Does anyone have experience with this cartridge? How about scoping a rifle in this caliber -- are the Leupolds rugged enough? As far as I know, the Sako 75 is the only factory rifle chambered in this caliber. Are there others? I just ask out of curiosity, but this round certainly intrigues me.
.338 Lapua
- Thread starter Sodbuster
- Start date
oberkommando
New member
There is another maker, Dakota arms 338 tactical longbow rifle, if you have the money. This caliber is between the 300 and 50 bmg, good to about 1500 meters.
Gale McMillan
Member In Memoriam
I worked with the Navy when they developed the cartridge back in 83. It was a hard kicking devil that wouldn't do any thing their 300W wouldn't do so they dropped it. It was Malcomb Cooper of Accuracy international who resurrected it a few years latter. McMillan Brothers make it both in a sniper rifle and hunting rifle. What people don't stop to think is that long range shooting it's the shooter that makes the hits and not the rifle. The cartridge is totally unmanageable without a muzzle brake and snipers don't want to use a brake because it will give away their position by the dust and foliage it disturbs
david_m_curry
New member
Awww, come on! In a 20+ lb. rifle, it probably wouldn't kick much at all 
A .338 Lapua is simply a shortened .416 Rigby necked down to .338 so it is pretty much identical to a .338-378 Weatherby Magnum in performance.
For hunting, it would make a nice elk round but I would keep my rifle in the 15 lb. range to maintain the recoil at a tolerable (for me) level. Or, you could use a muzzle brake although I personally can't stand them out in the field. I owned a rifle in .338-378 Wby. Mag. and I can say that a Leupold will do just fine. Probably any decent scope will do just fine as this round recoils much less than many big-game cartridges (.505 Gibbs, .416 Rigby, .378 Wby, .416 Wby, etc.).
Cheers,
David Curry
A .338 Lapua is simply a shortened .416 Rigby necked down to .338 so it is pretty much identical to a .338-378 Weatherby Magnum in performance.
For hunting, it would make a nice elk round but I would keep my rifle in the 15 lb. range to maintain the recoil at a tolerable (for me) level. Or, you could use a muzzle brake although I personally can't stand them out in the field. I owned a rifle in .338-378 Wby. Mag. and I can say that a Leupold will do just fine. Probably any decent scope will do just fine as this round recoils much less than many big-game cartridges (.505 Gibbs, .416 Rigby, .378 Wby, .416 Wby, etc.).
Cheers,
David Curry
Gale McMillan
Member In Memoriam
The original navy cart. was the full length 416 case on brass made by Bell.
I would like to comment the above matter of .338Lapua Magnum and it's origins.
As I've mentioned before .338Lapua was originally planned to be shortened and necked down .416Rigby but it turned out that max.pressure of 470MPa was too much for the Rigby design. Thus the inside wall and head measurements were changed making the cartidge completely new design of it's own.
(Source: Lapua reloading manual)
To say it short: only and _only_ official announcement by Nammo Lapua Oy or Patria Lapua Oy would convince me of non Lapua employee involment in the developement process of the .338Lapua Magnum cartidge.
Readily available .338Lapua Magnum chambered weapons include Accuracy International, Heym, Blaser, Sako TRG-41, Sako TRG-S and the 75series Sakos.
VihtaVuori loading datasite states that Using N165 a velocity of 2870fps can be reached with 250grs Lapua "Lock Base" bullet. 225grs ones go 3065fps and 200grainers 3248fps allso with VV N165
Gattling.
As I've mentioned before .338Lapua was originally planned to be shortened and necked down .416Rigby but it turned out that max.pressure of 470MPa was too much for the Rigby design. Thus the inside wall and head measurements were changed making the cartidge completely new design of it's own.
(Source: Lapua reloading manual)
To say it short: only and _only_ official announcement by Nammo Lapua Oy or Patria Lapua Oy would convince me of non Lapua employee involment in the developement process of the .338Lapua Magnum cartidge.
Readily available .338Lapua Magnum chambered weapons include Accuracy International, Heym, Blaser, Sako TRG-41, Sako TRG-S and the 75series Sakos.
VihtaVuori loading datasite states that Using N165 a velocity of 2870fps can be reached with 250grs Lapua "Lock Base" bullet. 225grs ones go 3065fps and 200grainers 3248fps allso with VV N165
Gattling.
Gale McMillan
Member In Memoriam
Gattling as I said the original 416/338 was developed by Jerry Haskins of Research Armament for the Navy in 1983. There was 30 rifles made for the Navy and 16 combination rifles made for special forces. When Malcome decided to bring out the 338 sniper We had several conversations regarding the Navy results. I never attempted to sell the military 338 sniper rifles after the results they had with the Haskins rifles and advised him against it. His original intent was to bring out a multi Purpose round in 338 like the Raufus 50 cal A few years later he did it in conjunction with Lapua thus the name 338 Lapua. As for the 416 case by Bell. It was not the case that was the shortcoming of the cartridge even though it was pretty weak at the web but the fact that at that time there were no match bullets . It is true that they milked down the Lapua velocity to near 340 Weatherby ballistics. As for Non employ contribution Please name a factory rifle chambered for the 338 Lapua except Accuracy International at the time it was brought out. Ammunition companies generally don't bring out a cartridge and go looking for some one to make a rifle for it. I was looking in my ammo magazine and found a box of navy 416/338 from the days we were doing the work on them. If you would like I could send you one of them.They are collecter items now.
Gale McMillan: I have no doubt that in 1983 You and J.Haskins indeed developed a 416/338 wildcat round for the Navy. My comprehension of the matter is that Malcolme Cooper aproached Lapua wanting a source for round aproximaltely equal of this wild cat's dimensions and ballistics. As far as I know Lapua people were unsatisfied with the marginal between the work pressure and the pressure of case failure with the necked down .416Rigby case and thus chose to recalculate and change the inside dimensions of the case to gain desired pressure margin.
There is no shadow of doubt which round has been the inspiration in the design of the .338Lapua, but in My world view the party that does the final drawings that differ from the previous _and_ has them CIP and/or SAAMI certified is the developer. It is in the control of the party that owns the rights of the product to name the sources of the potential inspiration or not to do so. That might be the main reason why .44Remington Magnum is called that instead of .44Keith Magnum
Maybe my logic limbs here but I see it this way: Malcolme Cooper had vision of market demand for certain size and power rifle cartidge and had a more or less ready concept of filling it. Now He sort of a subcontracted the task of final solution design to an other party that being Lapua whereas group of people perform the necessary stress analyzis etc. What I fail to follow is that what is the correlation between the persons that did the work on the cartidge at the Lapua facilities and the desicion of industrial manufacture of a weapon for the round by other company than Accuracy International or A.I. itself as the work was done and the round was CIP spec'ed.
I'll try to contact a former student of the technical university that I'm presently student of. He works for Lapua product developement so He propably has chance of finding out that who were the persons involved in the .338 project and thus I could get in touch with them.
And yes a sample of those 416/338 "Navy" rounds/cases would be highly apreciated as they appear to be the ancestors of the .338Lapua allthou U would have to send them over here to Finnland
I'll mail you my address off the forum so that the local McMillan benchresters don't gather here to turn my place into bonfire
Best wishes:
Gattling
PS. I get back to the dust signature matter in the sniping, but now I have to get off line since I have aprox. 5hrs time to sleep and have rifle match coming up tomorrow.
There is no shadow of doubt which round has been the inspiration in the design of the .338Lapua, but in My world view the party that does the final drawings that differ from the previous _and_ has them CIP and/or SAAMI certified is the developer. It is in the control of the party that owns the rights of the product to name the sources of the potential inspiration or not to do so. That might be the main reason why .44Remington Magnum is called that instead of .44Keith Magnum
Maybe my logic limbs here but I see it this way: Malcolme Cooper had vision of market demand for certain size and power rifle cartidge and had a more or less ready concept of filling it. Now He sort of a subcontracted the task of final solution design to an other party that being Lapua whereas group of people perform the necessary stress analyzis etc. What I fail to follow is that what is the correlation between the persons that did the work on the cartidge at the Lapua facilities and the desicion of industrial manufacture of a weapon for the round by other company than Accuracy International or A.I. itself as the work was done and the round was CIP spec'ed.
I'll try to contact a former student of the technical university that I'm presently student of. He works for Lapua product developement so He propably has chance of finding out that who were the persons involved in the .338 project and thus I could get in touch with them.
And yes a sample of those 416/338 "Navy" rounds/cases would be highly apreciated as they appear to be the ancestors of the .338Lapua allthou U would have to send them over here to Finnland
I'll mail you my address off the forum so that the local McMillan benchresters don't gather here to turn my place into bonfire
Best wishes:
Gattling
PS. I get back to the dust signature matter in the sniping, but now I have to get off line since I have aprox. 5hrs time to sleep and have rifle match coming up tomorrow.