.338 Lapua Magnum

The .338 Lapua Magnum (8.6×70mm or 8.58×70mm) is a rimless, bottlenecked, centerfire cartridge developed for military long-range sniper rifles. The Afghanistan War and Iraq War made it a combat-proven round with ready and substantial ammunition availability. The .338 Lapua is a dual-purpose, anti-personnel and anti-materiel round, but its anti-materiel potential is limited, due to the bullet's lower kinetic energy compared with that of the .50 BMG's 35.64-to-55.08-gram (550.0 to 850.0 gr) projectiles. The loaded cartridge is 14.93 mm (0.588 in) in diameter (rim) and 93.5 mm (3.68 in) long. It can penetrate better-than-standard military body armour at ranges up to 1,000 metres (1,090 yd) and has a maximum effective range of about 1,750 metres (1,910 yd). Muzzle velocity is dependent on load and powder temperature, and varies from 880 to 915 m/s (2,890 to 3,000 ft/s) for commercial loads with 16.2-gram (250 gr) bullets, which results in about 6,525 J (4,813 ft·lbf) of muzzle energy.

Lapua

Lapua (Finnish: [ˈlɑpuɑ]; Swedish: Lappo) is a town and municipality of Finland.

It is located next to the Lapua River in the province of Western Finland and is part of the Southern Ostrobothnia region. The town has a population of 14,723 (30 June 2015) and covers an area of 750.77 square kilometres (289.87 sq mi) of which 13.67 km² (5.28 sq mi) is water. The population density is 19.97 inhabitants per square kilometre (51.7/sq mi). The municipality is unilingually Finnish.

Events in history

Battle of Lapua was fought between Swedish and Russian forces near the outskirts of the town on 14 July 1808 as part of the Finnish War. Lapua is the seat of the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of Lapua. The Lapua Cathedral, designed by Carl Ludvig Engel, was built in 1827. In the 1930s the radical anti-communist Lapua Movement was founded and named after the town.

Lapua State Cartridge Factory

Lapua is also home to a large ammunition factory, which commenced operations in 1927 as the State Cartridge Factory. This factory was the primary supplier of ammunition to the Finnish Army during the Winter War and World War II. An explosion occurred in a warehouse of this factory on 13 April 1976, resulting in the deaths of 40 employees, mainly females. Sixty children lost a parent in the disaster. This is the worst accidental disaster in Finland's modern history. After the explosion, the factory was relocated 5 kilometres (3 mi) away from the town centre and continues production today as part of the Nordic Ammunition Group (Nammo) as Nammo Lapua. The original site of the factory and the surviving buildings are now an arts centre, a library and a theater.