6.5 Creedmoor

Thanks to JFcomfort for the help with the varget loads.

Looks like 39.5gr of Varget with .015" jump using the 123gr lapua scenars are what my rifle likes.

with .010" jump this load averages in the .5-.6MOA range, never got anything less. Same with .020" jump, so i believe i found the sweet spot.

The flyers here were honest called shots (let pressure off the rear bag as i was breaking the shot).

I haven't chronoed these yet, but i know 40.0gr of varget gets me 2920 from my 22" barrel so I'm thinking 2890ish.

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Looks like .015" jump was the answer for the scenars.

Getting 2907 out of my 22" barrel with 39.5gr of varget

IMG_20140301_143628_354_zpsmpc3cacg.jpg


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Are those shoot by a gasser?
reason why I ask is cause I have a 6.5 cm gasser and I'm trying to find some good loads
 
Hey LawnMM , that's great near 3000 fps ,I wonder :
Does it group well at that speed?
Any signs of pressure?

Little nicks on the brass but its just the gas system roughing up the cartridges. Its not a round ejector mark and it wasn't any worse at max powder charge. Primers are not flattened at all. I just want the overhead for summer shooting.

Haven't tried grouping it yet but I'd be shocked if it didn't produce a decent group. I was getting half inch or better out of factory ammo.

I will try to get some group shooting done this week and report back.
 
Little nicks on the brass but its just the gas system roughing up the cartridges. Its not a round ejector mark and it wasn't any worse at max powder charge. Primers are not flattened at all. I just want the overhead for summer shooting.

Haven't tried grouping it yet but I'd be shocked if it didn't produce a decent group. I was getting half inch or better out of factory ammo.

I will try to get some group shooting done this week and report back.

Awesome brother!
I will also go out next week and do some shooting with it ;
Mine is the 22" that was for sale at Fulton Armory
Will post results as well after shooting
 
I've got a pretty decent stock of 107 Sierra's and 108 Scenars, and though I am fully aware of the longer distance shortcomings of either, they both group with consistency in 3/4 or less in my 22" Fulton Criterion barrel. Yes, 123 Scenars do just about as well, but hadn't worked with them much after virtually stumbling into the light bullet load. 39.7 Varget at around 2900+ in AR, just over 3000 in 26" Lilja bolt gun. They do move in the wind at 500, but still consistent at that distance.
 
View attachment 33360
FWIW: 3 shot groups w/Hornady lot # 3132438
AI AX 6.5 CM
24" Bartlein
S&B 5-25x56 MSR
SAS Resistor Suppressor
Spuhr Mount

Unsuppressed 3 shot group at 100 yds measured .109
Suppressed 3 shot group at 100 measured .208 which is probably my fault...

-Dave-View attachment 33359

Nothing wrong with that either way! If you need a home for that rifle and willing to donate I'll take it! Even though I'm left handed I would still use it!

Later, Frank
Bartlein Barrels
 
My rig is a bone stock Savage Model 12 LRP in 6.5Creedmoor. The only modification to it was to bump up the trigger pull to ~2.5 lbs. It shot basically 1 MOA on the factory Hornady 140 Amax loads. Just for grins, a buddy and I took the factory load on the box and toyed around with it as usual - the difference being we were using some 142 SMK's that were laying around. Lo and behold, 41.5 grains of H4350, Federal 210 primers and once fired Hornady brass - magic. I didn't go thru the other 12 pages - just went thru the first few and the last few and didn't see this specific recipe. But the results speak for themselves...this was at a laser ranged 100 yds, roughly 60F, roughly 1100 ASL, roughly 50% humidty.

 
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Three loads I just tried:

uru8y7a2.jpg


"CBOT" should have been CBTO. (Cartridge base to ogive)

Nice shooting. Just a tip I learned when shooting groups for testing. Instead of trying to hit the bullseye, set your scope to where it'll hit a little off target so you'll still have the same aiming point undisturbed. It usually will make your groups shrink
 
On my newest rifle is another 6.5 Creedmoor with another 25 inch barrel, in another defiance action! The difference this time would be the suppressor at the end.


140gr Hybrids over 43.0 gr of H4350 at 2.800 OAL gave me 2900 FPS, and some ejector marks on the brass. I also did not get the best groups working up to this load. So I measured my distance to the lands, and streched the 140gr Hybrid out to 2.855.

I settled on 42.5gr of H4350 with the 140gr Berger Hybrid. This gave me 2804 FPS with an SD of 5... Out of 5 rounds, I'm sure it's closer to 8-10 but regardless it worked well out to 1000 yards, and of course shot good groups at 100 yards. I only have 150 rounds down the barrel, it might speed up later. If I set the bullet back .010 it gives me an extra 20 FPS, but I'm happy with the pressure, and groups I'm getting now.

Here is the best group I achieved during load dev, and here I am shooting 5 shot groups at 900 yards in the wind.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0xhFnKIdYFg

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Been reading my butt off on this thread and probably missed it. Shooting a stock LRP and looking for a happy spot with RL17, CCI200, and Nosler CC 140's. Anybody have a secret recipe they are willing to share that may have shot that combo?

Sorry if I missed the info on my initial reading.
 
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So I've had an interesting couple of days with my creedmoor......I apologize for the novel in advance.

My current load is a 123gr Lapua scenar over 39.5gr of varget with a Federal 210 primer, .015" off the lands. This is the same load that's posted a couple pages back in this thread that is a hammer of a load. I used this load back in late april to shoot a match at big piney and it shot great out to 675. I was center punching the targets like it was that rifles job.

So i decided to put a Badger Micro FTE muzzle brake on the rifle. It was already threaded and had a thread protector. So no changes to the barrel except a little additional weight.

Went to check it yesterday to see if it made any changes and my rifle shot like absolute shit. Best group was .4ish MOA. While most of them were closer to 1MOA. Checked it again today, shot the same. Took the brake off, still kept shooting the same. Again had one group that was about .5MOA and most of them were .8-1.0+ MOA.

Now, this was a batch of ammo i loaded back in march, I had actually used ammo for the match in april loaded on two separate days, with what should have been the same powder lot IIRC. I primarily used the ammo loaded one day during the match. At the end of the day i went back out to 100/200 yards to run some paper. My first few shots @ 100 on a dot drill were good but then i noticed my shots started going about .2-.3mil low. At 200, first couple shots were good, then tried to shoot a group and I don't think it was even holding 1MOA. I chalked it up to me rushing to beat the rain and being tired..... However, that's the same lot of ammo i shot the last couple of days. The brass was color coded so i could keep it straight.....

So far I've measured a few rounds, and instead of the case shoulders being bumped back .001-.002" they were anywhere from .002 - .005/6", with most of them being in the .005/6" range. I'm assuming my die slipped and needs to be re-adjusted. So assuming, powder/bullet/primer lot being the same. Would this inconsistency cause my groups to go from the .2-.3MOA that I'm used to seeing to the .8-1MOA that I'm experiencing now? I thought, it was the brake, but I'm thinking the break had no bearing on the load. I shot a couple of 3 shot groups today with a 120gr amax load that usually shoots about .6MOA in my rifle, with and without the brake and both held about .6MOA.

I'm going to measure my chamber to see where the lands are and take a bunch of measurements of the last few rounds i have loaded. Then I'm going to break them down and measure the powder to ensure it's correct. This has been extremely frustrating and i need to find the root cause for my load to go south.

Final question, when i was working up the load, i found the sweet spot for the lapua scenars, to be .015" off lands. I tried .010 and .020 and they shot about .5-.75MOA pretty consistent. Are the lapua's so sensitive that a .002-.003" change in seating depth or lands depth throw off the load too?

Thanks in advance for any help.
 
Been reading my butt off on this thread and probably missed it. Shooting a stock LRP and looking for a happy spot with RL17, CCI200, and Nosler CC 140's. Anybody have a secret recipe they are willing to share that may have shot that combo?

Sorry if I missed the info on my initial reading.


I'm currently working on the same load as you for my 12LRP. Also using RL17, CCI200, and Nosler CC 140s in fresh Hornady brass.

In my rifle, COAL when seated to the lands is 2.775 with the Nosler 140 CC.

40.8 - 41gr of RL17 is where I started to see the best groups on the low end. I tried seating to the lands, then 20, 30, 40 thou jump. After playing with seating depth, I've found that the Noslers like around .040 jump. This load produced a group of 5 shots in 1/2".

I don't have access to a chrony, so I'm not sure what velocity is at currently. I typically use a ballistics program and true the drop at 600 yards to calculate an estimate of velocity, but I haven't been up north to shoot at that distance yet this year.

That low node is very accurate, but I suspect I'll want more velocity, so I'll likely try to work up a load for the next node higher. 4% up from 41gr would be aprox 42.6, which is close to what others here have reported as working well... so I'll probably work up to that next.
 
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Shot my standard load again last night. Shoulders bumped from .0015 to .0035" and used new lb of powder. Also tried some H4350,and found a load with that using 43.3gr. No idea on speed. The rifle started shooting poorly again. So I took the stock off. Retorqued it and check the scope mounting. My final group of the day after an additional 30+ rounds through the bore shot a 5 shot .377" group. Back to what I expect from this load. Is it possible that this particular load needs a fouled barrel with approx 80 rounds before it shoots right?
 
I'm currently working on the same load as you for my 12LRP. Also using RL17, CCI200, and Nosler CC 140s in fresh Hornady brass.

In my rifle, COAL when seated to the lands is 2.775 with the Nosler 140 CC.

40.8 - 41gr of RL17 is where I started to see the best groups on the low end. I tried seating to the lands, then 20, 30, 40 thou jump. After playing with seating depth, I've found that the Noslers like around .040 jump. This load produced a group of 5 shots in 1/2".

I don't have access to a chrony, so I'm not sure what velocity is at currently. I typically use a ballistics program and true the drop at 600 yards to calculate an estimate of velocity, but I haven't been up north to shoot at that distance yet this year.

That low node is very accurate, but I suspect I'll want more velocity, so I'll likely try to work up a load for the next node higher. 4% up from 41gr would be aprox 42.6, which is close to what others here have reported as working well... so I'll probably work up to that next.

Update:
I ended up with 42.0 of RL17 giving the best groups in my 12LRP. This is with Nosler 140 CC loaded at 2.740 (about .035 off lands in my rifle). I spent way too much time/components chasing this load. For some reason RL17 just didn't perform the same every range trip, and I have since given up on it. I'm sure it works consistently for some, but I just couldn't get there.

I ended up finding a few pounds of H4350 locally and found an extremely accurate load at 42.4, also with Nosler 140CC bullets. I just shot this load at 600 yards this past weekend and had consistent 3" groups on a day with 10-15mph winds (the load may be better than that, but I'm not yet).

The whole reason I tried RL17 in the first place was because H4350 was impossible to find. It seems for my gun anyway, H4350 was WAY easier to find a consistent load for compared to RL17.

Also had good luck with 39.5 of Varget under 123 Nosler CC @ 2.715. Very accurate at 100, but got pushed around a bit more at 600 on the windy day I was shooting.

I'm very happy with both Nosler bullets at that distance, especially for the cost (and they are pretty easy to find right now).
 
Gents I need some help, I just purchased hornady factory 140 grain ammo from MH, lot number 3133063 and I am getting 1.5 inch groups from my AIAX . My other older lots shoot a solid 1-2 moa same day, same rifle. Has anyone else seen this and whom should I contact to get them exchanged?
Thanks
Joe
 
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Gents I need some help, I just purchased hornady factory 140 grain ammo from MH, lot number 3133063 and I am getting 1.5 inch groups from my AIAX . My other older lots shoot a solid 1-2 moa same day, same rifle. Has anyone else seen this and whom should I contact to get them exchanged?
Thanks
Joe

What rifle are you using? My LRP was sucking it up with this ammo. Found out the chamber was too short and it was causing over pressure with factory loads. I was still able to average roughly 2" at 300 yards but nothing amazing. Excited to try it again when my rifle comes back from Savage.


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Gents I need some help, I just purchased hornady factory 140 grain ammo from MH, lot number 3133063 and I am getting 1.5 inch groups from my AIAX . My other older lots shoot a solid 1-2 moa same day, same rifle. Has anyone else seen this and whom should I contact to get them exchanged?
Thanks
Joe

If you were shooting at 100 yards isn't a 1.5 inch group roughly 1.5 moa? Sorry, not trying to be a jerk, but looking for clarification or correction on my thinking.
 
Originally Posted by Jmilera
Gents I need some help, I just purchased hornady factory 140 grain ammo from MH, lot number 3133063 and I am getting 1.5 inch groups from my AIAX . My other older lots shoot a solid 1-2 moa same day, same rifle. Has anyone else seen this and whom should I contact to get them exchanged?
Thanks
Joe
If you were shooting at 100 yards isn't a 1.5 inch group roughly 1.5 moa? Sorry, not trying to be a jerk, but looking for clarification or correction on my thinking.
Yes 1.5 inches and 1.5 moa are almost the same fucking thing. Anyways mile high was gracious enough to exchange the ammo and my groups with that ammo were way under 0.5 moa or 0.5 inches depending on your OCD.
 
Jmilera-

YZ400Man was not trying to be a jerk...... He had the same misunderstanding that I had. You said your other ammo shot "1-2 moa", which to most people means "one to two moa", but I think you meant "one half moa". If your other ammo was shooting one to two, and that one lot shot 1.5 moa, there is not much difference, which is why YZ400Man was confused. When I re-read your note and realized you probably meant "1/2 moa", then it makes a lot more sense. Okay now, hugs for everyone....
 
My apologize gents I don't usually rant and that was uncalled for on my part, part of the reason is That I had just finished reading 24 chapters of advanced pharmacology in preparation for my boards, and I miss shooting " which is my only release of stress. Compounding the matter here in my town the county officials closed the only public 100 yard range. Hopefully after graduation I am moving to A nice German town close to San Antonio. Political cronyism is high where I live and considering 99% of the land is privately owned, and I am a grunt, and dont come from money, I'm pretty much fucked. Just ask papagallos. He's a good friend of mine and experience the same bullshit situations. So with that said, I once again humbly apologize for my post.
Thanks gents
Joe
 
SWhite, thanks for clearing it up.

Jmilera, no worries. My sister is a Pharmacist and I remember when she was studying for her boards, rough stuff. For that nice German town you wouldn't be talking about the Comfort area would you? I have friends that have a little bit of land around there and I got to spend some time there a few weeks ago. Had a chance at an Axis buck.....but I don't want to talk about how that ended up...lol.
 
Gents I need some help, I just purchased hornady factory 140 grain ammo from MH, lot number 3133063 and I am getting 1.5 inch groups from my AIAX . My other older lots shoot a solid 1-2 moa same day, same rifle. Has anyone else seen this and whom should I contact to get them exchanged?
Thanks
Joe

I just shot a box of this from your same lot. Accuracy was horrible (>1 MOA @ 100 yards) from a precision rifle. I've seen a few complaints about this lot number. I'm returning the second box I purchased. I only bought the loaded ammo so I could shoot the rifle while I wait for my reloading components.
 
Does anyone have experience with 140 grain SMK BTHP? If so, are they as good as 142 gr SMK's? I have a box of these and wanted to start a good load workup. I cannot find any any 142 gr SMK's. Any suggestions for load workup with these?
 
Does anyone have experience with 140 grain SMK BTHP? If so, are they as good as 142 gr SMK's? I have a box of these and wanted to start a good load workup. I cannot find any any 142 gr SMK's. Any suggestions for load workup with these?
Just got an e-mail from Midsouth Shooters Supply. They have 6.5 142 SMK's in stock. $169.98/500. Good price!
 
The factory Hornady 140gr Amax loads from the new lot I just bought are impressive. But, when you start stretching the distance out, my 139gr Scenar loads start putting the Hornady factory stuff to shame. Still, this has to be the best mass-produced factory ammo ever made; sub 1/2moa at 100 yards with regularity.







All of my loads on these targets are with Hornady once fired brass and CCI 200 primers. Stiller TAC30 action with 22" Brux stainless 1:8 twist.