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.338 Norma Magnum

The .338 Norma Magnum was originally developed as a long-range sport shooting wildcat cartridge by the American sport shooter Jimmie Sloan with the help of Dave Kiff, owner of Pacific Tool and Gauge, who made the reamers and headspace gauges. Later the design was purchased by the Swedish ammunition manufacturer Norma. The .338 Norma Magnum cartridge was C.I.P. certified on 26 May 2010 and thus became an officially registered and sanctioned rifle cartridge.

Jimmie Sloan was given a clean slate to design the "ideal" .338 cartridge for shooting a 300 gr Sierra Match King bullet with the best accuracy and highest possible velocity within a maximum loaded cartridge length of 93,5 mm (3.68"). The result is the .338 Norma Magnum. The .338 Norma Magnum is a cartridge first introduced in 2008 and coming into production in 2009, designed by Norma of Sweden.

Two years after the introduction of the short .458 Win. Mag, two cartridges with unusual bullet diameters were marketed by Winchester. Quite unusually they were both named using their true bullet diameters. After a good start the .264 Winchester Magnum turned out not entirely to be what it was supposed to and it quickly began to fade away. But its big brother hit it big. The .338 Winchester Magnum is one of the most popular magnum cartridges for large American game. Not surprisingly, as it uses heavy bullets with a moderate velocity resulting in a well-controlled expansion and a very good penetration - the time proven recipe of an efficient killer.

Maybe even more important the moderate velocity makes the recoil tolerable to most hunters. The trajectory is slightly higher when compared to the faster big bore magnums, but under actual hunting conditions this is rarely the decisive factor for success. Due to the ratio between the case capacity and the bullet diameter of the .338 it is not a true magnum in the sense that it will not be at its best with the slowest burning powders. It remains, however, a very good cartridge for all-round big game hunting all over the world from deer to the largest antelope.

Overall Length while firing longer 300 grain bullets. Longer, heavier bullets have better ballistic coefficient and are less affected by velocity loss, drop, wind, and other environmental factors at distance. This increases the effective range of the cartridge and reduces variables for the shooter.

The .338NM is designed to supplement or replace firearms which fire the 7.62X51mm NATO or .300 Winchester Magnum cartridges, quoted at an effective range of 800 and 1200 meters effectively. The .338NM is often stated to have an effective range of 1500 meters, although a US SOCOM solicitation document in 2017 suggests that they find the cartridge effective to 2,000 meters.

Crew-Served machine gunners require the ability to see the impact of their rounds fired day and night out to 2,000 meters to enable rapid adjustment of fires to the desired point of impact without exposing their location. The development of a .338 Norma Magnum (.338NM) Lightweight Medium Machine Gun (LWMMG) Signature-on-Target (SoT) round will provide machine gun operators with this advanced capability increasing Small Tactical Team lethality.

The 338 Signature-on-Target (SoT) Round shall:

1. Match the trajectory of .338NM General Purpose (GP) Round (i.e., SoT round impacts within beaten zone/cone of fire of other .338NM GP rounds).
2. Have a minimum mean muzzle velocity, from a 24 inch Barrel with brass cartridges conditioned at 70 ° ± 5 °F of 2,600 fps (T), 2700 fps (O). The standard deviation of the muzzle velocity at 70° ± 5° F shall not exceed 25 fps (T), 10 fps (O). Have a cartridge overall length of 3.600” ± .007” (T=O), projectile weight of 272gr (T=O), propellant SMP®OBP 718, 94.5gr (T=O) and confrmal pressure at 70 ° ± 5 °F of ~54,000psi (T=O).
3. Be visible to the unaided eye out to 900 meters day, 1,500 meters night (T=O).
4. Be visible to the Night Vision aided eye out to 900 meters (T); 1500 meters (O).
5. Be visible with Visual Augmentation Systems (VAS) - (daylight with ELCAN 6x Machine Gun Optic) 1500 (T); 2200 (O).
6. Provide Hard Target (e.g., vehicle, building) signature initiation of 90% (T); 100% (O).
7. Provide Soft Target (e.g., sand, dirt) signature initiation of > 90% (O).
8. Have overall cartridge length not to exceed .338NM GP round (T=O).
9. Be able to be fired from an open bolt, belt fed weapon system without inducing malfunctions (Weapon Compatibility) (T=O).
10. Have no visual or NIR signature from muzzle exit until it strikes a target surface (no signature in flight) (T=O).

Current tracers allow gunners to observe the trajectory of the rounds and make aiming corrections without observing the impact of the rounds fired and without using the sights of the weapon. However, these rounds give away the gunners position, burn out before the maximum range of the machine gun and draws enemy fire. Replacing tracers with marking or spotting pyrotechnic rounds enables the gunner to directly control the impact on to the target, shows target coverage, and does not disclose the shooters location. This will increase the accuracy of machine gun fire, save ammunition, and increase gunner survivability. This system could be used in a broad range of military applications where sensing and adjusting the target impact is critical. The new rounds are most applicable to effective long range machine gun and/or achieving second round hits when sniping at extreme long range.