Reloading for 338 Lapua Magnum

You folks who has reloaded for this, did you do like 80.0, 80.5, 81.0, 81.5, etc.? Have reloaded 50BMG and would do 1 full grain increments but not quite sure on this. I did a batch yesterday after going through the new hornady manual, going online and seeing what others were doing with retumbo. I don't like to waste powder but don't like to push my luck either. Max load in hornady book is 93.0 gr of retumbo. I did 90.0, 90.5, 91.0, 91.5, 92.0. Am thinking of adding 89.0 and 89.5. Rifle is a Savage 110 338 LM FCP. Hornady book shows there test rifle was a 27 inch barrel with 1:10 twist. This rifle is a 26 inch barrel and 1:9 twist. Appreciate any suggestions. Thanks

I went .5gr a time. That Lapua brass will handle it for sure. In fact I would assume the Lapua brass will MASK pressure a bit more than comfortable. I went .5 over book with H1000 and 1.5 over with RL33 and saw zero pressure signs in brass or primers. That brass just makes me think that pressure wont show until its WAY high. I am guessing most Lapua data is LIGHT. The RL33 data is 2gr lighter than 338RUM. Since the Lapua and Edge are generally regarded as equal with the RUM under them I find this hard to believe. Therefore I went to the 338RUM load, actually .3 shy of the RUM. With the brass I will probably bump over the RUM load later as it looked fine at 99gr.

Thanks for replying. Your right about Lapua brass. Seems to take pressure better than other brass. Bought 100 for my 308 for load development, then use hornady match brass for the loads. Seems I cannot do the same thing with this 338LM as most folks say they have issues with all brass except lapua brass. I got 100 pieces with the rifle and bought 100 new so 200 should last me awhile. Have to get off my ass and anneal as this brass for 338 is friggin expensive. The cheapest I found was $269 at midway. From what I have read, some folks are up to 93.0 gr of retumbo. I'll stay with what I reloaded until I fire and see how it does. Seems the 285 ELD-M are doing well from posts I have read. I like Hornady ELD series. My 308 loves them.

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Originally Posted by bearcatrp

Thanks for replying. Your right about Lapua brass. Seems to take pressure better than other brass. Bought 100 for my 308 for load development, then use hornady match brass for the loads. Seems I cannot do the same thing with this 338LM as most folks say they have issues with all brass except lapua brass. I got 100 pieces with the rifle and bought 100 new so 200 should last me awhile. Have to get off my ass and anneal as this brass for 338 is friggin expensive. The cheapest I found was $269 at midway. From what I have read, some folks are up to 93.0 gr of retumbo. I'll stay with what I reloaded until I fire and see how it does. Seems the 285 ELD-M are doing well from posts I have read. I like Hornady ELD series. My 308 loves them.

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I have used SMKs and later Bergers for 30 yrs on game. I had to buy some ELD-M to get Creed brass when it first came out. Boy am I glad I did. Easier to tune for jump and BETTER on game. I have had ELD-X expand at 1400 FPS. That is usually pencil time with a Berger or SMK.
I have 4k 300 gr SMKs left lol so I guess I will either shoot them or sell some because the 285 appears to be a great bullet.
I have switched to ELD from Berger and SMK on everything else. As a hunting solution they are going to be hard to beat as the primary issue of penciling is GONE. I killed from 20 yds to 1400 this year with the ELD M&X both and was very impressed.

Nice to know about the ELD line of bullets. I measured the 285's to the lands. 3.786. I reloaded to 3.766 and see what happens. I ordered 5 boxes of the Hornady 285 ELD-M. Am hoping my rifle likes them. My 10T 308 loves the 178 ELD-X. 3 in a quarter @100 yards. I have a box of 250 gr smk that came with the rifle deal. Not sure if I will shoot them or sell them.

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Originally Posted by bearcatrp

Nice to know about the ELD line of bullets. I measured the 285's to the lands. 3.786. I reloaded to 3.766 and see what happens. I ordered 5 boxes of the Hornady 285 ELD-M. Am hoping my rifle likes them. My 10T 308 loves the 178 ELD-X. 3 in a quarter @100 yards. I have a box of 250 gr smk that came with the rifle deal. Not sure if I will shoot them or sell them.

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The reason I still have 4k 300gr left is the old 250SMKs would pencil badly so I stocked up on the 300SMK. I was afraid they were going to discontinue them before the Lapua became "A THING" and panic bought 15K of them. You might try the 250 SMK just to see how they work but if I was to run a 250 it would be the Bergers. They DO NOT PENCIL lol. More like a hand grenade.

What primers are you using? From what I have read, fed 215M are the best. Near impossible to find though. Was lucky to find 2 boxes a couple days ago (1000 per) but need a backup to use. Have read Winchester is good so grabbed 1 box to try after I find the load I want. Is CCI BR2 any good?

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Originally Posted by bearcatrp

What primers are you using? From what I have read, fed 215M are the best. Near impossible to find though. Was lucky to find 2 boxes a couple days ago (1000 per) but need a backup to use. Have read Winchester is good so grabbed 1 box to try after I find the load I want. Is CCI BR2 any good?

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I'm running the Winchesters now as I cant find 215M. I would look at the CCI 250 over the BR2 BUT primer selection is so individual. I used to run regular primers in my Edges and got better ES. The BR2 may work fine.

I know people who would kill for 2000 215Ms lol.

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Originally Posted by toddcdozer

I know people who would kill for 2000 215Ms lol.

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Yeah, got lucky. Right place at the right time.

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Originally Posted by bearcatrp

Yeah, got lucky. Right place at the right time.

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Hope theres no blood on them lol. I haven't seen them in a yr. I went to the Wannemacher to find some. 7 miles of tables.......not one 215m.

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Originally Posted by toddcdozer

Hope theres no blood on them lol. I haven't seen them in a yr. I went to the Wannemacher to find some. 7 miles of tables.......not one 215m.

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Something is going on with federal. Think I should go back to that store and grab the rest of the winchester primers to make sure I have a good batch before they dry up. A week ago there was none. They have 4 boxes of 1000 left. They also have cci 250.

Got out today for some load development.You folks who shoot 338LM, can you see if these seem high for the load? With retumbo, highest I went was 92.0 gr @2825.95 fps, which is about 100 higher than what the manual shows. With H-1000, got up to 88.6 gr @2919.62, which is on par with the hornady manual (newest book). Slight case swipes but primers look good. Groupings on 5 shot groups seem to open up at the highest I went. Going back out again and push it a little higher but think retumbo is close to being maxed with my chrono readings. Highest Hornady manual shows is 2750 fps on mac charge on both. Thinking 2800 is about as far as I should push it. Unless you folks think I can get a bit higher. Shooting 285 ELD-M bullets in Lapua brass.

Finally got to the range yesterday. Highest I loaded with Retumbo was 93.4 @2875.85 fps. Groupings were not great. With H-1000, highest was 90.1 gr @2785.47 fps with good groupings. Not sure why but retumbo is a little over 100 fps on a load than what the hornady book shows. H-1000 is close to spot on. Slight case swipes on top end. Primers looked good. Brass ejected fine. From what I have read on the hide, I could go a little higher on H-1000 but think I am topped out on Retumbo. Suggestions?

Could try different seating depths, what are you running off lands now?

Running 0.020 off the lands. Just picked a few more lbs of H-1000 so will stick to that for now until I find my node. Then I will come back to retumbo.

Ok. That's what depth I would've suggested. Most of my hornadys shoot best at least that far off. I personally use RE 33 and 300 SMK in my 338 LM but the other 2 your using were my first choices but I couldn't find them at the time

Pulled out my 1x fired lapua brass to get ready for loading tomorrow. Checked them with the case gauge. Not one needed resizing. The chamber on these 110 FCP must be real tight. Have had to resize my 308 Lapua brass after each firing. Not much but still needed it. Figured my next set to shoot. Will be maxing out at 91.8 gr of H-1000.

Went to the range yesterday. Went ahead and changed out the inserts to 30 MOA. After a brief time at the 25 yard range to get the scope aligned, off to the 100 yard range. Good day. Bottom right target has 3 holes touching. H-1000 with 91.8 gr. No primer brass issues, ejected brass fine. Could probably go a little higher but think I am settled in at 91.8. Chrono data is 2828 fps. Now to go replicate it at 200 yards, which is the longest the range has. On the hunt for a longer range.
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