6.5 creedmoor, 140 gr Berger Hybrids, Reloder 16, Lapua Brass

[_Raining]

Anyone have data for Reloder 16 with 140 gr Bergers in Lapua Brass. I saw a screenshot of 140 Bergers with CCI200 in Hornady brass having a max of 43.6 compressed @ 2821 ft/s. I started at 38.6 and ended at 42.2, my muzzle vel for 42.2 was 2848 which is a little spicy and thats 1.4 gr off the max from the screenshot (I used non-magnum primers, fed match to be specific). No signs of pressure but still, seems a little fast. I sent Alliant an email a few days ago but have not heard back from them.

 

[Stpilot12]

You will get a little more velocity with RE-16 vs say, H4350. BUT If you re not seeing any pressure signs, flat primers, cratering, ejector swipes, sticky bolt lift.. Keep going. Not sure why you'd be worried about velocity. Your ultimate goal is finding the accuracy node. In your rifle, that may be 2800, 2850, 2900fps.. etc. In my rifle I didn't see any pressure signs until 43.0gr (in Norma brass) which was 2985fps (30"bbl) Ultimately I settled for 42.5 gr which averages 2940fps. What do your targets look like? Are you using the OCW to work up?

 

[_Raining]

I didn't use a true ocw, I shot each powder charge all the way through, which took about 5 to 10 min. Then waited 10 min, with a chamber chiller, before shooting the next group. The two times I have done this test the groups show a similar poi pattern but the velocities are faster with fire formed brass vs virgin brass. The SD of the fire formed brass was all good, 7 max and 4 min. I am not a great shot so the group sizes don't mean much, one or two in the .6 range, one or two in the 1.0 range and the rest in .7/.8/.9 area with the avg being around .8. I am pretty sure I could pick the smallest group and load up 100 rounds of it and end up with similar group sizes.

I am new to reloading so I can't tell easily what the signs of pressure are. There doesn't seem to be any difficult extractions but the primers all look the same to me. I suppose I could take before and after pics of primers to see if that helps. As far as being worried about velocity goes, it is a direct sign of pressure so I wanted to know what others were getting with the same brass/primers/powder/bullet as myself to make sure I am not going too fast (my barrel is 24"). I realize seating depth and chamber dimentions play a part in this but if others are getting 2700 and I am getting 2900, I may want to rethink things.

 

[sakobob]

Your wasting components, barrel life , time and money! .... Do a proper ocw test or ladder test and it will tell you what the gun likes .