.338 Lapua Mag for hunting?
by admin on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 | 5 Comments
I am looking for a hunting rifle, and the .338 round interests me. I was wondering what are some hunting rifles(specific brands and models) that are suitable for hunting big game? I don’t want to be bringing a 98 Bravo hunting nor do I want to spend the money on one. Just looking for a good bolt action rifle chambered in .338 lapua mag, and possibly even .338 winchester. If you have fired this round what are your likes/dislikes? I know it is accurate out to long ranges and also has good knockdown power, but maybe too much? Plan on using it for mostly elk and mule deer. Give me your thoughts.
.338 Lapua is overkill for anything but African safari hunting.
Ahhh, my primary thought is that you’re talking about a 1,600 yard round for hunting at what 400 yards at most? I mean, I have no particular interest in having to walk a mile to find out whether the deer I just shot actually was put down hard or I’m going to have to track it.
My secondary thought is best described by a friend of mine who has a .338 Lapua Mag. I was asking him about it and he said:
“Yah, I bought the rifle thinking that it shot .338 Lapua Mag and it turns out it really shoots $5 bills!”
To me that’s a bit more expensive than I’m inclined to spend per round to prep up, practice and hunt deer and elk with.
It’s certainly an interesting and unique round, but if that’s what’s driving you to think about it as a round there are others which are good deer hunting rounds – 6.5 Creedmore for example – and not as expensive.
Thinkingblade
Thinkingblade
It’s right at my 340 Wtby mag levels. If you want a little cheaper to shoot and easily found the 340, 338 Rem Ultra mag and the 338 Win mag you mentioned are it. There are other 338 wildcats even more powerful than all mentioned, but like your Lapua rd “expensive”. The 338 Jarrett and the 338-378 Wtby come to mind.
In the hands of a handloader, the 338 Lapua Magnum is truly a do-it-all weapon!
Cheap bullets in .338″ abound. Downloaded to deer specs like 200 grains at 2700 fps with the help of the Hornady manual, the cases will last seemingly forever, so their initial expense is just the price one pays for extreme bragging rights, actually not too bad if bought wholesale unprimed in a bag of 100. Use the faster powders at the top of the chart for best and most stable performance downloading big case magnums. This also works for 300 Win Mag downloaded to 308 specs, or 7mm Mag downloaded to 7mm Mauser specs.
or are good mailorder sources.
Then come the collapse of society, use of full loads makes one…….
The Lapua is horribly overbore and inefficient for hunting use. There are several 338 magnums,with 330 Dakota being perhaps the best overall design, but you’d do well to forget them all and look at 338-06 as a good cartridge for your purposes.