New to reloading 338 Lapua. Using 300 grain Berger with Lapua Brass

[giannid]

So I pick up a new 338 Lapua with a Stiller Action and Lilja barrel. To say the least, I'm pretty excited. It's a custom built gun and I'm ready to start load development. I consider myself a semi experienced reloader and have a pretty good arsenal of equipment now with a Forster Coax, hornady powder dispenser, wilson trimmer, ogive checking tools, bump gauges and a few other tools. Have put together some pretty good loads for 308, 223, 300 wsm, 6.5 creedmoor and some straight wall stuff. Been doing some research and the powder I settled on is Reloader 33, Lapua Brass and Berger 300 elite hunters. Also picked up a set of forster dies which came with a full length sizing die and bullet seating die. From all the research I've done, seems like you should only neck size until you get 3 or 4 firings, then annel, then full length size. Obviously the brass isn't cheap so i want to get as much life as I can out of it. Haven't ordered a neck size die or bushing as I wanted to push a few together and measure. So it looks like the OD of the case with the bullet seated is 3.675. So from this measurement, I figured the .365 bushing would work best as the necks will get a little thinner after I fire them a few times and they get trimmed. Does that sound about right? I'd really just like to buy one bushing as the good ones aren't cheap. I've always full length sized all my other brass in the bast and never done the neck size only so this is new to me. With full length sizing I obviously bump the brass back a few thousandths. When neck sizing fire formed brass I imagine you just neck size and don't actually push the shoulder back? Just figured I'd ask befor I start trying it. I've got 100 pieces to fire before I even start neck sizing. Also what's the deal with this neck turning I'm reading about? Is it absolutely necessary? The equipment isn't cheap to do it and wonder if it's something I should do or just buy new brass at that point? I've also never annealed my brass before. Is this something you can do yourself or is it best to send it out? The OAL on my cartridge to the lands is 3.81 and I'm planning on starting the bergers at .015 off the lands and moving them back .005 for a total of 7 different lengths to test so my shortest bullet will be .045 Off the lands. I could actually start a .010 off the lands if I want to as that's about as long as will fit in my magazine box a 3.8 OAL. Hopefully that is sufficient as I really hope to find my node within that range. That first firing will be done with the lowest or one grain above the lowest powder charge like Berger recommends. Any help with all this for the new Lapua would be appreciated.

 

[Okanogan]

I don't have a 338 LM but am in the process of trying to work up a Berger 300 EH load for my 338 Edge using Bertram brass.

In terms of trying to buy only one bushing for reloading, I went the route of buying several sizes just in case I use different brass or don't like the neck tension I am getting due to different spring back. Yes the bushings cost but I don't like sitting around waiting for orders to show up every time I want to change something as minor as a bushing choice. In the overall cost picture for shooting the 338, the bushing is minor. Your suggested starting point of .365 sounds reasonable given the post info but you might want at least one smaller too.

The Lupua brass I have for my other rifles is so uniform that I would not try to turn the necks. I bought the K&M turning tools for my 300WM and managed to screw up some Winchester brass while trying to learn how to turn correctly. This convinced me to leave my 300 WM Norma brass alone as it too is pretty high quality.

Your range of seating depths to test sounds reasonable and is similar to what I am trying. I would suggest conducting the sequence of testing so that you shoot from largest to smallest jump just in case you experience pressure increase as you get close to the lands. Getting a the right seating depth for my rifle and the 300 EH is currently giving me problems and I may be forced to try 300 SMK or other bullets.

I think most people would tell you that the Berger load data for 338 is pretty conservative. For the 338 Edge, it seems common to be loading over the Berger published max for H1000. I think you will be more than safe starting out as you suggest.

As far as neck sizing only, I think most published information would suggest full length sizing every time if you want maximum consistency.

 

[scf]

RL33 works very well in mine with the 300 Bergers

 

[brentc]

I'm getting excellent performance with 88 grains of H1000 with a 300 Berger EH or OTM at .001" off the lands. I run them at 2760 fps in a 28" barrel.

For the other stuff, I use a FL bushing die with a .365 bushing set to bump the shoulder .002"

 

[giannid]

Yesterday I loaded up my first rounds to start my testing. When I load to magazine length, the closest I can get to the lands is .01 so that's where I started. Loaded up 8 different batches of bullets with the minimum powder charge of 91 grains of RL33 moving each batch back .005 like Berger suggests. I must say it was a little frustrating as it almost seemed like there was almost .005 of wiggle room in between each batch so took a little time. Obviously there's a little inconsistency with the die, press, brass, bullets. I'll go and shoot next weekend and see which OAL shoots the best and then start playing with the powder charge.

 

[brentc]

Yesterday I loaded up my first rounds to start my testing. When I load to magazine length, the closest I can get to the lands is .01 so that's where I started. Loaded up 8 different batches of bullets with the minimum powder charge of 91 grains of RL33 moving each batch back .005 like Berger suggests. I must say it was a little frustrating as it almost seemed like there was almost .005 of wiggle room in between each batch so took a little time. Obviously there's a little inconsistency with the die, press, brass, bullets. I'll go and shoot next weekend and see which OAL shoots the best and then start playing with the powder charge.

Don't base your variance on OAL. Bullet tips vary bullet to bullet. Get yourself a comparator and measure base to ogive. I doubt the variance when measuring Base to Ogive is as bad you're seeing.

 

[el matador]

Neck sizing is not necessarily the best way to size brass. It may or may not give you the best results in your rifle, so I would try out the Forster F/L dies before you go out and buy more stuff. I like to compare a fired case to a full-length resized case to see how much difference there is. I also check the same measurements with the expander ball removed from the die so I can see how much the neck is getting worked. With a match grade chamber and good quality dies such as Forster you won't be working the brass very much. The neck of the die can be honed out if you're sizing that area excessively. I use a plain old Redding 2-die set for my 338-378 and the brass gets worked very little.

I would not mess with neck turning unless there's a good reason to. Lapua brass is good stuff and should be fairly uniform. Measure the neck diameter of a fired case and compare it to a loaded round. If the fired case is at least .002" larger you have no need to neck turn.

 

[giannid]

I'm using a bullet comparator I purchased from Sinclair that I'm using with hornady lock and load comparator and am measuring from the bullet ogive, not the tip of the bullet. I'm not a big fan of the Sinclair comparator as I get a different measurement depending on how hard I push on the caliper. Seems like it's made out of a sticky metal or something. I have another one that's shaped like a bolt that works much better but only goes up to 30 caliber so I had to buy one for the 338. I still think only moving the bullet back .005 isn't much and is tough to get perfect as it's not a very big move. When I usually do my load development with the regular Berger VLD bullets that I've used with various calibers, they suggest to move the bullet back into the case .04 at a time so .005 is very precise. Seems like most people are having the best luck with the Berger 338, 300 grain bullets very close to the lands. For this rifle that's at magazine length. I'll know for sure when I shoot if for the first time.

 

[brentc]

I'm using a bullet comparator I purchased from Sinclair that I'm using with hornady lock and load comparator and am measuring from the bullet ogive, not the tip of the bullet. I'm not a big fan of the Sinclair comparator as I get a different measurement depending on how hard I push on the caliper. Seems like it's made out of a sticky metal or something. I have another one that's shaped like a bolt that works much better but only goes up to 30 caliber so I had to buy one for the 338. I still think only moving the bullet back .005 isn't much and is tough to get perfect as it's not a very big move. When I usually do my load development with the regular Berger VLD bullets that I've used with various calibers, they suggest to move the bullet back into the case .04 at a time so .005 is very precise. Seems like most people are having the best luck with the Berger 338, 300 grain bullets very close to the lands. For this rifle that's at magazine length. I'll know for sure when I shoot if for the first time.

You can use a 30 cal comparator since you're measuring to the same reference on each bullet. I measure all of mine with a 30 cal bushing on my Hornady comparator due to the snout being so long on the 300 grainers. The 300 grainers bottom out in the comparator if I use the 338 designated bushing.