Are larger caliber rifles naturally less accurate?

[just country]

Shoot shoot shoot shoot. Get used to the recoil of a large caliber. If u r recoil sensitive u will not get good accuracy. U can have all the right components, in reloading. The right scope, mounts. Good trigger. Recoil will ruin a persons accuracy.
Good example. I shoot a Benelli 3" semi auto slug gun. Nikon scope, warne steel mounts. This gun has a 24" barrel. When reading about ammunition for the weapon. I read about different Slugs. The slug weight, powder charge and effective range of different of slugs. I shot slugs of weights from 7/8 oz. to 13/8 oz. I shot the bear slugs which have a recoil of a 458 magnum and the 7/8 deer slugs which had the recoil of a 30-06. When shooting the different slug weights the recoil went from 1 extreme to another. All slugs shot to 4" from point of aim. I had to concentrate on the stock pressure to shoulder, sight picture, and trigger control. I got used to the recoil. I shot some groups at 75yrds from 1"-2". The I was wearing a T-shirt. Ear muffs. shoot shoot shoot. Mine of mattergun) Thank U Hint I shoot a 340 Weatherby. 210 Barnes TTSX bullets and 7828 powder and Federal 215 Primers. Love this rifle. shoot shoot shoot

 

[pondskipper]

Well, I decided to stop by my local gun shop yesterday just to see what they had in loaded factory ammo just to be able to get a baseline or something to base what the rifle has been doing with my hand loads, I got a 10rnd box of 300 grain lapua brand 338 lapua ammo and shot it this morning, the first 4 were all over the place but then something strange happened, the last 6 all landed about 1/2" right of the bullseye and about a quarter inch low but what was surprising is that the last 6 had a spread of exactly .600"ctc at 200 yards. It hadn't ever done that before, and I'm thinking about going back tomorrow afternoon to get another box to see if it will put those 10 in the same spot.

 

[longrangehunterII]

Were those first four shots through a clean barrel or had the barrel already had fouling down it?

 

[snowpro440]

Here is my .338 Lapua and I will be tweaking it just a little more so I would say that big bores can be as accurate as small bores if you spend the time tunning it. You may be going right past the node , work up slowly and only make one change at a time . Takes time and a lot of tinkering but its there.

 

[MudRunner2005]

So here's my question, I have a 5r milspec 223, a custom built 6xc built on a remington short action with a 28" 1:8 twist broughton barrel in an xlr chassis, and a custom built 338 lapua with a 28" broughton 1:9.3 twist rate barrel mounted to a badger m2013 action in a krg chassis. To date the first two shoot lights out at 100 and 200 yards simply printing groups load testing have done surprisingly well, the 223 even shoots factory hornady 75gr match ammo extremely well and I'm in the process of trying to duplicate the results with that ammo with reloads. Both the 223 and 6xc shoot less than 1/4 moa at 100 yards and are both usually still less than 1/2" at 200 but for the life of me I can't get my 338 to do anything better than I could if I were throwing bricks. I have checked the torque on everything, scope mounts, rings, action to chassis, and I can't get it to shoot anything better than 2" at 200 yards. I've tried 3 different bullets. 300gr Berger, 300gr smk and 285gr amax, and only h1000 for powder in lapua cases with cci mag primers, I have tried charge weights ranging from 87-92 grains and have gone up one in one grain increments, have only loaded them to my maximum mag length so I can still use the magazine, case prep involved simply cleaning up the case necks, chamfering, and one would think that by now I should have seen much better results. The gun was smithed by Dixie precision and they have a great reputation for producing rifles that are more than capable so therefore I'm lost. Could anyone shine some light on this for me please? I just don't understand why i can't get it to do any better when I know it should unless I'm expecting too much accuracy wise from a caliber of its size.

My smith built 3 identical .338 Lapuas (2 for customers & 1 for himself) with custom BAT actions, Lilja barrels, custom stocks, etc... and he threw everything but the kitchen sink at them, and they barely shot sub-MOA at 100 yards. He said he would never own another one.

Now, do I think big calibers are less accurate? No. The larger the bullet, the bigger the group will look, but once you measure outside to outside, then subtract for caliber, you should get your real number for the size of the group. So, the group may LOOK larger, but in reality it all works itself out.

I personally don't care for .338 calibers because I had a .338 WinMag that would pattern like a shotgun with bird shot at 100 yards. So, I have no desire, or need, to own anything that big down here.

 

[pondskipper]

Scope shouldn't be an issue, it's a vortex razor hd 5-20x50 with mill turrets and ebr2-b reticle. I had it mounted on a 5r milspec 300 win mag I got rid of to build this thing for tremendous knockdown on 300 pound plus wild hogs at 1000-1200 yards and hopefully get out to the mile mark one day. The 300 win mag believe it or not was way more of a beast in the recoil department than this thing is. The 338 is over 20lb with scope and fully loaded mag plus it has a badger fte brake on it, the 300 didn't have anything and I was shooting 208 gr amax's through it at 2800fps with the same lot of h1000 I've been using in the 338 and it was printing 1/2" groups at 100 yds. Kinda wish I had kept it now.. (idiot..) all I did to it was bed it and put a jewel trigger in it set at 8 ounces and only ever shot it from a atlas bipod as well.

The bore had only had a dry patch run through it to make sure it was clear of anything that could have gotten into the bore. Anyone know what lapuas recipe is for their 300gr factory stuff? May be the go to for this gun. (hopefully)

 

[J E Custom]

So here's my question, I have a 5r milspec 223, a custom built 6xc built on a remington short action with a 28" 1:8 twist broughton barrel in an xlr chassis, and a custom built 338 lapua with a 28" broughton 1:9.3 twist rate barrel mounted to a badger m2013 action in a krg chassis. To date the first two shoot lights out at 100 and 200 yards simply printing groups load testing have done surprisingly well, the 223 even shoots factory hornady 75gr match ammo extremely well and I'm in the process of trying to duplicate the results with that ammo with reloads. Both the 223 and 6xc shoot less than 1/4 moa at 100 yards and are both usually still less than 1/2" at 200 but for the life of me I can't get my 338 to do anything better than I could if I were throwing bricks. I have checked the torque on everything, scope mounts, rings, action to chassis, and I can't get it to shoot anything better than 2" at 200 yards. I've tried 3 different bullets. 300gr Berger, 300gr smk and 285gr amax, and only h1000 for powder in lapua cases with cci mag primers, I have tried charge weights ranging from 87-92 grains and have gone up one in one grain increments, have only loaded them to my maximum mag length so I can still use the magazine, case prep involved simply cleaning up the case necks, chamfering, and one would think that by now I should have seen much better results. The gun was smithed by Dixie precision and they have a great reputation for producing rifles that are more than capable so therefore I'm lost. Could anyone shine some light on this for me please? I just don't understand why i can't get it to do any better when I know it should unless I'm expecting too much accuracy wise from a caliber of its size.

First let me say that all rifles are different. you can build two identical rifles in every way and one will out shoot the other.

The difference between a .223 and a .338 is tremendous and require totally different approaches
when building them.

The shooters ability to handle the recoil of larger cartridges comes in to play but can be dealt with
if planed into the build.

Larger bullets are more forgiving at long ranges than small, light bullets because they are less effected by external forces.

So with the right set up and a great barrel the big bores can be more accurate than the smaller
calibers at longer distances. At 100 to 200 yards there should be little difference.

The best group I have ever shot was with a 416 buff and a 400 grain bullet. (.034 5 shots @ 100 yards and a SD of .03. So I don't believe that Big bores are less accurate than small bores. they are just harder on the shooter.

J E CUSTOM

 

[pondskipper]

Finally got a chance to shoot it again today, I got another box of lapua 300 grain factory loads to see if it was a fluke last time out, it shot a 10 shot group over the course of about 20 minutes that measured .75" at 200 yards so it definitely likes the stuff, my average velocity with it is 2865fps with an sd of 12.

 

[pondskipper]

2765fps sorry.

 

[longrangehunterII]

You could pull a bullet, weight the powder charge and attempt to determine what type of powder it is?

 

[pondskipper]

Not sure how I could determine what the powder was exactly, i guess I could try different powders until I got the same result.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

I recommend load development @ 300y with the big gun. It may very well hold the same size group you are getting at 100y. The one other thing that may be worth checking is the crown and brake install. Although it sounds like the rifle may have settled in now. Definitely think you should stop paying too much attention to under 300y results.

Steve

 

[longrangehunterII]

Not sure how I could determine what the powder was exactly, i guess I could try different powders until I got the same result.

You'll at least go through a process of elimination, and get very close to the type of powder? You'll know if it's a stick, ball or spherical powder right of the bat! Green tone then it's a Hodgdon Extreme powder, i.e.: H1000; Large heavy dark black stick-RL-33.

Point being you will know what not to try randomly and use something that matches the look of what Lapua is using, it may be as simple as using a Vihta Vuori, but you will at least know the charge weight and what it looks like vs. just trying a multitude of powders.

 

[just country]

R u going to Africa? hunting extremely dangerous game? Why such a heavy bullet? If u r shooting extremely long range there is a need. I shoot a 340 W with 210gr. barnes, 7828, 215Fed. primers Extremely accurate bullet and load. When the question comes to what powder u r using. Print a power burn rate chart off the internet. The chart wil give u a idea of the ID of the powder,reference to rifles calibers the powders r used. Do ur research, read up on the powders weather effect, cold, hot, humidity, altitude. All these variabiles can effect the load and bullets flight path. As for as the powder the one gentleman said to pull a bullet. Then analyze the powders shape thru the burn chart ID. Reloading is the only way to go when a person shoots for practice or for competition. Shoot shoot shoot. Practice shooting comes natural. ID, range, breathe, squeeze, boom.