Ideal Barrel Length for .338 Win Mag
- Thread starter Kestrel
- Start date
- Status
hagar
member
I think 24 inches is ideal. The 340 Weatherby might use another 2 inches more efficiently, but 24 is a good length for a 338.
I think that belted magnum's are at their best with a 26" bbl. Although that may seem excessively long, I feel that the additional length really helps with bullet stabilization. A more stable bullet makes for a flatter trajectory and better results at longer ranges.
rbernie
Contributing Member
I have no first hand data one way or another, but I would expect that the 338 WinMag does just fine in a 24" since it's really not very overbore (unlike, say, a 7mm Mag).
I just checked my load books, and I find it interesting that Speer, Hornady, and Lyman all use 24" barrels for their 338 WinMag test data. That would seem to indicate (if not prove) that 24" is a pretty good length for the chambering.
I just checked my load books, and I find it interesting that Speer, Hornady, and Lyman all use 24" barrels for their 338 WinMag test data. That would seem to indicate (if not prove) that 24" is a pretty good length for the chambering.
Kestrel;
I shoot a .338 Winchester magnum & reload for it. It's an older Tikka Whitetail with a 24" barrel on it.
I've found that the Hornady & Speer manuals couldn't be much further apart than when dealing with this caliber's reloading information. I prefer to use these two manuals because they both use real guns to develop their data, not test barrels. The Speer used a Winchester mdl 70 and so did Hornady, both, as noted above, with 24" barrels. Yet the starting load in Speer for RL19 powder exceeds Hornady's MAX load for 225 grain bullets with that powder. Other powders vary widely also, yet some are quite close. I carefully worked up my loads, I can tell you that fer sure, fer sure.
I tested RL22, RL19, N160, and IMR4350. I'm still running chrono tests on the gun & loads, but it's more in the nature of fiddling than work-up.
Current hunting load is 75.5 gr of RL19 in Winchester brass that's neck sized only, with CCI magnum primers under the Hornady 225 gr spire point. I'm getting 2875 muzzle and S/D's in the single digits with very nice accuracy. I'm also getting 8 reloads per brass, so I'm pretty sure this isn't a real high-stress load.
900F
I shoot a .338 Winchester magnum & reload for it. It's an older Tikka Whitetail with a 24" barrel on it.
I've found that the Hornady & Speer manuals couldn't be much further apart than when dealing with this caliber's reloading information. I prefer to use these two manuals because they both use real guns to develop their data, not test barrels. The Speer used a Winchester mdl 70 and so did Hornady, both, as noted above, with 24" barrels. Yet the starting load in Speer for RL19 powder exceeds Hornady's MAX load for 225 grain bullets with that powder. Other powders vary widely also, yet some are quite close. I carefully worked up my loads, I can tell you that fer sure, fer sure.
I tested RL22, RL19, N160, and IMR4350. I'm still running chrono tests on the gun & loads, but it's more in the nature of fiddling than work-up.
Current hunting load is 75.5 gr of RL19 in Winchester brass that's neck sized only, with CCI magnum primers under the Hornady 225 gr spire point. I'm getting 2875 muzzle and S/D's in the single digits with very nice accuracy. I'm also getting 8 reloads per brass, so I'm pretty sure this isn't a real high-stress load.
900F
rangerruck
Member
I would prefer a 26, as I had a sniper type setup with a 24, and i would really prefer a 28 in bbl. A hot centerfire loses between 30 and 50 fps for every inch of bbl.
- Status
