Loading .338 LM FOR ELR?

[SpentBrass]

Well first off howdy, I am new to the sight but have read allot before joining so I know there is allot of knowledge here. OK to the meat of it, I have reloaded for my Savage 110 BA in .338 LM before and they were 300g Scenar's but I am going to try the Berger 300g Tactical OTM for ELR, and I have heard that seating depth is critical with this round. I have mainly used factory rounds in my rifle such as Hornady 285's and such(Getting decent results out to 1200y) so I havent played around with seating closer to the lands to improve accuracy.

Instead of getting a gauge for the OAL to the lands in my rifle I loaded up a dummy round and closed the action, and then measured the COAL, it was 3.710 with a 300g scenar I assume that the OGIVE will be the same as the 300G OTM's?, is this a acceptable method? If so what length have you all gotten good results? I hear .010 of the lands has produced good accuracy in the 110 BA.

I will be using Fed 215 primers, Retumbo powder(Starting @85g and laddering up from there), Lapua Brass and Jamison brass. My experience with Retumbo and 300g Scenars is my rifle really liked 86-87g Retumbo seating @ factory COAL.

So is there any advice for the OTM pills recipe's, seating depth ect.ect. Any tips advice and or recipes would be much appreciated.

 

[thrusty]

You'll find that different bullet manufactures will not have the same measurements. IE: A 300g Lapua Scenar's ogive will not be in the same spot of a Berger 300g OTM. When you're counting 1000's of an inch...this matters.

Unfortunately, you'll need to get a bullet comparator to get a good measurement. Going off the COL is not the best way to determine anything other than the COL. In fact, there can be variance of the ogive location from lot to lot from the same manufacture.

Sorry, can't really help much with the load recipe for the 338LM - can't afford it.

 

[High Binder]

I've posted a lot of info about this in the past and I'm not going to type it all out again but if you search for it you'll find all my posts and countless others on this same topic.

 

[zackm]

I can tell you that 300 smk touch lands at 3.710 in the BA's and the lapua bullets seem to be the same. The berger 300 gr otm touch the lands .110 further out 3.820. In my exp. with the burgers they seem to work best in the BA's at 3.680 that should fit your mag and be about .140 jump. If you do not care about mag length berger told me to try touching lands and then 0.020 off. I have never had much luck at 0.020 off land but have seen some good things while touching them with the bergers. Hope this helps.

 

[SpentBrass]

I can tell you that 300 smk touch lands at 3.710 in the BA's and the lapua bullets seem to be the same. The berger 300 gr otm touch the lands .110 further out 3.820. In my exp. with the burgers they seem to work best in the BA's at 3.680 that should fit your mag and be about .140 jump. If you do not care about mag length berger told me to try touching lands and then 0.020 off. I have never had much luck at 0.020 off land but have seen some good things while touching them with the bergers. Hope this helps.

Thanks zackm, Thats the kind of info I was looking for thanks, currently my Micrometer seating die is @3.693 Ill dial her down a bit and see how they act. Im at work and cannot recall the C.O.A.L that is in my Lyman book but its in the neighborhood of 3.682

 

[SpentBrass]

I got home from work and loaded up a dummy round and got 3.843 on the C.O.A.L with Berger OTM 300g .133 more than with Scenars of 3.710. I need to get a comparator for sure