doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion Classic & Custom Single Barreled Sporting Rifles @ doublegunshop.com Awesome Custom 338-300 L.N. by Steve Billeb, ACGG

Awesome Custom 338-300 L.N. by Steve Billeb, ACGG Founder / Member

When I saw the listing I couldn't resist adding it to my collection. This is my 3rd Custom Rifle built by a member of the ACGG.

My first one was a 416 Rigby Mauser by Nate Bishop,
http://buckstix.com/buckpics/416forun1.jpg

the second one was an 11.2x72 by James Tucker, (see this link) https://www.doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=648756
http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/imman-0.jpg

and now this 338-300 Win L.N. by Stephan Billeb, http://www.buckstix.com/buckpi...LLEB-338-300-000.jpg


This rifle is built on a highly customized Enfield magnum length action with many modified features as described in the listing. Its also an early wildcat 338-300 L.N. caliber. This caliber is slightly different than a standard 338 Win Mag in that the L.N. stands for "Long Neck". The longer case neck provides more bullet support and more uniform "bullet-pull" for improved accuracy.

The stock design with the wonderful checkering pattern really displays Mr. Billeb's artistic talents. I can't wait to get it in hand.

Beautiful rifle, Buckstix. I especially like the contrasting grain in the stock. The trigger guard looks like it’s been customized too. Let us know how it shoots.

Custom 338-300 Long Neck by Steve Billeb, ACGG Founder / Member

I brought this because this is in fact a wildcat caliber and the price was Half of what it would have been if it was a conventional caliber. I just added the vintage Weatherby scope from the time when this was built. I was much surprised to find it was "un-fired".)

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/billeb-338-300.jpg


http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/billeb-scoped.jpg



This is a new caliber for me and perhaps others may have some information about it.

As you can see in the picture, it has more case capacity than a standard 338 win mag, and the "long neck" gives better bullet support, but its the "long neck" that puzzles me. What brass do you use to get the long neck? I used a 375 H&H to make the one shown.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/338-338-300.jpg

Does it really have a neck that long or is it freebore?

The gun and the dies from RCBS are both marked 338=300 Win. L.N. and the long neck cartridges with the the long neck that I loaded fits in the chamber properly. I'm sure Steve Billeb being a Master ACGG Gunsmith would know what he was doing when he built the rifle and marked the caliber ... and bought custom RCBS dies to go with the rifle. There is "old school" history about the 338-300 Win Long Neck being used in Long Range competition.

I see. I have a long necked 219 Donaldson Wasp, the last of his changes to the 219, which was done not to increase the amount of powder loaded but to increase the case capacity to lower the pressure from the standard load. Some of his loads were pretty hot for the day.

In the case of the 338-300 win L.N. the use of the 300 win mag case was to increase case capacity by 10-15% to obtain higher velocities. This 338-300 wildcat pre-dates the 338 win mag by 5 years. The long neck was to improve accuracy.

There were a couple of articles in older Gun Digests touting the cartridge. The idea was valid but it suffered the wildcat syndrome. Make a change for a little improvement and then push it to the extremes. A capacity increase of 8-10% gives you about a 3% gain in performance. I have owned many wildcats and developed a few. In the case of the .338's, the field is fully convered. I have owned many, many rifles and I used one .338 WinMag for every head of big game I killed over 30 years. On the other end, a friend of mine took the upper argument with the 340 Weatherby. These 2 bracket the heavy end of the range and there is really no practical gap between the two. The mild end was unserved for years until the 338-06 was commercialized. I used a short action version in the 338/284. These are improved versions of the 358 Win.

I did a lot of wildcats over the years ... Three of my wildcats from the 1970's are ....

my 14-222 caliber (222 Rem necked to .14 - see 1988 Guns Illustrated: "Fourteen Fever") & (10th ed Cartridges of the World)
and my 7x47 caliber (6x47 Rem necked to 7mm - American Handgunner - Jan/Feb 1979 page 36 - https://americanhandgunner.com/1979issues/HJF79.pdf )
and my 7x40 caliber (222 Rem necked to 7mm)

Here's my first field test - a very remarkable rifle. Since it was new and unfired, the first shot was a flyer.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/BILLEB-TARG.jpg