6.5 sst (sherman short tactical) arrived

Just placed an order for a Bighorn Origin action... And some 6.5 SST brassšŸ˜ this will be my first custom or semi, whatever all you rich dudes call it lol!
It's funny everyone telling me to just buy a Creedmoor or a 260. Well at least I can find 6.5 SST brass in stock and it's all load ready!
I think I'd be more worried about availability but I've been shooting a 270 Wby for a few years so I'm used to the "if I don't load it in don't shoot it" mentality. Plus who can afford to shoot factory at $40 a box or more?!
 
So I've got a 24" Carbon Six Sendero Ordered. I've read through all the pages on here and a lot of the load data.
Mainly my rifle will be in the open and as of now unsuppressed. Putting an extra grand towards glass seems more important than a can.
Would an extra two inches of barrel make a big enough difference if I bump up to a 26"? Basically the way I hunt is the rifle is in the Kifaru walking to an ambush/vantage above the river or crick bottom.

I did see the sheep rifle putting up some great speed a couple pages back!

So in my lack of experience what is the loss/gain? I thought I saw about 30 fps an inch. So is 60'ish fps or more worth the two inches? That's only a couple clicks of adjustment right? What about for wind?

Thanks in advance for helping the newb!
 
Takem406 said:
So I've got a 24" Carbon Six Sendero Ordered. I've read through all the pages on here and a lot of the load data.
Mainly my rifle will be in the open and as of now unsuppressed. Putting an extra grand towards glass seems more important than a can.
Would an extra two inches of barrel make a big enough difference if I bump up to a 26"? Basically the way I hunt is the rifle is in the Kifaru walking to an ambush/vantage above the river or crick bottom.

I did see the sheep rifle putting up some great speed a couple pages back!

So in my lack of experience what is the loss/gain? I thought I saw about 30 fps an inch. So is 60'ish fps or more worth the two inches? That's only a couple clicks of adjustment right? What about for wind?

Thanks in advance for helping the newb!
Click to expand...
Seems like most people are seeing roughly 20-25fps per inch.
 
I tried skimming thru this thread but has anyone ran Varget or any of the faster burning powders in this case? Seems kinda hard to find the optimal powders at this time.
 
@elkaholic Rich, what's the freebore on the 6.5 SST and the SST 2? I want to run 140 class Berger projectiles from a short barrel. And keep it under 2.9" for proper feeding. But have bearing surface above the shoulder.
 
My brass and dies arrived earlier this week... thanks Rich!
Magnum bolt head for my TL3 is inbound, along with three MDT magnum magazines.
My local friend/gunsmith is getting ready to chamber a 1-8 #13 Bartlein for me.... just need to schedule it and rent the reamer.

This is going to be epic.... and hopefully a great way to shoot the 140 Elite Hunters that I have.... my 6.5-280AI has decided it likes the 156 EOL better, and I refuse to let the 140EHs go to waste! This will also be a good way to give the AI a break for practice/fun shooting, and save it for the backpack hunting it was built for. I have H1000, RL26, Retumbo and a few other to try... will report back with my findings. Thanks to all who have shared their data!
 
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Built another 6.5 SST. Here is some break-in and fireform load data for the first 50 rounds. Given the reloading world at present I had to move to some other components I don't normally shoot. 150g Sierra Match Kings, 58g IMR 8133 and WLRM primers. This was a nice easy load for this build. My MV was 2885. I have never used SMK's before but was very surprised how accurate they are. I will work up a load to get above 3050 and see what they do. I have some IMR 4955 coming in and will try that as well. I am trying to conserve my N565 so I am experimenting some. Quickload was of some help but I keep having to add bullet and powder files until I get my update. This is what worked in the rifle I chambered and is not a suggestion as to another rifles load. I do enjoy building these and will post some target data soon.
 
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Next round of fire forming brass. Today I used Norma URP and Berger 153.5g LRHT and Hornady 153g A-Tips. I used 49g with A-tips and had an ES of 21 with a MV of 2773. Quickload predicted a MV of 2829. I will adjust some inputs on this one to match up. I used 50g for the 153.5 LRHT, ES 20 and MV of 2825. Quickload predicted a MV of 2845. This was close and some minor fine tuning to improve this load. These bullets were leftover from some load development I was doing for a customer. Once I got my speeds I did some shooting at a sheep silhouette at my range. It is 538 yards and I did no load development for these bullets. Just loaded them .040 off the lands and tried to shoot the eye out. The first pictures are the 153.5 (3 total) and the second group is the 153 A-Tips (2 photos). These SST's shoot so good. Had a 9 o'clock wind at 9-12 mph, Elev 4785 and the temp was 53. 20210402_120738.jpg20210402_120745.jpg20210402_120753.jpg20210402_125918.jpg20210402_125925.jpg
 
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