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Berger 6.5 140 load recipe?
- Thread starter Snipenace
- Start date
I would be very interested to hear what the collective wisdom is on this. IIRC, Hornady originally used H4350 and published the load recipe. However, in the years since, my understanding is Hornady moved onto proprietary components. Berger factor ammo is about 70 fps faster than Hornady Match, though.
I have a fairly fast Proof SS barrel in 6.5 CM and Berger 140 HT factory loaded ammo averages 2872 fps with a supporting data set of over 50 shots...and the Berger's were all same lot.
Same rifle, 42.1 gr of H4350 in Hornady brass and CCI BR2 is yielding 2859...again with over 50 data points in the set.
My barrel has a SAAMI chamber and I used MDT mags with the binder plate installed. I have run some seating depth testing ( 60-100 off lands) and never really noticed any sweet spot....but, I really couldn't get closer than 60-70 thousands and remain inside max mag length. The 140 HT Bergers seem fairly agnostic to seating depth.
The other spot that I found grouped well was at 40.9 gr of H4350. Shot well, not nearly as fast. Gives me 2790 fps and I just loaded 100 of these to try to be a bit kinder to my barrel (though 2850 or so ain't all that fast, right?). I'll get to shooting them this week and I expect, based on past experience, that they will be accurate if just a bit slower.
I'm no expert...others here are orders of magnitude more experienced and expert than I, but this is what I found worked pretty well.
Same rifle, 42.1 gr of H4350 in Hornady brass and CCI BR2 is yielding 2859...again with over 50 data points in the set.
My barrel has a SAAMI chamber and I used MDT mags with the binder plate installed. I have run some seating depth testing ( 60-100 off lands) and never really noticed any sweet spot....but, I really couldn't get closer than 60-70 thousands and remain inside max mag length. The 140 HT Bergers seem fairly agnostic to seating depth.
The other spot that I found grouped well was at 40.9 gr of H4350. Shot well, not nearly as fast. Gives me 2790 fps and I just loaded 100 of these to try to be a bit kinder to my barrel (though 2850 or so ain't all that fast, right?). I'll get to shooting them this week and I expect, based on past experience, that they will be accurate if just a bit slower.
I'm no expert...others here are orders of magnitude more experienced and expert than I, but this is what I found worked pretty well.
OP:
What brass are you using?
Are you loading for Mag-Fed bolt rifle?
FOR MY RIFLE: I would probably load x5 at 2.83" OAL (mag friendly) with 41.5 gr of H4350 with those components and shoot for muzzle velocity and group at 100y.
I know a shooter who uses 41.8 and those exact components in a bolt rifle, but brass volume matters, as does the chamber, distance to lands, etc...
Also, Berger loads VERY hot IMHO.
YMMV and work up carefully and all standard disclaimers apply Mr. Murphy.
What brass are you using?
Are you loading for Mag-Fed bolt rifle?
FOR MY RIFLE: I would probably load x5 at 2.83" OAL (mag friendly) with 41.5 gr of H4350 with those components and shoot for muzzle velocity and group at 100y.
I know a shooter who uses 41.8 and those exact components in a bolt rifle, but brass volume matters, as does the chamber, distance to lands, etc...
Also, Berger loads VERY hot IMHO.
YMMV and work up carefully and all standard disclaimers apply Mr. Murphy.
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But is it Elite Sand? 
41.5 is something of a known general middle node, there's a lower node and a higher node you can troll the 6.5 reloading thread on here for... maybe search for the tweaks with SRP vs LRP, but I'm not sure there's much difference there... I'm just cautious and load for middle speeds.
Report back, and WITH PICS of that AI and your groups once you work it out!
41.5 is something of a known general middle node, there's a lower node and a higher node you can troll the 6.5 reloading thread on here for... maybe search for the tweaks with SRP vs LRP, but I'm not sure there's much difference there... I'm just cautious and load for middle speeds.
Report back, and WITH PICS of that AI and your groups once you work it out!
It just so happens to be a Elite sand. It was one of the first to land at milehigh. I actually had ordered a green one but the day it was shipping I seen a elite sand and new I had to swap it before it shipped out. I don’t like to spend a lot of time on load development or tuning. If I find a load that shoots pretty good I just leave it.But is it Elite Sand?
41.5 is something of a known general middle node, there's a lower node and a higher node you can troll the 6.5 reloading thread on here for... maybe search for the tweaks with SRP vs LRP, but I'm not sure there's much difference there... I'm just cautious and load for middle speeds.
Report back, and WITH PICS of that AI and your groups once you work it out!
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I ordered these almost two years ago and just now getting around to loading them. Only have 500 though.
Oh. I have just about 700 to 800. I stopped shooting cause i can't find it and it's the only thing my rifle shoots extremely well.
I bought 1,000 and returned 900. In the first box I weighed each bullet and there was a huge spread between the high and low of the box. 139.6 to 140.4. Not really a bell-curve in terms of distribution either. BTW, I used the last of my 100 bergers yesterday. I have found that the 139 Lapua Scenars are very consistent as are the Nosler
