I'm posting this uo because I see most people running rather long barrels on their 6.5's, and I believe that most don't know how much velocity you can get out of a shorter barrel. I did the long barrel thing before, had a 28" .243 barrel spun up for my AX, but I really hated it. I shoot suppressed 99.9% of the time, and the added length makes for a very long rifle that is very difficult to shoot any way but prone. So I switched to a 22" .260 barrel, far shorter than the average 26"-28" I see on most, and I don't think I am down much on velocity.
The bullet I chose to work with is the Berger 140 grain Hybrid. It has the highest BC in its class, and AX mags have plenty of length to run long bullets. And they shoot real well out of this 8 twist, so I see no reason to run anything else.
During load development I found superb accuracy with H4350, pushing the bullets to the low 2700 fps range. Experimenting with RL-17, I found that I could push the bullet up into the low 2800 fps range, showing zero pressure and still shooting very well. I set out to test both rounds at range and made an interesting discovery.
Due to an embarrassing reloading error which I discovered when my come ups were almost 2 mils less than projected at 940 yards, I discovered that H4895 can produce some insane velocities out of a 22" barrel. I was in a rush hand loading before going to a party and mistakenly loaded H4895 into my Chargemaster when I intended to load H4350. Similar label and not paying enough attention. If I had caught it I would have pulled the bullets, but I didn't realize what had happened until the velocity showed up down range.
Yesterday I brought the chrono to the range and confirmed my findings. Average velocity for 5 rounds was 2913, with an extreme spread of 19. Charge weight used was 42.0 grains of H4895. Accuracy was marginal with a 5 shot group of .652" (good loads showed in the .3's or better with this barrel,) and pressure was about max, but I figured it was worth sharing, as I believe these velocities are somewhat unheard of with a 22" barrel shooting 140's. Might be worth exploring further for some of you velocity whores!
-Bob
The bullet I chose to work with is the Berger 140 grain Hybrid. It has the highest BC in its class, and AX mags have plenty of length to run long bullets. And they shoot real well out of this 8 twist, so I see no reason to run anything else.
During load development I found superb accuracy with H4350, pushing the bullets to the low 2700 fps range. Experimenting with RL-17, I found that I could push the bullet up into the low 2800 fps range, showing zero pressure and still shooting very well. I set out to test both rounds at range and made an interesting discovery.
Due to an embarrassing reloading error which I discovered when my come ups were almost 2 mils less than projected at 940 yards, I discovered that H4895 can produce some insane velocities out of a 22" barrel. I was in a rush hand loading before going to a party and mistakenly loaded H4895 into my Chargemaster when I intended to load H4350. Similar label and not paying enough attention. If I had caught it I would have pulled the bullets, but I didn't realize what had happened until the velocity showed up down range.
Yesterday I brought the chrono to the range and confirmed my findings. Average velocity for 5 rounds was 2913, with an extreme spread of 19. Charge weight used was 42.0 grains of H4895. Accuracy was marginal with a 5 shot group of .652" (good loads showed in the .3's or better with this barrel,) and pressure was about max, but I figured it was worth sharing, as I believe these velocities are somewhat unheard of with a 22" barrel shooting 140's. Might be worth exploring further for some of you velocity whores!
-Bob
