Staball 6.5 as good as they say?

[NWBLKTAIL]

I just happened upon that SB 6.5 load on the Hornady app while checking on 25-06 loads for the 110 ELDX. It has a couple grains more capacity in general than the -284, and book max for the -06 was 52.1 grains at 3200 MV. Starting -06 loads are good for the -284, and I hit pressure at 51.5 grains.

That’s what I figured you did, I was scrolling through it last night.

If I could hit 3100-3200 with a 110 and solid accuracy and not be hard on brass, I’d call it a win

 

[HairyScandinavian]

I'll be loading StaBall 6.5 and Superformance for eval on a 20" T3x 6.5 CM in a few weeks. Need to shoot through the rest of the American Gunner on hand.

Did you ever do any testing with these?

 

[nm.otter]

Still working on that, unfortunately.

 

[HairyScandinavian]

Ten4, saw that post and got excited. I loaded up some more Superformance for my 20" T3x gonna shoot on Tuesday to test a group and a little more powder to look for pressure but it was darn fast and accurate already. Curious what the SB6.5 would do but not gonna by buying it because I have way too many different powders already..

 

[mtg]

It’s done well in my 7-08. It’s also done well with 130s in my 270w. I haven’t worked with it very much yet but so far my 270w doesn’t like it pushing bullets heavier that 130

 

[sndmn11]

Ten4, saw that post and got excited. I loaded up some more Superformance for my 20" T3x gonna shoot on Tuesday to test a group and a little more powder to look for pressure but it was darn fast and accurate already. Curious what the SB6.5 would do but not gonna by buying it because I have way too many different powders already..

What are you trying to do?

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

One other nice thing about SB 6.5 is that they sell it at Wally World now! Lol…. But seriously, I was very surprised a few weeks back to find it on the shelf.

 

[HairyScandinavian]

What are you trying to do?

I'm trying to learn wth I'm doing mostly lol. Shot my very first reloads which was just a ladder test to find pressure on Tuesday with H4350, N555, and Superformance and 147 m's. All of them ended up shooting decent groups with 1/2 gr increments in powder charges. It doesn't look like I found pressure so I went ahead and just loaded up 5 with the top two charge weights of H4350 and N555 to see about groups as they were above what I was getting with factory ammo and are temp stable so likely what I'll try to finalize on. Superformance was screaming along even faster so I loaded another half grain over the highest charge before because I'm curious how fast it can go and it had zero indications of pressure as far as I can tell.

 

[sndmn11]

I'm trying to learn wth I'm doing mostly lol. Shot my very first reloads which was just a ladder test to find pressure on Tuesday with H4350, N555, and Superformance and 147 m's. All of them ended up shooting decent groups with 1/2 gr increments in powder charges. It doesn't look like I found pressure so I went ahead and just loaded up 5 with the top two charge weights of H4350 and N555 to see about groups as they were above what I was getting with factory ammo and are temp stable so likely what I'll try to finalize on. Superformance was screaming along even faster so I loaded another half grain over the highest charge before because I'm curious how fast it can go and it had zero indications of pressure as far as I can tell.

Ok, I thought you might have been asking for data on Staball65

 

[HairyScandinavian]

Ok, I thought you might have been asking for data on Staball65

I'm interested in it for sure, but I have way too many powders so definitely not buying any time soon. I'm paying attention and making notes when I see it come up though as I'll eventually shoot through these other powders.

 

[mtnbound]

I'm interested in it for sure, but I have way too many powders so definitely not buying any time soon. I'm paying attention and making notes when I see it come up though as I'll eventually shoot through these other powders.

I spun on a fresh 6CM barrel and figured I would try STB6.5 again and it once again was not impressive in speed and the groups were some of the worst I have seen. It is a new barrel so things might change but one of my proven loads using N555 was very close to my old barrel.
I’m gonna try again after some additional break in rounds as I would like to get STB6.5 to work as it is easy to find.

 

[Wrongside]

mtnbound,

I’m a little surprised to hear that. But obviously every barrel is different.

I’ve burnt out a 243Win & 6CM using SB6.5 almost exclusively as the propellant. (A small amount of H1000 in the 243 early on.) Great velocities and accuracy. And now working a new 6GT with very promising early results.

IME, you’ve got to step on the gas to get the best performance out of SB6.5.

 

[hoooogan]

For science:

Did my own temp stability test. 5 shots each set. Charges were double checked to +/- 0.01gr on a TRX-925 scale.

StaBall 6.5 - 147gr ELD-M - 43.0gr
Zero Degrees - 2681.7 AV, 36.6 ES, 12.4 SD
50 Degrees - 2687.4 AV, 33.4 ES, 13.2 SD
100 Degrees - 2695.7 AV, 26.9 ES, 8.8 SD


H4350 - 140gr Hybrid - 42.0gr
Zero Degrees - 2686.8 AV, 29.1 ES, 9.5 SD
50 Degrees - 2686.0 AV, 23.6 ES, 8.4 SD
100 Degrees - 2707.0 AV, 15.8 ED, 5.4 SD

Results:
StaBall 6.5 = 0.14 fps per degree.
H4350 = 0.20 fps per degree.

 

[Fireflyfishing]

Big fan here. It’s my go to powder with a 140 Berger Hyb.

 

[CBB1]

mtnbound,

I’m a little surprised to hear that. But obviously every barrel is different.

I’ve burnt out a 243Win & 6CM using SB6.5 almost exclusively as the propellant. (A small amount of H1000 in the 243 early on.) Great velocities and accuracy. And now working a new 6GT with very promising early results.

IME, you’ve got to step on the gas to get the best performance out of SB6.5.

What is your .243 load of choice?


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[mtnbound]

mtnbound,

I’m a little surprised to hear that. But obviously every barrel is different.

I’ve burnt out a 243Win & 6CM using SB6.5 almost exclusively as the propellant. (A small amount of H1000 in the 243 early on.) Great velocities and accuracy. And now working a new 6GT with very promising early results.

IME, you’ve got to step on the gas to get the best performance out of SB6.5.

42.5gr and 43gr was what I tested and I had 2716fps and 2779fps for averages but had SDs over 70fps in both.

What was your recipe?

 

[hoooogan]

Did one more temp test to grab data with a tighter ES/SD load. Not as amazing as my first test, but still very good numbers. Also snuck in a spicy 127 LRX load (46.0gr) that crested 3k fps but that had slightly sticky bolt on one round.

44.5gr SB 6.5 with 129gr ABLR
- 5 shots warm, 4 shots cold (light primer strike on 5th)
- Zero degrees - 2864.1 AV - 1.6 ES - 0.6 SD
- 75 degrees - 2883.6 AV - 23.5 ES - 9.5 SD

Result: 0.26 fps per degree (got 0.14 last time with bigger ES/SD)

Had a 45.0gr load as well but I called it a day due to increasing light primer strikes. I was getting hot and didn't feel like diagnosing. Have 4 shot warm data, so I'll grab the cold next time.

 

[Wrongside]

42.5gr and 43gr was what I tested and I had 2716fps and 2779fps for averages but had SDs over 70fps in both.

What was your recipe?

6 CM 26” 1/7 JC MTU
42 SB6.5
Alpha LRP cases
Tula LR primer
115 DTAC
COAL 2.87

V- 2930
SD- typically single digit for 5 rounds

I pulled the barrel at ~1300 rounds. It only saw 115DTACs. I’ve only been using the 108ELD in the 6GT so far, but will probably experiment with the 115 eventually.

My targets are 1CM grid, or 0.1MRAD at 100 meters. This was shot at 100M.

 

[Wrongside]

What is your .243 load of choice?


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I don’t have the info for that barrel anymore. Apologies.