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6.5 Shorty Powders

NFAJohn

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May 7, 2018
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East Bernard, Texas
I've searched and searched, but didn't see alot of returns, if this was covered my apologizes point me towards it!

I've got two Benchmark 1:8 20" carbon barrels inbound to rebarrel two long actions that I have laying around. The intent with both rifles is that they'll be run suppressed 100% of the time for work in deer blinds/ pack in hunts and out of vehicles messing with pigs.

I want to shoot 135gr Berger classic hunters, 130gr Sierra TMKs and 127gr Barnes TTSX because I have a shitttttt load of them on hand. I know, I know if your doing PRC on a long action run the 156gr stuff, but I don't have those on hand so maybe at a later time.

My question is what powders are ya'll using in short PRCs to push bullets in this weight class? I happened upon a 8 pound superformance today and looking at a burn rate chart it's about right, but Hornady and Sierra make no mention of using it in PRC. I have access to RL22, RL17, RL15, H100 (but not much) and Retumbo. My concern with the Retumbo and H1000 is that I don't have enough barrel to justify burning it.

Are there other powders that I need to put on my radar for shorty 6.5PRC?

I'll be using federal gold metal match mag as I stacked those deep years ago.

Thanks for the input!
 
If you're looking for a powder optimized for a short barrel, then the variable you want to consider is % Powder Burn. The closer you can get to 100%, the closer you are to an optimized powder. Here are the numbers from QL with a Berger 135 out of a 20" barrel.

1650637591585.png

1650637637905.png

Yup, there's a whole lot of DON'T USE in there, but lower down the list you start seeing safe pressures with nearly 100% powder burn.

It looks like good candidates are RL23, Accurate 3100, and N555 (if you dialed it back slightly). Use this info as a guide and not as load data.
 
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If you're looking for a powder optimized for a short barrel, then the variable you want to consider is % Powder Burn. The closer you can get to 100%, the closer you are to an optimized powder. Here are the numbers from QL with a Berger 135 out of a 20" barrel.

View attachment 7854674
View attachment 7854675
Yup, there's a whole lot of DON'T USE in there, but lower down the list you start seeing safe pressures with nearly 100% powder burn.

It looks like good candidates are RL23, Accurate 3100, and N555 (if you dialed it back slightly). Use this info as a guide and not as load data.
Thanks bud!
 
If you're looking for a powder optimized for a short barrel, then the variable you want to consider is % Powder Burn. The closer you can get to 100%, the closer you are to an optimized powder. Here are the numbers from QL with a Berger 135 out of a 20" barrel.

View attachment 7854674
View attachment 7854675
Yup, there's a whole lot of DON'T USE in there, but lower down the list you start seeing safe pressures with nearly 100% powder burn.

It looks like good candidates are RL23, Accurate 3100, and N555 (if you dialed it back slightly). Use this info as a guide and not as load data.
I wound up with a 8 pound retumbo so I have a known safey safey, but I also found a 8 pound Superformance.

I bought it after looking at burn rates and it being pretty close to 4831
1650898217379.png


I don't see alot of data on it and what I read is 50/50.... any thoughts?
 
I’m using N560 in a 20” 6.5 PRC with the 140 elite hunter. 58.3 grains gets me 2,950 fps on a new barrel. Looks like I’m at about 62k psi so not too bad.
 
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I worked up a load with Superformance and 140 grain Nosler open tip match for my 6.5 Remington Magnum. I started with data from the 6.5x284 and moved up until I got <1 inch groups (the barrel was high mileage at that point). You should have no problem with this powder in your 6.5 PRC.
Good luck
 
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