My shiny new light .338 Norma Magnum build thread!!

The argument is that the larger case head imparts more force on the bolt locking lugs than a similarly pressured case with a smaller head. This is based upon the real results of hydraulic rams which exert more force with greater diameter.

It is an argument most often pushed by those who make larger actions. When I was scouting around for my 338 Norma, I even had one bloke tell me that Remington no longer made the 338 Lapua because too many had failed. Funny thing is, they still make the rifle AND I've heard nothing about a widespread problem of Rem 700 338 Lapua failures. No product recall, no court cases.

Kept within design pressures the cartridge and action combination is safe.

The argument does not take into account that any pressure in the case is exerted as force equally on the pressure vessel locking mechanism (ie. bolt locking lugs) irrespective of the case head dia.
 
ne thing I need to do though, is get a heavier bottom hinge release spring, it pops open every time ya shoot it!! Thankfully my local hardware store has a whole section dedicated to little gun screws, filler screws, and springs, so I should be able to fix that ha ha



Ill have to try the same thing- my Hawkins BDL opens up every 3-4 shots on my 338 RUM!
 
Ill have to try the same thing- my Hawkins BDL opens up every 3-4 shots on my 338 RUM!
Well I got another spring and added about .150" to it, so I will see if that does it. If not, I'll add another .15". I can feel it's significantly heavier, hopefully that does it.
 
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you have any thoughts on bullets in the 250 and up range,270?
I personally have only shot the 300's so far. I have some 285 Hammers to try. I have ran ballistics on everything from 250 bergers up, and 300's pretty much always come ouf on top for energy and best wind drift, even if only by a small margin, though have a lot more drop. The 265 ablr intrigues me, but I'm also waiting for the 300 ablr to come out, interested to see their bc
 
2 guys at Defiance shoot the 300 NAB out of theres and like them.The one guy use to guide up spotted bear
 
2 guys at Defiance shoot the 300 NAB out of theres and like them.The one guy use to guide up spotted bear
Are they available anywhere for us lowly folks to purchase yet? I called nosler and asked about them this summer, they said they would be available this last fall.....ya nope.
 
Well I ran a seating depth test with the EH's, seems to be two ranges it's gonna like....

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So I'm going to load the same load ar .020", .025", .035", and .040" off and see what we end up with. I would prefer to keep them out longer for performance sake, I plan on running VV-N570 and don't want to possibly compress the load more than I have to.

I thought I was going to have another nice group with the .110" load, until the third shot....I'm fairly certain I didn't pull it, the shot felt good. Just interesting that the first two go right where the .090" load went, then one out in no-mans land....
 
Side note, the original spring did not totally fix the bottom metal. Added some more length, about as much as could possibly fit, and it is good now. Shot 20 rounds and it didn't pop out once.
 
Played around with H-1000 and the 285 Hammer.

Didn't really have any solid data to go off of, but I know many people top out with the 300's around 88-89 grains, so I figured that this being a 285, and that generally Hammer bullets use the same or a little more powder than lead core bullets of the same weight to reach pressure, I would work from 87 to 89 in .5 grain increments, performance was as follows in these photos:

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These were seated .020" off the lands, which gave an OAL of 3.833", these suckers are long ha ha. Seems like the bese accuracy seems to be high 2700's, but it's obvious there is a velocity node around 2730-2740, usually the accuracy falls in there, but not this time.

Overall pretty happy, pressure wise, what are y'alls thoughts of 2780 with a 285 in a 24" with H1000?
 
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