6.5 Creedmoor - Stuck with where to go next

[mgunderson]

Do you have a local reloading friend other than Erik C. videos? They can help fill in the blanks and help when you aren't sure if it you or the gun.

 

[BW64]

^^^^^^ THIS!!

 

[ToddKS]

I might be treading on heresy a bit but in my first 3 barrels i could not get my 6.5 CM's to group with H4350. I must have been the only person in the entire world who couldn't get H4350 to work. However, my rifles group fantastically (-.2's) with slower burning rates such as n160 and H4831 using the heavier bullets. With the 135 class bullets I am using IMR 4064 and that works extremely well.
My suggestion is to try something other than H4350.

It could have been that jug of H4350. I once had a jug that would not shoot. It also ran hot compared to every other lot I have used before or since. I switched to a different lot and the problems went away.

 

[JMayo]

I've never been a jumping the bullet guy but with my 6.5x47 i found jumping 8thou from touch, that's near 25thou from full jam shot really well

 

[Infrequent Shooter]

I am on the slow side, so bear with me. What round/load has been the most accurate so far, say at 3-400 yards? I would get lapua, norma, peterson or alpha brass. Sierra MKs, Lapua or Berger. I know you want to shoot 1000 yards, but maybe see if you can get it to shoot good at 600 or so? I would try some factory hornady match or other high dollar factory 'match' ammo as a starting point. Great thread and pls keep us posted on your journey.

 

[Steveb]

Hi Todd
Actually I had the same thing with h4350. Had a jug that shot fantastically and then ran out. Went to another lot and couldn't get that lot to shoot in anything. Finally used for fertilizer.

I have also found with the loads I use now the loads will shoot in any brass. I use Peterson SRP and Peterson LRP and Hornady LRP. they all shoot the same loads very well. I use the SRP in my rifles with small firing pin holes and LRP in the rifles with large firing pin holes. I use Hornady for my play non match rifles.

 

[bwalker36]

been pretty busy at work and we took the kids to an indoor water park Monday and Tuesday. Finally getting back into the basement for some reloading.

My plan is to do the seating depth test at 40gr. After that I plan to get some new brass. I’d like to get a box of Lapua SRP and LRP so I can compare the two. This testing is a lot of fun and gets me shooting more. So win win.

I don’t have anyone local but I have some people being very friendly and responsive to all my little questions online so that has been super helpful. I’ll post the results of the seating depth for science. But I probably won’t do anything else until early june. Going to Texas for work and need order some more components like better brass.

Thanks again for everyone’s help so far.

 

[SSchnd]

I found my load for a Savage 6.5cm really changed for the better when I left the Winchester brass home and used Lapua SRP brass. Immediate change is group. I run 41.2 gr H4350 with a 140ELDM or Match HPBT
For the 123 ELDM I was using RL17.

 

[bwalker36]

I ordered one box of Lapua LRP brass today since I have a few thousand primers. I will order some SRP ones next time I get no hazmat and pick up primers and powder. I did all my seating last night this is what I ended up with. Worked .005 back each time except for the first which was .02 back, then I over seated the first round. My variance was usually within .001 occasionally getting a +- .001 but I still that is very consistent from what I'm reading so my process seems pretty stable.

Here is what I plan to shoot:



Like I said earlier this is the last test with the Hornady brass. I'm having a ton of fun and not worried about abandoning reloading so happy to buy better brass. I'm trying to refrain from more tools and another caliber until I really refine my techniques and get this load worked up properly. But man is it tempting to start on my .308 hunting loads lol.

Edit: And of course I got an email from midsouth about federal Gold Medal Match small rifle primers being on sale. So I spent my reloading budget for the month already, but picked up a case of them plus 100 Lupua SRP brass. Plenty of stuff to test for the foreseeable future ha.

 

[bwalker36]

Here are todays results: My question becomes when I get the lapua brass do I load a bunch at .043 from jam and different charge weights, Do I re-run this test. I'm changing a pretty big variable in brass and it won't be fire formed at all yet. I'm also eyeing the .053 as I'm pretty sure that low left round was me.

 

[Ryan66]

Here are todays results: My question becomes when I get the lapua brass do I load a bunch at .043 from jam and different charge weights, Do I re-run this test. I'm changing a pretty big variable in brass and it won't be fire formed at all yet. I'm also eyeing the .053 as I'm pretty sure that low left round was me.

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It looks like you are seeing which depths scatter and which ones shrink which is great!

I see you tested .005 differences in depth. I might suggest reshooting groups again with your successful depths of .043 and .053 if you called that flyer and additionally would load some -.003 and +.003 from both depths you found success. The results you find from this confirmation will help indicate how wide and forgiving each of those depths are and what is acceptable to your accuracy standards.