Custom .338 Lapua Build - Remington 700 LA Mag

Riflemen, correct me if I'm wrong but I could get an action for $525, barrel for $300, the rest of the small parts for the action for $150, and a hogue over molded stock for $100. That brings the cost to $1075, which is on the high side as I rounded up the prices to the next $25-$50 or so. I'm sure I missed something though Becuase between work and Christmas by mind is jam-packed.

Another question... What are the main distinct problems in a .338 Lapua Remington 700 action with aftermarket barrel and stock? Riflemen, I know you have had nothing but good luck so I'd like to hear from someone who has a different opinion, although your opinion is certainly music to my ears as it makes me more confident in my possible decision.

One other question... What are the distint advantages of a .338 Lapua over a .300 Win Mag? I know ammo differs in cost but ammo cost isn't just a big deal for me, $3 a round isn't too high for a big girl like a .338. If I were to be doing shots out to about 800 yards or so and some hunting for animals ranging from white tailed deer to blackbear (at fair distances), I would want the .338 Lapua right?

Thanks,

John
Click to expand...


Sounds like you are just going to be ******* away your money to me. .338LM is expensive... and great at long range, if you want to shoot consistant groups at 800-1000 yards you better have a rifle that was built to do it with percise consistancy or you will just be throwing your money into the wind.

Hogue overmold stock wont cut it, and did you factor in having a gun smith take that action and barrel you purchased and installing them, and blueprinting them, then bedding them in a quality stock?

If you want to shoot good groups at 1000yards it will be expensive, no matter what caliber, and even more expensive using .338LM. If you want to shoot stuff under 1000 yards... there are PLENTY of other more affordable calibers to do it.
 
Hkfan,

Thank you for the insight. I have thought about the gunsmith costs. How much does a good bedding normally run you? And I have some more questions regarding caliber choice. You are right, you need a good gun to get good groups out that far, but if I wanted to hunt elk or deer at 1000 yards would a .300 win mag cut it? What other caliber choices do I have? It has to be able to reach out t to 1000 yards, and Hopefully,as my marksmenship improves, I'll shooting much further, out to 1500 yards, which is why I like a .338 Lapua becuase it gives me room to grow.

Let me know what you think,


John
 
I don't hunt at those distances (furtherst was crows and woodchucks 400-700 yards.) nor do I find it rather desirable to do so on a large game animal. I am still on the long range learning curve, but I have walked shots onto woodchucks at those distances if I missed, however on an Elk, you might wound it.

I am sure others can talk about calibers for hunting at distance, however I know people use 7mm Rem Mag .300 Win Mag and similar calibers for those distances on Elk... but generally in $$$ custom rifles, with spotters, guides, laser range finders to compensate quickly ect. Shooting known distances on static ranges, as Bart has suggested in the past is do-able with cheaper scopes, but in the field, where you can be dialing for random distances, you better have a quality scope with accurate turrets that is up for that task, or as Bart does, tests his scopes in a collimeter and knows what his turrets are doing.

That being said, if that is your desired outcome and goal, you are going to do big money into a rifle, and big money into a scope to be going for cold bore lethal (read humane) kill shots on large game animals.

As Bart said.. the top 5% of Bench Rest rifles in the world can't hold a group of 4'' at 1000 yards.

Bedding is one thing, most money will go into blue printing the action, and installing the barrel. A good quality stock (Manners, McMillian, HS Percision, some of the newer chassis systems) will run you $500+. To bed it, and do all the action work, really depends on the gun smith, but labor is generally $80+ an hour depending on the smith.
 
Last edited:
Ok, I understand, but if I want any gun more powerful than a .308 wouldn't it be the same cost except for ammo, which like I said isnt that big of a deal to me. My barrel maker (E.R. Shaw) doesn't charge anymore for .338 then a .30-06. And before you take a stab at E.R. Shaw for not being "match caliber", just realize im not wanting to spend $500 on a barrel so please don't go there. John
 
Well just looking on the self at the shop I work in... 7mm Mag ammo is about $35 - $55.

.338 LM ammo is $90-$160 a box.

The barrels might cost you the same, but shooting them is going to be a major difference ammo wise, even with reloading. Brass for .338LM is $$ and sometimes hard to track down. Bullets, and a large powder charge add up.

Use whatever Barrel Mfg you want, just keep in mind the differences, and expectations. Personally I like to buy once cry once. If you are buying "cheaper" componets, and expecting the same results as a $5000 blue printed rifle wearing a $2000-$3000 US Optics or similar scope, you are going to be disapointed.

If you are dead set on hunting with a .338 Lapua be my guest, however I know of people using Remington Sendero's and similar rifles for long range elk hunts, but a lot you will see hunting at those distances are packing $$ custom rifles.

If you want to keep your cost down, I would check out buying a factory gun, like the 700P or the Savage LR hunter, or 110BA. Or step down in caliber to a Remington Sendero or similar rifle in 7mm Mag or .300 WM or some of the ultra mags.

Also not only rifles and scopes you need to factor in quality steel bases and rings as well, which will cost $150-$300. You can save some money by lapping them yourself with a $40 kit, but keep in mind if you mess up the rings are shot.
 
Last edited:
I remember having read an article by Dan Lilja about the suitability of of 378 WBY and 416 Rigby based rounds in Rem 700 actions. The 338 Lapua being a cut down cartridge based on the Rigby.

Dan stated that he considered the Rem 700 long action marginal for these chamberings, due to the fact that the side wall thicknesses being .050", this due to the base dimension of the Lapua being .590", where most cartridges used in the Mdl 700 being .473". He stated that this is in his opinion marginal.

Dan Lilja did the experimenting starting with a 36" barrel, then cutting off 1" at a time and crono'ing loads. Dan is a Montana based barrel maker, considered one of the premier barrel makers. His barrels hold many Olympic and international victories, and many Anschultz target rifles are fitted with Lilja competition barrels.

I don't own or reload for the Lapua, but do reload and shoot a 340WBY, and 300WBY. When the time comes to rebarrel, I know where I'll find my next barrel.
 
An extra half inch in a Rem action does nothing for torque twist. And a long one's a small amount less stiff than a short one. Either one is about 1/3rd as stiff as a Winchester 70.
 
Last edited:
Hkfan,

Sorry for being rude in my previous post, I was just a little flustered from a long day at work; not used to work since I got all of 2 days off for the holidays lol. I get what your saying though, and I think I know what you mean for costs. If I ever want to shoot my gun alot, the .338 Lapua is going to cost me. Is the remington 700 magnum action good enough for a .300 win mag? And assuming the action costs $500, the barrel $250, and a nice stock for around $400, how much do you think the whole thing would run me. If you have the time, could you write a little summary of how much each remaining part would cost? Sorry for being so needy :o. Being 100% honest, my 1000 yard hunting remarks were a little off, and thank you for calling me on it. I would likely keep hunting within 400 yards or so, but what would able to give me good groups at 500 yards, and decent groups at 1000 yards. Thank you in advance and for your help,

John
 
John no worries, I didn't take you as rude, but personally I deal with lots of customers daily looking for guns with pre-concieved notions that are sometimes not always right, so sometimes we need to open their eyes a little. We are all guilty of it. .338LM sounds great on paper.... however the paper we use as money it is not so friendly on.

I should say 1000 yard + elk hunting is done, and done sucessfully, even with calibers sub par to a .338LM. My suggestion was if you are SERIOUS about hunting at those ranges, I would take a cold hard subjective look at your budget, as most hunting or shooting rigs capable of cold bore accuracy and repeatable accuracy at those distances are $$$.

There is a lot that goes into building a custom rifle (I am not a gunsmith I just work for them chasing paper and mounting scopes, and tearing apart AR's ect ect.)

You can buy an action, but does that action come with a bolt, bolt face, bolt handle of your liking. Does it come with a recoil lug of your liking. Next is trigger, on a Remy or similar, Jewell triggers are considered a gold standard and they cost $$.

Next comes the barrel.... to the brass tacks of things, get the BEST barrel you can afford. If you wan't ER Shaw that is fine, others mentioned Lilja, Kreiger, and Bartlien are other big names. You can buy a barrel blank and have a gun smith turn down the barrel to whatever contour youd like, or you can buy a finished barrel, choice is yours.

From there a lot of labor costs comes in to play if you want to get the most out of the parts you just spent hard earned money on. Blue printing and truing actions is ideal, but it is costly and time consuming to do. I won't go over all the specifics, others can touch on them or a simple search will provide you with them but basically its making sure everything is squared perfectly horizontally and perpendicularly. Get the action done than have the same thing done when installing the recoil lug and barrel.

After all that obviously you want to have it properly bedded in a good stock, which again is time consuming and costly. As for costs, find a gunsmith in your area and call for some quotes, not trying to sound rude, but every smith is different.

Now all that is if you want a true 1000yard hunting / shooting rig. If you want to stay around 500 yards hunting, I think you can get by just fine with a factory Sendero or similar rifle, but I would make sure you have good steel percision base and rings, and a decent scope.

I am not trying to sound discouraging, but a lot goes into such rifles, and slapping one together with the cheapest parts you can find, I completely understand, but I feel like you will be disapointed in the results.
 
I'd install a Gentry safety, for sure.

Remington_Safety_RH_250wide.jpg
 
Hey HKFan,

Thanks for the info, very helpful. What do you think of a .300 win mag for me based on what I've said about what I want to do. It seems more reasonably priced and the remy action can handle it. Ammo is also much cheaper. Thanks,

John
 
500+ yard hunting can be done by most popular calibers. .308, 30-06 25-06, 7mm, 270, 280, 260, 300wm, 300wsm, the list is endless.

You can pull up YouTube videos of guys hunting 1200+ yards with 7mm and 300wm so it should do anything you'd ever want to do.
 
Ok, thank you. I like the sound of that, as it makes it seem the .300 win mag seem good enough for me. I'm having a hard time letting go of the .338 Lapua though. If I'm going to build a gun, I understand the cost, but how much more would the .338 cost to BUILD, not counting ammunition costs?

John
 
Shooter, the .300 Win Mag is a much better choice. A former USN SEAL Team commander said the .300 had better first shot hits and better off the shoulder accuracy than the .338 at 1000 to 1500 yards in tests some years ago. Not surprised at all; much easier recoil to manage.

I don't think Remington ever had any interest fixing the 7XX action issues. They're easy and cheap to make. Economy has been important for them. They used a lot of old M1917 Enfield tooling to make their first commercial bolt action rifles; the models 30 and 720. When that tooling wore out, the cheap round receivers were made. Their postwar button rifled barrels were the best commercial ones made but was abandoned later due to costs and they hammer forged them to cut costs.
 
Another Option, much cheaper and in my opinion a better choice for an action.

That being the M1917 Action. It's plenty long enough and certainly strong enough and like mention is a heavy flat action.

I don't have a 338 L on this action, but I do have a 416 Rigby and the case for the 338 L is based on the 416 Rigby case.

There are a lot of sporterized M1917 actions out there that can be had fairly reasonably. (I hate to see un-bubbaed rifles used, but that's just me.)
 
Thank you both for your help. I like the idea of the m1917 however I was really looking for a new actiion, and the only nearby gunsmith I know won't service those kinds of rifles. However, I will look for a different smith that wil do that because although I prefer new actions, I have a soft spot for older guns with history (I own too many ww2 guns :o)

Do you think I should buy the remingon 700 action or save up my money and buy a Shilen for $950? Also, is it more important to have a decent Action and a high quality barrel or a decent barrel and a high end action? (Shilen vs. E.R. Shaw)

I know it's hard to estimate but how much does an average gunsmith charge to bed an action?

Also, how much accuracy wise does bedding and blue printing help?

Thanks for the help I know I'm asking so many questions but the it's a little confusing for me so I need the help.

John
 
Shooter if you decide to go with a custom action let me recommend Stiller..www.viperactions.com/ .I have 3 of them on my rifles all were under $1000 and they are excellent...the thing I like about Stiller is that they usually keep a nice running inventory on hand unlike some of the other custom action companies that keep you waiting for months & prices are extremely good IMO for what you get, enlarged ports, m16 extractors, fluted bolts, fully bushed firing pins,....Call them up you'll probably get Russ on the other end and he'll tell you what they have..good guy to talk to.

As for a barrel I wouldn't recommend an ER shaw, my friend had 2 of them in 6mm and 7mm and they were excellent at copper fouling but not much else.....Id go with something from Kreiger, Bartlein, Brux, Douglas, Criterion, Broughton or Shilen match select on the more affordable end..

Definitley bed the rifle too..its just another variable to take out of the eqaution when chasing consistent accuracy.
 
Last edited:
They seem pretty nice. They are a fair price, although considerably more than a remy. Do you think I'd be better off getting the nicer action or nicer barrel? And now the. 338 Lapua action is only $150 more it makes everything more confusing lol
 
The barrel will give you the most accuracy right up front, an old saying in the benchrest world for accuracy are the 3 B's ...barrels, bullets and brass ....the custom actions provide a much better feel, added support strength as well as some other features such as tighter machining tolerances, different port configurations & great resale..having built rifles using factory & custom...I suggest going custom if you can swing it...you'll be happier and much more satisfied in the longrun.
 
Hunter2678,

Which caliber who you reccomend: .338 Lapua or .300 Winchester Magnum. The Stiller actions are $975 for the .300 or $1125 for the .338. If I'm gonna spend $1000 on an action it may be worth the extra money or is there a reason I'm missing why I should go one way or another.

John
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top