6.5-08 AI aka 260 rem on roids

[lancetkenyon]

I believe he has a 29" barrel on his 260 AI. That's why I'm interested to see how Lance's rig works. I have a 25.5" barrel waiting to be installed.

My daughter's 6.5SLR has a 22" 1:8" now. I opted to shoot a 130 OTM in it to keep velocities up. 2925fps suppressed with H4350, about 1.5gr off max. 140s are easy to hit 2840 w. H4350. 124HH @ 3000+. I am sure other powders could beat those speeds handily, but these are stinking accurate, clean, cool, and stable. I have shot the loads from 4° to 118°.

But the first barrel was a 27.5" 1:8" Bartelin, and 140s @ 2960 was an easily attainable speed without pushing too hard. 127 LRX @ 3060 too.

If UPS would not have LOST my barrel last week, it would already be at Axisworks getting the new barrel chambered up and installed. Now I am waiting on a replacement.

 

[TRG65]

I have a 6.5 addiction similar to the GWI mentioned before. It has a 26" barrel. I use it for PRS matches. I got about 1700 rounds out of a barrel with 147 eldm and RL16 going 2920-2940. The 24" barrel I had before did 2900. Those were reasonable loads. I'm currently running a 140 Berger hybrid and h4831 at 2950. My suppressor actually lowers the velocity to 2930 according to my LabRadar. These are easy loads and have pushed 147s to 3050 with RL26 from a 24" barrel. And the 140 can be pushed to 3k in my 26" with h4831. If I would do it again I'd go with a 260ai. The single reason being the bolt face on some rifles needs opened up to use the 6.5x55 base case, also the mag wells need opened in a short action to use the very long cartridge, 2.95" oal with the 140s. But at this point I'm invested in custom dies and modified actions. Accuracy has been outstanding and easy to achieve I consistently get as good or better numbers for sd/es and group size with this cartridge than I used to with my 6.5x47s I shot before.

 

[Idaho Lefty]

@ TRG65,. great Post, Thanks for, the Info ! I will look into, the 6.5 addiction But, since I will most likely use, another Tikka T-3 Action, the Cart's COAL won't matter ( an easy Fix with, the Tikka's long action and avail, Mag's ) and opening the Bolt Face .005 for the Sweede Case is, no big deal to me.
I'm still "sold" on, the 6.5 x55 GWI, Case due to, the Long Neck, 30* shoulder, and, Lapua Brass. Yup,.. they are ALL,.. good !

 

[TRG65]

With a Tikka you shouldn't have to do anything with the bolt face. That's more of a concern if you use US actions. I mainly use a Sako TRG-22. I did not need to mod the bolt face for that rifle, but I did have to open the mag well about .020". The addiction has a 37* shoulder. Its between a GWI and BJAI for being "ackley'ed" but is set up with a very short freebore .010 to be used in short actions. I got my dies from Whidden. I sent the reamer drawing in and they made the dies and a hydro form die. That way I get closer to the right powder capacity for the first firing. I use the same charge, but get about 30fps less velocity than from a formed case. But yes, the Ackley 6.5x55 family is very nice. I use Lapua brass and have used H4831, H1000, Retumbo, RL 16, and RL 26 for testing. The Retumbo loads only get up to about 2850 with the 147s. RL 26 gave 6.5PRC like velocities, but wasn't consistent for me over 80F. The H1000 was good but was inconsistent one range trip it was great the next not so much, really not what I expected. I had high hopes. The best choices I think for the addiction are 4831 or RL16 of my tests so far. I would love to get some RL 23 and try that. I'm going to try VV555 when my supply of 4831 runs out. I'm running this as a comp gun that I also use to hunt some things. I don't care about ultimate velocity, I want a load that is going to run consistently and without pressure at 100F or 20F. If I was looking at this round just for hunting I would wait until fall and then work up a RL 26 load. I'm 2/3's of the way through my 3rd addiction barrel. I'll probably stick the 4th on just before hunting season.