The 338 Lapua project began for me because I wanted something with the power to take to a 3,000 yard class. I was sold on the caliber, but the expense always kept me out of it, until I saw Midway have a sale on some Lapua brass at a third of the regular price. That was last fall and I've been slowly adding part after part since then, because it is an expensive project. Ultimately, I decided on the RPR because of the reputation the Ruger precision rifles are having for accuracy. Even though there still aren't a whole lot of reviews out these in 338 Lapua I took the chance and I'm hoping this review helps others. I was a little apprehensive at first, but I'm glad rolled the dice.
Rifle Setup:
Currently the rifle is wearing a loaned optic from another one of my rifles because the SWFA 3-15x MOA FFP scope I ordered last Dec on a black friday sale for nearly half off still hasn't arrived all these months later. I chose that scope because of the SWFA reputation for scopes being able to take a beating and the 140 MOA of internal adjustment in the mechanics of the scope and then the reticle has another 60 MOA in it if you wanted to work with it that way. I took the SWFA 10X it's currently wearing off another rifle since it'd have the same reticle and I knew the scope could take a beating. I put a magpul bipod on it and that's just because that's what I've got on all my guns now and so far I'm a big fan of them over the Harris models I've tried. I like that the stock folds up for easy transport and with it being a 16# gun with 26" barrel that's a really nice feature. Other than slapping a scope and bipod on the rifle I really have no plans to modify or do anything special with the rifle.
Factory Ammo:
Obviously a major expense in this particular caliber is factory ammo. I personally didn't have any intention of paying those kinds of prices per round but I wanted to see how factory loads shot, and also wanted to take every measurement possible off their ammo that I could so I could copy them if they did shoot well. I bought a box of Federal Gold Medal Match in 250gr, and 300gr, Prime 300gr, Hornady 285gr, and Fort Scott 250gr. Those are hands down the most expensive rounds I've ever bought in my life. My preference for a long range bullet has always been heavy for caliber, but I figured this variety pack would give me a feel for what the rifle likes. During the break in period of the gun I figured I'd fire a 5rd group of each ammo to record their FPS, SD and ES. I setup about 60 yards off the target because I didn't even know if I'd be on paper and much to my surprise I was about right on so I just put up 5 rds groups of each of those factory loads mostly looking for velocity and not caring as much about accuracy.
Since I was out shooting my new gun I had to see what the difference was on steel with the Fort Scott vs a Matchking vs a Hornady ELD. I had to have a little fun with some steel targets and I was a little shocked to see how much more the Fort Scott bullets penetrated steel.
This picture has a Fort Scott head shot and a hornady on one shoulder with a matchking on the other. I don't remember what should was what bullet. This particular piece of steel is not AR500, but it is about 3/4" thick.
Another hunk of non AR500 steel:
The group to the left was Hornady. Top was Fed GMM 300gr. Center was Fort Scott 250gr, Right was Prime 300gr. Bottom group was Fed GMM 250gr.
Magneto Speed results below on a day about 32 degrees out:
Fort Scott 250gr Ave Vel = 2937, SD = 12.5
Fed GMM 250gr Ave Vel = 2839, SD = 18.6
Fed GMM 300gr Ave Vel = 2540, SD = 14.0
Hornady 285gr Ave Vel = 2815, SD = 9.6
Prime 300gr Ave Vel = 2557, SD = 10.0
Reloading:
The big thing I've been working and the biggest thing I was concerned about in general was how well the rifle would shoot and how many rounds was I going to have to shoot to get something that'd make me happy. Since the last time I worked up a load I had heard of the Satterlee 10 shot load chart and didn't really understand it. Even handloaded the 338 ammo is expensive enough I didn't want to waste ammo or barrel life so I looked into it more and more. The idea seems fairly simple with loading a single round at .3 grain increments but the part I thought was a mystery was the starting point of those loads since there's usually only 10. I grabbed my Sierra load data book and saw the highest load for the 250gr bullet weight and the H1000 powder was 100.1 I worked down 30 rounds from there and really in hindsight I should have gone even further down because nearly every other reloading manual shows a max load in the low to mid 90 grain range which is about where I started. The bullet I decided on was the Fort Scott TUI 250gr. I've never shot machined bullets but a regular matchking is on sale for $.50 a round if you're lucky and these were twice that. I thought it'd be worth it though with my goal in mind of taking it out as far as I can find a range to support it. Because the bullets are so sharp I had to max out my bullet seating die and I got super lucky that they still fit in a magazine and were a touch longer than the factory ammo from Fort Scott. I loaded rounds ranging from 91.4 grains to 100.1, setup with the magneto speed, and starting shooting and recording the FPS. I took that information and put it on excel then started to do my best guessing of where these "flat spots" in velocity were located at.
I took some guesses at 92.4, 97.1, and 97.4 making 5 more rounds of each one with a Fort Scott 250gr. These were shot along with another 5rd group of the factory ammo for comparison and the pictures below show the results better than I could ever describe.
The results have amazed me, and I'm probably going to go through every precision rifle I have and do this test on them to see where the sweet spots are. In the mean time science class is over and I've got a very promising load to work up many more copies of and take to the range where the real data is going to be gathered. For now, science class is over and it's time to go shoot.
Currently I have exactly 85rds down the pipe and I'll update this thread as I get results from taking it out to distance.
Rifle Setup:
Currently the rifle is wearing a loaned optic from another one of my rifles because the SWFA 3-15x MOA FFP scope I ordered last Dec on a black friday sale for nearly half off still hasn't arrived all these months later. I chose that scope because of the SWFA reputation for scopes being able to take a beating and the 140 MOA of internal adjustment in the mechanics of the scope and then the reticle has another 60 MOA in it if you wanted to work with it that way. I took the SWFA 10X it's currently wearing off another rifle since it'd have the same reticle and I knew the scope could take a beating. I put a magpul bipod on it and that's just because that's what I've got on all my guns now and so far I'm a big fan of them over the Harris models I've tried. I like that the stock folds up for easy transport and with it being a 16# gun with 26" barrel that's a really nice feature. Other than slapping a scope and bipod on the rifle I really have no plans to modify or do anything special with the rifle.
Factory Ammo:
Obviously a major expense in this particular caliber is factory ammo. I personally didn't have any intention of paying those kinds of prices per round but I wanted to see how factory loads shot, and also wanted to take every measurement possible off their ammo that I could so I could copy them if they did shoot well. I bought a box of Federal Gold Medal Match in 250gr, and 300gr, Prime 300gr, Hornady 285gr, and Fort Scott 250gr. Those are hands down the most expensive rounds I've ever bought in my life. My preference for a long range bullet has always been heavy for caliber, but I figured this variety pack would give me a feel for what the rifle likes. During the break in period of the gun I figured I'd fire a 5rd group of each ammo to record their FPS, SD and ES. I setup about 60 yards off the target because I didn't even know if I'd be on paper and much to my surprise I was about right on so I just put up 5 rds groups of each of those factory loads mostly looking for velocity and not caring as much about accuracy.
Since I was out shooting my new gun I had to see what the difference was on steel with the Fort Scott vs a Matchking vs a Hornady ELD. I had to have a little fun with some steel targets and I was a little shocked to see how much more the Fort Scott bullets penetrated steel.
This picture has a Fort Scott head shot and a hornady on one shoulder with a matchking on the other. I don't remember what should was what bullet. This particular piece of steel is not AR500, but it is about 3/4" thick.
Another hunk of non AR500 steel:
The group to the left was Hornady. Top was Fed GMM 300gr. Center was Fort Scott 250gr, Right was Prime 300gr. Bottom group was Fed GMM 250gr.
Magneto Speed results below on a day about 32 degrees out:
Fort Scott 250gr Ave Vel = 2937, SD = 12.5
Fed GMM 250gr Ave Vel = 2839, SD = 18.6
Fed GMM 300gr Ave Vel = 2540, SD = 14.0
Hornady 285gr Ave Vel = 2815, SD = 9.6
Prime 300gr Ave Vel = 2557, SD = 10.0
Reloading:
The big thing I've been working and the biggest thing I was concerned about in general was how well the rifle would shoot and how many rounds was I going to have to shoot to get something that'd make me happy. Since the last time I worked up a load I had heard of the Satterlee 10 shot load chart and didn't really understand it. Even handloaded the 338 ammo is expensive enough I didn't want to waste ammo or barrel life so I looked into it more and more. The idea seems fairly simple with loading a single round at .3 grain increments but the part I thought was a mystery was the starting point of those loads since there's usually only 10. I grabbed my Sierra load data book and saw the highest load for the 250gr bullet weight and the H1000 powder was 100.1 I worked down 30 rounds from there and really in hindsight I should have gone even further down because nearly every other reloading manual shows a max load in the low to mid 90 grain range which is about where I started. The bullet I decided on was the Fort Scott TUI 250gr. I've never shot machined bullets but a regular matchking is on sale for $.50 a round if you're lucky and these were twice that. I thought it'd be worth it though with my goal in mind of taking it out as far as I can find a range to support it. Because the bullets are so sharp I had to max out my bullet seating die and I got super lucky that they still fit in a magazine and were a touch longer than the factory ammo from Fort Scott. I loaded rounds ranging from 91.4 grains to 100.1, setup with the magneto speed, and starting shooting and recording the FPS. I took that information and put it on excel then started to do my best guessing of where these "flat spots" in velocity were located at.
I took some guesses at 92.4, 97.1, and 97.4 making 5 more rounds of each one with a Fort Scott 250gr. These were shot along with another 5rd group of the factory ammo for comparison and the pictures below show the results better than I could ever describe.
The results have amazed me, and I'm probably going to go through every precision rifle I have and do this test on them to see where the sweet spots are. In the mean time science class is over and I've got a very promising load to work up many more copies of and take to the range where the real data is going to be gathered. For now, science class is over and it's time to go shoot.
Currently I have exactly 85rds down the pipe and I'll update this thread as I get results from taking it out to distance.
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