Which is the "best" .338 Lapua improversion?

[EXPRESS]

I'm looking at chambering a barrel in a Lapua improved cartridge.

My first choice would have been the .338 AX but it seems that Kirby isn't letting his reamers out to anyone and does not chamber barrels. The body and shoulder specs aren't likely to make much difference amongst them, but the throat might.

Then there are quite a few variants, all of which must be fairly similar.

Is there any one that stands out for any particular reason?

 

[Pdvdh]

I'd go at least 35* on the shoulder, and no more than 40* on the shoulder. I went 37*. 40* is most popular as far as I can tell.

Determine what you want for a neck diameter, depending on whether or not you'll be outside neck turning or shooting factory ammo.

You want to maintain enough body taper to prevent difficult extraction of fired cases. This is determined by the shoulder diameter of the chamber reamer.

Other than that, I'm not aware of any features that make any single version of the 338 Lapua Improved especially outstanding compared to the others.

 

[EXPRESS]

Another consideration is availability of factory dies?

It seems like most of the tooling companies only list a fraction of their reamers on the website, and it seems like there are a lot of variants of the imp cartridges which makes it hard to match them up.

Maybe the most popular would be my best choice...

 

[Pdvdh]

I had Whidden Gunworks manufacture a set of custom reloading die for my "unique" 338 Lapua 37* Rogue. They can do this off a reamer spec sheet, or fired casings. Cost was about $300.

That's how I dealt with the concern you just raised. There's very little that money can't resolve. Truthfully, I doubt that a set of specialized reloading dies from one of the big companies manufacturing reloading dies will be a lot less expensive than a set of Whidden Gunworks custom reloading dies.

 

[wolverine99]

My whidden sizing die for my 30 338 lapua improved was about 150 cheaper than what rcbs wanted

 

[azsugarbear]

Sent you a PM.

 

[bigngreen]

Factory dies are just out and shouldn't be a consideration when you can get perfectly matched dies from Whidden. The 338 lai reamer I run is a very aggressive design, requires full fire forming and it's made to reach out with precision maximizing the Lapua case. I think Paul's 338 Rouge would be a very good option being able to utilize a crush fit on new brass and not being as aggressive has a nice place as well.

 

[SLEDGE HAMMER]

.Just go with the Excalibur, same bolt face ,Grafs have the brass RCBS make the dies no fire forming and you will get 100 fps over any Lap Imp case.