6.5 Creedmoor with 6.5 Staball

[GSRswapandslow]

I just bought 3lbs of 6.5 Staball powder from brownells and want to work up a hunting load since factory ammo is basically still non-existent.

Load will use Lapua SRP brass, 205m primers, and a 129gr hornady interlock bullets.

anyone have any experience with this powder?

 

[jepp2]

anyone have any experience with this powder?

Very little. I did a multi powder test in my 6CM that included it. I obtained a Ba value to use in Quickload. But nothing more extensive yet.

 

[Bill Norris]

Tried it in a 6mmCreedmoor 1-10 Tw. with 80 gr. FB Bergers and Noslers BT. Was not impressed with either load. H-100V was much better.

 

[Retired Grunt]

I tried it when it came out, not sure I got good results. or not. Seemed to shoot dirty, like 3F Black Powder.

 

[acloco]

I run StaBall in 6.5 Creed with 140/142/143 weight bullets. Very good results.

Google "modified Audette Load Ladder" - very easy to find a node or two in ten shots.

I prefer to shoot ladders at 300 yards - definitely will tell the story of your group with a more clarity.

 

[wbm]

TESTED: Winchester StaBALL 6.5 Creedmoor-Class Powder – Ultimate Reloader

ultimatereloader.com

Winchester 6.5 StaBALL and Alliant Reloader 16 are currently my "go to" powders for the 6.5 Creedmoor.

 

[Idaho-Lefty]

The Hornady 147 grain, ELD- M, looks like, an Impressive, Long Range, 6.5 Creedmoor, Bullet !
Has anyone tried this Bullet with,.. StaBall ??
Been hearing that, StaBall "works best" at, "Maximum" charges,..
True or, Not ??

 

[darkangel_r2]

I just bought 3lbs of 6.5 Staball powder from brownells and want to work up a hunting load since factory ammo is basically still non-existent.

Load will use Lapua SRP brass, 205m primers, and a 129gr hornady interlock bullets.

anyone have any experience with this powder?

I run it in a 30-06 and I run it in my 6.5 creed ar10. hornady brass cci200s with 140 eldms. I got excellent results from it. I will say I got better accuracy and velocity stats when running it hotter. I never went to max but I ran it up to 2750 in a 24" ar10 and after 2690 fps all 3 shot groups were in the .3s

I would suggest that after you get a pressure test done to establish max charge that you use smaller increments (.2 grains) and work down from max like 2 grains (10 charges) instead of .3 grain spreads and 3 grain total spread. This should give you better data to make decisions on.

Good luck.

 

[darkangel_r2]

The Hornady 147 grain, ELD- M, looks like, an Impressive, Long Range, 6.5 Creedmoor, Bullet !
Has anyone tried this Bullet with,.. StaBall ??
Been hearing that, StaBall "works best" at, "Maximum" charges,..
True or, Not ??

6.5 Creedmoor with 6.5 Staball

I just bought 3lbs of 6.5 Staball powder from brownells and want to work up a hunting load since factory ammo is basically still non-existent. Load will use Lapua SRP brass, 205m primers, and a 129gr hornady interlock bullets. anyone have any experience with this powder?

forum.accurateshooter.com

See above. I run the 140eldm. It works very well. It did prefer to be run at hotter end. Not screaming but warm. I would expect the 147 to work similarly well.

The 147 in my 12rlp on top of re16 does really well. .3s for 5 shots 1/2 moa vertical at 900. That was the high node which was wrecking brass quick. Got to drop down to lower node but got excellent performance out of a factory gun.

 

[Gary in MD]

I tried it in one of my 30-06s. It’s shooting good with a charge that’s about 1/2 grain under maximum listed by the manual. I have not shot it over the chronograph yet.
Gary

 

[ToddKS]

The Hornady 147 grain, ELD- M, looks like, an Impressive, Long Range, 6.5 Creedmoor, Bullet !
Has anyone tried this Bullet with,.. StaBall ??
Been hearing that, StaBall "works best" at, "Maximum" charges,..
True or, Not ??

Not necessarily max charges, but it does seem to want the case to be fairly full in the calibers I have tried it in. I did not get great results when I tried to run slower.

 

[AccelR8]

This afternoon I shot Staball 6.5 with the ten remaining Barnes 140 Match Burners I had loaded 6 weeks ago. I had done some load workup and the charge I arrived at happened to be exactly in the middle of the min and max charge weights published on the Hodgdon site.

For the ten MB loads I got an average velocity of 2,621, an ES of 29 and an SD of 8.

There was one round that stood out as being very much lower in velocity than the other 9. I don't know what happened there. If I calculate for the 9, it lowers the ES to 14 and the SD to 4.

I also did an Audette ladder with 142 SMKs, Hodgdon's max charge gave me 2,753 fps from a 24 inch factory Savage. 60 degree weather. Prime brass, CCI 200.

 

[Hudge76]

I have used StaBALL in my .260 and .300 WSM. I tested it with 130 gr Accubonds in the .260 and 165 gr. TTSX in the .300 WSM. I got an ok load in the .300 WSM, but was not impressed with it in the .260 Rem. What little I have left, I will give it a try in the 6.5 CM and see what it does.

 

[Djfergus]

I've tried it with the 140 eld. Not alot faster for me than h4350. Pressures up really abruptly. Be careful. I quickly ended testing because I felt there was not much advantage over h4350 and my rl26 load was faster. But if you don't have either of those powders, then it would likely end up being the next best choice.

 

[Linux_Box]

I've been using it with the 135 grain Classic Hunter. Works well for my hunting load. I get around 2780 fps.

I just finished up a load using 129 grain Interlocks. Velocity is not uber high (around 2720 fps) but accuracy is definitely on point for hunting.

I have not tried any other powders yet for my creedmoor. I just started handloading and supplies are a bit high & difficult to find.