338 edge?

[asa]

I have a 338 edge I tried the nosler brass but found it to soft. I now use remington brass and have spent many hours filling brass with a syringe and weighing them I can tell you from my expereince with my rem brass that they hold 117 gr of h2o give or take a grain or 2 thats why I weigh them before I prep. my 2 cents

 

[steelhead]

For what it's worth, I went out and sampled a few of my Remington 338 Edge brass. They were coming out with high 116's to low 117's weight in grains of H2O.

Devin

 

[kfrye]

Question and comment

1st- Asa, steelhead, and Shawn- do you ultimately find weighing the capacity worthwhile in the Edge in regards to consistent velocity, ES etc, or do you do it for peace of mind?

2nd, I don't think that the thread got hijacked.

Reading through it, I think that the thread took a natural progression to answer the question why the Edge is so popular compared to the other 338's. Aside from the performance gains and economic edge (no pun intended) the Edge gives, I think the biggest boost the Edge ever had was the fostering Shawn Carlock gave to it. Following Shawn's work for the past few years, he has definitely provided 'service after the sale' in pushing the envelope in research and development.

I think it is good to really question a 'smith on his claims- it will save you a lot of money in the long run.

I am currently torn between building and Edge or Lapua- after reading this thread, I am heavily leaning toward an Edge.

 

[steelhead]

kfrye,

I weigh every powder charge for consistent velocity, ES, etc.

I haven't gotten to the point where I weigh every bullet, every case, and do all the stuff benchrest guys do. I just haven't seen a need to do it for the kind of shooting I do. If I don't hit what I'm aiming at, its my fault, not the gun or ammo.

Devin

 

[Shawn Carlock]

I never water weigh cases for consistancy. From my view (even using Remington brass) weighing cases was a waste of time. I tried it all, debur flashholes, clean up turn necks, sort by weight, sort bullets by weight, sort bullets by baring surface, etc. I tried each individually to see what really made a difference. For me what really made a difference was controlling ES. The difference between fully controlled ammunition and ammunition that I only concerned myself with ES issues was small less than .070" at 100 yards, average. So we are talking the difference between .260" and .330". On your best day, you, me or anyone else cannot read the conditions well enough to take advantage of .070". So with that in mind I spend the time I save in reloading, shooting and reading the conditions. You will become a better shooter for this.

The piece of mind you speak of comes form consistantly connecting with small targets at 1000+ yards. I can assure you if you have a long range miss it was not because you didn't sort your cases by weight or some of these other BR issues. If you were trying to win a BR match it would be a different story.

 

[kocoa88]

I've been watching this thread since it got started. I don't have a dog in this hunt but I am a fan of the .388 calibers. So, with that said, I do have a couple of questions that come to mind after reading the question and answers between all involved.
1. Aren't all volumes taken by water weight done by SAAMI specs? And if so are they not supposed to be taken from a new or "sized case"? Not a fired case?
2. Isn't there a difference between brass thickness from new cases and fired cases?
3. Are there any spec drawings / schematics of the .338 edge cartridge?
4. Does anyone have side by side comparisons of all the cartridges that have been mentioned in this thread?
To date the longest repeatable kill with the .338 caliber was in May 2010 by a British Sniper. He killed two enemy combatants at a distance of 1.54 miles. That is some kind of repeatability to be sure. The rifle was an AI chambered in .338 Lapua. Shot was taken in austere non-permissive combat environment. Now that was some dang good shooting.
Oh, by the way I don't think that the thread was hi-jacked either. These kinds of discussions only serve the betterment of the entire community. Not only for hunting and sports shooting but tactical shooting as well.
Good luck to all on the upcoming hunting season where or whatever you are hunting.

 

[Shawn Carlock]

I water weighed all the cases after they had been fired 1x simply because it was what I had on hand and was just looking for a reasonable comparison. I gathered all the info I could on the 338 LM, 338-378 WBY, 338-416 IMP, 340 WBY and the projections for the 338 Edge when I started this project almost 10 years ago now. I settled where I did for a number of reasons, easy of loading and brass forming topped the list, followed by ease of rifle building on a 700 action and pure accuracy performance. Out and out velocity was an issue but not the top issue.

 

[Down Under Hunter]

After having SC build me my rifle a few years back I have this to say. This rifle is the easiest, trouble free rifle to get really tight groups from many of us have ever seen. It just ain't really fussy. If you keep your loading consistant with a very low ES they will tackhole WAAAAAAAAAY out there.

I just loaded my gun with what Shawn told me and it shot lights out. I aint touched it since ! 2 weeks after I got the rifle, first time at 1030 yards the gun shot a 4 shot 3 inch group. I had not been past 400 till that point !!

I couldn't care who invented the round... SC gave it the high profile it now enjoys. I would not have known about it if it had not been for word of mouth from LRHF.

I also know who I'll be on the ph to if I need to know anything about an EDGE.

What more needs to be said. They are a killing machine ..

Keep building great guns Shawn.

Cheers from Down Under !

DUH



DUH

 

[kocoa88]

Wow! Didn't know that I was hitting the hornets' nest here. Shawn, relax, looks like you have a fine round and rifle. I'm curious about the round for good reason. I've been watching your rifle and round gain popularity for some time. Since that's the case the rifle and round must be doing well. I never jump on a new product due to hype but your round seems to have been gaining in popularity and I've not heard many bad reports on it at all. So, that said I'm not trying to put out any bad news on your product. I think that you know me well enough to know that if I didn't like something I would have put it on here (or other forums) just that way. I'm not shy that way.

Just looking for more information so I can make an informed decision on my next .338 purchase. Like I said, I'm a fan of the caliber.

So, my previous questions stand. If anyone could provide me the information that would be great. I would love to shoot a side by side comparison of the Edge and a couple other .338 calibers. I'm not looking to post a report. I just want to gain the knowledge for my own interests. I've been doing this kind of testing for other manufactures since the 90s and never divulge my reports to anyone but the manufacture.

 

[Shawn Carlock]

I am relaxed, there's no fur up here. The only comparison I have done straight up is with the 338 RUM, 338 LM and the Edge. I stayed away from the Rigby and WBY rounds for brass, fire forming, shoulder issues etc. My experience with the 3 I tested was simple, all things being the same, barrel length (26") etc and shooting the 300 SMK, the Edge and the LM bested the RUM by about 80-100 fps, the Edge bested the LM by very little 20-30 fps. I tested with only temperature stable powders, there was some velocity to be gained by using others but to me it was not worth it. Also noted later, the longer the barrel length the bigger the velocity spreads between the 3 rounds, the lighter the bullet and the shorter the barrel the tighter the velocity spread between them became. THat is really the only comparison info I can give you that has not been posted hope it answers your questions.