Since January, I've refocused my shooting away from carbines and more toward long and reaaaalllly long distance shooting. As such, I was carbineless (?) for a couple of months until I figured out that a .408CT is good for home defense for probably only one shot. Granted, what a shot but still only one. 
(I have since recovered a carbine).
Since .408CT is pretty spendy even with my reloading system up and running, I wanted a "cheaper to shoot" round for this system. Yeah, yeah, stop laughing. .338LM is less expensive and can be found in gunshops pretty easily around here. Reloading it as I do makes it even cheaper.
Bill Ritchie of EDM Arms was nice enough to make a new .338LM barrel, bolt and barrel nut for this system. Took a couple of months and was $2k. Barrel is properly headspaced and it pretty sporty looking with its longitudinal fluting. Both barrels have excellent muzzle brakes.
This reciever will actually accept .50 BMG as well which I may do someday as that would allow me to decrease shooting costs even more for plinking ammo. From what I read, the .375CT is the new big boy on the block and while it can be done, I'm sticking with .408 for now.
With glass being so incredibly spendy, it's nice to be able to use one scope. For this particular application, I'm using a Leupold Mk4 8.5-25 LRT with their Tactical Milling Reticle. On top in the Barrett BORS system, into which I downloaded all of the performance data from my various .338 and .408 loads.
I'm taking the whole ball of wax to upstate NY in a couple of weeks to try my hand at two ranges. One goes to 900 yds and the other to over 2300 yds. I think that should do nicely. Full report with pics soon.
Since .408CT is pretty spendy even with my reloading system up and running, I wanted a "cheaper to shoot" round for this system. Yeah, yeah, stop laughing. .338LM is less expensive and can be found in gunshops pretty easily around here. Reloading it as I do makes it even cheaper.
Bill Ritchie of EDM Arms was nice enough to make a new .338LM barrel, bolt and barrel nut for this system. Took a couple of months and was $2k. Barrel is properly headspaced and it pretty sporty looking with its longitudinal fluting. Both barrels have excellent muzzle brakes.
This reciever will actually accept .50 BMG as well which I may do someday as that would allow me to decrease shooting costs even more for plinking ammo. From what I read, the .375CT is the new big boy on the block and while it can be done, I'm sticking with .408 for now.
With glass being so incredibly spendy, it's nice to be able to use one scope. For this particular application, I'm using a Leupold Mk4 8.5-25 LRT with their Tactical Milling Reticle. On top in the Barrett BORS system, into which I downloaded all of the performance data from my various .338 and .408 loads.
I'm taking the whole ball of wax to upstate NY in a couple of weeks to try my hand at two ranges. One goes to 900 yds and the other to over 2300 yds. I think that should do nicely. Full report with pics soon.
