SOMETHING TO KEEP NOISY NEIGHBORS IN LINE? ( supergun that kills from a mile )
on 02/15/2009 at 01:48 PM
It is also the cure for jihad. They get their 72 virgin suprise, and we get peace on earth. The .338 lapua is a good reach out and touch something cartridge. The L115 can also be had in 300 magnum and 7mm remington magnum offerings.
Another fine rifle is the Tubb 2000. It though is not available in the 338 offering, but instead uses the 6mmXC for accuracy out to 1600MGosh, this awful thing looks like it could shoot down airliners. Quick, let’s ban it!
Personally I’d like to see the idiotic ban against sound suppressors in the USA get lifted. Guns are loud. All of them. Anything that can reduce the BOOM below damaging levels is a good thing. In this one way, Europe is smarter than the US. Suppressors are often required on hunting rifles.
Now, before the panic sets in, it should be noted that this cartridge is not really any more powerful than the .340 Weatherby, a moose gun round that has been around since 1962. Even though the .338 Lapua has a 14% larger capacity case, when loaded to equal pressure points both cartridges produce nearly the same velocities. Two reasons for this: 1) no powder is available to the sportsman that is specifically tailored to the .338 Lapua, and 2) Barrels longer than 26” are rather cumbersome and tend to be whippy. Whippy is bad for accuracy.
Does the military have some custom powder that could get another 200fps out of this cartridge? I bet they do. So that makes it a super gun? No, not really. Sportsmen have access to several other .338 caliber cartridges that have even greater performance than this one. The .338 Remington Ultra Magnum is one example, the .338-378 Weatherby is another. While this is a big round, the point is that sportsmen have had access to rounds at least as good, and perhaps better, for ages.
The distinct advantage is really in the bullet itself. There are a whole new generation of very long range medium caliber bullets, like the Hornady A-Max and the 300 grain Sierra Match King. These bullets are nearly twice as aerodynamic as regular bullets, which means they can hold onto velocity much better at long ranges. Even so, hur hur hur, there is no “magic bullet”; the MK has to be launched at 2950fps to remain supersonic at 2000 meters, at which point it is “merely” as powerful as a .44 magnum.
Ordinarily, 2650fps is about the best you can get from a .338 Lapua with this bullet, which limits it’s supersonic range to a “paltry” 1800 yards - a bit more than a mile. The bullet still moves through almost 1000 inches of vertical trajectory, 83 feet. You can’t get around the physics. So shooting at this range is more akin to dropping rounds like artillery; the bullet will hit the target at a severe downward angle.
Due to the weight of this beast of a rifle, recoil isn’t that awful. Call it 28 lb/ft but at a lazy 11fps. A moderately big push, but a slow one. Any man in good shape could shoot this rifle quite a bit before getting fatigued.
Drew I agree with you 100% on the suppressor issue. Both my rifles had suppressors in the UK but in the Great White North they are “prohibited.” The suppressor does not silence a rifle, though I suppose if you were shooting subsonic .308 rounds it would be pretty quiet. With supersoni rounds the report is akin to a .22 rimfire. The use of a suppressor would save a lot of people from going deaf in later life. They are especially useful at ranges with lots of people firing at the same time.
As for the rifle. I have read some good things about Accuracy International. Makes a change for something made in England.
*heh* Sorry guys, I couldn’t resist.
That is impressive. In the world of warfare, there’s something intimidating about the ability of a person to kill from that sort of range - as opposed to a bomb or something impersonal.
However, I don’t need anything that far away anymore. Even with good scopes, I’m not sure I can make out a proper target at 1500 yards.
I’ve got a Remington 700 VLS in .308 Winchester with a Leupold 4x11 heavy duty scope; I’ve hit - on purpose - targets at ranges of 400 yards at night with it. That will do for these old eyes.
Still, I’ve nothing against technology or improving technology. .338 Lupua is a pretty impressive round. But I still prefer rifles made of steel and good wood. What can I say? I’m an old guy.
02/15/2009 at 10:12 PM
02/16/2009 at 11:35 AM
