1000 Yard 338 - I Like Big Guns Part 2

[Magnum_Willys]

Have you considered a 338 edge. I built one off a rem 700 action. It shoots 285 grain eldm's at 2850. It shoots incredible. 93 grains of h1000.

And your neighbor in Rathrum invented and named it about 20 years ago - still good!

[mountainman]

Take your existing rifle, screw a quality barrel in .338 Edge. Add quality scope and trigger, grab some dies and some .300 Ultra brass, add some H1000 and 300 GR. Matchkings or Bergers, and shoot👍

[Jonathan_S]

H1000 does great in the Terminator too. N570 really shined and provided that excessive HP I was looking for.

[Rob]

Thought I might have a lead for you on a gunsmith who would work on a weatherby markV action.  Contacted him and he said that he did not work on them as the cost of tooling needed to work on them did not justify the demand.

[b23]

Part of the problem with using MkV actions, particularly with long high BC .338 bullets, is if you want to use it as a repeater you're very limited on the max allowable cartridge length.  It's been awhile since I had my 338-378 but if I recall around 3.750 was all you could get in their magazine and I'm not sure there's anyone that offers an extended mag box for them like they do the Rem700 or 700 clones.  It's not like that big Weatherby case is lacking capacity but the, only, reason I'd ever build a 338-378 would be because it has the biggest case of any production .338 cartridge out there so I certainly wouldn't de-nut it by limiting the OAL to 3.750

The 338-378 is a big long case and you stuff a long 300gr bullet in there seated to 3.750 it kind of neuters the capacity of that big ole 378 case.  Not that you need to run one of these things as a repeater especially if you're using it for LR or ELR work but I wouldn't spend any money on a repeater type action to have to use it as a single shot.

My Wby Accumark 338-378 shot decent-ish but only if it was throttled back which made it kind of a turd in the velocity department.  As soon as I got much past about a mid level load with the variety of different powders I tried it would start scattering shots all over the paper.

[Magnum_Willys]

The Wbee 338-378 mag holds up to 3.800.  The bullet is buried in the powder column but will still hold about the same as a LapuaAI - 113 gr RL33. Never tried single shot as it seemed kind of silly to have to pull the bolt to unload, but I guess if you pick up 100 fps maybe worth it……

[luvmystang67]

Well, picked up a .338-378 used at the show yesterday. Can’t wait to practice a few times and then take it out for elk at 1000.

Just kidding

But pretty excited. Now I need to spend 2x the rifle to get it glassed and fed. Looks to be an older mark v and too lightweight for my own good.


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[luvmystang67]

Well, I feel like its worth making an update here, mostly because I'm excited.

Was finally able to source some nice magnum primers.  Got some Rem 9 1/2M, some CCI 250s and some Fed 215Ms.  Found some new Norma brass for a somewhat affordable $2/piece.  Picked up some 338 ELDM 285gr, 280gr Barnes LRX, 300gr SMK.  Played around with VV N570, H1000 and Retumbo.  Finally got around to putting it all together with the Trijicon Tenmile that I picked up here on the forum (thanks @cjc23), and went out shooting yesterday.  I'm able to get 2900 FPS with the 300gr SMK and 2960 with the 285gr ELDM, and 3020 with the 280gr Barnes LRX.

The best results (using ladder loads, so variant velocities) were with the H1000, Rem 9 1/2Ms and the 285gr ELDM.  Those shot about 1" 5-shot group, even at different velocities.  The VV N570 provided the best velocities with the 300gr SMKs with no pressure signs up to 105.5gr and 2912 FPS.  The Retumbo was a little more sticky on the bolt for the same velocity as the VV N570.

I'm pretty excited about this rifle, especially the H1000 results.  With the ELDM bullets at 2960fps, it generates >5,000 ft-lbs at 100 yards, ~4000 ft-lbs at 400 yards, at 1000 yards it still has 2365 ft-lbs of energy.   Drop at 500 yards is only 34" (with 200 yard zero).  There's no reason this shouldn't be able to kill any animal in North America at 1000 yards. 

Compared to my .375 H&H shooting a 270 grain Barnes TSX FB at 2700 FPS: the energy and velocity of the 375 at 300 yards is roughly equivalent to the 338-378 at 1000. 

Does my shoulder hurt? Yeah, a little.  But its the pain of optimism and excitement.  Now I just have to drill into a winning load and practice, practice, practice.

Sidenote: I did want to glass bed it, but my cheap plastic stock that came with it will absolutely not work for that.  I was going to buy a new (used) one to bed, and found some pretty good deals at Numrich Gun Parts... instead of buying a used Bell & Carson synthetic stock for $150, I went for a brand new $200 factory weatherby walnut stock... I too have some eye for beauty and couldnt resist.  I still have some work to do on it for fit-up as it was meant for a slightly different profile barrel option, but its going to look great.

Sidenote 2: I forgot the tiny allen wrench for the zero stop and I put a 20MOA rail on it, so I had to aim at a target 20MOA below my actual target, which made evaluation of accuracy a little difficult.  Will post more when I know more.

[raydog]

Good deal! You wont feel that recoil when that bull is out in front of you anyways

[Dan-o]

Dang.
That thing delivers an accurate wallop!