New Creedmoor and need some advice

[Lilshooter]

Well my new surgeon Scaple 6.5 creedmoor will be in next week and I now should have what I need to start reloading. I have 4 factory boxes of amo to do barrel break in with and I have new hornady brass and 140 berger VLD for reloading. I am new into the reloading/load development for new gun. I have the hornady and berger reloading manual but where would you guys start at with reloading? Now to give a little back ground on wht iam doing with this gun I am using this to replace my Best of the west 7 mag for competitions and keep that gun for hunting and my new 6.5 for sniper competitions. I have this new surgeon creedmoor topped with a schmitt bender 3X20 mill/mill. So I take my hobby serious. I have good quality reloading equipment along with my own brass annealing machine, neck turning tools and a bunch of other stuff too. Any ideas would be great. Thanks again

 

[brian427cobra]

I would start off at 41.0 of H4350 and increase the charge until you find the first sign of pressure, then back off and play with seating depth, in my 260 140amax liked .010-.020 off the lands, 139scenars at the lands, and 142smk at least .030 or a lot more from the lands, VLDs at least .010 in. Welcome to the Surgeon family.

 

[Trapper243]

I would start off at 41.0 of H4350 and increase the charge until you find the first sign of pressure, then back off and play with seating depth, in my 260 140amax liked .010-.020 off the lands, 139scenars at the lands, and 142smk at least .030 or a lot more from the lands, VLDs at least .010 in. Welcome to the Surgeon family.

That's about all I did. I only shot about a box of factory 140s to start with and went to the 142 SMK. I might have tried loading the A-Max but could not find any. Factory stuff shot about .5moa but groups got tighter after the first couple of cleanings . I would like to have experimented with a few more bullets, but I had SMKs and they went under .25 moa with a little seating depth adjustment. A couple of groups were in the .1s 5 shots, then I backed up and shot at distance to confirm zeros. My Surgeon 6.5 Creedmoor has been the easiest gun I have ever worked with. Running on H4350 for now, IMR 4350 for backup, if I run out of the H. Watch the primer pockets if you start loading to max. I settled on a load under max in my gun that is running around 2780fps. The factory A-Max was going 2815 in my gun with a 26" barrel. I did weight sort all my brass, size and trim. I did not turn the necks.

 

[Dan Hall]

I've also had good luck with the Creedmoor in that it's easy to find accurate loads. It's hard to go wrong with just about any quality 140 gr bullet and the appropriate amount of H-4350. As has been stated before I had good luck with starting around 41.0 gr H-4350 and working up until you get the best accuracy and then experimenting with seating depths. If you take apart a factory 140 gr cartridge you will generally find more that 41.5 grs. of powder. I'm sure they adjust the charge in relation to that lots burn characteristics. My current 8 lb. jug and rifle puts me at 42.3-42.5 Gr. of powder for 140 gr A-Maxs and Berger Hybrids. I love this cartridge. I was at the range today shooting a couple of other rifles and a guy was there with his new Surgeon in 6.5 Creedmoor and it was shooting some really nice groups...So enjoy the new rifle.