Just purchased a reminder 700 american wilderness rifle in 338 Remington ultra mag.  Bought the tipped Barnes 250gr long range hunting bullet.  Barnes recommends loading the bullet .050 off the lands.  Used my Hornady guage with modified cases and found that with the Barnes 250gr it hits the lands at 3.996in.  that would mean that I should load to a length of 3.946.  well the loading data calls for 3.590.  big difference there.  Almost seems like my throat is extra long.  Any thoughts.  Have not had a chance yet to get to the range but loaded bullets at the 3.590.  heck I've not even yet to shoot the rifle.

Normal on rums(and many cartridges), due to a long throat..So you have a choice, you can load long and single feed, you can do a Wyats extended box mag, or you can test your ammo and see if it will shoot at the desired mag length....On my 300rum, I load the 230 grain berger at roughly 3.900"COAL but single feed it even though I use the accurate mags 3.850" CIP magazines...

When I used the stock box mag, I loaded the 200 grain Barnes X to 3.650" which just fed from the stock box...

EETA: A big advantage to loading to the lands, is it gives you more case capacity and you can get more velocity...but you need to work up slowly, same deal if you have a long loading all maxed out and want to seat the bullet deeper to fit a mag..you need to drop the charge down and work back up to pressure in your new length...These big magnums pack some serious powder so work accordingly to stay with in bounds...

Thanks for sharing.  I understand the pressure issues of loading on or near the lands.   This is a hunting rifle so I'll see how it does.  It's BDL so I'm not sure of the longest I can load and still fit in the internal magazine.  It may shoot well as is and if it does I'll let it be.  Just thought it seemed extra long

Greetings!

Your thought is right: it IS long if you want to seat that close to the lands.

You are also right: this is a hunting rifle.

Liability lawyers advise gun companies to put the lands far out enough to prevent fudds from jamming factory loads into the lands and blowing up guns.

That leaves you with 3 options:

1) load long, but realize your rifle is now a single-shot and the magazine is useless, or

2) load to just under maximum magazine length, and accept whatever accuracy degradation comes with that amount of "jump," or

3) re-barrel with a throat that get the bullet closer to the lands while also fitting in the mag.

Please post on your progress, and thanks!

Will update.  Plan on getting to the range early next week.  Thanks

Typical for remington (and out lawyer based society.)

Long throats reduce the ability of unskilled reloaders from blowing up their rifles.

I've not loaded for .338 RUM.

I do use Barnes TSX and TTSX bullets in many rifle calibers, .223, 6mm, 7mm, .308 and .45-70.  The 7mm and .308 bullets are loaded in .280, 7mm Rem Mag, .308 Win, .300 Weatherby Mag.

In every instance I have found that the bullet like to jump.  I get very good accuracy set at SAAMI max COAL or no longer than max magazine length, even if the barrel has a long throat.  I'm not seeing any worthwhile gains by seating longer.

TSX and TTSX bullets are hunting bullets.  While they are not match bullets, I can usually get them to shoot MOA or very close to it in barrels that shoot match ammo at MOA or better.

Try standard SAAMI COAL.  You might be pleasantly surprised.