Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 338 lapua with 160 Barnes bullets need load data

Looking to load 160 Barnes in my weatherby 338 lapua. I would like to achieve the highest possible velocity. If anyone has any ideas or load data I would enjoy the info. Thanks

Can't help with that, but the results should be interesting! What kind of velocity are you expecting?

I used to shoot a 338 umag with 180 ballistic tips @ 3500. Reloader 22 was the powder. I guess I think 36 or 37 should be in the ball park.

Been shooting the 338 Lapua for a decade and never considered anything smaller than a 225grainer. most the time shoot 250-300grainers. What is the purpose of shooting 160's ???

Hope it is not the Lazzeroni philosophy !!!

I didn't start a thread to argue ballistic theory if that's what your interested in please hijack some other forum I'm not in the mood.

Good luck getting any help. mtmuley

Ya no kidding.

I did load that bullet. Worked very well in the Lapua, as a matter of fact. I'll try to see if I still have my notes from it. Not sure if the old Barnes books had the data, or where I got it. But, I'll try to dig. Did shoot a few whitetails with it, but at stones throw ranges as far as that cartridge is concerned. Marvelously effective though.

Edit: Barnes online data shows RL22 producing 3500. I'm almost certain I used that or RL25 in it though, because that is what I used with all the other weights in that cartridge. I don't have my notes from it.

Thanks for the info. I was hoping to use mine deer hunting this year. My main rifle kind of crapped out on me. Looking at load books I figured that there must be some room for improvement on the maximum posted velocities.

So the Lapua has more case capacity than the Ultra-mag ?

I like high velocity big caliber light bullet set ups -a load like what you're after would be great for big hogs in very dense cover.
Good luck to you .

The two are very similar in case capacity. The Lapua is listed as 1 grain higher in case capacity (water).

10-4

Can one be loaded to a higher pressure than the other?

Lapua 69,000
RUM 64,500

I don't know if it's of any use to you, but I shot some 160 gr Barnes out of my 338 RUM with a charge of 92 grains of H4350. I don't know the speed, and I didn't kill anything with it but it was an accurate load out of my gun.

Thanks, KenMi.

Found the data I used in mine.
Source was a previous version of the Barnes manual.

108.0 grains RL25 3625 fps

I was thinking I had used RL22 because of the lighter weight. However, the manual still shows a slight edge with RL25 over RL22, even in that weight of bullet.

Thanks