So I apologise in advance if I am posting in the wrong format or if there is already a thread on this that I have missed ,but here it is . I have a Savage 12 fv .Boyd's at1 stock vortex pst ii in 6.5 Creed .I had done ladder testing to come to a load at .090" off lands and 41.3 g h4350 with the 143 g eldx going 2750 fps and SD of 7-8 . Got about 1000 rounds down it total and my SD is creeping up now to 11-14 with my velocity at an avg of 2780s . Should I do another load development or is it do to it being like a 300 dollar gun ?
SD creeping ever up !
- Thread starter Gmanelkslayer
- Start date
No it's the same powder . Ok so won't loading longer produce less pressure so I would need to increase charge ?
Not necessarily, getting closer to the lands can sometimes increase pressure ( I understand what you're getting at though). If you are going to try it do it same charge weight as you do now and see what effect that has on your grouping and SD/ES's. Or you can mess with your charge weight and then your seating depth. Don't change two things at one time, then you will never know what fixed your problem and it becomes harder to diagnose if things start getting worse.
Ok cool thanks . I will try this in the next few days . I am loading same charge seating out .002" off increments from .090 to .100 . We shall see.
It just shot good there ...not sure why cause it's really far out compared to most others set up. It shot 2" at 700 consistently so I said ... Heck yeah ! ?
Would it be better to group test this change at 500 yds on steal or 100 . I've got a zero for this load already in my scope ...and sometimes I struggle to decern groups at 100 for what they really are ...
I'd say do whatever you have been doing, see if a seating depth change gets you back to where you were (or at least close as far as accuracy and SD goes), and then maybe tweak you powder load a little to get back to your 2750 FPS.
How many rounds on your barrel when you did load development and how many rounds on barrel when the velocity bumped up? Sounds like maybe your barrel sped up and you're just out of the node now.
Oops saw you posted round count. Barrel still sped up for some reason it appears.
Oops saw you posted round count. Barrel still sped up for some reason it appears.
So it does appear I'm getting faster per same load since development. Probably due to throat wear and now I'm going to try and load closer "chase" lands . It makes sense I guess that it would speed up a bit if this is the problem . If I get to a good group at few thousand closer and I get good SD with better velocity - well I guess I can accept that ! Lol
The SD was 18-22 ( shot 2 5 shot strings )
Then I got bad groups ( 1 moa) and SD in the 20s till I came to total length of 3.178 which is .077" off using original land measurements. This load is as follows .
143 eldx, h4350 41.3 g , .077" off . SD was 8.7 and es was 21 with avg velocity at 2789 . Here is the 500 yd paper
Then I got bad groups ( 1 moa) and SD in the 20s till I came to total length of 3.178 which is .077" off using original land measurements. This load is as follows .
143 eldx, h4350 41.3 g , .077" off . SD was 8.7 and es was 21 with avg velocity at 2789 . Here is the 500 yd paper
Attachments
Also loaded 5 of the 140 eldm just for the heck of it . Same charge of 41.3 g at .084" off and it shot great ! SD at 5.8 , es at 12 ,avg velocity at 2807 and here is the target ...I shot the steel cause it was easy to see if I was even on target being this was a complete shot in the dark .
Attachments
So all in all the original load still shoots pretty good but bad SD es numbers and gets a bit fickle at 700+ with all groups being at worst 1 moa . The load at 3.178 shot great, but that shot in the dark ... Shot even better I think ... What are your thoughts guys don't know which one to load !!!
The work hardening of your brass may be effecting neck tension and thus your SD's
Even lapua isn't immune to this.
Copper Creek is one shop that offers the service:
https://coppercreekammo.com/product/brass-annealing/
R
He makes a good point, 10 firings is alot on brass that hasn't ever been annealed. We already know you have some throat wear, do you have enough mag length to load at .020 off the lands? I know you were getting good groups at your origional loads but 41.3 of H4350 at around .020 off the lands is almost like a magic recipe for alot of 6.5 CM rifles. If I was given a random 6.5 CM rifle and told nothing but the chamber measurement, then told I had to load for it and shoot it in a match the next day, I would load 140gr ELDMs or 143 ELDXs on top of 41.3gr of H4350 at .020 off the lands. If you want to try and anneal that brass I can do it for you on my AMP for free, you just cover shipping. Even with annealing you are probably only going to get a few more firings on that brass most likely, but if you'd like to try and keep it alive a little longer let me know.
Have you remeasured the distance to the lands to see how much it actually moved? What is your technique for finding the lands?
