Savage 338 Lapua?

[steve4102]

A buddy of mine is looking for a long range Elk rifle. He would like a 338 Lapua, but doesn't have a ton of money. He asked me about the Savage 338 Lapua. I have no experience with this cartridge or rifle, so I came to the guys that do.
What do you think about the Savage as far as accuracy and long range hunting? What kind of accuracy can be expected at 500 to 1000 yards?

Thanks

 

[Greyfox]

I am awaiting delivery of the HS. Have a few buddies that have them, and kept up on the posts on this site pretty well stating performance. All three models that are available from Savage have generally been able to produce .5MOA or better at long range with 300 gr. Bergers or SMK's, which was my criteria. Appears to be a good value for the money.

 

[barnesuser28]

My dad has the Hs precision model and we are getting groups easily under .5 Moa at 100 yards with the Barnes 280 grain LRX, Retumbo, Fed 215 magnum match primers, and Lapua brass. Our best group to date is .277 ctc. We are going to stretch her legs out sometime next week if the weather cooperates. PS- Tell him not to waist his time with factory hornady ammo because the brass is too soft.

 

[albertakid]

That is some impressive shooting based on the fact that the diameter of the bullet is .338 are you shooting 5 round groups?? what kind of rest are you shooting from?

I had a HS savage 338 lapua and had pressure problems with the chamber being under cut and cases sticking, by the time I got the pressures down the velocity was well below average. I choose to send it off and have it rebarrelled it now shoots sub .5 moa routinly with a brux 30" stainless match grade tube.

If I had it to do again I would have just saved and had a custom made to begin with. JMHO

Mine was accurate, but the pressure issues scared the hell out of me and I told savage so like I said in order to get safe pressures I had to reduce my load to the point where the velocity was terribly low.

The 338 lapua aint a poor mans gun brass and bullets will break a guy

 

[barnesuser28]

We have shot that particular load twice and the first time shooting that load was from a lead sled and we only had 3 rounds of it so that was a three shot group that measured .277 ctc then the second time out was off a bipod and a rear bag And that group measured .404 ctc. I had 5 rounds loaded up but i wanted to see where the first shot from a cold clean bore went and how long it took to settle down and it threw the first two shots out then printed three side by side by side. I saw pressure signs at 85 grains of retumbo and found that 84.4 grains of retumbo was very accurate so thats the load i am sticking with and it is giving me 2707 fps.

 

[albertakid]

That is some pretty good shooting I had pressure issues with 83 grains of h1000 and velocity was 2600 or there abouts with the factory barrell

With this new stick I Have been seeing about 3/8 to half moa off a bipod and 2750 or so for velocity with 89.6 grains of h1000 I never really shoot off anyhting other than a bipod as that is what I hunt with so i try to tune my loads for field conditions, but I am fairly confident that this rifle in it's current state will **** sure out shoot me

 

[bigry26]

I love my hs 110 it is very accurate out to 1000 and beyond. My best group with it is 3.670 at 1000. I am using 90.5 grains of retumbo pushing 300 bergers at 2750. It is not cheap to get started if you reload or buy factory ammo. Factory ammo you are looking at over $100 a box for good ammo and if reloading be ready to drop $280 for lapua brass and $40 a box of 50 300 grain bergers. Not to discourage your buddy but this rifle is not for a poor guy to shoot. There are a lot of threads on here with a lot of opinions about this round. Ryan

 

[barnesuser28]

When you consider that the Lapua brass lasts 15+ firings depending on how well you treat it, it isnt any cheaper than an edge because the brass only lasts roughly 5 full power loads. Its $50 for a bag of 50 300 rum brass and lets say $300 for 100 pieces of 338 Lapua brass but it lasts three times as long and you get the little prep work and great quality of Lapua brass. But i agree that .338 boolits aint cheap.

 

[steve4102]

Thanks guys!