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338 federal

rlm1959
thinking about purchasing an armalite 338 federal. Although designed for federal cartridges, I want to reload with lapua brass. Would this be an issue?
thanks.
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6 comments

Date Votes
  • tsr1965
    rlm1959,

    Hello, and welcome to the forums herre on Gunbroker.com

    If you are talking about the 338 Lapua, and the 338 Federal, they are two entirely different cartridges. The 338 Lapua is a full length Super Magnum like the 338 RUM, and the 338 Federal is the 308 Winchester necked up to 0.338". If Lapua makes 338 Federal brass, or 308 Winchester brass you can do it.

    Best

    EDIT 1

    rlm1959,

    I know the Lapua brass is real good stuff, but to try to save you some $$, and time, Federal is the only one that I know that makes the 338 Federal brass. If you are going to go with the 308, or use 308 brass to form the 338 Federal, Nosler brass is real good, as is the Federal Gold Medal Match, and the Hornady. Remington does, or at least used to make some 308 Match brass with a small primer pocket, and I see that Lapua has some too.

    Best
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  • rlm1959
    thanks for the reply, I'll look into that.
    rick
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  • rlm1959
    you know, it was a toss up for the armalite 338 federal or 308 winchester. I see Lapua makes 308 winchester brass, I will probably go that route.
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  • Alan Rushing
    rlm1959 ... welcome to GunBroker! Good to see you here.

    First - If I may suggest that you cut and paste your second posting on this subject, into your fist posting window or box. In the Expert Forum you are only allowed 10 responses ... so if you don't do it that way, you have burned off one of your possible responses!

    Example:
    quote:Originally posted by rlm1959
    thinking about purchasing an armalite 338 federal. Although designed for federal cartridges, I want to reload with lapua brass. Would this be an issue?
    thanks.
    you know, it was a toss up for the armalite 338 federal or 308 winchester. I see Lapua makes 308 winchester brass, I will probably go that route.

    Second - I believe that you are speaking about orages and tangelos or lemons and limes ...
    The .338 Federal is a "chambering" or a particular cartridge. Just a "necked-up" .308 to a .338 caliber diameter bullet.

    LAPUA produces brass components for their own developed cartridges and for some of the other popular cartridges ... to included the .308.

    I have not researched all that might produce the actual .338 Federal round type of brass, but as you know, nearly everyone produces .308 brass.

    IMHO if you treasure the LAPUA brass (and it is good brass) you could purchase their .308 and no doubt neck it up to your desired .338 Federal cartridge ... if you now reload, or will be reloading.

    You would then no doubt cover most all of your wants. Your choice cartridge, your choice components of brass, bullets, powder and loading.

    RCBS, Redding and Hornady all produce the dies for the .338 Federal cartridge. http://www.midwayusa.com/browse/BrowseProducts.aspx?pageNum=1&tabId=1&categoryId=17788&categoryString=9315***731***702***8344***

    If I am missing the boat on my feed-back to you, someone will be along soon and give you further input and correct my suppositions if there is a need to do so.

    Hope some of this will help you some. The best of luck to you . . .

    =========================================

    Some of the .338 cartridges:

    .338-06
    .338 Federal
    .338 Lapua Magnum
    .338 Marlin Express
    .338 Norma Magnum
    .338 Remington Ultra Magnum
    .338 Whisper
    .338 Winchester Magnum
    .338 Xtreme

    ((In the link below is a photo comparing the .338 Federal (center, with .308 and .358)).

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.338_Federal

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.338_Lapua_Magnum

    http://www.lapua.com/en/products/reloading
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  • rlm1959
    Originally posted by rlm1959
    you know, it was a toss up for the armalite 338 federal or 308 winchester. I see Lapua makes 308 winchester brass, I will probably go that route.
    Thanks for the great info Alan. I am relatively new to reloading, so far so good on my 45-70's S&W 500's and my 270's. I am assuming that 'necking up' is a simple process of running the 308's through a 338 sizer die.
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  • 338weatherby
    Not sure for the .338 Federal, but for creating .338/06 brass from 30/06 is very simple. I just bought the 338/06 die set and lube the hell out of the 30/06 brass then run them through the full length sizer. Thats it and they are ready to go. You end up with a cartridge that is far superior to its parent.
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