Strongbad
Member
Yes. Handloads.
Forget the factory fodder. For what you're paying you could roll your own. Save the brass, put some primers, powder, etc. on order and wait for it to arrive. 
Savage Hog Hunter 338 WinMag For Long Range
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Yes. Handloads.
Forget the factory fodder. For what you're paying you could roll your own. Save the brass, put some primers, powder, etc. on order and wait for it to arrive. yuppiecruncher
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Sunday's test results
Hey guys,
Turns out, I'm a big flinching sissy! I put that mean old muzzle brake on in between range sessions and what a difference! Additionally I switched to Hornady Superformance SST 200gr (vs. 225) This combo tightened up my shot group by a whole MOA at 100yds. The recoil was nearly negligible and no more bouncing! What a great piece of equipment!
Scope is now zeroed to 100yds... shot groups looking good. This Savage Hog Hunter .338 Win Mag is a tack-driver!
Hey guys,
Turns out, I'm a big flinching sissy! I put that mean old muzzle brake on in between range sessions and what a difference! Additionally I switched to Hornady Superformance SST 200gr (vs. 225) This combo tightened up my shot group by a whole MOA at 100yds. The recoil was nearly negligible and no more bouncing! What a great piece of equipment!
Scope is now zeroed to 100yds... shot groups looking good. This Savage Hog Hunter .338 Win Mag is a tack-driver!
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hey yuppie! I'm looking at basically the same rig as you. Did you install the brake yourself? If so did you use PA's alignment ring thinga-majig? Also how well can you see the sights through those rings? I'm deciding between those or just a set of QD's.
yuppiecruncher
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Yes, I put the brake on myself and I used their spacer rings. They made it super easy to correctly "time" the brake. Clean the threads with brake cleaner - regular car brake cleaner and then I used loc-tite blue to seal it up. Torquing was tough because I don't have a vice, but it's not impossible. The iron sights are visible, but caution on the scope caps, they reduce the visibility to almost nothing. Without the caps, you can see just enough to take an aimed shot. Also forget about a cheek rest if you use one, it will totally block your line of sight- makes it impossible to use both the cheek rest and iron sights.
dubbleA
Member
It's just my opinion. but I think you'll be better off ditching the see through rings and getting that scope down where you can get a good cheek weld and forget using the open sights.
Or leave the rings and install a removal cheek piece so you can take it off for barrel cleaning and forget about the irons.
yuppiecruncher
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I agree with dubbleA. It was a good idea in the store, but after shooting, the iron sight/scope combo does not make much sense.
It is much more practical to have a good cheek-weld than to have to hold your head up for every shot.
Ideally, there would be a velcro cheek rest that you could remove if/when you needed the sights and when you need to clean the rifle. Anyone know of such a thing?
yuppiecruncher
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After doing some math, I calculated that I could save about $1,500.00 (including equipment costs) by reloading 1000 times, using my 100 brass cases on hand. Holy. Cow.
Good Call Strongbad -- also nice reference. Trogdooooooor!
Good Call Strongbad -- also nice reference. Trogdooooooor!
Hey yuppiecruncher, thanks for posting your results! I still have to get a scope mounted on mine and get it out to the range, but it's nice to see some actual groups from the .338 version of this rifle. I was thinking of not putting a brake on mine because of the noise, but now you have me thinking twice.
see through trash
As for see- through rings, they'll only lead you to practice bad habits. IMHO it is worthe the money to buy some GOOD QD rings for your scope. Especially w/ that kind of rifle, you're not looking for match accuracy at 1,000 yards. You can easily go back and forth: I use a hog hunter in .308 for that and have no issues keeping 1" POI at 100 yards through a deer season, going on and off a couple times a week.
As for see- through rings, they'll only lead you to practice bad habits. IMHO it is worthe the money to buy some GOOD QD rings for your scope. Especially w/ that kind of rifle, you're not looking for match accuracy at 1,000 yards. You can easily go back and forth: I use a hog hunter in .308 for that and have no issues keeping 1" POI at 100 yards through a deer season, going on and off a couple times a week.
yuppiecruncher
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.338 long range Hog Hunter
Ok,
After a few sessions on the bench, I have some updates:
Shoulder says: Go with the 200gr or the 250gr. For some reason, 225gr really pounds my arm.
Paper says: Go with 200gr.
Wallet says: Go with 200gr.
I hand-loaded my first Speer 200gr. bullets with RL-19 pushing them with CCI Large primers. I have only verified that they will not explode in my face and will actually push a bullet out of the barrel... mission accomplished!
Next task is to ladder test the different loads and play with different charges. Here is a scan of the recent hand-loads performance. The colored rings are added by me digitally to help me recognize them when using "On Target." to measure the groups.
Larger pic of data here: http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r235/yuppiecruncher/Ladderfiring20APR13_zps2c96ad32.jpg
Ok,
After a few sessions on the bench, I have some updates:
Shoulder says: Go with the 200gr or the 250gr. For some reason, 225gr really pounds my arm.
Paper says: Go with 200gr.
Wallet says: Go with 200gr.
I hand-loaded my first Speer 200gr. bullets with RL-19 pushing them with CCI Large primers. I have only verified that they will not explode in my face and will actually push a bullet out of the barrel... mission accomplished!
Next task is to ladder test the different loads and play with different charges. Here is a scan of the recent hand-loads performance. The colored rings are added by me digitally to help me recognize them when using "On Target." to measure the groups.
Larger pic of data here: http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r235/yuppiecruncher/Ladderfiring20APR13_zps2c96ad32.jpg
yuppiecruncher
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- Mar 15, 2013
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Hog Hunter With Precision Arms Muzzle Brake
Here is a video of the muzzle brake in action. This took a LOT of the bite out of the recoil. You will see that the barrel stays pretty well put on the bipods. It used to jump and bounce once before settling down. The muzzle blast is still pretty significant though, it knocked my camera down on the first shot and I had to prop it up for the rest of the shots.
http://youtu.be/Hv8cMQYKyyE
Here is a video of the muzzle brake in action. This took a LOT of the bite out of the recoil. You will see that the barrel stays pretty well put on the bipods. It used to jump and bounce once before settling down. The muzzle blast is still pretty significant though, it knocked my camera down on the first shot and I had to prop it up for the rest of the shots.
http://youtu.be/Hv8cMQYKyyE
yuppiecruncher
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Iron Sights dialed in
Here is the group I shot with the iron sights at 50 yards. I still had my scope mounted and could see the target just fine. Next time I'll take a pic of my sight picture.
Additionally, I am very pleased with my hand-loads. I seem to have found a very sweet load on my first few test loads.
Here is the group I shot with the iron sights at 50 yards. I still had my scope mounted and could see the target just fine. Next time I'll take a pic of my sight picture.
Additionally, I am very pleased with my hand-loads. I seem to have found a very sweet load on my first few test loads.
nastynatesfish
Member
yuppie. that's awesome im looking at one now for 450 scoped. on a lighter note...if you shot that thing next to me in an indoor range, after I picked my self up and stopped the blood flowing from my ears of course, id punch you in the face lol. that's awesome. I love big stupid calibers that just make people mad lol
Kachok
Member
Not knocking the 338 Win Mag I like them too, but what the heck are you going to do with that monster that you could not do with a little 6.5lbs 308? I am not a fan of bringing a knife to a gun fight but I never feel the need to bring a 155mm Howitzer either The hog hunting I have done has been very mobile in some pretty thick undergrowth, a heavy or very long rifle would be a huge handicap in my book. If you are feeder hunting out of a stand sure blast them with whatever floats your boat, 17 HMR-50 BMG there is no wrong answer as long as they are good and dead.
The hog hunting I have done has been very mobile in some pretty thick undergrowth, a heavy or very long rifle would be a huge handicap in my book. If you are feeder hunting out of a stand sure blast them with whatever floats your boat, 17 HMR-50 BMG there is no wrong answer as long as they are good and dead.Z-Michigan
Member
@Yuppiecrunch, in post #18 it looks like your scope reticle is canted. This will make it hard to be accurate at distances beyond your zero distance. While you're fixing that I also vote for ditching the super high see-through rings and replacing them with a good quality lower ring. I like Warne and TPS personally, but there are lots of good brands. Just get the scope down lower so you can get a good cheekweld. I see that your accuracy results already improved a lot, but this will help further.
Still Shooting
Member
Barrel Break-In on my Savage
A couple of years ago, I bought a NIB Savage 11 in 7mmWSM. While I did manage to get close to Savage's 1 moa advertised accuracy with the Winchester ammo they said they used for proofing, nothing else I shot would get to the 1 moa number. I started doing ladder loads, in 2 different bullet weights - 140 Nosler BT, the other a Hornady 162 SST.
It took about 80 rds. through that barrel, and suddenly it settled down to an honest, repeatable 0.5 - 0.6 moa at 100 yds, 5 shot groups. From new I cleaned the bore @ 5 rd. intervals for 25 rds., then 10 rd. intervals for another 30 rds. I kind of "gave up on it" after that, but probably did clean at 10-15 rd. intervals. I have heard elsewhere on this blog that Savage barrels can be a little "rough" right from the factory, and I do believe that. But now I can shoot 140, 150, and 162gr. bullets with the sub-moa groups I stated above. You may have a pleasant surprise in store if you keep pushing lead down the pipe on that .338 of yours...
-just sayin'
A couple of years ago, I bought a NIB Savage 11 in 7mmWSM. While I did manage to get close to Savage's 1 moa advertised accuracy with the Winchester ammo they said they used for proofing, nothing else I shot would get to the 1 moa number. I started doing ladder loads, in 2 different bullet weights - 140 Nosler BT, the other a Hornady 162 SST.
It took about 80 rds. through that barrel, and suddenly it settled down to an honest, repeatable 0.5 - 0.6 moa at 100 yds, 5 shot groups. From new I cleaned the bore @ 5 rd. intervals for 25 rds., then 10 rd. intervals for another 30 rds. I kind of "gave up on it" after that, but probably did clean at 10-15 rd. intervals. I have heard elsewhere on this blog that Savage barrels can be a little "rough" right from the factory, and I do believe that. But now I can shoot 140, 150, and 162gr. bullets with the sub-moa groups I stated above. You may have a pleasant surprise in store if you keep pushing lead down the pipe on that .338 of yours...
-just sayin'
yuppiecruncher
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- Mar 15, 2013
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Pushing the Hog Hunter Further
Folks,
First I greatly appreciate all the input. Much of the advice here in this thread will be taken. Lessons learned from real world shooting have shown me that indeed, the see-through rings were a good idea in theory, but bad in practice. They will be replaced with lower profile, steel rings mated to a steel rail. Secondly, I have learned a TON about reloading from mistakes and now I have started to refine that practice as well.
Most recently I have taken my rifle out to California where I grew up in the mountains of the Sierra Nevadas. I couldn't find a range that accommodates distances further than 100 yards where I live, but out in the foothills, there is no shortage of unpopulated valleys and hills. I have pushed my .338 win mag out to a full 826 meters!!!
First shot, approximately 6" off-center. This target is 22" high
This shot was repeated a week later, landing three out of four rounds on target. MOA calculation wasn't done, but I might follow up and post that as well. A little video if you are interested in seeing my last shot of the day...
http://youtu.be/fxslbHH_9d8
Folks,
First I greatly appreciate all the input. Much of the advice here in this thread will be taken. Lessons learned from real world shooting have shown me that indeed, the see-through rings were a good idea in theory, but bad in practice. They will be replaced with lower profile, steel rings mated to a steel rail. Secondly, I have learned a TON about reloading from mistakes and now I have started to refine that practice as well.
Most recently I have taken my rifle out to California where I grew up in the mountains of the Sierra Nevadas. I couldn't find a range that accommodates distances further than 100 yards where I live, but out in the foothills, there is no shortage of unpopulated valleys and hills. I have pushed my .338 win mag out to a full 826 meters!!!
First shot, approximately 6" off-center. This target is 22" high
This shot was repeated a week later, landing three out of four rounds on target. MOA calculation wasn't done, but I might follow up and post that as well. A little video if you are interested in seeing my last shot of the day...
http://youtu.be/fxslbHH_9d8
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