19.25". Forgot to add that on this post.
I’ve been using BR-4’s with a ball powder In both Starline and Lapua brass. Can’t say I am entirely satisfied. I get a misfire about once every 200 rounds. Sometimes a bit more often. Got one hangfire, and that was interesting. Kind a like shooting a flintlock. Guess my follow through was good because I hit the 400 yard target.
I've been shooting Starline brass, CCI 400 srp, H4350, 140 gr bullets for the last 5 years with no issue. 5,000+ rounds. The Lapua brass does have a smaller flash hole but haven't heard of issues being caused by that.
Yep, I am one of the very few, maybe the only fellow on the planet that does not use H4350. I suppose it is because I live in a fairly temperate climate, am too old to want to shoot in really nasty weather, and have really great results with Superformance. H4350 in my rifles has not demonstrated the accuracy or performance. As always, ball powder is more difficult to ignite and I am strongly suspicious that is the cause of the occasional misfire.
There is no reason to use the Magnum primers. I shoot H4350 and Berger 140's. The Magnum primers will give you slightly higher velocity but are not as consistent as the SRP.
Problem is you are talking about sticks and we are talking about balls. Ball powder is notoriously difficult to ignite, especially in cold weather. I agree, stick powders such as H4350 do not need magnum primers and often have better SD’s with standard primers. But again, with a ball primer, might work better under some if not all conditions with a magnum primer.
Tbere is no problem, I answered his question about H4350.
24” but I’ll add I just got a couple hundred pieces of alpha brass and am pushing them at 2808 with 42.5 gr out of a masterpiece 26” tube.
You could pull a couple and check grain weight, could give you an idea. My guess would be the usual RL16 H4350 IMR4350 RL17 RL26 HUNTER
In the past , factory produced ammo used a special blend that had made for their specific needs. Today ?? Hornady , may just order a large amount of XYZ powder that will fit their needs to load several different rounds.
Using Hornady brass, a CCI 200 Primer, 44 grains of Superformance and the 143 ELD-X in my RPR yields velocity virtually identical to factory 143 ELD-X Velocity. (On the day we chronographed, it was 1 foot per second slower than factory)
Its been 6 years ago since I purchased that rifle, so I really don’t remember the specifics of the group size. And, I haven’t shot a factory load since the first month or so that I made the purchase. I can say the reloads shoot quite nice with this load. The 144 Bergers shoot a tighter group but the differences are within 5 hundredths to 1 tenth. Pretty tight for a hunting bullet. I don’t remember anything really really significant so the factory rounds must have grouped decently.
It sounds like a lot of powder but I ran it through Gordons Reloading Tool and it appears the pressure is below max and your velocity is right where the tool says you should be. You are working pretty close to max pressure so be careful with it.
For the 140 gr ELD-M your maximum pressure is 62,792 psi at 80 degrees. Pmax for the 6.5 Creedmoor is 63,091 psi. At 90 degrees you are 63,464 psi so you are already over pressure.
These loads sound excessive. Is there a reason you are trying to run on the max side? I would back them down and you’ll probably see better accuracy, your ballistic app will take care of the speed difference, your brass will be happier, your recoil less and depending on variables you won’t have to worry about your rifle blowing up in your face.
Just like testing thats all, I think I am going to go ahead and back down around 2700-2750 for the 140s. Any idea what 130s should generally be at?
I would think and I know it's hotter but still never seen any pressure signs out of it and like you're saying I should be 75-100 fps slower then your 26 theoretically, ill probably back off to 42 or 42.5 grains and do some testing and run with that, thanks for the help
I would back that H4350 Starline combo back a little bit and bring it back up. It "should" be fine but it depends on how fast you want to run.
Yes you are probably right using the 130s, I was really thinking a 140gr bullet.
Berger lists 41.7 grains of 4451 for their MAX with their 130 at 2822.
I agree. One can be over pressure and not see obvious signs. After a few reloadings a case may suddenly fail. I believe this has happened to me twice. I have since taken steps to reduce the likelihood of this happening by annealing and coating bullets with hBn, as well as keeping my charges below max. I seek a node somewhere around max charge -12 to 25% or so. Safety is job One.
