Wow. A thread resurrected from the dead.
I loved the lapua and "hated the lapua". It is an amazing caliber no doubt but you see, these heavy calibers are nice but they are a commitment to heavy rifles, heavy pounding and expensive shooting.
If one's objective is to hit some paper or ring some steel and do not really need an anti-material round like the military then the 308 and 7mm calibers offer some amazing options for extreme long range. When we talk about extreme we are talking about rounds that can remain supersonic for 1 mile and more before break speed. Several 308 calibers will be capable of long range hunting as well as extreme long range and even shooting flatter and further than the lapua magnum and even larger crazier options w/o the huge investment in both heavy rifles, brass and bullets some of those high caliber require and very expensive to shoot.
The most popular behind the LM is the winchester magnum just because of its global popularity. There are several match reamers that will allow to seat the 230gr bullets to maximum efficiency fed from the AI magaiznes or single fed from an upper. the only issue with this one is that it cannot shoot the most efficient berger that has a G1 coefficient of .730! but it will allow the OTM one tha is not too far behind. So it shoots a little less than the LM but not that much.
But if one takes a 300 norma magnum case (338 necked down to 308) then one can use the best bullets in the 308 department and shoot flatter and further than the lapua and many other higher caliber guns but with more affordable rifles and loads. It is obviously an overbored option but not as huge barrel burner as originally though and extremely accurate. Another one that is gaining a lot of momentum is the 30/375 ruger. that is based on the awesome and economical hornady 375 ruger case and on top it uses standard magnum bolt faces and actions.
Then there is the question of the bullet efficiency because with bullets like berger, gs, and even new noster accubond LR with G1 of .730 is hard to find any arguments against the 308 caliber for extreme long range. This solid pill requires a 1:8 twist but it is one of the most efficient 308 bullets ever devised with an average G1 coefficient .80 !!... so knowing that many super magnums can put this one well above 3000 fps then then ... do the math.
Bullet Number | Bore Diameter mm / inch | Groove Diameter mm / inch | Suitable for Calibers | | | |