Loading for Savage Alaskan .338wm 20” bbl
Just grabbed a Savage Model 116 Alaskan Brush Hunter, .338wm with 20” SS barrel, on sale at Cabelas. Topped it with a Leupold 3-9x40 and low bases/rings. Finally decided to give one a try due to the sale price and my quest for the ultimate elk bush rifle, lol. My previous experiences with the .338wm all came from various Ruger m77 models, and my long time favorite load was simply 70.0gr imr4350, nos. 210gr partitions and cci mag primers in federal brass. Shot great accuracy with just a nice push on the shoulder at around 2800fps. Of course these were all 24” bbls. The new rifle, completely set up, comes in at 8.5lbs and has quite a heavy wall barrel, but does balance and shoulder very well.
My question is on the thoughts of sticking with my previous load experience, starting at 69.0gr and slowly working up for best accuracy for this rifle, or if the imr4350 is too slow for the 20” bbl.
Thoughts?
Cory
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