweed
Well-Known Member
Nosler is consistent/uniform brass but beware, it is much softer in my experience. It is also thicker so you will have to back off on your powder charge vs. remington.
Thanks TW. I only have 50 of the Nosler and they are in fact heavier and will start load development once my 2000 pieces get here. Hopefully those are all consistent and I will have most of them usable. Don't want to do load development on the ones I have in case they are different from the ones coming in. Thx
Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
Just read through this entire post and had to comment on a few things. Not sure how many 338 Edge rifles I have built for customers over the past 10 years but its probably close to 100 rifles. Of those I have used Lilja, Krieger, Broughton, Rock, Hart, Bartlein, Brux and pretty much every other top end barrel you could think of.
Have chambered the 338 Edge with barrel lengths ranging from 3.700" up to 4.100" OAL with the SMK and Berger 300 gr. and in barrel lengths from 26" up to 34" in length.
Pretty much every combination there is out there including conventional throats as well as my hybrid throat which is EXTEMELY similar to the DE +P throat design and I have learned a lot of things about the 338 Edge over the years. Here are some of those things:
1. in a 30" barrel length, with a 300 gr SMK, a 338 Edge with conventional throat design SHOULD average 2850 to 2900 fps and the length of the throat really did not have a great deal of effect on the final performance. The specific barrel had more effect on final velocity numbers then the throat design.
2. The 338 Edge will only gain around 15 fps per inch when barrel length increases over 28" in length. Past 30" its often in the 10-12 fps range. Very efficient chambering and does not need a very long barrel nor does it really benefit from a very long barrel.
3. The 338 Edge with my Hybrid throat will add around 100 fps to the average velocity for any given barrel length with the 300 gr bullet weights, that means 2950-3000 fps. And that's with the best powders out there for this chamber and throat design. Those being RL33 which produces performance nearly identical to N570. H-1000 is certainly not a preferred powder for top velocity as it pressures out much to quickly. I prefer Retumbo to H-1000. Higher load densities, slightly higher velocity and a bit more comfortable chamber pressures.
4. If your not getting AT LEAST 4-5 firings per case before primer pockets are loosening up, your pressures are to high.
I may have missed it in your earlier posts but I did not see what your receiver was. From the pictures it looks like whatever it is, your using a receiver that has a CRF design with the extractor over the left bolt lug. THis design results in the left bolt lug being relatively small compared to the right lug. This IS NOT the type of receiver I would recommend pushing the envelope as far as pressures go as that small lug is a weak link.
I also find it interesting that you start reporting about velocity in the 3150 fps range and by the end your using 92.7 gr for 3020 fps velocity, still very fast velocity but on the upper end of realistic for the 338 Edge.
There is really only one way to get velocity and that is a simple function of pressure and time. The amount of pressure behind a bullet and the amount of time the bullet is in the bore so the pressure can accelerate that bullet. Only two ways to increase velocity and that is either to increase chamber pressure or increase the bore time by using a longer barrel.
Simply put, I am not trying to offend you in any way. Had you opened your thread with the velocities you are currently using, that being 3020 fps, they would have been fast but not totally unrealistic. 3140-3150 fps, that's WAY over where you should be, WAY OVER!!! Especailly for that receiver design and especially using H1000.
Just some friendly advice, I would still tone things back to 2950-3000 fps and be happy with that. You will get plenty of velocity and your brass and rifle will be much happier. You will also be much happier if you happen to run into a case with a slightly weakened case head.....
Anyway take it for what you will. For those that want a 338 Edge, even a 32" barreled rifle, DO NOT expect to get 3100 fps, you will not be happy and in most cases, you will be running very unsafe pressures.
Have chambered the 338 Edge with barrel lengths ranging from 3.700" up to 4.100" OAL with the SMK and Berger 300 gr. and in barrel lengths from 26" up to 34" in length.
Pretty much every combination there is out there including conventional throats as well as my hybrid throat which is EXTEMELY similar to the DE +P throat design and I have learned a lot of things about the 338 Edge over the years. Here are some of those things:
1. in a 30" barrel length, with a 300 gr SMK, a 338 Edge with conventional throat design SHOULD average 2850 to 2900 fps and the length of the throat really did not have a great deal of effect on the final performance. The specific barrel had more effect on final velocity numbers then the throat design.
2. The 338 Edge will only gain around 15 fps per inch when barrel length increases over 28" in length. Past 30" its often in the 10-12 fps range. Very efficient chambering and does not need a very long barrel nor does it really benefit from a very long barrel.
3. The 338 Edge with my Hybrid throat will add around 100 fps to the average velocity for any given barrel length with the 300 gr bullet weights, that means 2950-3000 fps. And that's with the best powders out there for this chamber and throat design. Those being RL33 which produces performance nearly identical to N570. H-1000 is certainly not a preferred powder for top velocity as it pressures out much to quickly. I prefer Retumbo to H-1000. Higher load densities, slightly higher velocity and a bit more comfortable chamber pressures.
4. If your not getting AT LEAST 4-5 firings per case before primer pockets are loosening up, your pressures are to high.
I may have missed it in your earlier posts but I did not see what your receiver was. From the pictures it looks like whatever it is, your using a receiver that has a CRF design with the extractor over the left bolt lug. THis design results in the left bolt lug being relatively small compared to the right lug. This IS NOT the type of receiver I would recommend pushing the envelope as far as pressures go as that small lug is a weak link.
I also find it interesting that you start reporting about velocity in the 3150 fps range and by the end your using 92.7 gr for 3020 fps velocity, still very fast velocity but on the upper end of realistic for the 338 Edge.
There is really only one way to get velocity and that is a simple function of pressure and time. The amount of pressure behind a bullet and the amount of time the bullet is in the bore so the pressure can accelerate that bullet. Only two ways to increase velocity and that is either to increase chamber pressure or increase the bore time by using a longer barrel.
Simply put, I am not trying to offend you in any way. Had you opened your thread with the velocities you are currently using, that being 3020 fps, they would have been fast but not totally unrealistic. 3140-3150 fps, that's WAY over where you should be, WAY OVER!!! Especailly for that receiver design and especially using H1000.
Just some friendly advice, I would still tone things back to 2950-3000 fps and be happy with that. You will get plenty of velocity and your brass and rifle will be much happier. You will also be much happier if you happen to run into a case with a slightly weakened case head.....
Anyway take it for what you will. For those that want a 338 Edge, even a 32" barreled rifle, DO NOT expect to get 3100 fps, you will not be happy and in most cases, you will be running very unsafe pressures.
Fiftydriver
Official LRH Sponsor
Looking at the brass its curious to me that there are only one or two visible ejector rings on the case head but you say you have loaded it 10 times each. Rem brass as well as Nosler brass is quite soft and even with factory RUM ammo such as 300 RUM, you will see a noticeable ejector ring on the case head. At your pressure levels, you should easily see the ejector ring. This is really not a problem but I would think you would see many more rings on the case head then what your brass is showing.
Looks like a bit to much shoulder bump on your case sizing. That is ususally the result of the case wall stretching and thinning resulting in separation.
Anyway, at 3020 fps, I would say your right at the very top end of where you should be with a 32" barrel length and long throat length. At least much more realistic then 3150 fps!!! Your entire system should be much happier at this velocity level.
Watch that shoulder bump while FL sizing.
Looks like a bit to much shoulder bump on your case sizing. That is ususally the result of the case wall stretching and thinning resulting in separation.
Anyway, at 3020 fps, I would say your right at the very top end of where you should be with a 32" barrel length and long throat length. At least much more realistic then 3150 fps!!! Your entire system should be much happier at this velocity level.
Watch that shoulder bump while FL sizing.
I should have clarified better, this is left over brass from my other edge's. This gun does not have a spring loaded plunger style ejector. Not sure how many loads the brass actually have above the 10 in this gun. I just went and shot a group at 97 grains, 3141 avg and shot it. This is the group at 100 yards and I have not played with seating depth or done any load development at all since I intend to rl33 or vv570. I have bumped the shoulders at the 6th reload and I did not anneal, which I normally would have done around the 5th reload but was not concerned because it is not my intended brass in the long run. I can not figure out why this one is so fast, if I was only getting 3-4 reloads, I would back it down but getting 10 is not even a worry on pressure, unless I am missing something. Primer pockets are gtg and can not wait to get on with rl33 or 570!!!!
The bullet shown is a bore rider and only there for reference, all the above info is with the berger 300 OTM .338 bullet. If this gun keeps running like this, my snipetac is going away!
The bullet shown is a bore rider and only there for reference, all the above info is with the berger 300 OTM .338 bullet. If this gun keeps running like this, my snipetac is going away!
