JBM - Personal - 0.338 Millard

Specifications

Caliber: 0.338 Millard (based on .416 Rigby)
Action: Hall Express, E Action
Barrel: Lilja, 30", Hart Max Heavy Varmint taper. Muzzle brake by Vais.
Stock: McMillan McHale/Steyr SSG stock with Pachmayr Decelerator.
Bipod: Versa-Pod
Trigger: Jewell HVR, bottom mounted safety
Scope: 24x Leupold with custom reticle
Weight: about 15 pounds

Comments

The .338 Millard is another wildcat that I had JGS make a reamer for. It is essentially a .416 Rigby necked down to .338 with a 40 degree shoulder and minimum body taper. There are a few .338-.416 wildcats out there, I don't know how much difference there is between them -- as I did with the .308 Millard, I figured if I'm going to have a reamer made, I might as well make it a custom design.

The action is a Hall Express. It is a heavy stainless steel action made by Hall Mfg., 142 County Road 406, Clanton, Alabama 35045, (205) 755-4094. They're not cheap, but are made very well. The actions have no trigger, but accept any Remington 700 trigger in a housing that bolts to the action. It is designed so that the trigger can be removed through the action when the action is glued into the stock. The "E" action is 9" long and 1.5" in diameter. (Hall makes a "G" model that is 1.75" in diameter!) The recoil lug is similar to the Remington 700, but it is a full 0.25" thick and held in alignment by a pin into the action face. This action is single shot only and held into the stock by three action screws. You have to specify the cartridge size when ordering the action. It comes with three different bolt face sizes: '06, Magnum and the big Weatherby.

As with any rifle I expect to use for accuracy work, I installed a Jewell trigger. They are available directly from Jewell Triggers, Inc., 3620 Hwy. 123, San Marcos, TX 78666 (512) 353-2999. The only thing this trigger needs is a trigger shoe, unfortunately I don't know of anyone that makes a trigger shoe for it.

The stock is by McMillan. I talked to Dick Davis, McMillan's production manager. He suggested this particular stock because it is capable of holding the large action and barrel with enough room for the bipod mounting stud. The finish is a molded in marble. I bedded the action using DevCon and pillars I had made by McMillan. I performed the bedding in two steps. The first step set the pillars and recoil lug (I also did the lug in the first step so that I knew I could get the action back into the same place over the pillars.) The bipod is made by Versa-Pod.

The scope is a 24x Leupold with a custom reticle by Premier Reticles, Ltd. When I bought it, Premier had such a good price on scopes that I purchased the scope with the new reticle for only a little more than the regular retail price. This reticle has alternating 1/4 and 1/8 minutes dots spaced at 5 moa intervals. I've used this scope on other rifles for long range hunting and it is very easy to estimate drop. You can reach Premier at 920 Breckinridge Lane, Winchester, VA 22601, (540) 722-0601 or reticles@shentel.net.

The scope is mounted on a custom base made by Otteson Machine here in Las Cruces, NM. The machine shop is currently run by Davidson's (the maker of Davidson Sleeves -- now retired) son. He makes some of the mounts and aluminum parts that Sinclair distributes. The bottom of the base is not flat, but has a slope of about 10 moa. The rings are made by Kelbly.

Reloading

I started with .416 Rigby brass made by B.E.L.L. Case preparation includes trimming the bases to make them flat and perpendicular to the case centerline -- you'd be surprised how much some of the cases are off! (Not to disparage B.E.L.L., I've found this true with most brands of brass I've tried.) Base trimming was done with a case trimmer made by L.E.Wilson. Also required is their oversize cutting head.

Next, I cleaned up the primer pockets using a carbide cutter made by Whitetail. If you do this, you have to make sure you cut until the shoulder of the cutter is flush against the base of the case. I hold the case and cutter up to the light and make sure that I can't see any light between the cutter shoulder and case. After this step all the primer pockets are cut to the same depth. I then remove any burrs from the inside of the flash hole with a flash hole uniforming tool. I've found that these first few steps are very important to accuracy. I know most benchrest shooters (which I'm not) do this, I started with my .308 Millard, and it seemed to make such a big difference that I have done it with my varmint loads too.

Next, I resized the neck to the new caliber -- .338. Forming uses two dies both of which resize the neck. The form dies were made by RCBS from a copy of the reamer print. After sizing, the rounds are fireformed. I used Hodgdon H870, with the powder measure set at 85.0, and Speer, .338 caliber, 275 gr Semi-Spitzers. I could have used the 300 gr MatchKings, but the Speer bullets are cheaper and are easier to get into the lands. The .338 Millard reamer gives a .370" neck diameter. Loaded rounds have a neck diameter of .368" without neck turning.

Of the first 50 cases fireformed, only two split. After fireforming, I resized the cases (again with a die set from RCBS), cleaned the primer pockets, and trimmed to a consistent length -- 2.860".

The first loads I tried were with Acc8700. I started at about 95 grains and worked up to 120 grains (double charge with measure set at 53.5). Velocity at the top load was about 2950 ft/sec. Powder is up the bottom of the bullet (not quite compressed) and the first group measured about an inch at 200 meters.

The only other powder I've tried so far is H870. I can't get fill the case to near full capacity before reaching excessive pressures. So far, the Acc8700 load is the best I've found.

I never considered any bullet other than the Sierra .338 caliber, 300 gn MatchKing. This bullet requires a faster than normal twist (normal for .338 anyway) of 1 in 10.

Update

As is necessary with rifles that fire lots of powder, I had it rebarreled this year. Since I was having it rebarreled, I took the opportunity to have a little more body taper put on the reamer. Well, dealing with Robar was frustrating (and expensive) to say the least. It took them about six months to do the barrelling and they didn't do a very good job (I've done better). After I got the rifle back, I fire-formed a few cases and sent them to CH4D. I've been waiting about six months for the new sizing die (it looks like I'll have to start making my own reloading dies too!). So I've fired the rifle four times in the last year. I'll post another update when I see how the rifle shoots.

I got the dies in February -- nine months. They work fine though and the first three shot group out of the new barrel was .3" at 100 yards.