Thanks for this great source of knowledge that I used to build my new 6.5 Creedmoor

[Bill223]

First post and wanted to say thank you to everyone here for creating a great resource that was really helpful in building my rifle. I have never built a rifle before and had a long list of questions that I was able to answer by browsing the Hide. I built the rifle for long range shooting (out to 1k yards) for use target shooting and hunting. I needed to do this in a really cost effective way, so I bought a Howa 24" barrelled action with the heavy varmint barrel. I bought a Bell and Carlson stock from Stockysstocks and bottom metal from CDI. All in, I have $1,000 in the rifle and I bought a Burris XTR II 5-25x50 SCR for just under $1,000 so I have a total of $2,000 in the rifle and glass. I took the rifle to the range for the first time today and was really impressed with how well it shot with factory ammo (129 grain Hornady). After the barrel gets broken in, I am going to handload for this rifle and have ladders already loaded with H4350 and RE17. I attached a picture of the rifle and the group I shot at 100 yards during the break in procedure with the 9th through 12th rounds out of the gun. Can't wait to see how the rifle performs once I get used to the new rifle, the barrel gets broken in and I get some hand loads tailored to what it like. Thanks again for building such a great source of knowledge.

 

[SilverxFoX]

Awesome! Looks like you did a great job on your rifle. Doesn't look like your barrel needs much of a breaking in the way it's shooting.

 

[Bill223]

I have shot the new rifle a few times now and have a total of 64 rounds through it so far. Just finished my first day of load development and am pleased with the results -- I started using cheap bullets (Nosler 140 gr. HPBT) and found a node at 41.6 gr of H4350. If I am calculating group size correctly, it is .638 - .264 (6.5 Creedmoor) which is .374 inches at 100 yards. I now need to play with seating depth to see how I can improve this group size. Really excited about how this budget rifle is performing. Thanks again for the collective wisdom of the members here who helped make this possible.