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Barrel length for 338 Lapua at ELR

Precisionshooter

Precisionshooter

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
May 3, 2013
53
2
Texas gulf coast
What is a good length for this cartridge especially at ELR? I see a lot of them anywhere from 26 to 29 inches, the DTA has a 20 inch, and was wondering which would be optimum. I know the 20 is very portable, but I'm looking for repeatable accuracy with better velocities. Thanks guys!
 
I would normally suggest 27" as a good compromise between velocity and weight/portability. The 20" system places a priority on portability at the expense of velocity/range. Accuracy has little, if anything, to do with barrel length.
 
DTA makes 18" and 26" barrels, the latter of which is pretty well optimized for most scenarios, though some may prefer a faster twist than the 1:10" it comes with. The 18" is super portable but hard on everything with full power loads, so its length and 1:9" twist make it ideal for subsonic or reduced loads. I recently added a 32" barrel with the intent of trying to push heavier bullets a bit faster, but I consider such a long barrel a niche option.
 
I understand that barrel length doesn't have a negative impact on accuracy, 27 seems like a pretty good length, now is the 1 in 10 twist enough for the 300gr pills? or should i roll 9.5?
 
I have a 30" barrel with a 9.4 twist. It shoots the 300 grain pills very well at around 2800 FPS. If you want to shoot it for ELR normally you want to go as fast as possible. Also, you have to take into account that the longer the barre,l the longer the interval is between your harmonic frequencies in the barrel. So finding the sweet spot is harder with a longer barrel but again if your next node is close to your peak pressure then, you are good. I highly recommend getting Quickload and doing your homework first before buying a barrel.
 
Dylanss180 said:
I highly recommend getting Quickload and doing your homework first before buying a barrel.
Click to expand...

What info do you put into quick load to help you determine which barrel you use? And what information do you get out of quick load to help you with your barrel selection?
 
Precision is not in the length of a barrel, so that is not an issue here.

If you don't have to lug it around all day like hunting or tactical matches, then go for as long as managable such as 30". More velocity at same pressure or less pressure for same speed.
 
Smokerroller said:
What info do you put into quick load to help you determine which barrel you use? And what information do you get out of quick load to help you with your barrel selection?
Click to expand...

How deep do you want to go?

I studied a paper on OBT by Chris Long. I then took his formulas, and found theoretical OBT's for different length barrels.
Then, I chose different suitable powders and used Quick-Load to play velocities based on OBT's for different length barrels. Based on data derived this way, I decided to build a 30.06-AI for use with 200-240 gr. bullets and a barrel length of 32"
I had previously found his methods helped me determine good nodes for my 338LM which has a 34" barrel. I am attempting to use the same methods to determine a good barrel length/powder combo for my 30.06-AI, and I believe it will work well.


Cheers,
Tim
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms Shall NOT be Infringed
 
With a 26" you can push a 300gr pill ~2700 fps, which will keep you supersonic for 1400-1700 yards depending on which bullet you are using. A 30"+ is almost necessary if you want to guarantee staying supersonic out past 1 mile.
 
Sorry,

Went out and checked my books. I gave out bum info on the 300's. The velocities I gave out are for the 250gr. The best velocity I have written down for a 300gr came in at 2519 from 91.7 grains of h1000 using lapua brass, lapua bullet, CCI 250 primers and measured on a shooting chrony alpha master
 
I would like to try some other powders if they ever become available again. I use H1000 because I have so much of it for my 300RUM. I thought about trying US869 that I use for .416 Barrett but I would really like to find some Vihtavuori
 
With 95 gr. of H1000, a 300 SMK, Federal Large Rifle magnum primers and Lapua brass I was getting 2700fps out of my TRG42.
Had tried the Russian large Rifle primers ( they worked great in my 308 ) but had failures to ignite in cold ( say 30 degrees F ) weather . Pulled ammo and you could see where the powder was scorched at flash hole but not igniting.
 
one thing to consider that has not been mentioned is when you get to about a 30 inch barrel finding a case can be a PITA - I ended up making one
 
Grizzdude said:
With 90gr of H1000 under a 300gr Berger bullet I'm getting 2780 fps avg.
Click to expand...

What's your bbl length, Grizzdude? I'm getting roughly the same speed but shooting 285gr Hornady's from a 28" bbl with 90.4gr of H1000.
 
Pretty sure he's running a 110ba, which is a 26"bbl. Savage barrels tend to be fast, and his seems to be no exception. My 29" Bartlein is only running the 300s at 2750 with 90gr retumbo.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 
2720fps with factory Lapua 300 Scenar ammo from a 24.5" barrel. You can easily hit 2750 with Retumbo handloads. I've run .338s in everything from an 18.5" to a 27.5" and the 24" is the best of everything. I would never go longer, but I hate long barrels in general.
 
I use the OCW load development method and have found that On short barrel the accuracy nodes are closer together than on longer barrels. Bare in mind I have only done OCW on 5 rifles so my body of experience is limited. An odd exception was on my .300 WM with a Krieger MTU shooting 208 Amax's over BR2 primers the hard I pushed it the more accurate it got.

Bare in mind your are shooting heavy bullets over slow burning powder so you will need lots of barrel to use up that powder. So a better question would be just HOW FAR do YOU want to shoot. Than figure out how fast you need to to push whatever bullet you want to use to get there. Say that number is 2800 FPS. You will than have to decide the length of barrel you will need to get that velocity. Keeping in mind that not all rifle shoot the same speed and that you may not have an accuracy node at the fastest speed for the given barrel length. When you say "ELR" for a 338LM I am thinking 1 mile and beyond. If that is the case I would imagine you wouldn't want to go much shorter than say 28".

Also you can always have a couple inches cut off the end of a barrel if you get say a 31" and decide it is too long for what you want.
 
I have a 30 inch barrel on my 338 and I would no change a thing. It provides a little extra weight as well for the punishment you will take behind the rifle. And a little extra velocity
 
BuhLockay said:
Do you mean faster velocity down range?
Click to expand...

It also produces "slightly" higher muzzle velocities, because a barrel is a cylinder and has volume, and that volume of space is occupied by atmospheric pressure air. At sea level that volume of air is more dense than at 7,000ft asl. Therefore, since the bullet has to displace less air as it accelerates down the barrel it accelerates faster, resulting in higher mv.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk
 
Thanks, bodywerks. I'm familiar with the column of air theory. I just wasn't sure if that's what you were referring to. I'm still not convinced that the slightly less dense air in a couple of feet of barrel is enough to make a measurable difference, but its an interesting concept to investigate. This stuff makes my head hurt.
 
Yup, it's easy to forget that air is a fluid too. Us land dwelling mammals are really just air fish.
 
What is your complete rifle length with the longer barrels? I had not considered needing to fit in a long pelican. Ive got a 26" 300WM and next year on my build list is a 338 that will make a noticeable difference over it which will require some more barrel.
 
Optics Planet carries some long cases. I have a 62x16x6 case from them made by TZ Dura Tech. I have a LONG 300 Lapua with a 34" Lilja in a Tracker stock thats all tricked out. The case is it's home between shooting. Not a bad case but I would not ship in it. I used mine for shipping once and put the packed case back into it's orig. box and it worked out fine. But it is fine for dragging around to shooting sights and banging around vehicles.
 
1slow01z71 said:
What is your complete rifle length with the longer barrels? I had not considered needing to fit in a long pelican. Ive got a 26" 300WM and next year on my build list is a 338 that will make a noticeable difference over it which will require some more barrel.
Click to expand...

59". Got the long case. Cost quite a bit, but really good quality. Had a slight issue with shipping, but they did take care of it.
Cost about $350 to buy it and have it shipped, as they are in the UK. That included a $50 COD UPS charge-----not sure what the delivery fee from UPS was for----try to have shipped via Evan's or Airbourne Express, neither of these charged me delivery fee on Stuff from UK


Cheers,
Tim
The Right to Keep and Bear Arms Shall NOT be Infringed
 
Shooting a suppressed 27.5 inch barrel, H-1000 and 300 gr Scenar bullets gets me 2800 fps.
 
Ive got a 26" barrel shooting 300grn pills at 2730fps. This is the optimum velocity/barrel duration for my barrel node. According to quick load. Longer the barrel the faster the velocity to catch up with barrel node.
Xdeano
 
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