6.5 sst (sherman short tactical) arrived

Thane, are you shooting longer strings of fire?

Dot panic:eek: PRS is notoriously hard on barrels as they get smokin' hot running 10 shot strings and they don't get a chance to cool down. Chasing the lands is common even with the Lapua, etc. Thane told me he had to do the same with his Lapua at 1000 rounds.........Rich
 
Not sure if you want to work up another load; maybe with your next barrel. But just as a suggestion you could try H1000 or vv n165. They are very cool flame temp burning powders as well as being single base. Both are some of if not the very best in temp stability as well espeically with hot temps. All good things for prs type shooting. You will have to run more to hit the 3k-3050fps accuracy node but both work well at full case loads. Also depending on chamber pressures a bit more neck tension can help dial them in. They are not the powders when looking for max vel from a given case volume but you are nowhere near hotrodding these cases so to me it looks like an ideal combo IF you can get a good load recipe you are happy with.

The longest lived barrels I had for a given catridge bullet combo have come from those two powders

Also I find polishing up the throat ever 500 rnds seems to help keep things tight and es in line.i.e jb bore paste.

I'm also a big user and believer in neck annealing to get the most even neck release tensions. I tend to skim necks to even or go for 0.015 thickness depending on chamber spec. I like to keep absolute min 0.002 - max 0.004 clearnace for neck release.

As your necks are showing the unavoidable work hardening imdicators I would choose to anneal if possible and within your time and expense budget allowances vs using a tigher bushing. Just my opinion for what its worth.

At the likely low pressure running for the load vel I doubt you would need new brass for a few barrels worth if you anneal and keep headspace tight. I just can not see the heads thinning or primer pockets opening up given the mild loads in combo with Rich's chamber tolernaces.
 
I think the H1000 is a good way to go. I think someone else might be running it in their SST.

I have annealed every load.
 
Sounds like you have all my tricks covered lol. The only one would be with your next barrel. Nitrocarborizing PQP processing. That would effecttively double your barrel life at least.

* Skip next paragraph if not interested in me babbling about my nitro experimces.*

We started doing AR barrels and a few bolt gun cut rifling barrels back in 2010ish. It spread quickly after that around when obama was running for first term. There is a good story there btw but thats not for the open net. Lets just say with a certain company there was/is mutiple accounts of revisionist history that seems to go on in the higher end AR industry. Think we were some of the first if not the first to offer them commercially and the bolt and bcgs. On the cut rifle barrels there was no change in accuracy. On the button AR barrels they all shot at least 3/4 moa at least 100-200yds and some 1/2 had one owner send my a range signed group of 5@100 for 0.247" but that was a real hummer of a fluke barrel. If the button barrel has been properly destressed after button draw it should be fine for an accuracy bolt rig. I just would like to do a side by side apples to apples in a precision rig test with button barrels before I put my name on it. The cost at the place we used was $70 per barrel or 30-600ish for a full load which was 100-200 barrels IIRC. The issue is you can only do the same alloys at the same time and certainother limiting specs etc. Thus there is lot more overhead on a imdividual piece job. No different than any type of one off work. It was superior in everyway to chrome lining bore and parkarizing exterior. Huge time and cost savings to boot which so many did not realize and we kept our mouths shut for a VERY long time. LOL. $15-$20 per barrel for CL and Parker plus lots of prep time pre and post operations. If you want a quailty Cl the be accurate there is work to do post op. Nitro PQP $2-$3 per barrel 1/10 total pre post work and 1 mil x more exterior finish than park and 2-3x barrel life with much much easier cleaning and lower peak pressure for give vel.
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Happy this round is working out well for prs and likely would in the ss form work great for f class open 600 & 1k. Working on my getting my parts together for my 6.5 SS. It will be one of a kind I am fairly certain.

Rich
I may be hitting you up for info on your smith you use to make a few mods and a profile, chamber, and thread job or two. I don't have anyone I know of local. I got a big and little brother build going on. One I guess you could say would be a Mini Short Sherman (I guess MSS or SSM)and its big brother the SS. It fits along your methology of the SS line. We will see. I have got to drop you a line soon. I know I say it alot but I really dig the SS line especially the 6.5. It just perfectly maximizes everything in such a balanced way.

Cheers,

Tim
 
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i had a report back from a competition shooter who does not post much, but gave his permission to run this. He read my post some time ago on running a very low pressure, low recoil load with H4895. He gave it a go in his, only with a 130 Berger instead of the ELDM 130 that I used. His groups mirrored what I found with shooting .0's-.1's. He has a 7 twist Krieger at 28". The load was only 42 grains of H4895 at a mv of right at 3000'. He then shot at 1008 yards in a 12-14mph crosswind and had only about 1 1/2" vertical for 5 shots! Shot #6 was low left, likely due to wind? This was a VERY mild load with MILD recoil! He is going to see if he can find a high node and report back with that. This little case is amazing with the versatility it shows with a range of powders and pressures. He just now text me and said he ran the 42.2 load out to 1350 and 1660 and vertical was "outstanding" when trued at 850!
IMG_20180422_1845415 crop.jpg
 
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That is AWESOME!!! Its amazing how much some changes in case specs can have such an effect.
Rich,

Has any SS or SST 6.5 build not shot at least 1/4 moa with a worked up load? I do not think I have seen one posted. OI course premium barrel etc taken into account.
 
That is AWESOME!!! Its amazing how much some changes in case specs can have such an effect.
Rich,

Has any SS or SST 6.5 build not shot at least 1/4 moa with a worked up load? I do not think I have seen one posted. OI course premium barrel etc taken into account.
I'm not aware of one that hasn't? Can you imagine the barrel life with that load!!
There is likely a high node accuracy load with 3-4 more grains of powder too! I had some pretty good results with Varget too, but haven't had time to do more testing.
 
I'm not aware of one that hasn't? Can you imagine the barrel life with that load!!
There is likely a high node accuracy load with 3-4 more grains of powder too! I had some pretty good results with Varget too, but haven't had time to do more testing.

I know as he is likely only around 55-56K without checking QL with that powder it would be interesting to see how long it lasted when used with a slow fire rate. I can say F class it will last way longer than PRS or BR where you are firing very fast strings in each but PRS is the worst of the three because its a hundred or so round that way not just a few groups of 10. But once you shoot a PRS match or two its hard not to get hooked.
 
That's really impressive! With ELR gaining traction, I can't think of a better caliber for that sport. The SST is the long range, short action winner.
 
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