6.5 Creedmoor, good enough or keep going?

[Remington92]

So I’m starting down the road of reloading for my 6.5 creedmoor I use for practice and will use for prs. I’ve never had much success reloading previously with other rifles but I’m now trying forms method and having pretty good results but not sure if I should stop while I’m ahead or keep refining.

Components
-Used hornady brass from factory ammo I shot up
-210M primers
-h4350
-143gr eldx (I bought a pile to use in my 6.5prc and that’s the factory ammo I hunt with) loaded to the boat tail shoulder junction which fits perfectly in aics mags

All shot at 200yds

40.5gr - 2585fps - spread 27.4 - std Dev 11.1 - 1.22”
41gr - 2617fps - spread 24.3 - std dev 9 - 1.21”
41.5gr - 2640fps - spread 36.9 - std dev 13.7 - 1.81”
42gr - 2670fps - spread 15.2 - std dev 5.8 - 1.69”

Never ran into pressure and this is from a 24” ctr. Should I call it good at 41gr or keep pushing powder till I hit pressure and see if the groups shrink back down? Also how much should I worry bout ES and SD?

 

[KeepHammering]

Looks like you’ve got a great thing going! For general shooting and PRS, I’d run with your 41 gr load. No reason to push it harder in my opinion. You could see how your performance holds up for a 100 rounds or so and tweak it from there if you want.

 

[wpeach1912]

I’d say that’s good enough. Your ES SD is more a function of your brass and powder throwing precision than any kind of node. You’ll gain more by learning to read wind and shoot positionally than another 50+ rounds of load dev

 

[Harvey_NW]

That's not the Painless method, that's technically a small OCW test. But the point of the painless method is that you don't need to worry about finding a "node" and testing fractions of grains up or down, and your test pretty much proves that. You've got 3 sub MOA groups all with relative POI, pick a charge and run it!

 

[NWBLKTAIL]

I have shot the pressure ladders to the same poa/poi just to prove to myself that charge weight played little difference in precision, I doubt I'm consistently good enough to shoot the difference even if one exist. Pick a lower charge weight and go easier on the brass and load up what you have and punch some primers at distance getting better.

 

[S.Clancy]

Hornady brass has a bit more capacity, so you may be able to add more powder and get some more velocity, but probably not enough to matter much. If I were you I would shoot 42 gr and be done.

 

[TaperPin]

Good job. If accuracy and velocity meet your initial goals then you’re done. Any more tinkering is just for the love of tinkering, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s good to keep in mind. I don’t usually enjoy tinkering for the sake of tinkering, but a good friend tinkers enough to burn barrels up and he’s perfectly happy doing it so who am I to judge.

You didn’t mention shooting distances. If you’re going past 500 yards I’d double check those loads for accuracy at distance since es/sd make more of a difference out there.

 

[Speaks]

That 41 grain load looks like it would meet any need I realistically have.

 

[Remington92]

Well sounds like depending on how the 41gr performs at distance I'm all done. Max range will be 1000yds in most cases but there was a shoot I went to last year that I took my 6.5prc too and they had one target set at 1435yds. Factory ammo avg 2650 so I'm right there with it.

 

[schmidty3]

Here's my last trip to the range with my 24" CTR. Main goal was to pressure check different bullets, COALs, and my new lot of powder and my new 4000 cci vs my dwindling 210 primers.

H4350. 210 primers. Circa ~2017 Prime brass (norma I think).

140 rdf. 140 hybrid. 147 eldm. 156 eol.

They all hit about the same POI. From 2600-2800 fps. Eldms a click low or so and maybe a little less accurate.

Ive only hit pressure on the 147s over 2700 fps. But I'm chilling with my the 2675 fps load. My loads seem to be over book, but no issues so far through several matches. I think we are cool.

3 shots of the 156s at 2650 and no signs.

If you stacked all these up into one group it might hit 2".

I'm just gonna use the 140 hybrids at 2800 for matches that matter (nrl). And use the others at local prs.

No matter which way I go the gun shoots good enough for the game I'm playing (and better then me)