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| The DPMS Panther Arms LR-338L was born to hunt large game |
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| From L to R: .338 Federal and .308 Winchester |
Thinking it’s a tactical rifle? Absolutely not and while it
may move along those lines, the LR-338L is a thoroughbred hunting rifle used to
put food on the table and a trophy on the wall. The ammunition is a bit pricey
to shoot at targets, but just right to take your favorite game and with Federal
Premium Ammunition having six bullet weights and types from 180gr Nosler AccuBond
Vital Shock to 210gr Nosler Partition Vital Shock you should be able to find
one to fit your hunting needs. As a hand loader I will tell you there are more
choices, but DPMS clearly states in their owner’s manual that using re-loaded
or foreign ammunition will void your warranty. But hand loading is the only way
to build a custom load that performs the best in any given rifle and I will cover
this later in the article.
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| Top to bottom: Standard Colt .223 bolt group and DPMS LR-338L bolt group |
The .338 Federal is a .308 caliber case necked up to hold a
.33 caliber bullet. So DPMS gave this round a rock solid platform starting with
an 18 inch fluted barrel and adds a permanently affixed custom compensator for
an overall length of 21.4 inches. The Button rifled barrel is constructed of
416 stainless steel and is considered a light contour barrel with a six groove,
right-hand, 1:10 twist. Since the LR-338L is gas operated or direct gas
impingement design (meaning it vents gas directly back into the operating
system to cycle) it uses a lightweight gas block to secure the gas tube, and
has no means to attach a front mounted iron sight. You must use optics on the receivers
A3 flattop Picatinny rail which is about 6.75 inches in length. The barrel is
then wrapped in a free floated carbon fiber tube that will offer durable
protection to the barrel and gas tube; it also sports a sling stud for the
provided sling. The barrel nut that attaches the hand guard to the upper
receiver is also ventilated to aid in air flow over the barrel.
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| If you need extra firepower Magpul's 20 LR fits great |
The upper receiver resembles an AR with the exception that DPMS
has squared the edges instead of rounding them off. The forward assist and brass
deflector is this way as well with sharp contrast, but DPMS incorporated the
forward assist into the brass deflector as one unit. The charging handle, dust
cover and rail are strait forward AR, but these oddities are what make the LR-338L
unique among other AR’s. The lower receiver follows along the same squared
design and uses familiar parts such as the bolt release, safety selector lever,
magazine catch and the captured takedown pins. DPMS went with the Hogue rubber grip
for great control, which I like, but can get hung on clothing since they are non
slip. The trigger is a two stage type most are familiar with and is housed
inside a durable metal trigger guard, but like other AR’s that allow you to
open the gate for glove use, DPMS did not incorporate this feature. The trigger
guard is generous in size and should handle most hunting gloves, but will not
accommodate mitten style gloves. The magazine well is larger to accommodate the
.338 Federal and as it accepts all DPMS magazines it will accept Magpul’s PMag
20LR as well. Extra magazines as well as other parts and accessories may be
purchased directly from DPMS’s web store or a specialty store like Elite
Tactical Components.
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| Hogue grips are a nice touch and very non-slip |
The stock is skeletonized according to DPMS, and with most
designs of this type it is usually done to reduce weight, although the stock
still uses a trap door. I’m not sure why they did this as I would have preferred
the use of the trap door compartment for storing extra bolt parts, ammo or
cleaning gear and in a pinch it’s great for trail mix I hear. If I look at it
from another view, it makes for a firm two handed hold or if you’re passing an
unloaded rifle up to someone. Lastly the buffer and spring aside from being
larger to accommodate the .338 Federal are what you would expect to see in any
AR platform. If you have never owned a larger caliber AR, the first thing you
notice upon disassembly is the heavier and redesigned bolt carrier and bolt. For
the most part they are identical but vary to a degree from manufacturer to
manufacturer. The DPMS bolt carrier and bolt design looks much like what you would
find in a standard .223 design except hardier to handle the potent .338
Federal, but will field strip in much the same way.
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| Brass deflector and forward assist button is all one unit |
The rifle weighs in at 8.4 lbs with the provided 4 round
magazine and 8.7 lbs with a loaded 4 round magazine containing the 185gr Barnes
Triple-Shock. With the Trijicon TR20-1 AccuPoint 3-9x40 riflescope and 4 rounds
of the same ammunition, the rifle weighed in at 9.75 lbs. The overall length is
a little over 39 inches and the trigger pull was a consistent 5.25 lbs. The
exterior is hard coat anodized mil spec and Teflon coated black and besides the
squared and sharp angles of the rifles upper and lower receiver, it handles well
and is balanced for it size. One of the things I do when testing firearms is to
let other shooters fire the rifle to get their opinions. The shooters range in
all skill levels and backgrounds so I get a good mix of feedback. Their
comments fell in the order of: recoil, trigger pull, weight, esthetics and
ammo, but in general, all the shooters liked the rifle and scope combination.
All shooters reported that they never knew this rifle or the .338 Federal
existed. I can only conclude there may be a few more sales of the RL-338L in
the future.
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| The stock is skeletonized, which makes stock storage impossible |
Since using iron sights is out of the question on this rifle,
Trijicon sent me their TR20-1 3-9x40 AccuPoint. I have always been a fan of Trijicon
because of their use by the military and they build tough optics that use
illuminated reticules and best of all, require no batteries. This model uses a standard
crosshair with a dot that uses the Trijicon tritium phosphor lamp, surrounded
by aircraft grade anodized aluminum. Trijicon incorporates great features into
the TR20-1 like fiber optics with automatic brightness control; this allows you
to manually set your brightness level. Longer eye reliefs for use with heavy
hitters like the .338 Federal, easy focus eye piece and multi-layer coated
lenses for clarity and light gathering with no distortion aid you in the field.
All these features are wrapped in a matte black finish with no glare or light
reflection to make a great looking scope. The TR20-1 seemed a very good match
for the type of hunting you will be doing with the .338 Federal and Trijicon
backs it optics with a lifetime warranty for the original owner.
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| Standard butt stock trap door |
The .338 Federal began its service in 1986 and gave the
hunter a medium caliber in a known cartridge case for light rifles such as the
LR-388L. The 338-08, a 308 Winchester necked up to hold a .338 bullet was the
cartridge the .338 Federal was modeled after and with some minor modifications it
became what it is today. Cartridges such as the 348 Winchester, 35 Remington
and the 358 Winchester, although proven calibers, couldn’t compete in range with
the new .338 Federal that Federal ammunition engineers had designed. The .338
Federal was designed for shots out to 200 yards and delivers over 3200 ft/lbs
of energy with a max pressure of 62,000 psi. It works well with powders that
drive the .223 and with up to 225 grain bullets, will take deer, elk and black
bears all with the recoil of a standard 30-06 rifle.
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| The 1 in 10 twist does a good job stabilizing the .338 Federal |
If you’re going after deer, the 180 or 185 grain bullets will
easily take any deer you care to hunt but if you’re going to move up to moose
and bear then 200+ grain bullets would be a sound choice. Since bullets change
all the time and with hand loaders is a matter of choice, you should shop
around and see what the bullet maker’s offer in the type of bullet you want.
Barnes does a good job of making bullets for penetration and expansion and Hornady
bullets are exceptional in accuracy and performance. Sometimes the bullet that
performs the best in the rifle is not the best bullet for the hunt and as a
rule of thumb, whenever you switch loads make sure you re zero as all rounds
point of aim, point of impact are different.
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| The muzzle break does it's job very well although loud |
Federal Premium Ammunition provided me with three types of
their .338 Federal. 180gr Nosler Accubond, 185gr Barnes Triple-Shock and 200gr
Fusion for testing. Other ammunition companies manufacture the .338 Federal but
Federal Premium specializes in their namesake caliber providing 6 bullet
weights and types to choose from. I found that they performed as expected with
groups averaging from 1.4 to 2 inches at 100 yards. Chronograph results yielded
positive results as well with good velocities for such a large and heavy
hitting bullet with standard deviation and extreme spread being low.
Federal Premium Factory
Loads Chronograph Results
LOAD BULLET
VELOCITY NOTES
Federal 180 grain Nosler
Accubond 2777 consistent
Federal 185 grain Barnes Triple
shock 2681 good load
Federal 200 grain
Fusion
2630 good load
Even though
DPMS doesn’t allow using hand loads in its rifle for warranty purposes, I still
used them in my testing because they allow you to customize your loads and ring
out the best possible accuracy for this rifle. Once you do this, they could retain
the right to refuse warranty service at their discretion. I would caution new
hand loaders to take care loading for this caliber but experienced loaders
shouldn’t experience too many problems.
With reasonable care and following all the safety rules for hand loading
you can create ammunition that will make your RL338L even more accurate. After
chronographing and firing my factory loads, I cleaned my Federal brass and
started reloading. Since there isn’t a lot of load information on this round I
worked carefully with my mentor Bob Shell and used information we found for the
.358 Winchester. These two cartridges are identical except for bullet diameter
so it makes a good choice for a loading reference for the .338 Federal.
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| No front site base so select good optic's like Trijicon |
After full length
resizing and de-priming each case, it is a good idea to check your case’s
overall length using loading data or a factory cartridge. Semi-automatics such as the LR-338L will not chamber
overly long rounds. Under length rounds will not be as accurate because the
bullet is not sitting at the optimal distance to the lands and grooves. The
proper overall length of Factory .338 loads is 2.894” and while it will
tolerate plus or minus that by a few thousands of an inch, make sure you keep
it as close as possible for best function and performance. After you have
loaded your cartridges, make sure you check function in the magazine and rifle
before you head out on that big hunt; the field is not the place to find your
ammo will not chamber. Through trial and error I found this to be a valuable bit
of information that will save you time and aggravation at the bench and in the
field.
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| The Trijicon was a great match with its illuminated dot |
Here are the
results from my reloads that were chronographed on a RCBS, Ammo Master. I made
up seven loads using my Federal .338 Brass and various powders.
Reloading Chronograph
Results
LOAD POWDER BULLET VEL NOTES
44 Gr IMR 4895 225 grain Hornady 2461 consistent
47 Gr AA 2520 200 grain Hornady 2494 best load
48 Gr IMR 4320 200 gr FTX 2461
really consistent
47 Gr IMR 4895 200 gr FTX 2494
satisfactory
47 Gr AA
2520 200 gr FTX 2462 consistent
41 Gr 748
225 gr Hornady 2123 consistent but light load
41 Gr 748 210 gr Barnes solid 2147 consistent
but light load
A few small issues
I discovered along the way were easy to fix like the magazine not locking open
after the last shot or stripping another round from the magazine. On the AR
rifles the magazine release is spring loaded and if you push in the release
with a small object it pushes out the other side and can be turned to tighten
up the hold on the magazine. Using light loads may not generate enough gas
pressure to cycle the bolt properly to eject and strip a new round from the
magazine. A few grains of powder seemed to fix this issue but proceed with care
a few grains go a long way and safety is paramount. With my eye relief on the AccuPoint,
the scope overhung the charging handle and made it difficult to chamber a round
using the factory charging handle. An aftermarket charging handle with extended
ears will fix this problem and a different eye relief may aid this as well.
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| If you have an AR platform, this rifle will feel like an old friend |
The recoil
plate has a diamond cut pattern to aid in keeping the rifle in your shoulder
pocket, although they are sharp and shooting it repeatedly in a t-shirt will
leave the pattern on your skin. For extended shooting sessions I suggest a pad
or jacket and with a hunting jacket it poses no issues, it’s just part of the
experience of shooting the .338 Federal. The DPMS LR-338L is a well built rifle
and with proper maintenance and care it will give you many years of faithful
service and I would have no problems taking it on my hunts.
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| 1 inch and under is very possible with this rifle and great ammunition like Federal |
Sources:
DPMS - www.dpms.com
Federal Premium Ammunition - www.federalpremium.com
Trijicon - www.trijicon.com
Elite Tactical Components - www.elitetacticalcomponents.com