What's your 338 lapua like to eat?

I've been shooting to 1,000 yards for nearly 8 years now and after being around a couple guys with 338 lapua magnums I think it's time that I jumped on the wagon. I had an excellent opportunity to see how well they bucked the wind, how little elevation change was needed, and how much force they still had at 1,000 yards. I'd like to get on the wagon, and I know I'd like to get the Savage HS model, but now I'm trying to figure out powders and bullets shoot well in the guns. Normally, before starting a new build I like to know what I'm getting into so if there's some commonly used powders and bullets then I'd like to hear what other 338 lapua reloaders are using with great results.

Lapua brass/RE 33/CCI primer/300 SMK

Never have seen R-33, didn't know it even existed!

Lapua brass, Retumbo, Federal Magnum Match primers, Hornady 285gr HPBT

Ramshot Magnum and 265 Barnes for me

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Originally Posted by teddy12b

What's your 338 lapua like to eat?

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Money

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Originally Posted by RC20

Never have seen R-33, didn't know it even existed!

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Wanted to try retumbo but this was all I could get during the craze a few years ago. Works excellent. Not supposed to be temp sensitive but I haven't tested that myself

Yep..Money no need for.338. Go with a 6mm 6.5mm 7mm

It's true.... they do eat money and there really isn't a need to have them to get to the 1000 yes mark...... but then it's not always about need.......

I use mine for LR hunting (knockdown power) 260 for LR target shooting. I got good deals on my bullets and brass came with the rifle when I bought from previous owner. I load for $1.02 per round currently

Hope to have my stealth 338 soon. Besides eating money (I reload), what is a good powder/bullet combination? Have reloaded 50BMG so know I won't have issues reloading 338.

338s aren't that expensive to feed. I'm under $1 a round. It would take 2 30-06AI rds at 50 cents a pop to equal the 1k payload anyway. With a good brake they don't bug me recoil wise, most of mine have weighed deep in the teens or more though.
Unless you are used to a 375 or 408/416 class rig, the 338 is going to be a HUGE step up.
Wind and POWER at range are off the chart compared to even a really big 30. The game taking capabilities of the 300 GR soft jacket bullets has to be seen to be believed. Don't let it being TOO MUCH slow you down.
Greatest thing since sliced cheese.

Since selling my 50BMG, been deciding on a big boomer that can be shot locally. So far, the stealth in 338 fits that bill. Sold the 50 due to a back surgery and the recoil was getting to me. Still fun to shoot though.

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Originally Posted by bearcatrp

Since selling my 50BMG, been deciding on a big boomer that can be shot locally. So far, the stealth in 338 fits that bill. Sold the 50 due to a back surgery and the recoil was getting to me. Still fun to shoot though.

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I went to a gun show to buy a 50. Ended up with a LAR Grizzly Match. As I was walking out a guy hit me up in the parking lot about a Serbu he wanted to sell. I bought it too. HATED them both. Recoil wasn't the issue. CONCUSSION was. Too much and guns never really goes together until you hit the 50 BMG level.

I learned real quick to NOT have anything on a shooting table when firing the 50BMG beast. Clears it off fast. Mine weighed 22 lbs for a 22 inch barrel. Weight was one main issue. Hauling it to a place to shoot and setting up was painful. After about 10 rounds with a moderate load (216 gr of WC860 or 205 gr of H50BMG), my back was feeling it pretty good. No pain no gain as folks say. It was fun though.

I hunted with all of my 338s. Some of them weigh MORE than a 50. However they balance different since 50 barrels weigh so much. Very hard to get one set up to kill a critter with. 1st deer I killed with one was out at 740 on a wheat field. I get setup and fire. Can't see anything. Blew 2 lbs of dirt into my eyes. Have to stagger to truck, fell over barb wire fence. Find a bottle in my truck, hope its water but it feels like a Dr Pepper. IT IS A DR PEPPER. Now I really can't see. Dig in truck for 20 minutes and find a half full bottle of water under the rear seat. Felt like my eyes had been sandblasted.
Deer is graveyard dead. Hit right behind the shoulder and did less damage than my 6-284. Only deer I ever killed with a 50 and last time I hunted with one. 338 kills better and usually won't kill the SHOOTER.

Well there is an old saying that goes as follows.
(To thine own self be true).
Ask yourself the hard questions, then give yourself honest answers.
If your bag is shooting, and especially at extreme distances, (assuming you have a suitable location for that), then the large capacity cases like the large 338s and larger are the way to go.
But if your bag is mainly long range hunting, you will be doing that only as far as the location, and most of all the conditions, permit you to do that.
First off, you can only shoot, what you have been able to find to shoot at first.
Finding a deer at 1500 yards thru a set of 80 mm tripod mounted binnocs, and then finding it in a good rifle scope, aint always as easy as it is to just talk about it.
Fact is finding it first in the 80mms aint always easy either.
I have been long range hunting exclusively for almost 50 years, in an area of the country that is as good as it gets east of the big river.
I can take you around that area and introduce you to several dozen others who are very well equipted and experienced hunters, in an hour.
Yet i don't know anybody personally who has killed a deer at a mile.
Fact is most are shot well under 1000 yds. And the reason for that is they are much easier to find, and much easier to hit.
You could lay on the back dirt roads leading to the long lookouts with little fear of being run over during hunting season.
And I'm talking maybe 50 crow fly miles from where all the top dog shooters hang out at Williamsport.
Guess what, the top dogs know better than to go to those places and hunt.
The very few guys who do, are simply posing for the picture takers, because they never kill anything.
I built a 338 Chey Tac and in 6 seasons weve killed one deer with it, which we could have also killed with a 300 ultramag.
Besides the gun, figure on a lot of new loading equiptment also for the bigger cartridges.
For eastern hunting especially, I wouldn't go larger than the improved 338 lapua, or a 338x378 if I had it to do again.
Ill bet nobody here has ever killed a deer at 1500 yds and neither have I. And you know what else? we never will, and especially not in the East.

Think that was god teaching you to not hunt with a 50 BMG. You had everything go wrong that could have minus barrel blowing up. I need to decide which one to get, the stealth or the FCP version. Both are close in build. Stealth has 2 inch shorter barrel. About same weight. Can not find out if the FCP has a trued action like the stealth. Chassis on the stealth leaves a bit to be desired.

OP, reloader 33, is the go to powder for 338lm.

Hornady Brass/Berger 300's/H1000/CCI 250's.