Anyone do a .338BR in an AR platform?

[amafrank]

Looking at doing up a .338BR for a friend who hunts hogs. He has been using a 30-221 bolt gun but has discovered that some of the hogs come looking for the shooter and others stalk the hunter. He wants more firepower and quicker followup shots so naturally the bigger .338 round makes more sense as well. I've got a RockRiver lower with all its parts and I'm looking at doing the upper. Any help on gasport size and location as well as loads for the gas gun would be helpful. I've done quite a bit of loading and shooting with the bolt guns but they don't care what the pressure curves are...just whats quiet.

Thanks
Frank

[TCCrewchief76]

I'd be tempted to use a 458 SOCOM suppressed if the hogs are coming after him after being hit. An increase in .030" likely won't make much of a difference at subsonic speed, but a .458" bullet just might. I've got a bunch of 350 grain Hornady's and a nice wide meplat hard cast that I make that sits right at 345 grains. It's a gas-checked bullet, but if I were running it subsonic, I'd run it without one and send that puppy through a can!

Kevin

[amafrank]

I understand the Socom is a good round and the 50 beowulf as well but the owner has some bolt guns in the 338BR and is looking for a semi to use the same round. I just picked up a LAR 8 lower assembly from Rock River so I guess I'll stumble my way around and see if its doable.


Frank

[Ron458]

I built one on the AR15 platform. Biggest issue was the 300g slugs fitting in the mags. AR10 would fix that. P mag worked perfect with the 225-250s I ran.

[BWE Firearms]

How about our 338 Thumper. It works great in an AR even with 300Gr. bullets.

[Titleiiredneck]

Honestly after hunting pigs for over 25 years stick with the known, I suggest a 300 whisper/blackout/wtf with atleast a 220-240 gr or a 12ga semi cut to 18-20 and shoot sabot slugs through a rifled bore. I only hunt them in a stand or with dogs "curr/hound mix" as I am somewhat disabled and taste good to porkers or atleast my chunky wife says I do :eek:

If he is stalking as a lot of people do and can be legal and all I suggest a ar in 300w and a short as possible semi 12ga for backup. I can tell you from experience that it helps to have two, especially a 12ga that is good for 75-125 yds that shoots a heavy slug which will rip a pig a new asshole. Since using a 300 in a ar I have only had 3 run when shooting heavy bullets but they were miss shots on my end and could have been avoided.

[Spook]

anyone's looking :grin:

[ohnomrbillk]

anyone's looking :grin:

Do 300gr loads fit in the magazine?

[amafrank]

I guess I never got back to this one....the board seemed to have died for a bit there. . .

I bought a DPMS 16" 308 AR Panther a year or two back and pulled the barrel. I made up a new barrel in 338BR using an adjustable gasblock in the same position as the carbine 308 barrel that was there. Port size in the barrel is about .125 for reliable cycling with subbies and no can. Adjusting the gasblock for supersonics and also for subbies with the can is easily done. I only ran a couple hundred rounds through the gun before a friend managed to talk me out of it but I did manage to determine some good info.
The standard DPMS 308 mag works fine for feeding both 300gr SMK loads and 180 or 200 gr supersonic loads. I had no feed issues with any of the pointy bullets. We did try some 200gr round nose of unknown origin and they worked fine too both super and sub sonic.
Accuracy with the 16" Douglas double X barrel was outstanding. I fired 10rds of 300gr subs into a slightly larger than 1" group at 100yds with a suppressor installed. I never shot the supersonics for accuracy but they hit what we were aiming at when fired so I'm guessing they're good too.
All in all it was a worthwhile project and the new owner is happy. It doesn't suppress as well as the bolt guns but what else is new. We shot it at a suppressor test last year and it is definitely quieter on the left due to the gas ports in the bolt. I wouldn't hesistate to use it for a pig hunt.

I've pretty much given up on the 300 stuff. Why screw around with little bullets when I can fire the 300gr matchkings for about the same money and have more energy. I think the 338 is quieter too and it fits easily in my Desert Tactical action where the 300 won't.

Thanks for the help from those who did.

Frank