6.5 PRC info needed

[X Count]

Hi guys,

Helping out a friend put together a load for a Curtis PRS rifle in 6.5PRC.

He has 200x Hornady 147 ELDM's, 2lb of H1000 and Norma brass on hand. I've loaded up 55gr of H1000 as a mild load to put a firing on the new brass. Once that is done we will do a bit more serious load workup.

I've read reports of people blowing up the 147s at higher velocities in longer shot strings or on worn barrels. Has this changed in recent years or is it limited to particular batches? Given the barrel life it would be good to avoid going through the load development process more that once. 140 Berger's are fairly available and the 153s can be found on occasion. H4831sc is also an option.

He is fairly new to the sport so we are looking for something fairly consistent rather than pushing for every 1" of drop and drift. Does anyone have some experience with this cartridge amd can recommend a combo to get us in the ballpark.

 

[JB10]

I left the 147s alone and shoot eather 156 bergers in one rifle and 140 vld bergers in another. These are both hunting rifles and i use n565. Two friends used 147 and i have not heard of any issues. One of them leans on his rifles hard. Was shooting at 1k yards often with it. Never had any blow up. He was using R26 as his powder

 

[X Count]

I left the 147s alone and shoot eather 156 bergers in one rifle and 140 vld bergers in another. These are both hunting rifles and i use n565. Two friends used 147 and i have not heard of any issues. One of them leans on his rifles hard. Was shooting at 1k yards often with it. Never had any blow up. He was using R26 as his powder

Thanks for the reply. Wre your friends hunting with the 147s or have they been shooting 15 shot strings in competition.

 

[Straightshooter1]

Hi guys,

Helping out a friend put together a load for a Curtis PRS rifle in 6.5PRC.

He has 200x Hornady 147 ELDM's, 2lb of H1000 and Norma brass on hand. I've loaded up 55gr of H1000 as a mild load to put a firing on the new brass. Once that is done we will do a bit more serious load workup.

I've read reports of people blowing up the 147s at higher velocities in longer shot strings or on worn barrels. Has this changed in recent years or is it limited to particular batches? Given the barrel life it would be good to avoid going through the load development process more that once. 140 Berger's are fairly available and the 153s can be found on occasion. H4831sc is also an option.

He is fairly new to the sport so we are looking for something fairly consistent rather than pushing for every 1" of drop and drift. Does anyone have some experience with this cartridge amd can recommend a combo to get us in the ballpark.

I've not used any Norman brass. . . mostly Lapua and there's a substantial case capacity difference. Case volume for my Lapua runs at 68.6 grs H2O and Norma brass run at ~ 70.6 grs H20, a difference of 2 grs.

Also, I've not run any H1000 and found N565 to work really well and is my go to powder for this cartridge, which I've used with Berger 140 Hyb, Berger 153.5's, Hornady 153 A-Tips and 142 SMK's. All have done well with the N565.

Other powders I've used are H4831sc, RL23 and MagPro and Retumbo. H4831SC and RL23 got good results, but I didn't like that the case fill wasn't close enough to 100%, which I feel is ideal. Though I must say, I do ten to load my cartridges long, which doesn't help with that. Retumbo was better at that, but not giving me the velocity I prefer.

With Norma's case volume and using H1000, you should be able to get pretty decent velocities at mag length, even with the heavy bullets like Berger 153.5's as well as with Berger 140's. Though I found a decent load with H4831sc, H1000 would be a better choice and even better. . . N565. IMHO from my limited experience.

 

[X Count]

I've not used any Norman brass. . . mostly Lapua and there's a substantial case capacity difference. Case volume for my Lapua runs at 68.6 grs H2O and Norma brass run at ~ 70.6 grs H20, a difference of 2 grs.

Also, I've not run any H1000 and found N565 to work really well and is my go to powder for this cartridge, which I've used with Berger 140 Hyb, Berger 153.5's, Hornady 153 A-Tips and 142 SMK's. All have done well with the N565.

Other powders I've used are H4831sc, RL23 and MagPro and Retumbo. H4831SC and RL23 got good results, but I didn't like that the case fill wasn't close enough to 100%, which I feel is ideal. Though I must say, I do ten to load my cartridges long, which doesn't help with that. Retumbo was better at that, but not giving me the velocity I prefer.

With Norma's case volume and using H1000, you should be able to get pretty decent velocities at mag length, even with the heavy bullets like Berger 153.5's as well as with Berger 140's. Though I found a decent load with H4831sc, H1000 would be a better choice and even better. . . N565. IMHO from my limited experience.

Thanks for the feedback. Vhit and reloader powders just aren't available over here so I need to work with H1000 and H4831sc.

What load did you get to using 4831?

 

[STOMP442]

The last couple 6.5PRCs I have done have liked 56ish grains of H-1000 with a 140 class bullet. Half MOA or better and velocities around the 2900fps mark. H-1000 I have found to work well in all of the 6.5 cases of similar volumes, 6.5-284 , 6.5-06 and the PRC.

I am one of the people that has had issues with the 147s. I don't trust them in anything over Creedmoor velocities. They are a fantastic bullet at slower speeds.

 

[Straightshooter1]

Thanks for the feedback. Vhit and reloader powders just aren't available over here so I need to work with H1000 and H4831sc.

What load did you get to using 4831?

53.9 grs in Lapua brass (68.6 grs H2O case volume) having case filled to 91% capacity with Berger 140 Hybrids at a COAL of 3.023 using Fed210 primers seated .001 below flush (primer pocket depths at .125"). 50 rounds fired gave me an average velocity at 2,960 fps out of 26" barrel; with SD at 4.6 and 5 round groups under .4 MOA.

Exactly same load with 142 SMK's, but at a COAL of 2.975, I got a little higher velocity at 2,983 fps, SD's not quite as good at 7.4 though the groups were slightly better than what I got with the Berger's.

With Berger 153.5's, the best results were with 53.3 grs and COAL of 3.102" giving me an average MV of 2,889 fps, SD of 5.0 and a 5 round groups also in the .3's.

Just keep in mind that with the Norma's brass, those loads are certainly not likely to produce similar results due to the larger case volumes and your seating depths/COAL's are likely to be different where MV's will be substantially less depending on the pill used.

BTW: the gun is an RPR Gen3 with an Preferred Barrel Blanks barrel with ~1600 rounds + down the tube when those rounds were fired.

 

[X Count]

Thanks I appreciate the info. Not a huge amount on the 6.5prc on this site yet.

 

[JB10]

Thanks for the reply. Wre your friends hunting with the 147s or have they been shooting 15 shot strings in competition.

One did hunt with them. The other guy plans on hunting with them this November. I wanna say one of them had shot in the strings in a custom build he did. Id have to ask him. He burned that barrel out fast and changed it to a different caliber 2 years ago.

 

[Gabe22BR]

6.5 PRC-

Not a factory barrel or rifle- strictly for paper-
600yd group-@ MSSA club match
56.24gr Retumbo 12” drop tube used
144 hybrid jump .022” from lands-
Kreiger 30”-1.250” straight- set in 87lb maxi tracker—…


9moa up from 100yd zero-

 

[X Count]

Yeeeeezuzzz that's a heavy gun!

Yeah the 144s were pretty high on my list of alternatives and looks like they are hammering for you. No trimming or pointing required would be a bonus for him..

Looking at the book that seems to be a pretty mild load. I know you don't care because it shoots so well but any idea what your fps and ES numbers are? Within reason I've generally found going to a slightly faster than recommended powder has given me better ES than 100+% case fill so curious what your getting.

 

[Gabe22BR]

I’ve been up to 3200fps-down to 2700fps
It’s a overbore cartridge, so ya gotta find what the bullet likes- I tested at 300yds-

I settled on 2920fps w/ the 144 Hyb..
single digit es/sd #- Alpha brass, #34 primers wt sorted-

I went the case fill route, since it is proven- Retumbo isn’t recommend by Berger, yet everyone else has it listed in their load data-

 

[X Count]

Looks like your onto something. Great to see the level of accuracy that could be achieved!

 

[TxBowHunter409]

I'm using N568 and Berger 140 gr Elite Hunters 10k jammed in my 6.5 PRC. 2½" group at 500 yards, and 0.4" group at 100 yards.

 

[X Count]

Had a play with this thing today. 55gr H1000 and 147gr ELDM hard jam gave 2970fps and was .3moa vertical at 500yd. No load development and I don't think he will out shoot that for a while!