6.5 Creed Load Results for Chopped Barrel

[swavescatter]

I finally reloaded my first cartridges, and didn't die! I even went a bit spicy...

Original rifle is Bergara Wilderness HMR 6.5 Creedmoor with 24" barrel and running Banish 30 Gold Silencer in an XLR Element 4.0 Mg chassis. Shooting factory Hornady Precision Hunter I was getting about 2705 fps. The rifle shot well, but man is it heavy, and way too long.

I had the barrel chopped to 18" and to my surprise I was averaging just under 2600 fps, so only lost about 17 fps per inch! Nevertheless, I wanted to see how much I could make up with reloads. Here's where I started:

• Once fired Hornady brass, shoulder bumped back 2 thou
• Bullet seating depth set to just under mag length (AICS), but that still put me more than 50 thou jump! Tons of headspace in these HMR's it seems, which maybe explains the +P-ish behavior?
• BR-2 primers
• 143 ELD-X projos
• H4350 loaded from book max to 43.1 grains in 0.2 grain increments

Overall, the brass showed some ejector marks on the last 3 loads, with 43.1 showing some minor cratering. Definitely looks like I'll be able to get back over 2720fps easy!

Where would you recommend working up some loads for groups and SD/ES? I'm thinking 10 rounds each at 42.4 and 42.5.

 

[ResearchinStuff]

I'd be beyond astonished if there was any real, repeatable difference between two powder charges that similar. I'd go 42.2 and load up the rest to make sure pressure doesn't become a problem on a different day.

Painless load development (mine)

I have had multiple people ask me to lay out how I do load development being that what I do is different. Since Shaen @Shooter71 just rebarreled a Tikka 595 in 6XC I thought it would be easy to show how I do it. It’s a Master Sporter with a T3 lite profiled 20” barrel- keep in mind it is a T3...

rokslide.com

 

[FLS]

42.0 Is a pretty common load, load twenty and see what you group and SD looks like.

 

[swavescatter]

Well, I loaded up 20-some at 42.4gr, seated to 2.85" COAL. Results weren't great.

2710 fps Ave with an SD of 12 fps. Groups were close to 2 MOA and this rifle shoots factory ELD-X well under 1 MOA.

So much for the painless method. Now I'll just practice reloading and using up components. Going to mostly ignore the Chrono for now and just load 5 round strings to find a load it likes.

I also shortened the COAL to 2.83" as I had some mag feeding issues.

 

[sierracharlie338]

You could try tweaking the seating depth at 42.4 and see if it tightens up any or you could run the same powder test at somewhere between 3-600 yards and see what the numbers tell you there?

 

[ResearchinStuff]

Change powder or brass. Try matching the coal of the factory stuff. It's going to take something major to tighten that up to where you want it.

 

[Formidilosus]

So much for the painless method.

“Painless” doesn’t mean every load will magically shoot. It means that if it doesn’t shoot well that you have to change a major component to make any meaningful change to real precision- it saves time and components in useless tinkering.

Change powder or bullet.

 

[wind gypsy]

Yeah, if the same bullet in the same brass (albeit, virgin brass), at the same COAL isn't shooting well, powder is obvious first thing to change. Which is a bummer if h4350 doesn't shoot.. but such is life.

 

[FLS]

That would be the first 6.5 I’ve ever seen that didn’t shoot well with H4350. Id back down to 41 and see what happens.

 

[swavescatter]

Got some shots in today (Garmin vs Labradar review coming soon).

I'm thinking going with 42.6gr since groups are good on either side.

 

[Hagas4all]

Got some shots in today (Garmin vs Labradar review coming soon).

I'm thinking going with 42.6gr since groups are good on either side.

View attachment 617968View attachment 617970

41.5 is the magic number I have seen work in multiple rifles.

 

[swavescatter]

41.5 is the magic number I have seen work in multiple rifles.

I've heard the same, but my goal was to recoup the velocity I lost by chopping the barrel. Additionally, I've heard that slightly compressed loads (that don't show pressure signs) are a bit more repeatable since the powder isn't free to shift around in the case - imagine shooting up a steep hill versus down one.

With that said - I'm happy with sub 3/4 MOA accuracy. Will do some 10 round groups soon.

 

[wind gypsy]

Did you seat them deeper than last round? That's a notable difference.

 

[swavescatter]

20 thou deeper at 2.83 COAL this time. Also used another bushing to get 2 thou neck tension versus one previously. Indoor vs outdoor. Lot of variables for sure, but I'm happy where I'm at now. Was fighting mirage from the can pretty bad for a bit before I let it cool.