Thread: 338 powder.

Just sorted a 338LM never had anything to do with them I want to run the 285 eld where do I start with powder and primers. Is there anything else I should know about this round?

Mine does very well with 300 grain Berger and a moderate (pretty much halfway between min and max charge) dose of ADI 2225. The mag length is 3.85" so I load the rounds to 3.75" to make sure they feed with no issues. From memory the max load for a 300 grain bullet is 94 grains, I'm at 89, which produces 2740 fps, could push it faster but it shoots well the way it is so I leave it there in the interest of case and barrel life. Case fill with this charge and overall length is close to 100% it seems, which can only be good for consistency. I'd say try some ADI powders first as they are usually cheaper and almost always more readily available as it comes from Aussie and not the US or Europe. I use CCI large rifle magnum primers simply because that's all that was available when I whipped up my first loads, and now despite not being match grade primers I am too scared to change as the load is great as it is. I imagine the 285 grain ELD will be pretty darn good, if the twist rate is 1/10 or there abouts. I've got some 5x fired Lapua cases you can have if you want, I full length size each time, bumping the shoulder, if I had a means of annealing consistently I would be neck-sized and anneal each load. For what the .338 is capable of I think it's worth being as consistent as possible, use the same reloading routine every time you size the brass, the though of having big variations in neck tension every third firing from annealing every three sizing scares me, so neck and anneal each time, or FL and shoulder bump each time, and keep an eye on changes in velocity for each sizing.
Sorry for rambling a bit, tired,
Cheers, Tom

@Cartman

I found that my rifle preferred 94.5 grains of AR2217 with a mag primer. This gave me 2950 at the muzzle with a 250 gr scenar which was according to the Military snipers and LR Hunters I spoke with from USA / Aus the accuracy node for a 250 grain load.

I tried .5 grain increments from 88-98 grains as per the ADI manual and found that this was the most accurate node along with 96 grains but I was after a low pressure load that would give the most firings.

With 285's I tried AR2217 from 85-92 grains and 90.5 was best. This shot around the 2750-2800 mark and shot 1/2 inch. I used this load to take a few deer at 300-500m and one at 35m... all bang flops.

I tried some factory Lapua ammo with 300 scenars and this shot 1/2" as expected but didn't like the recoil. No doubt some AR225 would get good results.

For hunting, "overkill is underrated" the animal is just as dead with any 338 pill, no matter where you hit them!

A gut-shot is the poor mans head-shot, saves lots of meat...

Yeah I'm looking forward to it I have a lot of land were 500 meters plus is the norm . I think the 285 elds are the goods I've only had good results from the amax and elds this is just more of a good thing. Do th3 scenars kill well? Sinbad good results with speed and accuracy with 2225 in my win mag but I've been given alot of different advise so far retumbo hv1000 2217 and 2225 I already have half a pound of the later so will probably start with that. Cheers for the help lads. I just need to buy some dies and I'll be away.

Scenarist kill fine, all of the pills mentioned always exited for me and everything I shot with a 338 has been "bang, flop"