.338 Lupua

[Wardog52]

Good morning,
I have a custom.338 Lapua. 30 inch Keriger barrel, Holland muzzle brake, Remington long action blueprinted. It has a Tim. Trigger and finished off with a Valdada scope.
Issue: I can't get the thing to group with a darn. I'm currently using R33. The Nosler is 300 grain Accubonds. The Berger is 300 grain elite hunters. Any expertise with this caliber would be awesome. Lapua brass and Federal match mag primers.

 

[Wardog52]

Good morning,
I have a custom.338 Lapua. 30 inch Keriger barrel, Holland muzzle brake, Remington long action blueprinted. It has a Tim. Trigger and finished off with a Valdada scope.
Issue: I can't get the thing to group with a darn. I'm currently using R33. The Nosler is 300 grain Accubonds. The Berger is 300 grain elite hunters. Any expertise with this caliber would be awesome. Lapua brass and Federal match mag primers.
View attachment 398350View attachment 398351View attachment 398352View attachment 398353

I should note It has a MPA chassis stock.

 

[memtb]

I can't offer any help. But, am curious as to what ranges your groups were shot?

There are quite a few Lapua shooters here……hopefully someone can offer some "spiritual" advice! memtb

 

[Wardog52]

100 yards

 

[memtb]

100 yards

Yep…..needs a little work! Your at the right place for assistance! Good Luck! memtb

 

[madman]

Try shooting groups at 200 yards and see what happens. Mine shoots the Berger 300gr OTM much better at 200 and out than at 100. Seems that it needs a bit more distance to stabilize. You might try H1000 as well.

--Mark

 

[Wardog52]

Try shooting groups at 200 yards and see what happens. Mine shoots the Berger 300gr OTM much better at 200 and out than at 100. Seems that it needs a bit more distance to stabilize. You might try H1000 as well.

--Mark

I have heard that. I actually started at 200, but groups were so bad, I bought a OAL gauge and started over. I have also heard H1000 might be a better choice. I just can't get my hands on it. (Getting supplies is difficult) Thank you.

 

[simo hayha]

N570 powder

 

[Shane Lindsey]

What were the powder charges you tried? Close to or over max?

I only know N570 with mine.

I recently picked one up from @Rum Man who was scared he would have to change his name to Lapua Man

Being in the component crisis we are, I loaded up one round per one grain increment looking for pressure. Picked .030" off the lands as a start point. I actually load two at each increment. One to shoot and mark the charge and then another with the Magneeto speed on another target to see where they are with velocity.

Berger 300gr OTM
N570-86gr-92gr and settled at 90.8gr.
Peterson cases
Fed 215 mag primers

I do this to see if there is potential and if the impacts are relatively close together as I go up in charge weight.

This is my first 338 Lapua and it took a few shots to just go with the "I am getting in a fight, suck it up and take it like a man" each time I pressed the trigger. Significantly more than my 300 ultra with 245 Bergers.

Some of my groups looked similar to yours, until I mastered this ^^^.

No experience with the Accubonds, but from other rifles, you may wan to look at a good bit .050" jump with them???

 

[Wardog52]

What were the powder charges you tried? Close to or over max?

I only know N570 with mine.

I recently picked one up from @Rum Man who was scared he would have to change his name to Lapua Man

Being in the component crisis we are, I loaded up one round per one grain increment looking for pressure. Picked .030" off the lands as a start point. I actually load two at each increment. One to shoot and mark the charge and then another with the Magneeto speed on another target to see where they are with velocity.

Berger 300gr OTM
N570-86gr-92gr and settled at 90.8gr.
Peterson cases
Fed 215 mag primers

I do this to see if there is potential and if the impacts are relatively close together as I go up in charge weight.

This is my first 338 Lapua and it took a few shots to just go with the "I am getting in a fight, suck it up and take it like a man" each time I pressed the trigger. Significantly more than my 300 ultra with 245 Bergers.

Some of my groups looked similar to yours, until I mastered this ^^^.

No experience with the Accubonds, but from other rifles, you may wan to look at a good bit .050" jump with them???

Great questions. The books are quite different from each other. I ended up going to the list max I believe in the Nosler book, 98.0 grains and working up in 1/10. I'm at 99.1 g. Of R33. No worrisome pressure signs. I started shooting 5 round groups 0.150 off the lands. I will have to review my notes to see how far off the lands the bullets are seated with the decent groups.
Yes the recoil is for real! I switched over to a lead sled and put two bags of sand on it. That really helps! I also have a 300 RUM I shoot 210 VLD's with. It is nothing compared to the .338. I would imagine the MPA chassis isn't helping. I can still add another 5lbs of weight and a recoil pad.
From this experience, it would appear the books are really low on their powder charges for R33.

 

[Wardog52]

Great questions. The books are quite different from each other. I ended up going to the list max I believe in the Nosler book, 98.0 grains and working up in 1/10. I'm at 99.1 g. Of R33. No worrisome pressure signs. I started shooting 5 round groups 0.150 off the lands. I will have to review my notes to see how far off the lands the bullets are seated with the decent groups.
Yes the recoil is for real! I switched over to a lead sled and put two bags of sand on it. That really helps! I also have a 300 RUM I shoot 210 VLD's with. It is nothing compared to the .338. I would imagine the MPA chassis isn't helping. I can still add another 5lbs of weight and a recoil pad.
From this experience, it would appear the books are really low on their powder charges for R33.

I was having trouble with the labradar, but I can tell you the Nosler are in the 2900's and Berger's mid 2800's.

 

[Shane Lindsey]

FWIW,
Nothing with RL33 on here, but I found I was not able to get much over their max without pressure signs.

My velocity is about right with this. Usually their data has been conservative for me, but not this time.

 

[Wardog52]

Here is what Berger sent me.

 

[Wardog52]