many of my customers hunt Africa and usually use larger bore bullets. The “Official” .300 Lapua Magnum While nearly every 30-338 you see in the USA is a wildcat, manually formed by necking-down the .338 Lapua brass, there was an “official” version, the “.300 Lapua Magnum”. With that, there are situations where one cartridge might be a better option than others. If we look at individual rounds and disregard the cartridge, the four rounds with the flattest trajectory are a mix of two .300 Win Mag and two .338 LM rounds. Regarding recoil, the .338 LM cartridge produces quite a bit more recoil than the .300 Win Mag. The energy that is carried by the bullet is only one factor of a round’s stopping power, but it is an important one nonetheless. With enough hours on the range, you can do some pretty amazing things with both of these cartridges out to 1,000+ yard ranges. The velocity is a critical performance spec for any cartridge comparison because of the influence that it has on just about all the other performance categories we will look at. I have been going to build some sort of 338 for some time. Buy some excellent .338 Lapua hunting ammo here. The drawback to this cartridge for hunting has to do with the firearm. Shooting these rounds from your platform might result in slightly slower velocities or different trajectories when compared to this data or even to another shooter. John. With both having well over 1,000 yards of supersonic flight, that’s a big advantage to long range marksman. The 300 PRC has been around for awhile now, Id like to know what you think of it at this time compared to the 338 Lapua! About the ratio of the short mags. However, there are honestly very few hunting situations that require a cartridge as powerful as the .338 Lapua. It is between the 338LM and the 338Win Mag. The cartridge is also able to be to take a variety of bullet weights. Most guides want a.375 bullet or larger in Africa. And as we saw just above, there is some variation within each cartridge, but with such differences in the average, if you want more bullet energy, the .338LM has the advantage. I like things to be as efiecent as I can make them but then I handload for everything I shoot even my ARs and handgun shotguns. It also commonly uses high BC bullets with a much higher sectional density than both other cartridges. The results are pretty easy to interpret. If you have high momentum with a very low sectional density that might be because of a wide diameter bullet, the round might not penetrate as well as a bullet with the similar momentum but a higher sectional density. We still see that the .338 LM rounds have quite the edge over the .300 Win Mag when it comes to the BC. I don’t own any of the 3 mentioned in this article, but I do own and shoot a 9.3×62, which is comparable in recoil and ballistics to a 338 WM when shooting 250 gr bullets. The purpose of this cartridge was to was to provide snipers with a long range round that had incredible terminal ballistics and had the ability to penetrate several layers of body armor at extreme distances. And as we stated earlier, while looking at the SD is perfectly fine for simply comparing two cartridges, it alone is not a full picture of the penetration the round will show in the field. Wind drift and drop are both less critical with that extra speed. The .300 Win Mag is also more than capable of taking larger game such as elk and moose at these ranges as well. Formally introduced by Lapua Limited in 1987, the designers of the .338 Lapua Magnum accomplished those goals by utilizing a new case based on the .416 Rigby. With that, the .338 LM rounds have the advantage when it comes to hand loading as they can be loaded slightly hotter and the heavier bullet and higher BC might sway you towards it as your long range cartridge of choice, but we could easily make the argument for the .300 Win Mag as well. Due to its longer case length and the difference in placement of the shoulder, the .300 Win Mag does have a slightly greater case capacity than the .338 Win Mag. In this article, I’m going to discuss the pros and cons of the 300 Win Mag vs 338 Lapua vs 338 Win Mag so you can make an informed decision regarding which cartridge fits your particular needs the best. 150 grain, 165 grain, 180 grain, 190 grain, 200 grain, and 220 grain bullets are the most popular for the cartridge. The .458 Winchester Magnum came first in 1956 and was followed by the .338 Winchester Magnum and the .264 Winchester Magnum during the next couple of years. Though few hunters have a need to utilize the extreme long range capabilities of the cartridge, the .338 Lapua is still capable of delivering more power at longer range than just about any other comparable round. Buy an excellent .338 Lapua hunting rifle here. All other things being equal, a bigger bullet will make a bigger hole, cause more tissue damage, and result in more blood loss. The higher the momentum, the better the bullet can overcome resistance such as thick hide and bones. The majority of popular civilian rounds for the .338 LM are going to fall within the 250-300gr bullet weight range, though there are more options when it comes to handloading. As an example, let’s take two different bullets of the same design traveling at the same velocity. This helps support the blog and allows me to continue to create free content that’s useful to hunters like yourself. This is because the bullet will be interacting with less surface area to cause resistance. Of course, the .338 LM rounds are also significantly heavier than the .300 Win Mag round and if you need a lot of power, the few inches more bullet drop is worth dealing with. Both cartridges shoot the same diameter bullets, but the 338 Lapua normally uses heavier and more aerodynamic bullets with a higher sectional density than the 338 Win Mag. Thank you, Glad you enjoyed the article and found it useful Jeff! Because of that, there is no harm in looking at the numbers within 400 yards. As you can assume, this is a hard hitting round, but it does provide the performance to fill certain shooting niches. To answer your question: no, you cannot shoot 338 Win Mag out of a 338 Lapua rifle. This is an extremely popular caliber for long-range shooters including those chasing big game and those in precision shooting competitions. 190gr/3325fps .541 (G1) Cu Mono This reason, combined with the aforementioned shortcomings of the .338 Lapua with regards to rifle weight, recoil, and ammunition cost, are why many hunters instead gravitate toward cartridges like the .300 and .338 Win Mag (or even the .375 H&H) instead that are still plenty powerful, but have more manageable recoil in a lighter and easy to carry rifle. Thanks for your comment Kirby, glad you enjoyed the article. And recoil does play a role in choosing a cartridge, especially if you are dealing with a decision on cartridges that can be used for similar applications. The .338 Remington Ultra Magnum has a similar case capacity as the .338 Lapua Magnum and somewhat lower than that of the .338-378 Weatherby Magnum. This is because the energy driving the bullet is localized to a smaller area effectively pushing it further with less resistance than a larger diameter bullet would impose. The shooter can fire a .308 Winchester, .300 Winchester Magnum, and a .338 Lapua Magnum out of this rifle. The following table shows a 338 RUM versus a 338 Lapua for bullet weights from 210 Grains up through 300 Grains. Before we get started, I have an administrative note: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This transfer is also affected by how the bullet reacts on impact, such as how the bullet expands. Clearly, that rifle in .338 Lapua would have a very stout recoil. We mentioned earlier that the momentum and the sectional density have a lot of influence over the penetration of the bullet. It will also really do a number on really big game like elk and moose with good shot placement. We are aware that this is a small sample size compared to the options that are available, but it will still give us a nice window into how these two cartridges stack up against each other in several performance categories. I think most hunters would agree that the .300 Winchester Magnum, .338 Winchester Magnum, and .338 Lapua Magnum rounds are serious heavy hitters that can get the job done on big game. Magnum cartridges, including 7mm RM, don’t kill animals any deader inside 300 yds than non-magnums like 30-06, 308W, 270W, 280Rem, etc. From just a couple dozen rounds, the .338 LM cartridges might be more fatiguing to you than the .300 Win Mag though both can be uncomfortable when used by less experienced users. They are all relatively flat shooting and accurate cartridges that carry a lot of energy out to longer ranges. While expansion is a huge factor in delivering maximal energy and wound creation, we don’t think it is something to quantify when comparing cartridges. Of our selected .338 LM rounds, the Hornady ELD Match maintains its velocity at a high rate through 500 yards and will remain supersonic well over 1,000 yards. The .300 Win Mag is especially common and virtually every model produced by any firearms manufacturer of note is available in the cartridge. After all, there’s a reason why it’s such a popular cartridge among African as well as Alaska and Canada hunting guides. The Contestants. That’s splitting hairs for on-game performance, but makes a pretty big difference for long range shooting. For simply comparing cartridges we have left this part out, but understanding your bullet design, how it expands, and the velocity needed for proper expansion and penetration is a huge part of successful hunting. This high amount of recoil energy is going to be a “necessary evil” to obtain the speeds, range, and power that comes with these two cartridges. Planning on using it as a LR hunting rig and playing on steel targets for ultimate accuracy inside of a mile. We are a little more limited for .338 LM factory loads but we compiled the data for as many as we could. We have also added a 1,000 yard marker. Specifically, the designers of the .338 Lapua were trying to build a very accurate and flat shooting round that was more powerful and had a longer effective range than the 7.62x51mm NATO, but did not require as large or heavy of a rifle as the .50 BMG. A couple hundred fps faster with the heavy 30 Cal bullets which given their bc puts it right in the range of energy while flatter shooting than even the LM until you get to ranges people do not hunt game at except very rarely 1200+. Winchester offered the cartridges in their legendary Model 70 rifle and marketed each one to a particular segment of the American hunting community: the .264 Win Mag to western hunters wanting a flatter shooting cartridge for thin-skinned game like mule deer or pronghorn, the .338 Win Mag to hunters pursuing really large and/or tough North American game like moose and grizzly bear, and the .458 Win Mag to hunters going afield after dangerous game like cape buffalo in Africa. Not surprisingly, though there is a little bit of overlap in their best uses, the .300 Win Mag, .338 Win Mag, and .338 Lapua are all best suited for distinct tasks. This was a factory 30-caliber cartridge based on the .338 Lapua Magnum … THE BEST GUN DEALS AND HANDPICKED GEAR RECOMMENDATIONS, Subscribe to our Newsletter and we send you the best deals right into your inbox. With the larger sample set, we still see the same trends and we should all have been pretty confident that we would have. It saw service with the military in both Afghanistan and Iraq and is still in use with military personnel today. DigitalAnalogChicken. Both can be frustrating when trying to find specific loads in retail stores, but luckily the internet has made that a bit easier. Honestly a better comparison than 338LM would have been the 338NM it’s a much more fitting hunting cartridge and has started replacing the Lapua in a number of military platforms as it can have the bullet seated at a ideal position in the case and still easily fit in standard LA magazines and in a mag load setup matches the larger Lapua case with the bullet buried in the case to allow it to fit in the mag. The Big Game Hunting Blog is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.ca, Amazon.com.au, and other Amazon stores worldwide. More of a pleasure to shoot than the braked 338 LM Imp. It’s also a new variant from the Remington brand. The velocity figures are too low in that article. Hand loading these rounds can save you some money per round, but the materials are still going to be more expensive compared to smaller cartridges. The .300 Win Mag is also a long range, big game firearm. I’d personally lean towards the .338 Win Mag for moose since it’s a much bigger animal, especially if you’re hunting in an area where it’s possible you might run into a brown or grizzly bear. Winchester picked up the gauntlet Remington had thrown down and responded the following year with the .300 Winchester Magnum (also known as the .300 Win Mag or  .300 WM). Both cartridges are also belted magnums with the same .532″ rim diameter and the same SAAMI maximum average pressure of 64,000psi. I live in the country and was looking for an interesting caliber to try. This round has a muzzle energy of 4,677ft.lb and still carries nearly 3,500ft.lb of energy at the 300-yard mark and 2,842ft.lb at 500 yards. The problem is that most .338 Lapua rifles are specifically designed for military use and/or civilian long range precision shooting and are therefore expensive, very heavy, and have a really long barrel like the Accuracy International AXMC, the Barrett MRAD, or the Sako TRG. And a lot of shooters out there will tell you that the .300 WM has some kick to it. No belt to deal with in FL resizing. Calculations were corrected to standard temperature (59F/15C) and … With that in mind, you can see how the recoil energy can change based on several factors. Best Concealed Carry Insurance [Comparison Chart]. With that being said, we will note that .338 LM do use larger caliber bullet compared to the .308 and when looking at the same bullet, you’re going to have a larger wound created with the larger caliber bullet. We also saw much higher ballistic coefficients for the .338 LM rounds than the .300 Win Mag rounds, though both have high BCs when compared to other types of cartridges. As we move out to the 300-yard mark, we see the different rounds begin to space themselves out. For example, while it’s uncommon to see .338 Win Mag ammo using bullets heavier than 250 grains (225 and 250 grain bullet weights are most common), 270 grain, 280 grain, 285 grain, and even 300 grain bullets are very popular with the .338 Lapua. i just picked up a s=Sako m995 in .338 lapua. At that time, 30-caliber bullets were inserted onto the cartridges. This round maintains over 2,000fps throughout a 500-yard flight which is more than enough to cause proper expansion of the ballistic tip bullet. Will even work on CXP4(dangerous game). If you’re driving out to a spot to sit, it doesn’t matter, but for hunting situations where you might be logging a couple of miles, that extra 15lbs is going to be fatiguing. We have picked five popular rounds for both the .338 LM and .300 Win Mag that range from range to hunting rounds. A couple things to point out about all of them, relative to cartridges not mentioned in this article. Now, this particular Weatherby rifle (which is indeed currently manufactured and sold by Weatherby) is a pretty light hunting rifle for a cartridge like the .338 Lapua and I only used it to provide an apples to apples comparison of the three cartridges. The SD and velocity paired with the controlled expansion of the heavy 300gr AccuBond bullet make this a deadly round for big game at a wide selection of ranges. For cartridge comparisons, we are going to look at the energy and the penetration which includes the sectional density and the bullet momentum. With two decades of chasing all manner of upland game, hooved mammals, strutting gobblers, and any small game that can fit in his Dutch oven, he hopes to offer new ideas and viewpoints on hunting and firearm concepts and traditions. Of the three I am considering getting the .338 Lapua-especially since I own two 325wsm rifles. Of course, there are other factors, but most of us are not going to run into many scenarios where 100lb/ft.s of momentum is needed and 80lb/ft.s will not be enough. The only 338's were the .338 Win Mag and the .340 Weatherby, neither in military options. The author analyzed six .338 caliber magnum cartridges (.338 Winchester Magnum, .340 Weatherby, .338-378 Weatherby, .338 Remington Ultra Mag., 33 Nosler, and .338 Lapua) for trajectory, effective range, and recoil with modern ballistic software available free online from shooterscalculator.com. Buller design and their BCs influence the trajectories as well as velocity. Thanks for the comment. So, there’s a plethora of good quality bullets available to go around. Overall, when looking strictly from an angle of the .300 Win Mag vs .338 Lapua Magnum, there is not a huge difference in the long range trajectory of these factory loads. However, those rifles also have their own downsides, which I’ll get discuss in more detail in the next section. Could you guys give me comparisons on ballistics, recoil, and cost please? We have listed these ten rounds below. I paid $43.00 per 20 rounds of .300 Win Mag, Hornady, SuperFormance, 165-grain GMXs. Shop for Low Price 300 Win Ultra Mag Vs 338 Lapua And 338 Lapua Vs 300 Win Mag Ballistics Trajectory . Those cartridges utilized a .375 H&H Magnum case necked down (or up, in the case of the .458 Win Mag) and shortened from 2.85″ to 2.5″ long. Winchester didn’t stop with the .264, .338, and .458 Win Mag cartridges though. It’s just something to keep in mind, especially if you wander into the world of handloading. The .338 Lapua is now very highly regarded as a long range cartridge and has seen extensive use in the hands of military snipers from numerous countries. That’s not really surprising when you consider the roots of the cartridges though. Huston is a hunting enthusiast who believes your success in the field is directly correlated to the amount of preparation at home. The “Official” .300 Lapua Magnum While nearly every 30-338 you see in the USA is a wildcat, manually formed by necking-down the .338 Lapua brass, there was an “official” version, the “.300 Lapua Magnum”. Before we wrap up this cartridge comparison, we do want to take a few moments to outline a couple of our favorite factory loads for each cartridge for certain shooting categories. For instance, the Savage 110 FCP in .338 Lapua weighs 10 pounds while the Ruger Precision Rifle and Accuracy International AWM weigh over 15 pounds each. They do just fine on moose out to 500 yards. We still see that both of these cartridges are very similar in their trajectory and the individual rounds overlap a lot. At 400 and 500 yards, there is only slightly less than 1,000 ft.lbs difference. The .338 LM rounds have a much higher kinetic energy than the .300 Win Mag rounds throughout the 500-yard range except for the .338 LM Hornady SP-RP Interlock 250gr which falls into the .300 Win Mag range at the 400 and 500-yard mark. The shared heritage of the .300 Win Mag and .338 Win Mag, as well as the unique roots of the .338 Lapua, is obvious in the photo below. A good middle of the road would be the 338 Remington Ultra Mag. Because we are using such a small sample size for the majority of our discussion, we went ahead and compiled more factory loads for each cartridge. At the end of the section, when we look at the averages of our larger sample size, we will also provide the recoil energy when the rounds are fired from the rifles of the same weight. ... No doubt the 300 ultra is no slouch and a lot easier but starting from scratch the Norma really has my attention. Please note, the following information reflects the estimated average ballistics for each caliber and does not pertain to a particular manufacturer, bullet weight, or jacketing type. The.338 Remington Ultra Magnum has a similar case capacity as the.338 Lapua Magnum and somewhat lower than that of the.338-378 Weatherby Magnum. Basically, it’s our way of making sure there are not outliers in the small sample size skewing the trends and results we will see. Of the three, I’d say to go with the .300 Win Mag since ammo is generally cheaper and it has less recoil than the others. Both bullets weigh 100gr, but one has a diameter of .300″ while the other has a diameter of .200″. When we look at the larger sample set, we do see some differences from previously. Just look at the amount of powder that can be loaded into the .300 Win Mag vs .338 Lapua Magnum. Let’s take a look at our ten rounds and see if this same trend holds up. The averages from the muzzle might give a slight advantage to the .300 Win Mag rounds, but we are only talking about 200 extra fps, and this trend remains similar out to 500 yards though the difference falls to around 60fps of difference. Offering a dramatic improvement in performance over the venerable .30-06 Springfield that also compared favorably to the 7mm Rem Mag in many areas, the .300 Win Mag was an almost instant commercial success for Winchester and remains one of the most popular big game hunting cartridges in North America to this day. And while the .338 LM rounds have pretty impressive momentum numbers, with an average of 108 lb/ft.s of momentum, the .300 Win Mag rounds also have much higher momentum than a lot of hunting rounds. Penetration is another component to a bullet’s stopping power. Momentum is simply how well an object, bullet in this case, in motion can stay in motion. For hunting, both of these cartridges carry a considerable amount of bullet energy and potential penetration for large game. This caliber can be packed with large amounts of powder giving it a huge advantage in velocity and in turn, the ability to carry a large amount of energy over pretty impressive distances. Remember when I talked earlier about how the designers of the .338 Lapua wanted a cartridge with good long range performance without requiring as large or heavy of a rifle as the .50 BMG? However, while they all perform extremely well in their intended roles, the differences between them (300 Win Mag vs 338 Lapua vs 338 Win Mag) are very big in certain areas. New brass in 2018 by Lapua – the .300 Norma Magnum case A recent development based on the .338 Norma Magnum necked down to .30 caliber, the .300 Norma Magnum was adopted as the US military’s Advanced Sniper Cartridge “for extra long ranges beyond 1 500 meters”. Do you primarily hunt black bear, deer, or hogs in an area where long distance shots past 200 yards are uncommon and bullet drop isn’t a big concern? To get an idea of how these two cartridges compare in their ballistic and other performance categories, we need a selection of rounds for each cartridge. get low cost} prices 338 Lapua Build Kit And 300 Rem Ultra Mag Vs 338 Lapua now. All of the cartridges we looked at in the article had bullet energies of well over 1.500ft.lb at 500 yards. Best 375 H&H Ammo For Hunting Cape Buffalo, Bear & Other Big Game, 6.5 Creedmoor vs 243 Winchester Review & Comparison, 6.5 Creedmoor vs 7mm-08 Remington Review & Comparison, 6.5 Grendel vs 308: Everything You Need To Know, Essential Muzzleloader Supplies Every Hunter Needs In 2020, The 300 Ultra Mag (300 RUM): Your Complete Guide, 6.8 SPC vs 6.5 Grendel: What You Need To Know, 6.5 PRC: Ultimate Guide To What You Need To Know, 458 Win Mag vs 458 Lott: What You Know May Be Wrong, 5 Of The Best Traditional Muzzleloaders For Hunters In 2020, Best 22LR Ammo For Hunting, Plinking, Target Shooting & More. And while a lot of people associate these rounds with longer distance shots, we have to remember that these are hunting rounds as well, and with hunting, shots can present themselves at short range at any time. There are several components that go into how well a bullet will penetrate including velocity, the caliber of the bullet, the weight of the bullet, and the bullet’s design. 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