.338 Lapua Magnum: A Legendary Sniper Round That Hunts

All About This Formidable & Revered Cartridge

The .338 Lapua Magnum — the name is whispered with reverence in long-range and sniper-obsessed subs across Reddit. It’s famous and infamous for doing what it was designed to do: be a long-range sniper cartridge fired from the best sniper rifles in the world that delivers remarkable terminal performance on target. 

After the round gained breakfast-table notoriety as the round used for the longest sniper kill in history (since eclipsed by a shot taken with a .50 BMG) as well as the round preferred by Chris Kyle, the most famous American sniper since Carlos Hathcock, hunters began to drift toward the mild velocity, hard-hitting round for the biggest game. 

But despite the fact that the .338 has hung on through a heck of a lot of long-range cartridge innovation over the past three decades, it never took off with hunters and it certainly never found love among long-range precision shooters. 

Let’s take a quick look at the round’s history, its claims to fame, and what’s been holding it back. 

.338 Lapua Magnum Specifications

.338 Lapua Magnum History Brief

The .338 Lapua Magnum was developed in the late 1980s in Finland as a long-range military sniper round. It gets its name from the Finnish town of Lapua. A standard load is capable of penetrating modern body armor beyond 1,000 yards and has a maximum effective range of 1,900 yards — that’s 1.07 miles. 

Muzzle velocity varies anywhere from 2,890 to 3,000 fps depending on conditions and components. It’s certainly not a super high-velocity screamer, but it’s pushing a 250-grain bullet at those velocities and staying supersonic out to 1,700 to 1,800 yards. Commercial loads produce about 4,800 ft-lbs. of energy. That’s beastly.  

The round fills the gap between military small arms chambered in 7.62 NATO (.308 Win) and some of the largest small arms chambered in .50 BMG.

While it was introduced in 1989, it didn’t see widespread use on the battlefield until the Global War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq.    

How did a Finnish round end up in American sniper rifles during the GWOT you ask? Well, while the Finns introduced the round to the market, much of its development took place in the U.S. and it all began with a British big-game cartridge. 

A U.S. company called Research Armament Industries began developing a new .338-caliber sniper cartridge designed for long-range applications in 1983. They began working with .378 Weatherby Magnum cases and then settled on necking down .416 Rigby cases to take a .338-caliber bullet, which was selected for its sectional density and penetrating capability. 

The .416 Rigby, as we said, is a big-game cartridge from the early 1900s. As with most rifle rounds of the day, it wasn’t designed for extreme pressures — its ceiling was a bit over 47,000 psi. And since it was British and made in 1911, it was designed for old-school cordite, which predates modern smokeless powder. 

The test cases were made by B.E.L.L. of Bensenville, Illinois and Hornady made the bullets. RAI built the rifle under contract for the U.S. Navy, but when they began testing, they found the cases, which were made from modified .416 Rigby cases, couldn’t handle the .338’s pressure requirements. 

Deadlines were looming, so RAI reached out to Lapua in Finland sometime in 1984 to make new cases, and then RAI dropped out of the project for financial reasons. So, Lapua was the only one left on the project, and the company put the cartridge into limited production — so fairly, they got to name it. But that generation of cartridge didn’t measure up, it still couldn’t hit the 3,000 fps mark without rupturing cases, and the program was canceled.  

Later, the project was revived. Lapua redesigned the cartridge from the ground up with a new case that had a thicker case web and sidewall. The .338 Lapua Magnum had arrived with a 90-grain load of slow-burning powder with the powerful ignition of a large rifle magnum primer. The bullet weight remained at 250 grains. 

The first test lot of the new ammo was made in 1988 and in 1989 the round was approved by the C.I.P. (Commission Internationale Permanente pour l'épreuve des armes à feu portatives; translation: Permanent International Commission for the Proof of Small Arms). 

In 1990, a new cartridge with a 259-grain bullet was introduced by Lapua, and throughout the decade, additional purpose-driven bullets were tested and loaded, like armor-piercing and incendiary projectiles. 

But this new round needed rifles to shoot it as it began to raise military interest in the U.S. once again, which still hadn’t filled the role the .338 was intended for. 

The problem was, the .338 Lapua Magnum couldn’t fit into even long-action rifles — a larger rifle platform was needed, and at the time, there weren’t many options. In the late 1980s, top European rifle makers like Accuracy International of the UK and Sako of Finland began making the first .338 Lapua Magnum rifles. 

AI wound up delivering the first military-contracted .338 rifles, but more options appeared throughout the 1990s.  

During the GWOT, .338 rifles like the Sako TRG 42, Accuracy International AXSR, and the McMillan Tac-338 became famous. The latter was Navy SEAL Chris Kyle’s preferred rifle during his time in Iraq. He used that rifle and the .338 Lapua Magnum to log his longest reported sniper kill of his military career at 1.2 miles.  

However, in the intervening years, military interest has waned in the U.S. While the brass, for a time, was eyeing the .338 to replace the .300 Winchester Magnum and the .50 BMG for anti-personnel uses at long ranges, wide adoption never happened, and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) went with the .300 Norma Magnum for its MK22 Advanced Sniper Rifle, aka the Barrett MRAD. 

The Downsides

Hunters began getting interested in the .338 Lapua Magnum simply because it can take down any big game animal, worldwide. For a time, the .338 was legal for hunting Africa’s big five game animals, but new requirements have since pushed it out of bounds. 

If the round can reach out to a mile and beyond and take any animal a hunter can chase, why isn’t it more popular? 

First, it’s a long cartridge, and as mentioned before, standard length actions can’t accommodate it. Most .338 rifles, with a scope and bipod attached, are pretty darn heavy — heavier and longer than what most hunters would want in a rifle meant to be carried for miles over rough country. And that barrel length is necessary to get the most out of the .338. Simply put, there are better options out there. 

Second, it kicks like a mother. There’s no getting around it, the felt recoil of the .338 is significant. It can be tamed a bit with a good muzzle brake, but then you have an ear drum killer. A suppressor is a good option, but then you’re making an already long rifle even longer. And it still kicks enough that a follow-up shot, if necessary, might not be possible. 

There’s also nothing inherently accurate about the .338. Those amazing shots it’s capable of and much of its reputation comes from being fired through rifles like Kyle’s McMillan. With peasant rifles, you’ll have to find a rifle and ammo match just like any other pairing to hope for reliable sub-MOA groups.   

And finally, these days, feeding a .338, especially to get it dialed in, is an expensive proposition. You’ll be lucky to find ammo for $7 a round on the first go before you start reloading. If you don’t reload, forget about it. 

The .338 Lapua Magnum is undoubtedly a legendary sniper round at this point.