Adventures in 6.5CM loads.

[FOHA1]

With the shortage of H4350, I bought some alternative powders and an assortment of bullets. I'm slowly plowing through the various combinations. All testing done with Magneto Speed Sporter and off bags on a concrete bench at Ben Avery range in Phoenix. Density Altitude between 2440 and 4270, (it's usually about 4k' due to the dry air, high temp and actual altitude). The test rifles are a Badger action with a 24" Krieger target crowned barrel in a KR Whiskey 3 chassis, and a Tikka T3x CTR 24" barrel and a Surefire brake/suppressor host. Both guns are 1:8 twist and have FFP Vortex glass, Razor HDII and Viper PST II.

Edit; I'm a newbie to loading and the precision game in general, so comments and suggestions are welcome.

 

[FOHA1]

This is 200 yards with the Badger and factory140g Hornady AMAX. Edit; Found some chrono data for this combo. 2846fps, 25fps SD, at 1645' 85*, 3700' DA (estimated).

 

[FOHA1]

Now that Hornady has the ELD-M and X bullets, I bought some factory 147g ELD-M rounds and through the T3x I got an average fps of 2802 and SD of 18fps at 3640'DA on an 83* day. I got these numbers by firing seven shots, throwing out the high and low and averaging the other 5. Maybe that's not scientific, but that's how I'm doing it.

 

[FOHA1]

Now after shooting 1000+ rounds of Hornady factory ammo I had a good supply to start reloading with, so over the course of several weeks I cleaned, sized (Redding bushing die), trimmed (Giruad...man, love that machine), uniformed the flash holes (K&M), uniformed the primer pockets (Lyman prep machine), ultrasonic cleaned and then sorted by weight to the nearest .1 grain. This case prep, took a long time, but I think it's worth it. I didn't anneal, because I don't have a annealer, and I'm curious to see what kind of results I can get without doing that step.

I bought different bullets including 140g and 142g SMK, Berger 140g LR Target and 140g Hybrid, and the ELD-M 147g. I also got some Warner Tool 121g Flatlines, but I won't be loading those right now, I've got enough damn variables to manage without going for max velocity...yet.

For powder, I had always thought I'd be using H4350 as that's what Hornady used (still uses?) in the AMAX 41.5g IIRC. But as I'm sure most of you guys know it's hard to get, so I bought some other powders that have similar burn rates/temp stability and have been working up loads to see what my rifles like. H4831c, RL15, Norma URP, Superperformance, and of course H4350.

 

[JMGlasgow]

You could try AA4350 as well.

 

[FOHA1]

Some results from 100 yards, off bags on a concrete bench;

9/30/17 Badger 4228'DA, 88* 147g ELD-M 42.5g Superperformance, 2647fps, 6fps SD, and decent groups. I was a bit disappointed in the velocity numbers, and decided to use up the remainder of this powder with some 147g ELX-X bullets if I ever decide to go hunting again.

10/6/17 Badger 4071' DA, 91* 147g ELD-M RL-15. This powder was very consistent albiet a bit slow.

35.2g 2557fps ave, 17fps SD.
35.4g 2551fps ave, 10fps SD
35.6g 2548fps ave., 9fps SD (Best group)
38.8g 2555fps ave., 5fps SD

10/6/17 Badger 4270' DA 93* 147g ELD-M Hogden 4831sc. This powder looks very promising.

44.3g 2687'fps ave, 61fps SD (still gave a good group)
44.5g 2722fps ave, 14fps SD (all 7 shots through one ragged hole)
44.7g 2721fps ave, 6fps SD (I had a brain fart shooting this target so the lower right is actually 14 shots. 7 of 44.7g and 7 of 44.9g, so the primo load is somewhere between 44.5 and 44.9)
44.9g 2725fps ave, 13fps SD
45.1g 2744fps ave, 35fps SD

Target on left is RL15 and 4831sc is on the right. All groups are 7 shots, except the lower right which is 14 shots.

 

[John_in_WYO]

What primers are you using?
Good shooting.

 

[FOHA1]

10/21/17 Tikka T3x, 2440'DA, 66*. The interesting thing today was that the groups weren't very good until I got to max load with the H4350.. Also the shots in the middle were warmup shots after the target reset breaks, and not part of any of the groups

H4350 147g ELD-M

39.5g 2511fps ave, 35fps SD
39.7g 2526fps ave, 18fps SD
39.9g 2548fps ave, 12fps SD
40.1g 2539fps ave, 42fps SD (don't know what was going on with this load, the numbers were tracking up and then both velocity and SD went away but the group was near the 40.3g load)
40.3g 2565fps ave, 7fps SD (best group)

RL15 142SMK

37.9g 2674fps ave, 37fps SD
38.1g 2682fps ave, 18fps SD (best group)
38.3g 2704fps ave, 22fps SD
38.5g 2705fps ave, 21fps SD
38.7g is max , but I didn't load any and it looks like it wouldn't be any better than the 38.1 anyway.

Need to load up some ELD/RL15's for this gun to see how it does.

Edit; Doh, uploaded wrong pic. Now fixed.

 

[FOHA1]

You could try AA4350 as well.

I'll keep that in mind, thx.

 

[FOHA1]

What primers are you using?
Good shooting.

CCI. I wanted Federal GM, but they were unavailable when I ordered up my $900 worth of powder, bullets and primers from Graffs. The CCI don't seem to be holding me back, and some other, much more experienced loaders I have talked to are of the opinion it doesn't really make much difference.

Thanks for the shooting compliment. I feel like I can do this anytime off a bench, and now need to get my prone to the same level and eventually all the other positions rolleyes. I kind of fell into this discipline, came across the Badger for sale and worked a deal with a guy that turned out really good for me. Then I started reading about PRS, so bought the Tikka with intentions of using it for that.