CCI 400s with 6.5 Creedmoor

[jlorenzo]

I have some 400s I want to use up and some virgin Lapua small rifle brass.
I have been shooting Hornady brass with 41.5gr of H4350 with the 130gr SMK.

Think I'd be ok in the small primer Lapua? I know the 400s are soft but 41.5 seems like a medium load with the 130gr.

Others on another forum say they use 400s regularly in 6.5 C.

 

[243winxb]

I read the firing pin diameter should be 0.062" to 0.068". for SRP in the 6.5 Creedmoor?? Bolt hole diameter .070" to .071" ?

Personally, i think CCI 400 primers should be held to 40,000 PSI.
*(Starting loads, OK) * Same as Rem 6 1/2 primers. Both flow early in 223 Rem.

No flow with Rem 7 1/2 primers in my Savage 223 bolt gun.

I should add, my 6.5cm gets LRP. BR2

 

[L.Sherm]

I read the firing pin diameter should be 0.062" to 0.068". for SRP in the 6.5 Creedmoor?? Bolt hole diameter .070" to .071" ?

Personally, i think CCI 400 primers should be held to 40,000 PSI. Same as Rem 6 1/2 primers. Both flow early in 223 Rem.

100% theres better primers for larger cartridges

 

[Evan]

I use 400s in my borden rifles without issue, all the way up to “trash the brass in the first shot” pressures without any primer issues. They are certainly capable of BR accuracy and some ignition systems will prefer them. If it can hold high pressure depends on how well fit the firing pin and bolt face are to each other.

 

[L.Sherm]

The problem with it is somebody reads on the interweb so and so uses them and think they can with sloppy pin fit.
There basically a magnum pistol primer

 

[JavmanSTX]

Use them in my 308 srp brass without a problem

 

[Straightshooter1]

I have some 400s I want to use up and some virgin Lapua small rifle brass.
I have been shooting Hornady brass with 41.5gr of H4350 with the 130gr SMK.

Think I'd be ok in the small primer Lapua? I know the 400s are soft but 41.5 seems like a medium load with the 130gr.

Others on another forum say they use 400s regularly in 6.5 C.

I've been using 400's often in my .308 with my Lapua Palma brass with somewhat hot loads pushing 169 and 177 SMK's and haven't had any issues with them. In fact, they've performed pretty well. Even my Starline SRP brass did just fine with 400's. The only time I had an issue with 400's was when I did those same loads in Alpha brass resulting in pierced primers. I'm pretty sure it had to do with the larger flash holes that Alpha has in their SRP brass.

I'm pretty confident that 400's in 6.5 CR Lapua SRP brass will do just fine.

 

[Stormbringer]

I have used them in many different chamberings including some hot 20BR. Never an issue.

 

[jimmymac]

Same experience here in several Benchrest rifles. I shot thousands of high pressure PPC and 30BR loads without issue. The best thing to do is test for yourself and work it up like any other load. Everything else is hearsay.

 

[jlorenzo]

My experience with 400s in the 223, they flatten with 24gr of Varget over 77gr bullets but nothing super concerning. I have had some blank in Starline 308 small primer but I don't remember the load.

I am also using a factory Tikka for the 6.5C. I have heard different things about their firing pins, making primers look catered when they are not.

What I am getting at is I do not want to load 100 rounds of virgin lapua, fire a few and find out the primers are piercing/blanking and have to pull and download the rest.

Maybe I go down to 41.2gr of H4350 with the 140gr SMK. Is fire forming virgin brass in a 6.5 creed factory chamber really a big deal?
41.5gr of H4350 in hornady brass with CCI 200s and the 130gr SMK got me 2760 out of a 24" factory Tikka CTR barrel.

My 223 Bartlien shots virgin brass great, I don't really notice a difference. I just make sure the shoulder in shorter than my fired brass, run the case mouths over my FL dies expander ball and champfer/deburr with my Henderson.

 

[jlorenzo]

My other option is to load some 120gr ELDs I have with Superformance, Varget, N140 or H4350.

 

[STOMP442]

I always opt for the 450s in a case that usually runs a large rifle primer. Main reason is they are harder and you can get away with out bushing a firing pin most of the time, and secondly it just gives me piece of mind on ignition with them being a touch hotter.

 

[6.5 forever]

I always opt for the 450s in a case that usually runs a large rifle primer. Main reason is they are harder and you can get away with out bushing a firing pin most of the time, and secondly it just gives me piece of mind on ignition with them being a touch hotter.

I Agree with this. Plus I shoot in the winter and like a little hotter ignition.

 

[jlorenzo]

I may load 10 with 400s and the rest with F210M or 450s.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

My other option is to load some 120gr ELDs I have with Superformance, Varget, N140 or H4350.

I would stay away from the Superformance. In another thread a member was getting hang fires with it and SRP’s.

 

[L.Sherm]

I may load 10 with 400s and the rest with F210M or 450s.

Did you mean a Fed 205 the Fed 210 is LR

 

[jlorenzo]

I would stay away from the Superformance. In another thread a member was getting hang fires with it and SRP’s.

I have loaded both 140gr bthp and 120gr eld with Superformance with No issues. I bought a couple pounds back during the great dry up because it was available and I wanted to try it with the 120gr ELDs to see how fast I could get em going. No issues with Hornady brass and CCI 200s and 250s. Got the 120s to 2900 and the 140s to 2760 from what I remember, no pressure signs or issues. I think the 140gr bthp (Hornady) load was 44gr.

Throws good through a powder thrower too.

 

[Kracken McGraw]

I have loaded both 140gr bthp and 120gr eld with Superformance with No issues. I bought a couple pounds back during the great dry up because it was available and I wanted to try it with the 120gr ELDs to see how fast I could get em going. No issues with Hornady brass and CCI 200s and 250s. Got the 120s to 2900 and the 140s to 2760 from what I remember, no pressure signs or issues. I think the 140gr bthp (Hornady) load was 44gr.

Throws good through a powder thrower too.

It’s a great powder to get some velocity in the 6.5 Creed.

 

[CF Junkie]

I have 3 Savage 6.5mm CMs, two model 12s and one model 10, and have shot over 10K rounds through them. The Model 12s both have 26-inch barrels and approximately the same amount of use. This data is all with their factory barrels. I recently replaced the barrel in the most used rifle, but I can't prepare performance of primers with it since I have only used one SRP in it.

When I got my first model 12, I could only find Hornady and Norma brass with LRPs.
Finally, I was able to find Lapua brass with SMPs.
The SMPs shot more accurately than the LRPs.

First, I compared the results with bullet 142 SMKs that all primers had shot.
With Norma brass and 210M Federal LRPs, 142 SMKs the average was 0.399.
With Lapua brass and CCI 400 SRPs,142 SMKs averaged 0.386.
With Lapua brass and BR-4 SMPs, 142 SMKs averaged 0.364, 0.035 smaller than the LRPs and 0.022 smaller than the CCI 400s.

With all bullets, from 123 gr to 147 grains:
The CCI 400s with 105 groups averaged 0.381
The BR-4s averaged 0.352 with 385 groups, .0.029 smaller group size than the CCI 400s.

Then I compared results with the just same bullet (140 gr ELD-Ms) and the same Oryx chassis to eliminate stock or bullet weight bias,
The CCI 400s with the 140 ELD-Ms averaged 0.381.
The BR-4s with the 140 ELD-Ms averaged 0.344, 0.037 smaller.

My most recent tests, in the other model 12, only compared the CCI BR-4 and the Rem 7 1/2s.

The BR-4s averaged 0.329 for 360 5-round groups.
The Rem 7 1/2s averaged 0.307 for 61 5-round groups.
The difference was 0.022.

Hopefully, this may help in your deliberations.

 

[jlorenzo]

Well I loaded 10 rounds at 41.4gr of H4350, Lapua brass CCI 400s, 130gr smk. All looks good. 2730, so bit slow but no indications of pressure. I think I will bump up to 41.6 and see how that shoots. 41.5 in Hornady brass got me to 2760, I would like to try and hit 2800 with the 130gr smk.