16.5” 6.5 Creed with 123 grain SSTs: Powder?

[General RE LEE]

I’m having my Tikka T3x 6.5 CM hacked down to 16.5” to be shot suppressed as a whitetail deer hunting rifle. This is not going to be a long range steel rig, I’ve got other rifles for that.

I grabbed 2 boxes of 123 grain SSTs and have plenty of Varget and H4350.

Anyone get good velocities with Varget or H4350 with lightweight 6.5mm projectiles in 6.5 Creedmoor?

I’m just going to use Hornady brass. I save my Alpha Munitions and Lapua for other stuff.

 

[bdubmkg]

My howa 1500 is 16" and it shot the hornady 123gr vld really well with varget and hornady brass. Unfortunately I don't have the velocity numbers for ya but the best groups were near the top of the load charts if I remember correctly

 

[General RE LEE]

My howa 1500 is 16" and it shot the hornady 123gr vld really well with varget and hornady brass. Unfortunately I don't have the velocity numbers for ya but the best groups were near the top of the load charts if I remember correctly

Yep seems Varget is a good bet with the 120-123 weight class. Thank you.

 

[RPN]

Not a CM, but I used Varget in a 16" .260 to very good effect with 123 sst's.

 

[Wonderingmoose69]

interested in this.

I recently snagged a 16 inch howa setup to go into a cool short chassis for "backpack" gun or coyote gun or fun steel gun out to maybe 500.

I haven't start reloading yet, but am gathering info, will be reloading for 6.5prc and 300 prc as well.

What powders would be suggested to start with that are a bit faster burning for the shorter barrel/lighter bullets? I was leaning into finding something in the 120-130 range to start with for bullet weight.


*edit*

Reading around and doing some research it seems Varget, Norma 203b(if you can find it) or RL-15 would be all options. the later 2 providing a bump in FPS at muzzle at same pressures. if I am wrong or off here, please correct me.

 

[supercorndogs]

Both Varget and h4350 will work well. If you are shooting suppressed Varget is going to blow less unburned powder into your can.

 

[tekmann2377]

I have used Varget with excellent results in 6.5 CM, using the 123 Amax or ELD-M. As Varget varies lot to lot, a good load will likely be somewhere in the 38.5 to 39.5 gr range. I generally used 39.0 gr. It produced 2875 fps from a 24" gas gun.

 

[Wonderingmoose69]

Both Varget and h4350 will work well. If you are shooting suppressed Varget is going to blow less unburned powder into your can.

I found some Varget and snagged some sale RL16 as well for some of the 125-135 grain bullets. I need to snag some more supplies but will be fun to dive into this.