Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Which Big .33?

Howdy John! Yeah, you've been preaching a brake for as long as I've been paying attention. One HUGE side benefit will be being able to see my hits/misses. I'm usually alone and that can be a problem with my other rifles. Where I shoot, there's usually forest "duff" around my targets, as opposed to dry dirt or gravel, so misses often just vanish into the debris without even a puff of dust or a disturbed spot in the dirt to show where the bullet strike was.

It wouldn't surprise me if I ended up retrofitting a removable brake onto my heavy 7WSM for just that reason.

I should at least consider going 30" on the barrel I suppose. Ugh. I hate long barrels. With this rifle, though, I'm gonna just step WAY out of my comfort zone, and just let you guys tell me what's "best", and give that a try. Cause I can be a wee bit stubborn otherwise.

Hope your Christmas is a wonderful one.

Merry Christmas Jeff!

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

A long barrel in my experience doesn't hurt on a dedicated long range rifle. A big 338 that burns north of 90 grains of powder has a lot of gas that has to exit, a longer barrel makes this much more pleasant.

One doesn't not need much muscle tension to shoot them with a brake.

A brake on your 7 will be great appreciated by you, once you try it.

My 338 LapuaAI has a Vais brake on it that works very well, I can spot my hits through the scope with it but it will never be shot prone.

My gunsmith makes a brake for your application that works awesome and is made with titanium, check it out at Elk Meadow Performance.

Thanks Shane. Up in WA at my mom's.... my brother is here with his brand-new baby. Is there anything better than a new baby nephew at Christmas? I don't think so!

Plus I get to hand him off when he delivers an xmas package <g>.

Ordering the barrel first thing in 2016, that'll take a few months, so I can get the other stuff figured out and bought/ordered while I wait. Would like to have it up and running by spring. The heat of summer is not good shooting around here (for me) so if I miss my spring/early summer window I'm hosed until fall, barring unseasonal cool weather in July/August. I hate shooting in the heat. I get shaky if nothing else.

I'd be willing to make the brake myself if I had some plans. I've got all the tooling to do anything other than spiral flutes/ports.

I used a Rock Creek 5R Carbon Wrapped by ABS, with a 5X25X56 S&B scope and bipod I am about 13 pounds all up. I also went with Seekins detachable Bo's magazine that allows loading out to 3.9" cartridge over all length. The R-700 action is very easy to lengthen the bolt throw on.

Scope will be hotly (internally) debated for some time since it comes down the timeline a ways. If funds allow, probably a NF. If not, if I was buying today, a SWFA @ $1300. If even that is out of reach I'll bump my Zeiss 6.5-20 over and use that while I save my pennies.

But that's many moons away from being a hot issue.

Hey Jeff, In Stock

That was mean <g>!

I was only giving my specs so as to get an idea of the weight of the rifle. Nightforce are excellent long range scopes. You won't need your spotter with the 5X25 S&B if that matters to you.

Why not just build a 338 RUM?

I heard Mike Rock and ABS had a big falling out, is now called Proof Research and they dont use Rock Creek barrels anymore.

Whether or not they use Rock Creek barrels was not my point. The Carbon wrapped barrel save weight yet maintain stiffness. I know that a cut barrel is preferred for wrapping.

That was my thinking going in based on conversations and searches and advice I've received in the past, but I'm interested in hearing all options.... this is uncharted waters for me and I'd like to avoid a head-slapper down the road if that makes sense.

Clearly, a Lapua can work in a M700 but I don't think I want to go there.

The .340 Weatherby has real merit as shown by some posts here... I am biased against Weatherby for reasons I cannot really put into words. I think it's because I associate them with big, glossy rifles from the 70's, when they were bringing hyper-magnum performance to more or less regular hunting rifles. I've never seen the need for a big magnum in a regular hunting rifle, in fact like many right here on this thread, I've probably outright mocked the notion! BUT, for what I'm wanting to build here, the only logical knock I could come up with against the Bee is the belt, and before we go down that road, I understand it's a non-issue for the handloader. So there's really nothing I can come up with against it, yet, I think I'd rather do a RUM or EDGE.

In the last year I'll have built a .223AI, a heavy-ish 7 WSM, and then next up, a big braked beast. Look at ME getting out of my comfort zone and listening to you guys!

Ok, back to trying to get the quad-coptor drone thingie I got my other nephew up and flying. Great family day here- hope it for all y'all as well!

From a ballistics stand point the Rum, Edge, Lapua are all practically equal. But the other two can not equal the quality of the 338 Lapua brass quality and that is what I based my decision on.

It us your call

How's the Aussie (Bertram?) EDGE brass from Defensive Edge? They are pretty proud of it.

I think I'd go 338-375 Ruger.

375 R brass is available, capacity I think is about equal or slightly greater than a 340 Bee IIRC.

Short oal, no belt, no rebated rim. Plenty of ass to push 300gr bullets to solid velocity.

I built a 340 Wby with a Schneider barrel. If you are stuck on a Remington action, there is not a lot of room for those RUM cases. I modified a Sako Finnbear action and I can load 3.85" rounds into my magazine. I have a reamer that is throated for 300 grain Sierras if you want to borrow it.
I get 3000 fps easy with both Magpro and R17 using 250 grain Berger OTMs. I can't shoot the 300s since my barrel is a 12 twist. If I had to do it again , I would get a 10 twist. I did the 12 as I never intended it to be a long range rifle but wanted the reamer set up so I could with a different barrel and stock. Mine weighs 8# without a scope. I shoot it with no sissy pad and I won't own a muzzle brake. If it had a 2" longer barrel that was heavier you could get it to 10# pretty easy. It would be a pussy cat then!

I have no experience with it. I can tell you this Lapua brand brass is the strongest brass available and consistence is as good as gets.