.338 lapua vs .300 RUM

bjones870 · July 31, 2011, 10:31 PM

What are the main differences? I saw a picture of each round and it looked like the same thing. What's so much better about the .338 that makes it SO much more expensive?

trg42wraglefragle · August 1, 2011, 12:21 AM

338 lapua is a specially designed sniping cartridge used by lots of millitaries all over the world, and 300 RUM is a ridiculous 30cal that was designed for no purpose but to spend lots of money on ammo.

But seriously, I think if you reload the 338 lapua would be cheaper and probably more common components.
I don't know what barrel life on a 300RUM would be, but the 338 lapua is surprisingly good (up to 5000 rounds).
The longest confirmed sniper kill at over 2400yards was done with a 338 lapua.
It is well known for being extremely accurate.

I think the only real use for a 300RUM is for elk for someone with too much money in my opinion.

I think the main greater cost in the 338 lapua is the rifles it comes chambered in.
But when you compare a Remington 700 to a Accuracy International AWSM or Sako TRG42, the Sako and AWSM are far better guns.

egor20 · August 1, 2011, 12:30 AM

+1 for trg42wraglefragle for the lapua being used as a military round.

If you want just a .338, this package looks good, I'm thinking about getting it for a friend of mine for her B'Day

http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/14705-55.html

.300 Weatherby Mag · August 1, 2011, 01:08 AM

Quote:

I think the only real use for a 300RUM is for elk for someone with too much money in my opinion.

I personally can't justify one as its only a few FPS faster than my .300 Weatherby and slower than a 300-378... Good cartridge based off of the .404 Jeffery...

old roper · August 1, 2011, 03:14 AM

I agree with Fosgate5 on the 338 Lapua (tactical/sniper rifle) think it's got the one of biggest bolt face @ .558. 338-378 Wby is only .579,300RUM is
.534.

The 300RUM was made more as a hunting rifle and what appeals to some "doesn't have the belt" so it headspace like a standard caliber. I took a pretty nice bull couple years ago with a factory 300RUM good elk rifle IMHO. My gunsmith has build afew 338 Edge off the 300RUM case for some elk hunters and we have afew in our gun club that shoot the Rem 700 in 300RUM for elk hunting. There is plus/minus with every caliber depending who's posting. here something on the 338 Edge

http://www.longrangehunting.com/articles/338-edge-1.php

mapsjanhere · August 1, 2011, 07:35 AM

Even if you reload the 338 Lapua is more expensive than the 300 RUM, brass goes for $2.50 for the Lapua, $1 for the RUM. Also, the 300 RUM rifles are typically part of the standard set for most manufacturers while most 338 Lapua have a $3000+ price tag. The superior ballistics of the 338 only come into play past 1000 yards, something few people have ranges for.
If you want the 338 caliber it's still cheaper to have a 338 RUM reamed to 338 Edge.

Saltydog235 · August 1, 2011, 08:33 AM

FYI, Savage has the 110 FCP HS Precision in a .338 Lapua chambering with a MSRP of $1499.00 or probably somewhere around $1100-$1200 realistically. I wouldn't mind having one just to have it. Don't need or want to be near the overbore 300 RUM.

Jimro · August 1, 2011, 11:53 AM

Ballistically they are quite similar. The 300 Rum (or any of the big 30 cal magnums) pushing a 240 gr VLD is quite a good long range option.

The 338 Lapua does best with 250 to 270 gr bullets, although the 300 gr SMK is a serious contender for long range accuracy.

BTW that 2,400 meter shot taken with the 338 Lapua only has enough dope on the S&B PMII scope to get out to 1800m of drop with the standard Brit sniping load. Which means that the angle of the shot needed to cut 600 meters of the shot length, meaning the angle of the shot was around 42 degrees. 2400 line of site distance * cosine(41.4) = 1800 meters of drop.

Here in Afghanistan there are some pretty tall mountains...

Anyways most of us don't have access to ranges that can make use of the ballistics of ANY of the magnums, even a 300 Win Mag pushing a 190 or 220 SMK.

Jimro

Deja vu · August 1, 2011, 12:26 PM

Quote:

The longest confirmed sniper kill at over 2400yards was done with a 338 lapua.

are you sure of this? I rember seeing a some thing on the history channel that stated that the longest sniper shot was 1.5 miles shot with a 50 BMG by a Canadian using american ammo.

Am I wrong? I may very well be...

not arguing, Just looking to fix my ignorance.

Jimro · August 1, 2011, 12:35 PM

The shot by Canadian, Rob Furlong, was 2,430 meters, using a McMillan TAC-50 rifle, loaded with I believe a 750 gr AMAX bullet, although I am not sure on that point except that a match load using the AMAX bullet was available to Canadian snipers at the time. Some argue this isn't a "true sniper shot" because his target was a mortar team and he managed to hit one of three men at that range.

The shot by CPL Craig Harrison, using the 338 Lapua with a 250gr Scenar bullet from the AI AW Magnum rifle was 2,475 meters. As I posted before, his scope did not have enough drop for this to be a level shot, and even the angle of view from the S&B PMII makes it damn near impossible to use holdovers at that range even with maxing out the elevation drop.

1600 meters is a mile, so "1.5 miles" is equal to 2400 meters.

Jimro

fatwhiteboy · August 1, 2011, 10:06 PM

Commercial ammo for the .338 Lapua Mag is about six bucks a round. I can knock it down to about 3-4 bucks a round rolling my own. But, at 93gr per round, a pound of Retumbo disappears in a hurry....

golfnutrlv · August 1, 2011, 11:19 PM

Here is an article on the current record combat sniper kill. It proved to me that while cartridge is important, the shooter, and also the environment mean more than the projectile. It's a good read.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7113916.ece

I remember when it hit the news, a friend of mine and I calculated the ballistics of the shot. Some of the data was educated guessing, but we figured that the projectile was moving approximately 800-850 fps at the target. Pretty impressive for any round. That's more than enough downrange power for the task.

To the OP, if you are going to hunt, or shoot at targets at 1000 or less, .338 Lapua has a cool factor, but probably isn't worth the money. Now if you were going to compete at 1000 yards, I could see using a .338 Lapua if the match allowed. Honestly though, pick what you want, and what you will shoot.

ws6_keith · August 12, 2011, 05:24 PM

Might take a look at the .338 Edge cartridge as well. Still fits in the OAL of a 700 based action, but lots of punch. I've been watching the development of the Venom Tactical Taipan in .338 Edge with interest. https://www.venomtactical.com/r_taipan.php

SHR970 · August 12, 2011, 08:03 PM

338 Lapua is based off of a 416 Rigby case with the rim diameter of the case at .587". This requires a non-standard bolt face / Weatherby bolt face size.

The RUM family of cartridges are based off of the 404 Jeffrey case with the rim diameter cut down to .534. They fit a standard Magnum cartridge bolt face.

The Lapua needs a Magnum length (Weatherby) or over length action.
The RUM line uses a Remington 700 Long Action.

The 338 RUM uses a slightly shorter brass length that the rest of the family so they can load and use 300 grain bullets in the 700 long action.

Factory RUM ammo is NOT all it can be velocity wise; the Lapua is.
Power / velocity wise, the Lapua and RUM are both pretty close*.

The Lapua was made from the get go on a "tactical" platform; the RUM was made on a hunting platform.

* I routinely get 100-150 fps. over factory velocity with my 375 RUM using published loads on 300 gr. bullets and I am not loading to max.

tobnpr · August 13, 2011, 11:40 AM

What Jimro said.
Why spend the $$ on ammo, and dramatically shortened barrel life, if you don't have the 1000 yard plus shots to justify it?

.300 win mag is already more than what most shooters need for the range they have available. But hey, if you can make the 3/4 mile shots, go for it

Jimro · August 14, 2011, 03:32 AM

I sold my 300 Win Mag last year after dialing in a load for it (made 300 dollars on the sale), and then I PCS'd to a post that has a 1,000 national match range that has F Class shoots available....

Either way, I still have my 308 and I just ordered a 1,000 M72 match bullets (cheaper than 175gr SMK's by a long bit). But I might scour the pawn shops for a Savage 110 to start building another long range rifle on next year...

Jimro

morphius · September 30, 2011, 04:30 PM

I believe the 338 Lapua was originally optimized for 250 gr +/- bullets. But now companies like Sierra make the 300 gr match kings BT that I now use which have very high ballistic coefficients. Technically the 338 Lapua brass cartridge volume is under its capacity to drive the 300 gr bullet up to 2900 fps (more ideal fps) without going over SAAMI pressure specs. The question could be: Does a 300 Win mag have a better bullet (better coefficient) than the sierra .338 300 gr (coefficient of 0.768) bullet? Will the higher velocity of the Win mag outperform that of the slower 300 gr .338 bullet? The savage 110 that I use has the proper twist rate for the 300 gr sierra, it seems to be accurate- although I'm still testing it. Longest confirmed sniper kill is 2706 yrds with 338 lapua. 2nd longest kill is with 50cal BMG at 2657 yrds.
I shot my Savage .338 a month ago at 1767 yards (1 mile + 7 yards), thanks to my new Bushnell fusion 1600 arc range finder (nice to be able to range that far). At 6X mag, 73.9 MOA correction (turrets + mil hold overs). Note: I'm using the term MOA for IPHY (inch per hundred yrds). Estimated spread 3.5 feet (a bit shabby but preliminary results). Its 0.5″ at 100 yards. Load: 300 gn sierra match king, with 86.5 gn of Retumbo. Muzzle velocity avg. 2648 fps. Nikko Sterling 6-24X 56mm obj scope, which has 63 turret MOAs total but 6 to 10.5 MIL lengths depending on how you use it. Using Knights Armament ballistic program(KAC Bullet Flight Military Version 3.1.0) on my iphone. Temp 99 deg F, 27.5 InHg, angle of shot 3 deg, 15 mph wind at 8 o'clock, Alt 2400 ft, RH 30%.
Shot it again two days ago at 2440 and 3000 yrds, it was 149.3 MOA and 231 MOA corrections, respectfully. For 3000 yrds, I had to use bottom of scope field of view plus 9.6 mil length hold overs and maxed out turret MOAs (at 6X). Had to use mountain to measure the mil lengths. Final fps = 815, time of flight 7.318 seconds. Documented both outings with panasonic camera with 70X optical zoom. Was only able to barely see 3 bullet hits out of 20 shots where I wanted them to land. Too much mirage in 99 deg F, too far with too much zoom to make positive visual hits, and ya it was too difficult doing hold overs. Not enough money for scopes that have 150+ MOA turret adjustments and bigger fields of view. Next time I shoot 3000 yrds it will be at 85 deg F or less to reduce mirage effects. I will post videos on youtube since I now know about the "web video" feature on the camera. I'm also making a 2.5 degree negative cant picatinny rail to tilt the scope down to hopefully eliminate hold over shots. I will see my target in the scope.....
Good shooting gentlemen...

July 31, 2011, 10:31 PM	#1
bjones870 Senior Member Join Date: January 20, 2011 Location: Atlanta, Ga Posts: 140	.338 lapua vs .300 RUM What are the main differences? I saw a picture of each round and it looked like the same thing. What's so much better about the .338 that makes it SO much more expensive? __________________ Our founding fathers started a revolution, for less bull [color=#FF0000]█[/color][color=#FF0000]█[/color][color=#FF0000]█[/color][color=#FF0000]█[/color][color=#FF0000]█[/color] than this. To be ready, mentally and physically for what ever scenario arises, provides the best sleep at night I've ever gotten.

August 1, 2011, 12:30 AM	#3
egor20 Senior Member Join Date: November 14, 2010 Location: Northern Virginia Posts: 1,824	+1 for trg42wraglefragle for the lapua being used as a military round. If you want just a .338, this package looks good, I'm thinking about getting it for a friend of mine for her B'Day http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/14705-55.html __________________ Chief stall mucker and grain chef Country don't mean dumb. Steven King. The Stand Last edited by egor20; August 1, 2011 at 12:38 AM.

August 1, 2011, 07:35 AM	#6
mapsjanhere Senior Member Join Date: August 6, 2009 Location: Albuquerque Posts: 2,832	Even if you reload the 338 Lapua is more expensive than the 300 RUM, brass goes for $2.50 for the Lapua, $1 for the RUM. Also, the 300 RUM rifles are typically part of the standard set for most manufacturers while most 338 Lapua have a $3000+ price tag. The superior ballistics of the 338 only come into play past 1000 yards, something few people have ranges for. If you want the 338 caliber it's still cheaper to have a 338 RUM reamed to 338 Edge. __________________ I used to love being able to hit hard at 1000 yards. As I get older I find hitting a mini ram at 200 yards with the 22 oddly more satisfying.

August 1, 2011, 11:53 AM	#8
Jimro Senior Member Join Date: October 18, 2006 Posts: 7,097	Ballistically they are quite similar. The 300 Rum (or any of the big 30 cal magnums) pushing a 240 gr VLD is quite a good long range option. The 338 Lapua does best with 250 to 270 gr bullets, although the 300 gr SMK is a serious contender for long range accuracy. BTW that 2,400 meter shot taken with the 338 Lapua only has enough dope on the S&B PMII scope to get out to 1800m of drop with the standard Brit sniping load. Which means that the angle of the shot needed to cut 600 meters of the shot length, meaning the angle of the shot was around 42 degrees. 2400 line of site distance * cosine(41.4) = 1800 meters of drop. Here in Afghanistan there are some pretty tall mountains... Anyways most of us don't have access to ranges that can make use of the ballistics of ANY of the magnums, even a 300 Win Mag pushing a 190 or 220 SMK. Jimro __________________ Machine guns are awesome until you have to carry one.

August 1, 2011, 12:35 PM	#10
Jimro Senior Member Join Date: October 18, 2006 Posts: 7,097	The shot by Canadian, Rob Furlong, was 2,430 meters, using a McMillan TAC-50 rifle, loaded with I believe a 750 gr AMAX bullet, although I am not sure on that point except that a match load using the AMAX bullet was available to Canadian snipers at the time. Some argue this isn't a "true sniper shot" because his target was a mortar team and he managed to hit one of three men at that range. The shot by CPL Craig Harrison, using the 338 Lapua with a 250gr Scenar bullet from the AI AW Magnum rifle was 2,475 meters. As I posted before, his scope did not have enough drop for this to be a level shot, and even the angle of view from the S&B PMII makes it damn near impossible to use holdovers at that range even with maxing out the elevation drop. 1600 meters is a mile, so "1.5 miles" is equal to 2400 meters. Jimro __________________ Machine guns are awesome until you have to carry one.

August 1, 2011, 12:21 AM	#2
trg42wraglefragle Senior Member Join Date: April 21, 2008 Location: new zealand Posts: 856	338 lapua is a specially designed sniping cartridge used by lots of millitaries all over the world, and 300 RUM is a ridiculous 30cal that was designed for no purpose but to spend lots of money on ammo. But seriously, I think if you reload the 338 lapua would be cheaper and probably more common components. I don't know what barrel life on a 300RUM would be, but the 338 lapua is surprisingly good (up to 5000 rounds). The longest confirmed sniper kill at over 2400yards was done with a 338 lapua. It is well known for being extremely accurate. I think the only real use for a 300RUM is for elk for someone with too much money in my opinion. I think the main greater cost in the 338 lapua is the rifles it comes chambered in. But when you compare a Remington 700 to a Accuracy International AWSM or Sako TRG42, the Sako and AWSM are far better guns.

August 1, 2011, 03:14 AM	#5
old roper Senior Member Join Date: June 11, 2007 Posts: 2,155	I agree with Fosgate5 on the 338 Lapua (tactical/sniper rifle) think it's got the one of biggest bolt face @ .558. 338-378 Wby is only .579,300RUM is .534. The 300RUM was made more as a hunting rifle and what appeals to some "doesn't have the belt" so it headspace like a standard caliber. I took a pretty nice bull couple years ago with a factory 300RUM good elk rifle IMHO. My gunsmith has build afew 338 Edge off the 300RUM case for some elk hunters and we have afew in our gun club that shoot the Rem 700 in 300RUM for elk hunting. There is plus/minus with every caliber depending who's posting. here something on the 338 Edge http://www.longrangehunting.com/articles/338-edge-1.php

August 1, 2011, 08:33 AM	#7
Saltydog235 Senior Member Join Date: October 20, 2010 Location: Pawleys Island Posts: 1,563	FYI, Savage has the 110 FCP HS Precision in a .338 Lapua chambering with a MSRP of $1499.00 or probably somewhere around $1100-$1200 realistically. I wouldn't mind having one just to have it. Don't need or want to be near the overbore 300 RUM.

August 1, 2011, 10:06 PM	#11
fatwhiteboy Senior Member Join Date: April 3, 2011 Posts: 317	Commercial ammo for the .338 Lapua Mag is about six bucks a round. I can knock it down to about 3-4 bucks a round rolling my own. But, at 93gr per round, a pound of Retumbo disappears in a hurry.... __________________ Fat White So Cal

August 1, 2011, 11:19 PM	#12
golfnutrlv Senior Member Join Date: November 5, 2008 Location: Spokane, WA Posts: 1,347	Here is an article on the current record combat sniper kill. It proved to me that while cartridge is important, the shooter, and also the environment mean more than the projectile. It's a good read. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle7113916.ece I remember when it hit the news, a friend of mine and I calculated the ballistics of the shot. Some of the data was educated guessing, but we figured that the projectile was moving approximately 800-850 fps at the target. Pretty impressive for any round. That's more than enough downrange power for the task. To the OP, if you are going to hunt, or shoot at targets at 1000 or less, .338 Lapua has a cool factor, but probably isn't worth the money. Now if you were going to compete at 1000 yards, I could see using a .338 Lapua if the match allowed. Honestly though, pick what you want, and what you will shoot. __________________ ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ VIGILIA PRETIUM LIBERTATIS "The price of liberty is vigilance" America is at an awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards.

August 12, 2011, 05:24 PM	#13
ws6_keith Senior Member Join Date: September 25, 1999 Location: Las Vegas, NV Posts: 147	Might take a look at the .338 Edge cartridge as well. Still fits in the OAL of a 700 based action, but lots of punch. I've been watching the development of the Venom Tactical Taipan in .338 Edge with interest. https://www.venomtactical.com/r_taipan.php __________________ Keith http://www.ws6.com

August 12, 2011, 08:03 PM	#14
SHR970 Senior Member Join Date: January 24, 2011 Posts: 1,427	338 Lapua is based off of a 416 Rigby case with the rim diameter of the case at .587". This requires a non-standard bolt face / Weatherby bolt face size. The RUM family of cartridges are based off of the 404 Jeffrey case with the rim diameter cut down to .534. They fit a standard Magnum cartridge bolt face. The Lapua needs a Magnum length (Weatherby) or over length action. The RUM line uses a Remington 700 Long Action. The 338 RUM uses a slightly shorter brass length that the rest of the family so they can load and use 300 grain bullets in the 700 long action. Factory RUM ammo is NOT all it can be velocity wise; the Lapua is. Power / velocity wise, the Lapua and RUM are both pretty close. The Lapua was made from the get go on a "tactical" platform; the RUM was made on a hunting platform. I routinely get 100-150 fps. over factory velocity with my 375 RUM using published loads on 300 gr. bullets and I am not loading to max.

August 13, 2011, 11:40 AM	#15
tobnpr Senior Member Join Date: August 1, 2010 Location: Tampa Bay Posts: 4,556	What Jimro said. Why spend the $$ on ammo, and dramatically shortened barrel life, if you don't have the 1000 yard plus shots to justify it? .300 win mag is already more than what most shooters need for the range they have available. But hey, if you can make the 3/4 mile shots, go for it

August 14, 2011, 03:32 AM	#16
Jimro Senior Member Join Date: October 18, 2006 Posts: 7,097	I sold my 300 Win Mag last year after dialing in a load for it (made 300 dollars on the sale), and then I PCS'd to a post that has a 1,000 national match range that has F Class shoots available.... Either way, I still have my 308 and I just ordered a 1,000 M72 match bullets (cheaper than 175gr SMK's by a long bit). But I might scour the pawn shops for a Savage 110 to start building another long range rifle on next year... Jimro __________________ Machine guns are awesome until you have to carry one.

September 30, 2011, 04:30 PM	#17
morphius Junior Member Join Date: September 28, 2011 Posts: 2	338 I believe the 338 Lapua was originally optimized for 250 gr +/- bullets. But now companies like Sierra make the 300 gr match kings BT that I now use which have very high ballistic coefficients. Technically the 338 Lapua brass cartridge volume is under its capacity to drive the 300 gr bullet up to 2900 fps (more ideal fps) without going over SAAMI pressure specs. The question could be: Does a 300 Win mag have a better bullet (better coefficient) than the sierra .338 300 gr (coefficient of 0.768) bullet? Will the higher velocity of the Win mag outperform that of the slower 300 gr .338 bullet? The savage 110 that I use has the proper twist rate for the 300 gr sierra, it seems to be accurate- although I'm still testing it. Longest confirmed sniper kill is 2706 yrds with 338 lapua. 2nd longest kill is with 50cal BMG at 2657 yrds. I shot my Savage .338 a month ago at 1767 yards (1 mile + 7 yards), thanks to my new Bushnell fusion 1600 arc range finder (nice to be able to range that far). At 6X mag, 73.9 MOA correction (turrets + mil hold overs). Note: I'm using the term MOA for IPHY (inch per hundred yrds). Estimated spread 3.5 feet (a bit shabby but preliminary results). Its 0.5″ at 100 yards. Load: 300 gn sierra match king, with 86.5 gn of Retumbo. Muzzle velocity avg. 2648 fps. Nikko Sterling 6-24X 56mm obj scope, which has 63 turret MOAs total but 6 to 10.5 MIL lengths depending on how you use it. Using Knights Armament ballistic program(KAC Bullet Flight Military Version 3.1.0) on my iphone. Temp 99 deg F, 27.5 InHg, angle of shot 3 deg, 15 mph wind at 8 o'clock, Alt 2400 ft, RH 30%. Shot it again two days ago at 2440 and 3000 yrds, it was 149.3 MOA and 231 MOA corrections, respectfully. For 3000 yrds, I had to use bottom of scope field of view plus 9.6 mil length hold overs and maxed out turret MOAs (at 6X). Had to use mountain to measure the mil lengths. Final fps = 815, time of flight 7.318 seconds. Documented both outings with panasonic camera with 70X optical zoom. Was only able to barely see 3 bullet hits out of 20 shots where I wanted them to land. Too much mirage in 99 deg F, too far with too much zoom to make positive visual hits, and ya it was too difficult doing hold overs. Not enough money for scopes that have 150+ MOA turret adjustments and bigger fields of view. Next time I shoot 3000 yrds it will be at 85 deg F or less to reduce mirage effects. I will post videos on youtube since I now know about the "web video" feature on the camera. I'm also making a 2.5 degree negative cant picatinny rail to tilt the scope down to hopefully eliminate hold over shots. I will see my target in the scope..... Good shooting gentlemen...