Shrek's 6.5 saum build

[Shrek]

I'm happy to answer as best I can. Ask away whenever you want. I spend half of my days sitting in line killing time at work.

 

[Justin Crossley]

What length is your barrel again? I thought that you would get better velocities with that round. I'm running 64.5 grains of Ramshot Magnum in my 6.5-06AI and the velocity is 3230 with 140vlds and no pressure at all. I wonder if a different powder would be better?

That's a bummer about the scope rings too. I've mounted a few scopes with the Talleys and haven't had any trouble at all.

 

[Shrek]

Justin , it's a 25.75" barrel and it's 150gr matrix vlds over H1000. I shot once clean for the first five and I had pressure after every cleaning. It also grabs more copper than any barrel I've ever shot. I'm going to clean it one last time and then run the next 50 or so. I've read in the 6.5 saum thread where several guys had slow performance for the first 100-150 shots and then it picked up a bunch. I'm hoping that I will and it will stop grabbing copper. It's got 50 down the barrel right now and six cleanings.

 

[Justin Crossley]

Oh, I forgot that you are running the 150's. What is the BC of that bullet? I might have to try some.

 

[Shrek]

I think they have range calculated them at a G7 of .325. The 150's are not a listed bullet so you have to email Marshall and see if he has any. He charges the same as the 160's. Two hundred just ran me $108 delivered. I'm hoping they arrive today or tomorrow.

 

[tstowater]

The 17th will be here soon. Tick tock. You need to do something other than sit in a line on the web dreaming about another project.

 

[Shrek]

The 17th will be here soon. Tick tock. You need to do something other than sit in a line on the web dreaming about another project.

Unfortunately I still have to work so I will be sitting in lines all week as I am doing now. Probably 30 minutes to get out of CSX this morning and who knows what the port will look like when I get there .

 

[KMD]

Justin, would be curious to know the h20 capacity of your 6.5-06AI, as a comparison to the 6.5SAUM?
Running your 64.5 Ramshot Magnum thru QL, using a 6.5SAUM with 72gr H2o capacity nets 68kpsi. So, if your 6.5-06AI case has any less capacity than 72gr, the pressure will be all the more in the red...

Worth mentioning is, the reduced body taper and sharper shoulder of the AI case reduces bolt thrust, and minimizes the more telltale signs of an overpressure situation. Just sayin' that you could very well be runnin' a HOT load in an AI and not know it! By the time you get a heavy bolt lift with an AI case, experience has taught me that you're already waaaay into the pressure red zone.

I agree with you on powder choice. Shrek might wanna step down to a slower burning powder for pushing the 150-160gr bullets. Retumbo, Magnum, RL-33, etc...

 

[7stw]

Good looking stick shrek ! I've been following your gun threads with enthusiasm. Glad you're making good progress.

 

[Justin Crossley]

Justin, would be curious to know the h20 capacity of your 6.5-06AI, as a comparison to the 6.5SAUM?
Running your 64.5 Ramshot Magnum thru QL, using a 6.5SAUM with 72gr H2o capacity nets 68kpsi. So, if your 6.5-06AI case has any less capacity than 72gr, the pressure will be all the more in the red...

Worth mentioning is, the reduced body taper and sharper shoulder of the AI case reduces bolt thrust, and minimizes the more telltale signs of an overpressure situation. Just sayin' that you could very well be runnin' a HOT load in an AI and not know it! By the time you get a heavy bolt lift with an AI case, experience has taught me that you're already waaaay into the pressure red zone.

I agree with you on powder choice. Shrek might wanna step down to a slower burning powder for pushing the 150-160gr bullets. Retumbo, Magnum, RL-33, etc...

I don't know what the H2o capacity is on it.

I took the pressure up until I blew primers, and then worked back down. I'm on the sixth firing with my first 50 brass and they are still working great.

 

[Shrek]

KMD , I'd love to be working with some Retumbo , N570 , RL33 but what I have on hand is H1000 so H1000 it's going to be for now. I went to fire form shoot another 50 pieces of brass using some 140gr bullets and a reduced load and then do the accuracy testing on some once shot brass at 62.5gr and 63.3gr both pushing 150 vlds. Got rained out on the accuracy testing but I did manage to blast the fifty forming rounds. Barrel has 100 rounds down it now so I'll check accuracy of the two loads and then build whatever comes in first with what bullets I have. The two hundred I have coming didn't arrive today

 

[KMD]

10-4. Just a few posts ago, it seemed as though you were scratching your head about not getting the velocity you expected? That's the only reason I mentioned stepping down to a slower burn rate powder for the heaviest bullets. Too fast a burn rate, and you'll hit pressure before reaching velocity potential.
If H1000 is all ya got, then run what ya brung. H1000 is magic with the 130s & 140s. But since you are so dead set on shooting 150s and 160s, then why not pick a lb. or two of a more suitable powder, to give those uber-heavy bullets a chance to shine?

Also, curious as to why are you "fireforming" for a case that only requires a straight neck-down to make brass for?
New formed cases in mine shot quite well, not appreciably worse than after they were 1x fired.

Sure, any new case is going to "form" to your chamber upon firing. And sure, those 1x fired & fully prepped cases should net you the best accuracy. But the 6.5SAUM is certainly not in need of "fireforming" to reach its potential.

If you like to tinker, that's cool. But things are only as difficult as you want to make them.

 

[Shrek]

I just walked in for shooting the two load candidates and it's going to be 62.5 it looks like. It was breezy and highly variable going from 3ish to 15ish mph but I tried my best to wait for lulls in the wind.

 

[Shrek]

KMD , I was fire forming them because they were so crooked. Runout was ridiculous so I shot them and worked on trigger pull and aiming. Worked good all the way around too. I was almost able to see all of my hits and trigger pull was much improved. Brass is now straight and ready for accurate loads. It also broke the barrel in if it had anything left to settle in. I'm debating whether to clean it now with 60 down the tube since the last cleaning and then send a couple of foulers . If the bullets arrive to or tomorrow I'll load 90 rounds to take so I can do some shooting when I get there to check everything and get some more trigger time. It's getting down to departure time so I'm off to change the oil in the Ranger.

 

[KMD]

Gotcha.
If my sized down brass were that bad, I'd be re-visiting my steps for necking them down. Something's going amiss, somewhere along the line...

Are those groups representative of what you're expecting from your rifle?

 

[Shrek]

KMD , I'm not satisfied at all with the way it's shooting now but I'm running the wrong powder , minimal load development , and I'm out of time. I'm leaving this evening to hunt so it will have to do., I have no idea why the runout is so bad and even the fired and full length bushing sized brass has more than it should. I haven't done much bushing sizing before. I've been using Lee collet dies and getting great results but they just started taking custom orders again. I'll be ordering one as soon as I get back and in the mean time I'm going to figure out what I'm missing with the bushing sizer. As bad as It is I need to keep in mind that it's still .885 MOA group. If I could cut the runout down to a thousandth or less it would help. It's running .0015 to .0025 on the loaded fired case measured just behind the ogive. Play with seating depth and cut it down some more I hope. I'll get it there or this rifle will go away too.

 

[Shrek]

Going home to load up my 7-08 ....I have no idea what is the problem but it's shooting like the scope is bad or there is something loose. Very frustrated !

 

[JustOneMoreShot]

Wait I am not following... you are switching it up and going to take the 7-08? No matter you think is going on I would definately take a back up rifle or two even. You are driving correct? So you don't have to worry about ridiculous airline baggage fees and can take plenty of ammo for two or three rifles.
Keep us posted I am anxious to see what you find!

 

[msalm]

Shrek,
Just off-hand thoughts here, but you're running your loads pretty hot. The Norma brass has considerably less capacity than the Remmy brass and loads listed for the Remingtons are usually in the 64gr for 130's and 61-62grs of H1000 for the 140 Berger VLD's. With Norma brass reduce those numbers by 2 grains or so. With your 150gr I would have started in the 58 range and expected a max around 60-61grs. Anyway, those pressure signs and hard bolt lift were a dead giveaway right off the bat.

 

[Shrek]

A lot of folks have bad things to say about Lee Collet Neck dies but I'm not one of them. Just loaded up the 44 pieces of four times fired brass I had prepared. Ran them through the collet die and runout was running. 0005 on brass and .0005 to .001 on the bullet. Chamber perfect.