Re: Barrett 416 versus 338 LM
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: turbo54</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
Was thinking about 338LM Improved the other day...
Lapua and another company (can't remember who) put a TON of work and design/testing effort to give us the 338LM we all know and love.
"Common wisdom" tells us a sharp, pushed-forward shoulder is "the best", aka "improved"...
Well, improved isn't anthing new, yet Lapua (et al) didn't design it that way.
Why?
There's GOTTA be a good reason. </div></div>
You would think such a cartridge was built from magic dust of long past snipers.
The truth is the 338 Lapua is a bit of a bastard stepchild
Lapua did not design the case...They tweaked the reamer print and re named it it is all.
Brass Extrusion Laboratories (Jim Bell) and some other defunct rifle building company did the design work.
The cartridge started as a full size 338/416 Rigby (338 Lapua improved no less!). Jim Bell did some hunting in Africa with that rendition. His concept was large volume low pressure cases...Which always work in high temperatures.
My recollection is shortly afterward the 416 Rigby case was shrunk down to go after a military contract that required 250 grains at 3000 fps as its target. There was some thinking that the shortened and tapered case could fit into a Remington 700..Money in the military world of that era.
I believe the defunct gun company built a rifle along the way and at testing the cartridge failed to meet the 3000fps goal and was scrubbed.
Lapua picked up the ashes and I bought my first Sako so chambered a few years later...around 1985..It was disappointment on just about every front...With its 23 inch barrel it was slower, heavier, and didn't shoot as well as my Rem700 340Wby!
At the time the 338 Lapua brass was undesirable and was near free...Go figure!
Nothing special happened until Accuracy International got their weapon system going.