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The .338 Lapua Magnum (8.6 x 70 mm or 8.58 x 70 mm) is a specialized rimless bottlenecked centerfire cartridge developed for military long-range sniper rifles. It is a combat proven round with substantial ammunition availability. The .338 Lapua is a dual purpose anti-personnel and anti-material round for long-range shooting. Its anti-material potential is however limited. The complete cartridge is 14.9 mm in diameter (rim) and 93.5 mm long. It can penetrate better-than-standard military body armour at ranges up to 1000 meters and has a maximum range of about 1750 meters. Muzzle velocity is dependent on load and powder temperature and varies from 880 to 915 m/s (i.e. from 2887 to 3002 fps) for commercial loads with 16.2 gram (250 grain) bullets, which delivers about 4800 ft-lbs of muzzle energy). In addition, with its increased popularity it is being used by big-game hunters and civilian long-range shooting enthusiasts. The .338 Lapua Magnum is suitable for hunting any game animal on the planet, though many African countries have a 9.53 mm (.375 in) minimum caliber rule for hunting Big Five game. A centerfire cartridge is a cartridge in which the primer is located in the center of the cartridge case head. ...
This article does not cite its references or sources. ...
The M40, United States Marine Corps standard-issue sniper rifle Sniper rifle is a term most frequently applied to rifles used by military or law enforcement to ensure accurate placement of shots at greater ranges than other small arms. ...
A bulletproof vest – also called body armour (U.S. body armor) – is an article of protective clothing that works as a form of armour to minimize injury from being hit by a fired bullet. ...
Metre per second (U.S. spelling: meter per second) is an SI derived unit of both speed (scalar) and velocity (vector), defined by distance in metres divided by time in seconds. ...
BIC pen cap, about 1 gram. ...
A big-game hunter is a person engaged in the sport of hunting large animals or game. ...
Game is any animal hunted for food. ...
The phrase Big Five game was coined by big game hunters and refers to the five large mammals that were originally most sought in Africa. ...
History
In 1983, Research Armament Co., in the U.S. began development of a new, long-range sniper cartridge capable of firing a 250-grain, .338-inch diameter bullet at 3000 fps. After preliminary experiments, a .416 Rigby case necked down to a .338-inch was selected. Brass Extrusion Labs Ltd. of Bensenville, Illinois, made the cases, Hornady produced bullets, Research Armament built the gun under contract for the U.S. Navy. Subsequently, Lapua of Finland has put this caliber into production (Cartridges of the World, 8th edition). The program was cancelled when they were unable to make it meet the projects velocity target (250 gr at 3000 ft/s) due to weak brass.
After the American origin, the current .338 Lapua Magnum cartridge was developed as a joint venture between the rifle building company Accuracy International and ammunition manufacturer Lapua (Malcolm Cooper, personal communication with the deceased founder of Accuracy International). The cartridge manufacturer strengthened the cartridge's web, allowing it to operate at high pressure and come within 50 ft/s of the original velocity goal. Lapua also designed a projectile modeled after its .30 caliber Lock Base configuration. The result was the .338 Lapua Magnum cartridge which was registered with CIP (Commission Internationale Permanente Pour L'Epreuve Des Armes A Feu Portative) in 1987. CIP can refer to Carriage and Insurance Paid to, an Incoterm Cellular IP, a micromobility protocol Center for Intellectual Property Studies, founded by Gothenburg University and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. ...
The .338 Lapua Magnum is an ideal military long-range anti-personal tactical cartridge. The cartridge fills the gap between weapons chambered for standard military rounds like the (7.62 NATO/.308 Winchester) and the large, weighty rifles firing the .50 BMG (12.7 mm). It also offers a tolerable amount of barrel wear, which is important to the military snipers who tend to fire a lot of practice rounds to acquire and maintain expert long-range marksmanship. In terms of performance and delivered energy the .338 Lapua Magnum falls between the .50 (12.7 mm) and rounds such as the .308 Winchester, but outperforms the .50 in terms of trajectory. Good factory loads, multiple projectile weights and factory special application ammunition for the .338 Lapua Magnum are all available. NATO 7. ...
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The .338 Lapua Magnum cartridge is in military use with:
Due to its increasing civilian popularity several high quality large tactical and match (semi) custom bolt actions designed for the .338 Lapua Magnum are becoming available. These (semi) custom bolt actions are used with other high grade rifle and sighting components to build custom rifles. Such rifles are ordered by long-range accuracy orientated shooters and built by specialized highly skilled gunsmiths and can cost thousands of dollars. When built to expectation such rifles are very accurate (0.5 Minute of arc or MOA or better consistent accuracy with for a particular rifle optimized ammunition is considered normal). Only expert marksmen can capitalize this accuracy potential. The Finnish Defence Forces (Finnish: Puolustusvoimat) consist of 34,700 people in uniform (27,300 army, 3,000 navy, and 4,400 air force). ...
Sako TRG-22/42 sniper rifles were developed by Finnish company SAKO. The TRG-22 is designed to fire standard 7. ...
The armed forces of the United Kingdom are known as the British Armed Forces or Her Majestys Armed Forces, officially the Armed Forces of the Crown. ...
The AWM (Arctic Warfare Magnum) is a sniper rifle manufactured by Accuracy International. ...
The Canadian Forces (French: Forces canadiennes), abbreviated as CF (French: FC), are the combined armed forces of Canada. ...
The military of the Netherlands is composed of four branches, all of which carry the prefix Koninklijke (Royal): Koninklijke Landmacht (KL), the Royal Netherlands Army, the regular, land based army branch. ...
The AWM (Arctic Warfare Magnum) is a sniper rifle manufactured by Accuracy International. ...
Sako TRG-22/42 sniper rifles were developed by Finnish company SAKO. The TRG-22 is designed to fire standard 7. ...
After successful resistance to the Yugoslav Peoples Army (JNA, Slovenian JLA) following the 10-day war of independence in 1991, Slovenia faced the challenge of establishing independent armed forces. ...
The PGM Mini-Hecate . ...
Sako TRG-22/42 sniper rifles were developed by Finnish company SAKO. The TRG-22 is designed to fire standard 7. ...
The armed forces of the United States of America consist of the United States Army United States Navy United States Air Force United States Marine Corps United States Coast Guard Note: The United States Coast Guard has both military and law enforcement functions. ...
A bolt-action firearm is one that is manually operated (i. ...
This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Boxes of ammunition clog a warehouse in Baghdad Ammunition is a generic military term meaning (the assembly of) a projectile and its propellant. ...
Cartridge Drawing and Dimensions Extremely thick brass results in “only” 7.402 ml (114.0 grains) H2O cartridge case capacity for the .338 Lapua Magnum. The exterior shape of the case was designed to promote reliable case feeding and extraction in bolt action rifles and machineguns under extreme conditions. mL or ml (sometimes mâ„“ in older usage) may stand for: millilitre(s) (also spelled milliliter), a thousandth of a litre in the metric system. ...
A bolt-action firearm is one that is manually operated (i. ...
A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm that is capable of firing bullets in rapid succession. ...
 Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (845x599, 67 KB) I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ...
.338 Lapua Magnum maximum cartridge dimensions. All sizes in millimeters (mm). Americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 ≈ 20 degrees. A millimetre (American spelling: millimeter), symbol mm is an SI unit of length that is equal to one thousandth of a metre. ...
According to the official CIP guidelines the .338 Lapua Magnum case can handle up to 420 MPa (60,915 psi) piezo pressure. In CIP regulated countries every rifle cartridge combo has to be proofed at 130% of this maximum CIP pressure to certify for sale to consumers. CIP can refer to Carriage and Insurance Paid to, an Incoterm Cellular IP, a micromobility protocol Center for Intellectual Property Studies, founded by Gothenburg University and Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. ...
Military Field Performance of the .338 Lapua Magnum The maximum practical range of all rifles depends mainly on the aerodynamic or ballistic efficiency of the employed projectiles or bullets. Long-range shooters must collect specific information to calculate drop and wind drift corrections to be able to achieve first shot strikes. The dataset to calculate these corrections is a long list of variables including: A rifle is any long gun which has a rifled barrel. ...
This article is about the projectile, for other uses see bullet (disambiguation). ...
- the exact Ballistic Coefficient (BC) of the employed bullets
- actual muzzle velocity
- range to target
- wind speed and direction
- air temperature, pressure, altitude and humidity variations (these make up the ambient air density)
- uphill/downhill firing angle
- gyroscopic drift
- Coriolis effect drift
- lateral throw-off
- aerodynamic jump, etc.
- precision limitations of sight adjustments
- the inherent potential accuracy of the rifle used
- the inherent potential accuracy of the ammunition used
- the inherent potential accuracy of the computer program used to calculate the trajectory
The ambient air density is at its maximum at arctic sea level conditions. Cold gunpowder also produces lower pressures and hence lower muzzle velocities then warm powder. This all combined makes that the maximum practical range of rifles will be at it shortest at arctic sea level conditions. Another problem is presented by the fact that when the velocity of a rifle bullet decays towards the speed of sound it enters the transonic region. In the transonic region most bullets show a significant accuracy decay. Because of this military marksmen normally restrict themselves to engaging targets within the supersonic range of the employed bullet. A guns muzzle velocity is the speed at which the projectile leaves the muzzle of the gun. ...
Wind, tacuinum sanitatis casanatensis (XIV century) Wind is the rough horizontal movement of air (as opposed to an air current) caused by uneven heating of the Earths surface. ...
Fig. ...
The use of water pressure - the Captain Cook Memorial Jet in Lake Burley Griffin, Canberra. ...
Altitude is the elevation of an object from a known level or datum. ...
Humidity is the concentration of water vapor in the air. ...
The density of air, ρ (Greek: rho) (air density), is the mass per volume of Earths atmosphere, and is a useful value in aeronautics. ...
A gyroscope is a device which demonstrates the principle of conservation of angular momentum, in physics. ...
In the inertial frame of reference (upper part of the picture), the black object moves in a straight line. ...
Smokeless powder Gunpowder, whether black powder or smokeless powder, is a substance that burns very rapidly, releasing gases that act as a propellant in firearms. ...
Transonic is an aeronautics term referring to a range of velocities just below and above the speed of sound. ...
It has been suggested that hypersonic be merged into this article or section. ...
So, the ability to hit a target at great range has a lot to do with the ability to address environmental and meteorological factors and a good understanding of exterior ballistics and the limitations of employed gear. Without computer support and highly accurate range finding (laser range-finder) and meteorological measuring equipment as aids to calculate ballistic solutions long-range sniping becomes guess work for even the most expert long-range marksmen. A laser range-finder is a device which uses a laser beam in order to determine the distance to a reflective object. ...
For a typical military sniper rifle like the Sako TRG-42 with a 690 mm (27.17 inch) long 1 in 12 inch twist rate barrel at sea level 1500 meters (1647 yards) is considered to be the maximum shooting distance for man sized targets when using standard Lapua military loads. The 16.2 gram (250 gr.) Lapua Scenar bullet (G1 BC = 0.675), for which the TRG-42 was optimized, has a supersonic range of 1600 meters supersonic range under warm summer conditions at a muzzle velocity of 915 m/s (3002 fps). However, to be able to maintain over 90% hit probability on non-moving targets, this maximum shooting distance has to be reduced to 1300 meters (1422 yards) at freezing point conditions or 1100 meters (1312 yards) in arctic winter conditions, when the muzzle velocity may drop to 880 m/s. Only during warm summer conditions (muzzle velocity increases up to 915 m/s) the maximum shooting distance of 1500 meters is realistically achievable. The M40, United States Marine Corps standard-issue sniper rifle Sniper rifle is a term most frequently applied to rifles used by military or law enforcement to ensure accurate placement of shots at greater ranges than other small arms. ...
Twist rate refers to the rate of twist of a gun barrels rifling grooves. ...
Loaded with more aerodynamic .338 caliber bullets then the ones Lapua uses like the Sierra Match King .338 19.44 gram (300 gr) bullet or the Lost River Ballistics J40 .338 17.5 gram (270 gr) bullet the long-range performance and maximum range of .338 Lapua Magnum rifles can be extended. These longer bullets require a1 in 10 inch twist rate to stabelize them. The .338 17.5 gram Lost River Ballistic Technologies J40 match bullet (G1 BC = 0.871) is one of the most aerodynamic available .338 caliber bullets. It has a 1828 meters (2000 yard) supersonic range under warm summer conditions at a muzzle velocity of 869 m/s (2850 fps). This makes engaging targets up to 1750 meters (1914 yard) feasible. Twist rate refers to the rate of twist of a gun barrels rifling grooves. ...
Improvement beyond that whilst still using standard .338 Lapua Magnum brass is possible but then the bullets have to be very long and the normal cartridge over all length of 93.5 mm has to be passed. The common 1 in 10 inch twist rate also has to be reduced to stabilize very long projectiles. Such commercially non existing cartridges are called wildcats. The use of a wildcat .338 Lapua Magnum based cartridge demands the use of a custom or customized rifle.
The .338 Lapua Magnum as Parental Case The .338 Lapua Magnum case also functioned as the parental case for the .300 Lapua Magnum. This cartridge is essentially a necked down version of the .338 Lapua Magnum. The .338 Lapua Magnum was used for this since it has the capability to operate with high pressure which results in very high muzzle velocities. The .300 Lapua Magnum is not commercially available anymore and nowadays exists only as a CIP datasheet. It is however still used by a few shooters who produce the cases out of .338 Lapua Magnum cases by reshaping the shoulder and neck of the .338 Lapua Magnum case and handloading it with .30 caliber bullets. Handloading is the process used to create firearm cartridges by hand versus those put together en masse and sold commercially, generally in packages of 6 to 50. ...
 Image File history File links Download high-resolution version (850x600, 66 KB) I, the creator of this work, hereby release it into the public domain. ...
.300 Lapua Magnum maximum cartridge dimensions. All sizes in millimeters (mm). Americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 ≈ 25 degrees. A millimetre (American spelling: millimeter), symbol mm is an SI unit of length that is equal to one thousandth of a metre. ...
The .300 Lapua Magnum has 7.337 ml (113.0 grains) H2O cartridge case capacity. According to the official CIP guidelines the .300 Lapua Magnum case can handle up to 470 MPa (68,167 psi) piezo pressure. This maximum allowed pressure level indicates that the cases of the .300 and .338 Lapua Magnum are built extremely sturdy to cope with this for rifles very high operating pressure. The large boltface combined with the high 470 MPa maximum pressure makes that the .300 Lapua Magnum should only be chambered in rifles that are capable of handling such large and fierce cartridges and thus high bolt thrust safely. Chambering such powerful super magnum cartridges in rifles intended for normal magnum rifle cartridges and using 470 MPa loads can cause serious or fatal injury to the shooter and bystanders. mL or ml (sometimes mâ„“ in older usage) may stand for: millilitre(s) (also spelled milliliter), a thousandth of a litre in the metric system. ...
The .338 Lapua Magnum case is also used as parental case for a host of modified variants that neither are officially registered with and sanctioned by CIP or its America equivalent SAAMI. Such cartridges which use commercial factory cases are generally know as wildcats. By blowing out standard factory cases the wildcatter generally hopes to gain muzzle velocity by increasing the case capacity of the factory parental cartridge case by a few percent. Practically there can be some muzzle velocity gained by this method, but the measured results between parental cartridges and their 'improved' wildcat offspring is often marginal. Besides changing the shape and internal volume of the parent cartridge case wildcatters also can change the original caliber. A reason to change the original caliber can be to comply with a minimal allowed caliber or bullet weight for legally hunting certain species of game. Because the .388 Lapua offers a large and exceptional sturdy pressure resistant cartridge case that can relatively easily be reloaded with primers, powder and bullets and hence be reused several times it has become quite popular amongst wildcatters. With the .338 Lapua Magnum as parental case wildcatters have created 7 mm (7 mm Katzmeier), .30, 8 mm, .338, 9,3 mm and .375 caliber variants.
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