Is the 300 Raptor the Ultimate .30-Caliber Magnum?
With the success of the King of 2 Miles (KO2M) event and the growing popularity of extreme long range shooting, we’ve seen an increased interest in really big cartridges for really long range. One such wildcat cartridge is the 300 Raptor pioneered by Kirby Allen. This monster magnum can launch a 230gr bullet at 3350 fps. That delivers some serious ballistics at extreme long range.
Kirby Allen of Allen Precision Shooting, www.apsrifles.com, has developed a .30-caliber, jumbo-sized magnum wildcat cartridge. The powerful 300 Raptor (center in photo) is based on Allen’s 338 Excalibur parent case (far right in photo), necked down to 30 Cal with shoulder moved forward to increase case capacity. Allen states: “This is the largest capacity and performance .30 caliber magnum on the market that can be used in a conventional sized receiver.”
Shoot 200s at 3600 fps
Performance of Allen’s new 300 Raptor is impressive. Allen claims that “200gr Accubonds can be driven to nearly 3600 fps, 230gr Berger Hybrids to 3350 fps, and the 240gr SMK to right at 3300 fps. These loads offered case life in excess of 6-7 firings per case and many of my test cases have over 8 firings on each case so they are not an overly hot load showing the potential of this big .30 caliber.”
To showcase the new cartridge, Allen built up a prototype rifle with a McMillan A5 stock, Raptor LRSS Action with extended tenon, and a Jewell trigger. The first 300 Raptor Rifle is currently on its second barrel, a new 30″, 3-groove 1:9″-twist Lilja in a custom APS “Raptor Contour”. This distinctive dual-fluted contour runs full-diameter almost to the end of the stock, and then steps down and tapers to the muzzle, where a beefy Medium 3-port ‘Painkiller’ Allen Precision brake is fitted.
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Tags: .300 WM, 300 Raptor, 338 Excaliber, Kirby Allen, KO2M, Lilja Barrel, McMillan A5, Wilcdat
How about the King of Two Mile rifle report. Believe it was won with a 400 grain Berger in a necked down 586HE case.
Before you conclude that this is something new, this article was first published 24-Mar-2012, then re-published 16-Nov-2013. The lead paragraph in the 2016 re-publish is an addition.
Minor correction, the base case is not an Allen .338 Excalibur but an A-Square .338 Excalibur (http://www.broadswordgroup.com/338_excalibur.html)
I have a .338 Allen Xpress (+P variant) that pushes 300 gr Bergers to 3244 from a 36″ barrel without significant pressure signs, other some level of an ejector bounce mark on most fired cases.
My main grief with anything Allen, other than unbelievably long lead times and virtually zero communication until you actually come up in queue) is that the Allen cartridges are all proprietary – no reamers for sale. So you buy multiple chambered barrels up front,
BTW, the Allen Raptor page currently leads with, “Because of issues with the brass manufacturer the 300 and 338 Raptor unavailable for order at this time. IF the brass situation changes in the future I will let it be known to the public but for the time being, sadly, the Raptor wildcats are unavailable for order.” (http://www.apsrifles.com/Raptor_Wildcats.html)
Butch is correct, the cartridge was the .375 Lethal Magnum (http://www.lethalprecisionarms.com/indefinita.html).
I think it’s worth mentioning how short barrel life would be when we mention awesome calibers like these. That way a newbie can forget about it right away or at least know what he’s getting into.
I think the easy answer, given the benefit of hindsight, and taking into account real world testing, cost and availability is … “no”.
The .375s are the current darlings of the long range set and more work needs to go into them. 30 cal, like 7mm, suffers from the effects of Newtonian physics beyond a certain distance.
Always remember, the envelope is there to be pushed.
The brass problem is actually a BATF requirement that the importer get an import licence.. and for the small quantites talking about no one thinks its worth doing..
b Bertram,
that is an excuse. As long as people cannot buy brass/loaded ammunition any claims the originator wants to make are just noise.
In 1992, I was a staff writer for Precision Shooting Magazine. I developed a cartridge called the 338 Gryphon. It shot the SMK 300gr 338 bullet about 3650fps from a 34″ barrel.
We used the 50 Spotter case. It had the same issues, extremely short barrel life, and non-availability of brass.
I also had a 223 Eargesplitten Loudenboomer made up in 2000. 378 Wby necked down to 22 caliber in an AI version. Shot the 60gr Nosler Solid Base bullets over 5400fps. The problem was the 80 rounds per barrel life. It was written up for PS and appeared in the magazine.
Ed Hubel has several thousand rounds of his 585 Hubel case for sale today.
Stick with things you can actually buy…
Rich
Good to read from you Mister Kayser. I’m a former subscriber of PS, as many of us are, and I really appreciated your writings. Any news from Bob Jourdan and Dave Brennan?
Take care,
BHO