Custom .338 Lapua Build - Remington 700 LA Mag

You can buy the Armalite Ar-30 for $1900 in .338 Lapua. I only paid $900 for mine, but that is a long story. I bought mine pretty much just to have one. I shot it a couple times in 1k matches and it turned in under 5" groups both times. I am sure I could have gotten it to shoot much better, but it was not practical to shoot in matches. I went back to the .284 Win. The Ar-30 is an awesome rifle. Accurate, relatively light weight, handles well, well built.
 
What do you think about a .338 Lapua built on a savage target action? Or would that also be bad like the remingon becuae of the bolt face?
 
The remington wont be "bad", if you want to get into a 338 lapua, the 700 police will get you where you want to be, to get more you have to spend much more, I am a shooter and that gun can outshoot me, a step up would be the Sako trg but now you are up around $3500...
 
Hunter, expensive, precision, single-shot, very stiiff Stiller actions in rifles doesn't make bullets shoot anymore accurate than an old, cheap, sloppy used Winchester 70 one. Properly put in decent rifles, both will shoot under 6 inches at 1000 yards. That's as good as can be these days.
 
shooter out of those 2 Id take the 300 win mag...cheaper to reload and ..Bart I agree , if you read my response to shooter I tell him that the barrel is what really makes a rifle shoot great consistently all things being equal. Custom actions offer shooters more in terms of feel, resale and functional features...a properly bedded factory action can shoot just as good a $1450 bat action. All I was saying that If money is not an issue why not go the custom route and get something you'd be happy with longterm? For example my previous model 12 savage short action was .0020 off the centerline according to my smith who ended up truing it back to proper specs. The end result was noticeable once I resighted my gun back in.. I gained 6 moa back on my windage and 5 moa on my elevation. I converted that gun from a 22-250 factory savage barrel to a kreiger 28" 6mm 1.250 straight cylinder barrel with 2 inches of devcon in front of the lug and the gun shot lights out...proof that a repeater factory action can shoot a really heavy barrel really really well.
 
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Thank you for aall the advice and help. I think I am going to have to think a little more about the .338 Lapua vs. .300 win mag. Would a savage target action work for the .338 Lapua?
 
Pretty sure the savage target actions are not made in the .585 boldface diameters which is what the 338 lapua requires.
 
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Ok, thanks. Would the remington action be the least rough on the budget out there or are there better priced actions? I would buy the police model but I want to do some more research and possibly build one, just part of the nostalgics.
 
Ok thank you Reynolds. If I were to buy the Remington, get the Lapua, how much money would a smith charge (on average) to bed and blueprint (give each estimate seperate if you can in case I don't want to do both)? Also, would I be better off getting a .300 win mag in the remy or would the Lapua be just as good? (In the remy 700)
 
Lapua VS Win mag is a choice only you can make. To square an action, lap lugs, cut chamber, assemble, and bed; you can expect to pay between $250 to $600. It just all depends on who you use. A good barrel will cost you $400 to $600. Stock, however much you want to spend.
When it is all said and done, more than you will pay for the Armalite.
 
Bart B. is correct that the 300 Win Mag had better accuracy with the sniper trials, but we are talking the difference between 0.7 MOA and 0.5 MOA, so the advantage is small but significant enough to notice, and in competition that extra 0.2 MOA is more than enough for the best shooters to abandon one system and go with another.

The real benefit for the 300 Win Mag is in cost of components for making high quality long range loads. Over the life of a barrel, the cost difference in shooting 300 Win Mag over 338 Lapua is basically going to be about the cost of the barrel.

For 1000 yard target shooting, cheap Nosler Custom Competition 175 and 190gr bullets will work very well. The 300 Win Mag can even through the 168s fast enough to avoid the transonic region and get amazing accuracy at 1000.

If you go beyond 1k, out to 1500 meters, then a heavier bullet with known transonic performance will be the better choice. 220 SMK and 230 Berger Hybrid bullets are the best options out there.

If I were building a sniper rifle (again) I would choose the 300 Win Mag (again) over the 338 Lapua. Out to 1500 meters I just don't see any real ballistic advantage to the more expensive round.

Hope this helps.
Jimro
 
From what I've now read, I'm definitely going to go with the .300, the cost, for one, and I would never be able to shoot at more than 1000 (for now). Also, after looking at my ballistics charts, the win mag wouldn't have much power at 2,000 but has the trajectory to do so.

I think I'm going to go the route of the rem 700 action with a nice barrel (I want a heavy bull, not factory rem), and a nice stock. From what you have said, the custom barrel is the most important and I'm not really wanting to drop $1000 on an action alone. Looking forward to building this gun and testing my shooting abilities!

John
 
I have a Sako TRG 42 in 300 win and 338 Lapua. The Lapua is a hammer at 1000yds on game the 300win not so much. Look at Sako long range hunter rifle as it comes in 300 & 338L. I shoot both mine suppressed which takes out most of the noise & recoil and the Sako's come with the bbl. already threaded. So if you don't want to bother with bedding,trigger job's and other build problem's then get the Sako which IMO will hang with any custom build.:rolleyes:
 
Hunter's measurements:
my previous model 12 savage short action was .0020 off the centerline according to my smith who ended up truing it back to proper specs. ...gained 6 moa back on my windage and 5 moa on my elevation..
Click to expand...
What's that two thousandths relative to?

Boltway axis parallel to but offset that much from barrel tenon thread axis?

Boltway axis center at the back relative to receiver outside offset from the barrel tenon thread axis through the receiver center?

.002" off a 6 or 7 inch base line in the receiver axis is only about 1 MOA. Your MOA numbers in elevation and windage mean the scope was off almost 8 MOA. You numbers don't calculate to the 5 and 6 MOA's you had to correct for which means almost an 8 MOA error.

None of my Win. 70's boltway axes are straight with the receiver axis nor barrel tenon thread axis but the receiver faces are square with the tenon thread axis and parallel to the bolt face. A small amount of crooked stuff doesn't matter.

I'd remove that 2" long bedding pad under the barrel and it'll probably shoot more accurate over time. Don't know of any rifle that doesn't start stringing shots vertically after a few are fired a minute apart or faster and the barrel heats up. The expanding chamber area increases the pressure against the bedding pad under it.
 
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Bart, I meant 20 thou off my mistake on the decimal, and yes I also meant the receiver face on that action as well...like I said it brought back a significant amount of windage and elevation to my Zeiss conquest scope that didn't have a lot to give in the first place. I shoot with alot of experienced LR steel shooters and BR shooters during the summer here in Ohio and they are all anal about accuracy stemming from the action/barrel junction, lug contact, proper action screw torque as well as scope alignment and mounting. One of them happens to be the head smith at Kelblys. As you know things being a little off axis are usually off alot at 1000 yds +. We shoot at various sized steel plates at these long distances some as small as 5 inches at 1050 yds. We also shoot the 600 yd BR matches too where you really see how good you are. If you're satisfied with factory actions then more power to you. I'd have no problem owning an older Mod 70 action or rem 40X/700 action myself as they are typically machined properly. But me being the person I am and having owned both newer factory actions and customs prefer custom as long as I can swing it as I feel they offer the shooter more in terms of features & resale. I tend to apply a bench rest approach to my rifle building in general. Seems you do a lot of prone service rifle shooting from your signature so it makes sense where your overall POV is coming from. FWIW I have been thinking an awful lot about shooting some hi power stuff in the future so maybe I'll pick your brain when the time draws near. As for the bedding amount in my current rifles the 2 inches of Devcon work wonderfully in supporting my heavier 6mm/7mm barrels as they are all straight taper 1.250/1.20breech to 1 inch at muzzle from lengths of 26", 28", 31".
 
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I've never known an unpadded barrel's chamber area prevent 1/2 MOA many shot long range groups. Prone shooters putting 25 to 30 shots through bong heavy barrels see vertical shot stringing until they remove that pad put there 'cause someone suggested it. It happened with all three of my long range match rifles testing them with 25 shot strings.

If a match rifle won't hold at least 3/4 MOA accuracy at 1000 yards properly tested with 25 shots, it won't shoot inside 2 MOA slung up in prone to shoot winning scores on the 20" ten ring shooting 5 sighter's then 20 record shots in less than 30 minutes.

The difference on the barrel shank threads and shoulder on the receiver from its weight is very small between padded chamber areas versus free floating ones. There's sill a lot of steel compression and expansion at both the top and bottom of the fit and threaded areas. Whatever it is isn't as much is the stress on the barrel shank is from the ammo's peak pressure and it's exactly the same from shot to shot. That pad under the chamber area with the barrel pulling down on it varies the pressure you've torqued the front guard screw to pulling the receiver bottom at its front to the stock when the barrel whips vertically. Free floated barrels keep that pressure more constant

Why do long heavy barrels totally free floated shoot the smallest 20 to 40 shot groups at long range?
 
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After much thought and a ton of help from you guys, I think I've decided on building a .300 win mag bolt gun based on a remingon 700 action. I'll probably go the E.R. Shaw route for the barrel, as I've had good experiences with them and they are local (within 30 minutes) of me. What are some of your stock reccomendations for less then $300? What about scope for under $300?

John
 
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