Hello all, as my first post I'm already going to be a mooch and hope somebody with Quickload can provide me some starting load data for a rifle I'm putting together. I can't justify in my head buying Quickload just for one rifle when it's quite possibly the only one I'd use it on. To start, this is definitely a budget build, looking with optics included to keep it under $2000, I've got the numbers and parts in my head to make that happen but we all know where the rabbit hole leads us, $$$. I'll try to be as thorough providing information as i can but I have quite a few questions on top of starting loads and would love to hear from the wealth of knowledge this site provides. After typing this and seeing how long it ended up being, if you make it all the way to the end I applaud you and thank you.
To start with I'm definitely a novice reloader, everything is out of a reloading manual and no wildcatting until now. I'd like to build something on the unique side in the 6.5-300 Win Mag but also have it relatively easy to make brass for, it fits in a standard long action, I've already got 6.5mm bullets, and a donor Savage 116 is on its way for a price I couldn't refuse. I'm hoping to FL size through a 300 mag die then neck size to 7mm then to 264. My thoughts for 2 stepping are solely based on being concerned that 300 to 264 is a long way to flow brass, please correct me if I'm wrong on that, I've got cheap brass to play with this process on so I've got the proper process figured out before trying it on the Nosler brass I've got ordered. I'm guessing I'll need to neck turn the brass and possibly anneal it. I've never annealed brass so that'll be a new venture as well, my plan is to redneck it by chucking it up in a drill somehow and turn it while putting heat to the top quarter of the case until it's on the very low side of dull red then quench it, I'm sure a lot of you cringed at that statement. I classify myself as a redneck so I know I'm not offending my fellow country brethren.
Back to the topic at hand, the main purpose of this rifle is for hunting with possibly some long range to me (I'd like to get comfortable enough to reach to 800-900 yards) targets set up in the field I farm. Now for the tools to get me going, any time you see something you think is cheap and wonder why that 'xyz' part just remember the words of the day for this build are "budget, budget, budget":
As stated before the donor action is a Savage 116 in 7mm Rem Mag bought used from a pawn shop, they couldn't tell me if its got the accustock but from looking at accustock equipped rifles on Google it appears to have a lot of the indicators, if it doesn't then I'll put a Hogue full bed heavy barrel channel stock on it, I might do that anyways. Its either a DBM or hinged floor, none of the pictures showed the mag released. When you ask why Savage, the reason is the floating bolt head so no cost of truing the action, the accutrigger feature is nice to have (I've got a couple Savages that the accutrigger is smooth on), if I gambled correctly with the accustock then I won't have to install an aftermarket stock, and there's enough good information online about swapping barrels and setting the correct headspace with these I don't have to pay a 'smith to do it.
I plan to put a 28" Mcgowen barrel on in either Savage magnum contour at .685" or a Shilen #5 contour at .700". No muzzle brake with a recessed crown, that's what my Browning's have and I'm OCD about continuity. I'm thinking about a 1:8 or 8.5 twist. One of the possible bullet selections calls for 8 or faster, I was wondering if thats a hard law to abide by or if its a general recommendation. I'm hoping to get the reamer dimensions for the neck turning tolerances, would those suffice or does a guy need a true molding of the chamber? I'm sure somebody will pipe up and ask why I don't build a 6.5-300 short mag then list all the reasons why its better and what their's or somebody's they know can do and the reason is this, I don't want put all the pieces of a screaming hot rod together then put a V6 up front, even if its a hot V6 that can run with a V8. I hope I don't offend with that comment because that's not my intention, what I mean by it is I know guys can match velocities I've seen in a 6.5-300 win mag, they know pressures, the strength of their actions, and all the intricacies butt to crown. I know my limitations where I'm currently at with reloading and am no where close to knowing those things, so I'll put a V8 in and have less stresses on components for hopefully the same outcome.
Bullet selection will be from 120gr Nosler Etips (if I ever get lucky enough to snag some) up to possibly 142 ABLR, the 8 twist or faster would be the 140 Sierra Tipped Gamechanger which I do plan to shoot through it, are these tough enough to take the 8 twist at speeds this chambering could produce? I've heard of Bergers spinning too fast out the tube and coming apart, I'm very under studied in this area so I'm going off Google. (I know the internet lies sometimes hence the question here) The reason I plan to keep it to those bullet weight ranges is this; I don't need to shoot super heavy 6.5's, if I want more weight then I'll go to a bigger caliber, not ask more of this one. I've got a fast 7 I got lucky on that can take the bigger jobs.
Now for powders, this is where I get puzzled. At my disposal I've got from a single jug to several in these flavors: IMR4831, IMR4350, IMR7828ssc, RL15, RL17, RL19, RL22, RL25, and US869. Looking at Nosler's reloading data using 140 gr bullets in 264 and IMR 4350 as 76% case capacity max load, the 7mm with a 140 at 88%, and the 300 win mag with a 150 at 96%, does the surface area of the bullet base affect the powder charge? I guess I'm asking if the larger surface area of wider bullets spreads PSI's so a 264 bullet at 50k PSI would be equal to a 30 cal bullet at 45k PSI all other variables being equal, I don't know if I'm describing that correctly. I'm thinking with the 28" tube that the 7828 or RL25 might be the right powders, the US869 was purchased for my dad's 6.5-300 Weatherby and I'm guessing it'd be too slow but again, novice here and I could be wrong. This is where the Quickload data hopefully comes into play and I can get some starting points for any of the powders listed here that you would recommend or if none of them are the right choices then what would be a couple good starting powders.
I figured I'd include the glass portion of this build even though its not really necessary for the build process. I've got 2 Burris 5-25 Veracities on rifles that I've been really pleased with so one of those will go on top mounted in DNZ one piece rings. Burris's online ballistics tool has been extremely close on hold overs with their E1 reticle so I figured why change it if it's not broke.
I apologize for the novel this turned into but I hope that I've covered all the bases needed for the information to start flowing in. Thank you all for taking the time to read this and hopefully nobody flags me right off for being an instant PITA. If I overlooked any key pieces of information please alert me to this and I'll try my best to get it up here.
To start with I'm definitely a novice reloader, everything is out of a reloading manual and no wildcatting until now. I'd like to build something on the unique side in the 6.5-300 Win Mag but also have it relatively easy to make brass for, it fits in a standard long action, I've already got 6.5mm bullets, and a donor Savage 116 is on its way for a price I couldn't refuse. I'm hoping to FL size through a 300 mag die then neck size to 7mm then to 264. My thoughts for 2 stepping are solely based on being concerned that 300 to 264 is a long way to flow brass, please correct me if I'm wrong on that, I've got cheap brass to play with this process on so I've got the proper process figured out before trying it on the Nosler brass I've got ordered. I'm guessing I'll need to neck turn the brass and possibly anneal it. I've never annealed brass so that'll be a new venture as well, my plan is to redneck it by chucking it up in a drill somehow and turn it while putting heat to the top quarter of the case until it's on the very low side of dull red then quench it, I'm sure a lot of you cringed at that statement. I classify myself as a redneck so I know I'm not offending my fellow country brethren.
Back to the topic at hand, the main purpose of this rifle is for hunting with possibly some long range to me (I'd like to get comfortable enough to reach to 800-900 yards) targets set up in the field I farm. Now for the tools to get me going, any time you see something you think is cheap and wonder why that 'xyz' part just remember the words of the day for this build are "budget, budget, budget":
As stated before the donor action is a Savage 116 in 7mm Rem Mag bought used from a pawn shop, they couldn't tell me if its got the accustock but from looking at accustock equipped rifles on Google it appears to have a lot of the indicators, if it doesn't then I'll put a Hogue full bed heavy barrel channel stock on it, I might do that anyways. Its either a DBM or hinged floor, none of the pictures showed the mag released. When you ask why Savage, the reason is the floating bolt head so no cost of truing the action, the accutrigger feature is nice to have (I've got a couple Savages that the accutrigger is smooth on), if I gambled correctly with the accustock then I won't have to install an aftermarket stock, and there's enough good information online about swapping barrels and setting the correct headspace with these I don't have to pay a 'smith to do it.
I plan to put a 28" Mcgowen barrel on in either Savage magnum contour at .685" or a Shilen #5 contour at .700". No muzzle brake with a recessed crown, that's what my Browning's have and I'm OCD about continuity. I'm thinking about a 1:8 or 8.5 twist. One of the possible bullet selections calls for 8 or faster, I was wondering if thats a hard law to abide by or if its a general recommendation. I'm hoping to get the reamer dimensions for the neck turning tolerances, would those suffice or does a guy need a true molding of the chamber? I'm sure somebody will pipe up and ask why I don't build a 6.5-300 short mag then list all the reasons why its better and what their's or somebody's they know can do and the reason is this, I don't want put all the pieces of a screaming hot rod together then put a V6 up front, even if its a hot V6 that can run with a V8. I hope I don't offend with that comment because that's not my intention, what I mean by it is I know guys can match velocities I've seen in a 6.5-300 win mag, they know pressures, the strength of their actions, and all the intricacies butt to crown. I know my limitations where I'm currently at with reloading and am no where close to knowing those things, so I'll put a V8 in and have less stresses on components for hopefully the same outcome.
Bullet selection will be from 120gr Nosler Etips (if I ever get lucky enough to snag some) up to possibly 142 ABLR, the 8 twist or faster would be the 140 Sierra Tipped Gamechanger which I do plan to shoot through it, are these tough enough to take the 8 twist at speeds this chambering could produce? I've heard of Bergers spinning too fast out the tube and coming apart, I'm very under studied in this area so I'm going off Google. (I know the internet lies sometimes hence the question here) The reason I plan to keep it to those bullet weight ranges is this; I don't need to shoot super heavy 6.5's, if I want more weight then I'll go to a bigger caliber, not ask more of this one. I've got a fast 7 I got lucky on that can take the bigger jobs.
Now for powders, this is where I get puzzled. At my disposal I've got from a single jug to several in these flavors: IMR4831, IMR4350, IMR7828ssc, RL15, RL17, RL19, RL22, RL25, and US869. Looking at Nosler's reloading data using 140 gr bullets in 264 and IMR 4350 as 76% case capacity max load, the 7mm with a 140 at 88%, and the 300 win mag with a 150 at 96%, does the surface area of the bullet base affect the powder charge? I guess I'm asking if the larger surface area of wider bullets spreads PSI's so a 264 bullet at 50k PSI would be equal to a 30 cal bullet at 45k PSI all other variables being equal, I don't know if I'm describing that correctly. I'm thinking with the 28" tube that the 7828 or RL25 might be the right powders, the US869 was purchased for my dad's 6.5-300 Weatherby and I'm guessing it'd be too slow but again, novice here and I could be wrong. This is where the Quickload data hopefully comes into play and I can get some starting points for any of the powders listed here that you would recommend or if none of them are the right choices then what would be a couple good starting powders.
I figured I'd include the glass portion of this build even though its not really necessary for the build process. I've got 2 Burris 5-25 Veracities on rifles that I've been really pleased with so one of those will go on top mounted in DNZ one piece rings. Burris's online ballistics tool has been extremely close on hold overs with their E1 reticle so I figured why change it if it's not broke.
I apologize for the novel this turned into but I hope that I've covered all the bases needed for the information to start flowing in. Thank you all for taking the time to read this and hopefully nobody flags me right off for being an instant PITA. If I overlooked any key pieces of information please alert me to this and I'll try my best to get it up here.
