338 Win. Mag 265 Gr. Accubond Long Range load test

[salmonchaser]

Modern engineering has likely given us rifles that are very safe at the pressures they were designed to operate at.
My question is why keep tickling the dragons tail? Why not go buy a 338 RUM, or .340 B.?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Hunter2011]

My question is why keep tickling the dragons tail? Why not go buy a 338 RUM, or .340 B.?

That's the question anyone who wants to go long with a 338 cal should ask before they invest in a rifle for the LR business. But, I'm doing it for EXPERIMENTATION period. I will say to anyone who wants to LR with a 338; strongly consider a 338RUM, 33Nos. or heck even a 338 Lapua. The major downside with those calibers is the rifles chambered in them are gonna be pretty expensive and ammo is gonna cost at least $3-4 a shot for factory new(not to mention brass is pricey). So yes, I'm pushing the limits with the Win Mag, but I'm fairly confident the infamous elk cartridge can be loaded to shoot long with new bullets and new powders available on the market.

I do not recommend people to replicate what I've published though. In fact I strongly advise against it.

 

[jason miller]

If you really meant 2930 at 68.5, then did you also really mean 2778 at 69? It's not uncommon to lose velocity in shot-to-shot string with a small sample size, but if you lost 150 fps while adding a half grain of powder, something is wrong.

RL26 is not too slow in a .338 Win Mag, unless you're limited on cartridge OAL. Especially with heavier bullets. It's actually ideal according to Quickload, and Quickload has backed up my real-life results enough for me to believe it. I wouldn't even waste my time pushing for absolute top velocity in a .338 Win with any other powder, unless if it were with bullets under 200 grains.

 

[Hunter2011]

If you really meant 2930 at 68.5, then did you also really mean 2778 at 69? It's not uncommon to lose velocity in shot-to-shot string with a small sample size, but if you lost 150 fps while adding a half grain of powder, something is wrong.

RL26 is not too slow in a .338 Win Mag, unless you're limited on cartridge OAL. Especially with heavier bullets. It's actually ideal according to Quickload, and Quickload has backed up my real-life results enough for me to believe it. I wouldn't even waste my time pushing for absolute top velocity in a .338 Win with any other powder, unless if it were with bullets under 200 grains.

First thing first.... Yes I ment 68.5-2930,2936 and 69.0-2780. That's what my chrono read. Several things may have played into the velocity dump, First, a overly heavy powder charge will drop the speed significantly(I dunno about 150 though). Second, my chrono angle may have changed since I'm shooting through a Light/shadow chrono leading to lower velocities displayed. Finally, I said it was cold so maybe the rounds cooled more as time went on( I tried to keep the temps the same though).


Second, RL26 is too slow for your super high velocities. Here's my proof viewtopic.php?f=4&t=32865.

You be the judge. QL gets you into the ball park but its not infallible. Don't get me wrong its an excellent tool but what matters is when the rubber meets the road.

 

[desertcj]

Just catching back up on this thread. I'm not offended at all, I was just interested in some clarification on those statements about RL17. No biggy. RL17 seems to be giving you very high velocities with that load! Seems that you should be OK by dropping down to 67 or 67.5gr and seeing where you sit. I'm the other hand, you know you are close to the edge and your comfort level with any particular powder should be based on personal experience In my opinion. I'm very comfortable being 1gr under slight ejector marks with H1000 for instance. 1gr under slight ejector marks with RL17 might be rolling the dice? I really couldn't tell you. I like what your doing though and I'm still reading! Carry on...

 

[jason miller]

If you really meant 2930 at 68.5, then did you also really mean 2778 at 69? It's not uncommon to lose velocity in shot-to-shot string with a small sample size, but if you lost 150 fps while adding a half grain of powder, something is wrong.

RL26 is not too slow in a .338 Win Mag, unless you're limited on cartridge OAL. Especially with heavier bullets. It's actually ideal according to Quickload, and Quickload has backed up my real-life results enough for me to believe it. I wouldn't even waste my time pushing for absolute top velocity in a .338 Win with any other powder, unless if it were with bullets under 200 grains.

First thing first.... Yes I ment 68.5-2930,2936 and 69.0-2780. That's what my chrono read. Several things may have played into the velocity dump, First, a overly heavy powder charge will drop the speed significantly(I dunno about 150 though). Second, my chrono angle may have changed since I'm shooting through a Light/shadow chrono leading to lower velocities displayed. Finally, I said it was cold so maybe the rounds cooled more as time went on( I tried to keep the temps the same though).


Second, RL26 is too slow for your super high velocities. Here's my proof viewtopic.php?f=4&t=32865.

You be the judge. QL gets you into the ball park but its not infallible. Don't get me wrong its an excellent tool but what matters is when the rubber meets the road.

I'm not trying to sound like an asshole, but I think something went wrong either with your chrono or your writing down the readings. 2930 and 2936 fps is faster than Nosler lists a 338 RUM pushing that bullet, and that's with another 20 grains or so of powder. 2730 and 2736 makes a lot more sense on several fronts.

And RL26 should still trump RL17 in speed at the same pressure in this cartridge. I haven't explored it enough because I ran out of bullets, but my rifle seemed to back up the Quickload readout in the following thread that shows RL26 being the top velocity producing powder with 250's.

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=36918

Quickload seems to think that RL26 should be good for another 90 fps over RL17 with 250's. Moving to an even heavier bullet should maintain the slower powder's advantage. I wasn't trying to be combative as much as I was trying to make a suggestion to help in what seems to be a pursuit of absolute top speed.

 

[SJB358]

On Jason’s note, I had amazing speed with 225’s and 250’s in my 338 with 26. Loads weren’t highly compressed either. I love 17 in my 338 with the 200-210’s but if I were looking to run 225-265’s I’d give it a shot. It fits and gets great speed.

 

[Hunter2011]

Jason, Haha ok thanks for the clarification. :grin:
I might try RL26 in the future just because I do like experimenting with new powders. If I can squeeze 2800 out of RL17 I would be super happy with that(IDK if this will happen), but like you said something really does sound off, but I wonder why I got 2 in a row that were in the 2900s(I swear I didn't miss read my chrono). Honestly I don't know this powder well enough to tell if my results were off or not but again like you said the 2900s is awful fast. So, I'll re work up from 66.5-68.0 and see how she flies and what speed she flies at. Like I said before though getting to the range and shooting groups when it's snowy and cold does not fly in line with my idea of fun so it's probably gonna be early-late spring before I rerun this load.

Thanks,
Hunter

 

[Hunter2011]

Well.... I tried the load work up from 65.5-68.0 today... I got her to go 2740 at 68.0 but the accuracy was garbage (I'm talking 1.5-2.0in groups) and I was getting had a ejector marks and sticky bolt lift (plus another surprise in the pic).
At 65.5 and 66.0 the pressures seemed OK and I was in the low 2600s with those loads but accuracy still was lacking. So, in the future(summer) I will try to tune those 2 loads and see if I can atleast 1 inch groups and I will probably try out RL26 or possibly a different powder.


Case head cracked and ripe for separation after second firing??? Normally I have seen the head stretching further up the case after 5-6 firings and the base ring is there because of the how I bump size the cases which allows for resistance from the chamber(extends case life). This appears as if its a crack which is new to me on this part of the case.


In the end folks its still a 338 WM not a RUM or LM so treat it like that because if you're not careful bad things can and will happen not to mention premature wear caused to the rifle.

 

[SJB358]

Here are some numbers I got with 26 and the 250 Partitions





It worked well with the 225’s as well. These were shot in NC a couple years ago at 75-80 degrees as well.





I never did too much else with these since I wanted to run the Swift’s in my rifle for awhile.

 

[Hunter2011]

SJB358
How long of barrel were you shooting those out of?

 

[SJB358]

SJB358
How long of barrel were you shooting those out of?

25” barrel.

 

[Hunter2011]

Hey all! Sorry, I don't mean to be beating a dead topic... But Now that summer is coming to a close and the fire-ban has been lifted in the area where I shoot I figured I wanna try this slug with Reloader 26. Yup I'm eating my words... Sorry for being a little hard headed... After all this whole thing is an experiment, so why not. I purchased a pound of RL-26 last week, and hopefully one of the evenings of this week I can crank out some loads and shoot them over a chrono this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

 

[SJB358]

Hey all! Sorry, I don't mean to be beating a dead topic... But Now that summer is coming to a close and the fire-ban has been lifted in the area where I shoot I figured I wanna try this slug with Reloader 26. Yup I'm eating my words... Sorry for being a little hard headed... After all this whole thing is an experiment, so why not. I purchased a pound of RL-26 last week, and hopefully one of the evenings of this week I can crank out some loads and shoot them over a chrono this weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing the results.

I am as well. It is one of the ones I'd try myself if I could ever find them!