Bushmaster 338 Lapua

“You’ve gotta see this.”

It’s the kind of call on my cell phone I love to get when I’m at a gun show, especially when I’m at a playground like the NRA Annual Meeting.

In this case Michael Bane was urging me to haul myself over to the Bushmaster booth to look at what has to rank as one of the ultimate varmint rifles, a pre-production semi-auto .338 Lapua.

This gorgeous beast won’t be ready for some months yet according to Skip Patel, Bushmaster’s executive vice president for research and development. Among other things, Skip told me, was the need to trim some weight from the rifle, which tips the scales at about 15 pound right now.

“We can get another two pounds out of it before we’re done,” Skip said. One area they can do that in particular is in the hand guard.

The recoil ain’t much, according to Skip and the rifle’s accuracy has so far been excellent.

Look for this toy to appear in a Sand Box Conflict near you soon.

Oh, and if this chambering is too pedestrian for you how about the same platform chambered in .416 Rigby? It’s in the works…

—John Snow