The recoil cant be that bad I had the honors of getting to shoot a 338 Rem ultra mag today A friend of mine bought it for this 2004 elk season his handload chronographed at with a 200 grain speer sp at 3,156 fps I got to shoot 6 shots with it the recoil didnt bother me much i will admit it is a pretty good punch though. I dont start complaining about recoil untill trying to shoot more then 10 shots with my dads old 458 win mag has no recoil pad just a plain butt plate.

Hodgdon has a few loadings listed for the 338 lapua. heres the link to their listed loads http://www.hodgdon.com/data/rifle/338lapuamag.php