Replicate Hornady American Gunner 6.5 Creedmoor 140 grain BTHP

[boisepaw]

In my never ending quest to find the least expensive rifle with excellent accuracy, yesterday I took out my $200 T/C Compass in 6.5 Creedmoor ($200 because I bought it four years ago and am only now paying attention to it). I have a total of less than 100 rounds down the barrel even now.

I shot some Aguila ammo...lousy. And some Norma WhiteTail...not bad at all but a horrible BC made it kinda useless past just a couple hundred yards.

I had some Hornady American Gunner that had been stashed away from a couple of years ago and shot that. With five shot strings I had been getting SD's of 12 and ES of about 33 with my Magnetospeed. Groups at 100 yards were okay...not great.

I took the Magnetospeed off yesterday and shot one seven shot group so that I could preserve the last 42 rounds in case I wanted to use them in a silhouette match this weekend.

Seven rounds inside of an inch. That made me happy.

But there is none of it on the market right now. I called Hornady and they stopped making the bulk 200 rounds in the plastic "ammo can". And hadn't been making the 50 round boxes for awhile. She said that they are producing them right now and they should be hitting the stores in a couple of weeks. Which stores? No clue.

I would rather roll my own anyway. Has anyone played around with duplicating that load? I've got the case and the bullet and the COAL figured out obviously but...anyone have any idea of the powder, charge weight or primer?

 

[BoilerUP]

41.5gr H4350, Hornady Brass, 140gr HPBT @ 2.825" COAL.

 

[Bacarrat]

41-42gr of h4350 and 140gr class bullets should get you in the area.

 

[DIBBS]

I saw some 50 round american gunner at the local farm and garden store a few days ago. Perhaps you can match the velocity of your current loads and LTO/COAL closely and approximate them closely. Those 200 round containers shot well and were a good price when they first came out.

 

[DeathBeforeDismount]

In my never ending quest to find the least expensive rifle with excellent accuracy, yesterday I took out my $200 T/C Compass in 6.5 Creedmoor ($200 because I bought it four years ago and am only now paying attention to it). I have a total of less than 100 rounds down the barrel even now.

I shot some Aguila ammo...lousy. And some Norma WhiteTail...not bad at all but a horrible BC made it kinda useless past just a couple hundred yards.

I had some Hornady American Gunner that had been stashed away from a couple of years ago and shot that. With five shot strings I had been getting SD's of 12 and ES of about 33 with my Magnetospeed. Groups at 100 yards were okay...not great.

I took the Magnetospeed off yesterday and shot one seven shot group so that I could preserve the last 42 rounds in case I wanted to use them in a silhouette match this weekend.

Seven rounds inside of an inch. That made me happy.

But there is none of it on the market right now. I called Hornady and they stopped making the bulk 200 rounds in the plastic "ammo can". And hadn't been making the 50 round boxes for awhile. She said that they are producing them right now and they should be hitting the stores in a couple of weeks. Which stores? No clue.

I would rather roll my own anyway. Has anyone played around with duplicating that load? I've got the case and the bullet and the COAL figured out obviously but...anyone have any idea of the powder, charge weight or primer?

Its not that good of ammo. The more you shoot over a chrono, you will see SD and ES grow. Small sample size is just that. I shot PRS with it for a half a season, and as soon as i started reloading groups shrank in half with much better hit % at range. You can make significantly better ammo for a similar price:

Find some once fired Norma brass, can be found for .30-50 cpr. Lapua/peterson/alpha is better, but will run closer to $1 per.
H4350 is great powder and available.
CCI 450s
Any Berger hybrid or Elite hunter bullet. 130 to 156 grain. If you can't find berger, look for Sierra bullets, any of the SMK or TMK above 130gr. Hornady would be my last choice.

 

[dbltap45acp]

My rifle loved this stuff. I picked up 400 rounds of it a couple years back at $140 per case on sale. I seriously hope more comes out at close that price.

 

[DIBBS]

My rifle loved this stuff. I picked up 400 rounds of it a couple years back at $140 per case on sale. I seriously hope more comes out at close to that price.

Would be really nice... but as with everything else, component prices keep rising..... maybe a black Friday cyber Monday deal will pop up.

 

[7mm-08 Freak]

I too am looking for what powder is in this ammo. I pulled a few of the bullets to weigh the powder and every one of em is 41.5gr. It looks like H4350 or RL16 but not exactly, its a little lighter in color (not much) but it is close. 4451 & IMR 4530 are very dark in color compared to this mystery powder. COL is 2.800" I have 3, 6.5cm and they all shoot this stuff WAY better than anything over the counter I have found so far. My normal load is the Sierra 130 BTHP Game King and 39.0 gr of RL-16. Its a VERY good load but the BC on them Game Kings is horrible for long range target work. i would LOVE to reproduce this load on my press for 1/2 the price of retail...

 

[CavReconScout]

41.5grs H4350. Shoots great, and was the original powder (and weight) Hornady used in factory ammo when they introduced the 6.5 Creedmoor. The early boxes had load data listed and this was the powder and load.

 

[Ledzep]

H4350 or Hybrid 100v I believe were the two main powders used in that load.