6.5 creedmoor powders.

[ditter]

4350 is great and all I shot. Then I tried RL16 and Im not going back.

 

[Savagehunter]

Rl 17 for me

 

[Kracken McGraw]

I shamefully have shot a ton of 6.5CM in multiple guns.

• Varget will work but it is too fast to be ideal.
• IMR4451 is a good powder. Like other Enduron powders, it shoots GREAT at a medium/low speed. It does not like "high" nodes in any cartridge I have tried them in. I shot 140's with 4451 around 2600 out of a 26 inch barrel and it was so awesome I didn't care about the slower speed. Other powders yield 200-250fps more speed.
• Staball 6.5 is excellent for a ball powder... Bad news... it's a ball powder and temp sensitive. Good news, there seems to be a lot of it available right now.
• IMR4350 - Kinda meh. It works but it's nothing special. Faster than H4350... Maybe a little slower than Varget
• H4350 is the absolute king of the powders, for a reason. The more powder you can cram in, the faster your bullet goes, and the tighter your groups get. Quite the opposite of many other powders. Little to no pressure signs even at 44 grains and 140's. That'll give you ~2900 fps with a 140g bullet.
• I never used 4831sc but one can make an assumption that because it works so well in 284, and 284 also works really well with 4350, that it would be a great powder for 6.5cm. Case capacity might be an issue.

If I were still shooting a 6.5, I would take a serious look at VV555.

That was a very informative post, Thanks!

 

[Outside]

6.5 Staball worked great out to 600, but out to 1100 showed heavy vertical dispersion. That was tested with 130 through 147gr bullets on windless days. The load density is great, and 100 yard groups were outstanding, but the vertical constinency at distance was very disappointing.