Re: 338 LM barrel life
I was just more curious than anything. I am not the type to load the hottest round my rig can handle. Typically, I start at the lowest charge in the manual and work from there. As soon as I find an acceptably accurate load I stop. I dont keep searching for that extra tenth of an MOA. Also, once I find a load that works from 100 to 700, I probably will put the 308 barrel on and shoot it. It is fun shooting the 338, no doubt, but my range only goes to ~700, so the 308 is what makes sense.
When I go to private land, where we can shoot 1500 plus, I will use the 338LM.
I shot some 250 grain SMK's today, using 83 grains of H4831. The accuracy was good, but not quite as good as the 300 grain SMK's yesterday. I got under 1MOA at 300 yards, but never got under 2". Will mess around with the COAL and charge weights. Loving the rifle so far. It disassembles so easily to clean the barrel, I dont mind running a patch through after every few shots, similar to what some recommend for breaking in.