I’ve found a lot of people finding my site when searching for differences between the 338 winchester magnum and the 338 Lapua Magnum and I wasn’t too pleased with some of the other results, so I thought I’d lay out all the differences in one spot. I knew the the Lapua was rather expensive to shoot and finding a range or a place to shoot this would be an issue. I don’t need such a rifle. But 30-cals, including Winchester and Norma magnums, are considered fine and can be used anywhere. 2020 The Hunting Gear Guy, The 12 Most Popular Hunting Gear Posts of 2012, Mossberg 510 Super Bantam 20 Gauge Review. If your going to buy a .338, I would suggest you first have the resources to afford this type of rifle and second, make sure you have enough experience in shooting rifles, your going to need it. The trigger is so soft you never know when it’s going to go off which makes it terrifying because when it goes bang it feels like I got hit with a grenade between the fierce and sharp recoil as well as the offensive muzzle blast, even with double ear protection. I have had the privilege to fire a number of top-shelf .338 Lapua guns over the years and, while they were extraordinary in their own right, they were certainly not worth the base price of the rifle or the $5/round ammo cost considering the ranges most people shoot at. I moved to Musella Ga from Washington state in 2007. Awe man, I really didn’t want to defend Ruthless because of his 6.5 Creed comment which leave me puzzled. Big piece of steel, good scope but most of all a good trigger finger. I took an 8×8 point elk in Colorado, this last October with a 338/378 Weatherby magnum, while I was sitting on my porch in Florida, shooting from a bench rest….. A bench rest is cheating, you’re not a real man …. I can ring steel at 3200 meters, and I can outshoot 300 Norma, .50 bmg, and even the vaunted 6.5 Creedmoor all day. All it takes is one little mistake or one moment of inattention and you’re solution is totally off. An elk at over half a mile is a brown speck with a white dot on its butt. It certainly can not be the same as stalking and getting in closer. Grenades save me money on worms and tackle. If you lose your rights while fighting for the coaching chair you likely wont have a porch to sit on afterwards. Personally, beyond 2500 meters I favor the 81 mm mortar with 6 charge. Our deer are runts. .338 Lapua rifles were purpose-built as sniper weapons in the early years of the cartridge. At the ranges available to most shooters (2-300 yards and less) it doesn’t really give you anything the normal cartridges don’t already offer but it increases everything you don’t want. more guns is always good if you can afford them. The gun is so damn heavy the only thing it’s good for is bench rest shooting. 338 LM rifles are mislabeled. With 250 grain bullets, the Win Mag is pushing 2650, while the Lapua is just short of 3000 fps. The Winchester branded 338 Winchester Magnum brass is no steal anyways at $1/each, because it’s not like you’re getting tremendous quality for the premium price. Gun is a laser to 900-1000 yards. He said ammo is a little expensive, but if you start reloading, its not too bad. Once you’re into a .338LM, your options in rifle actions narrows considerably. I would just as soon have a .300 Win Mag. Do I hunt with them? A freind has a .300 NM, I've been part of it from the start. I got 5 boxes of ammo for $100 at a gun show, and my hand loads group at less than “.75. Ive popped steel out beyond my 1k meter rangefinder so what, anyone with time and ammo can eventually do the same. Long range hunting is categorically immoral and is not praiseworthy. I definitely should have a .338 Lapua, but I need that 3200 yard range first. December 16, 2020. You pickup all the dropped .06 ammo you can find and I’m sure I can pick up all the 5.56 I need. I had never shot a Deer with the norma before, we had elk in washington. Today we are going to be taking a look at what is perhaps the largest and most powerful commonly owned long range caliber, the .338 Lapua Magnum, and where it sits today. I was talking to a friend of mine last night who asked me if he should ditch his Rem 700 in .300 WinMag for a .338 Lapua for hunting elk. Get a Terminator or Super Beast. Were you going to give any evidence of same, or just give a proof by assertion? He claims he has had to re-barrel the 6.5 Creedmoor (formerly a .308 Win) yearly due to his round count, around 2,500 a year, but hasn’t had to touch the .338 in ten years of shooting. Sound like a kid playing call of duty getting mad some guy with a sniper rifle is camping. In reality, 300 Norma Mag has replaced the 338LM for long range shooting. What wrong with 54R? I mean, if you want to, go ahead, but by the end of a hunting trip, you’ll probably be wishing for something lighter to pack around. .338 Lapua 300gr SMK vs. .300 Win Mag 220gr SMK. Rounds like .338 LM are a Jump the Shark moment for most shooters. As for the gentleman that made the comment about long distance shooting? “The spirit of hunting” can go fuck itself along with any noble sentiments you think you carry because you like to get close enough to spook game. You can still make tons of noise and piss off all your neighbors at the range but saving a lot more money and resale value. Had the SAKO TRG in 338, Rock chucks & Coyotes, and dinner plates. All I need is a boat, net and a cooler. But, who made you king shit on what constitutes Hunting Big Sky? I wanted a 338lm. I have advanced degrees in chemistry and physics with good knowledge of mathematics and you have to be so painstaking with it that the process bores me to tears. Without practice, caliber is irrelevant. Another fun game of round comparison, this time pitting the ferocious 338-378 Weatherby Magnum and the military favored 338 Lapua Magnum. I never did much research into how difficult that could be. of coarse. I don’t consider this typical, as most .338 shooters I spoke to don’t fire more than 100 rounds a year. With my Ruger 10/22, with iron sights. The 338 Lapua is a “newer” cartridge and designed from the ground up for military usage. There is no living creature available to which I would want to ruin 10 lbs of meat to shoot it with at available safe hunting distances. I don’t own a 9mm or a 5.56 or 6.5 Creedmoor. I have enjoyed on some level almost all the guns I have shot in my life: not the 338 Lapua. The .300 Win Mag can be handloaded with 220gr+ bullets that closely resemble the 300gr .338 Lapua, but at less than one third the price. Is this bullet coming out of the barrel at 2700fps or 2680? Say hi to the guys at Dunkelbergers. There’s a little footnote that should be used when comparing G1 Bc’s, however: The G1 form function isn’t valid when looking the new VLD bullets. The 338 Lapua Magnum is a hefty cartridge. The .338 Lapua does not have this wearing out issue due to the innovation put into building this rifle. Pros: extended range and energy carried downrange. the .338 Lapua is better than the .50 BMG? Unfortunately, I didn’t stock up nearly as much as I should have on ammo when the prices were down a few years ago. Alternatively, you can run 300 grain bullets in the Lapua for amazing BC’s and better 1000+ yard performance. Nosler has just introduced a new SAAMI-spec .338-caliber cartridge, the 33 Nosler, which is based on the 404 Jeffrey parent case. Yes, I have an expensive habit, but I’m good at it and I enjoy it. I’ve been a rifle shooter most of my life. Josh is one of the reasons that I still visit the site. However, five current commercial cartridges have surpassed the .338 Win. While Ben Franklin really did not say “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy”, he should have. Build on a modified 416 Rigby case, the Lapua dispenses with the head spacing belt traditionally associated with magnum cartridges for a rimless case. What I said is that you’re the type of person that has to be fought because you don’t like how someone else does something. It’s your American right to choose, but be aware that it’s a high-cost, low-volume rifle/ammo combination that offers only marginal benefits to the average shooter. “The average shooter in America will likely never be able to commit the time and resources to reliably or repeatedly hit their intended target at ranges past 500 yards.”. More importantly, I took an elk last month in Montana at 990 meters. I have seen what it can do as compared to smaller calibers, but I fail to see what it does better for the price given that you could afford both a long range gaming caliber rifle like 6mm Creedmoor and a .300 Win Mag for hunting for substantially less cost than one .338 Lapua rifle. Adriel has been hunting all his life, enjoys shooting 3 gun, is a trainer for Project Mapleseed and tries to apply a practical point of views to his reviews. I thought it was December, not April Fools day? As for 338 Lapua , I only see them at the range once in a while. Lets get back to fighting the enemy and the possible upcoming bump-stock ban which could lead to a ban on binary triggers, competition triggers and eventually dangerous and ugly looking semi-automatic guns like my Ruger 10-22. (If you’re looking for the best .338 Lapua rifle, check out this guide). Can we depend on 6.5 Creedmoor to win it for us ? Instead of a punch in the shoulder you get a punch in the face and flinch just as much. The gun the salesman recommended was a 338 Lapua. That’s all that matters. The.338 Lapua Magnum,.338 Lapua Sniper, or 8.6x70 mm are the same cartridge as the.338 Lapua developed in 1984 by the Finnish Lapua Cartridge Factory. I can now say that I am no longer interested in the .338 Lapua. At this point you don’t even know what my opinion is of of long range hunting, you have assumed it. I still think the CheyTac rounds, tho, adapt better to more actions. It’s a great round. That’s splitting hairs for on-game performance, but makes a pretty big difference for long range shooting. It is a known fact by many. To compare it with another common cartridge, the .300 Win Mag, the .338 Lapua is still excessive. Funny, I’ve often thought the same about a Weatherby. I’m rapidly tiring of these articles. Yeah and you’re all using rifles so shut up. both shots hit multiple animals and the mess was sickly limbs missing etc. I love my Savage 110 in .338. A long range shot is not skill based, but rather based on a set of predictive elements that are at best close guesses as far as trajectory and terminal performance are concerned. The .338 Lapua Magnum (also known as the .338 LM) definitely has a much shorter history than the .50 BMG. Facebook; Twitter; Pinterest; Related Articles. But, you do you. So I got to thinking that maybe the .338 Lapua would have been better. In short, a simple error in wind estimation at 900m is the difference between a heart shot and a gut shot. But to be honest. I currently Live in Maine with access to anything with hooves. Cal July 13, 2015 2 Comments. Uhhh… Try it sometime. But, I will leave it up to the hunter on how her wants to take his shot. No complaining…just the truth. There are a number of end users who have need for an accurate round that can deliver a 250-300gr bullet at a mile away, but they are few and far between. No big sky you should take a look in the mirror, the only one here who has proclaimed what Hunting is and isn’t is you, i’ve Said no such thing. I am not an avid hunter like most, and when I do hunt it’s with my 12 gauge or 45/70. For this reason, the 338 Lapua has a flatter trajectory, penetrates … I guess being lazy is its own reward! Savage 338 Lapua Magnum, Remington 40X Sniper Rifle that I actually used in the past. Did he kill it? But it is a great caliber for those who don’t want or have to place to shoot a 50 BMG since some ranges don’t allow the big 50. For the everyman, three rounds of .338 Lapua is more than the cost of a case of beer. Oddly, the better I have gotten at long distance shooting, the less interested I am in long distance hunting…have hone back to handguns and lever action rifles. 300 Win Mag vs 300 Norma Mag vs 338 Lapua Mag. I liver in the Poconos so 200 yards is very long range for me. they expected them to shoot better than Me forgetting that they had to input ingredients to get cake. The quality is there though, that Lapua brass lasts an incredibly long time and is very uniform. That said, there is … It will feed from a standard magnum action with high BC bullets and give you almost identical performance as the 338 Lapua Mag. Some rifles adapt well, others not so much. Lets both hope we’re not coming across 5.8x42mm. You’re the type of person that things giving an inch will appease the other side, on the instances when you’re in the middle, and your the type of person that is in the other side in some instances. Or for max performance go to a FL 2.90", blown out Rigby case and gain another ~20gr H2O capacity. Honestly how many times have you even had to dope for windage at the 200yd rifle range at your rod and gun club with your 556 or even pistol caliber carbines? And by ‘ring’ he didn’t mean to ring the steel like a bell but rather to place his shots all around the steel to form a ring around it. I cannot afford S&B Glass so I wont hunt beyond 500 even with the norma. It also makes packing out the elk a whole lot easier than having to quarter it when I find the downed animal(s). It will be more affordable across the board reloading or not. They are impressive. Magnum's ballistics. Luckily for me, your opinion does not change the facts of the situation. AND, the Nosler 33 fits in a standard, long action receiver. He claims to be at the 6,500 round point and has yet to have an issue. Savage 110, 338LM 3200 meters. I do however own a .308 and .300 win mag and a .50 and recently purchased a Ruger 338 LM. Also I made a similar shot from Ohio into Washington. Contact TTAG’s email address and tell Dan to forward my contact information to you. Thanks for all the info. In any community we are typically here to share information and experiences which is intended to help each other out or maybe even support the enjoyment in what we do. In the rain. I find that there are several camps that exist in this particular division of the gun culture, and each has their own favorite cartridges and rifle types. It’s a very, very powerful round that is difficult to master, even in a quality bolt action rifle. I guess if it was a bit bigger than a man sized target then it would be possible. Honestly the only thing the Lapua does well is noise and you can do that more efficiently and cheaply with a short barreled AR pistol and a muzzle brake. .338 300gr SMK and .30 caliber 225gr Hornady ELD. I suspect the reason for the bans are that the .338 Lapua, in a 300gr or larger load, produces an unfair ballistic advantage over other cartridges. I use the .50 and .338 for what they were meant for, long range shooting. It is one hell of a lot harder than one might think. the hunting rigs, 270 win, 308 bolt gun savage I think plastic baseball bat with a trigger and My Norma Mag. a couple reasons, Hurts like hell and expensive to reload. At the point you could buy a good 338 is the same point you could buy an accurate entry level 50bmg. There are many Me personally, no. However, it is a decision you really need to give some thought into before making this type of purchase. The 338 EDGE is a good one, basically a 2.85", FL 375 RUM case necked down with the same case capacity as the 338 Lapua but works without the larger boltface required by the Lapua case. More power to you and have at it…. Velocity. It is also not as simple as having the numbers down either. 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