6.5x284 LOAD HELP

[NW Hunter]

Life has been really busy, but I finally made it back out to do some shooting.
I bumped up the Retumbo powder charge in .3 of a grain increments looking for a higher accuracy node.

Started at 57.6 and ended at 59.1.
At 59.1 grains, the group shot horizontal with no pressure signs. Magnetospeed read 2990fps at 69 degree outside temperature. I think I will shoot 59.1 at long range to see if accuracy holds up.

If it doesn't hold up, I think I will move base to ogive distance .003" closer and .003" farther from .075" off lands to see if that works.

Does this seem right?

 

[barefooter56]

Life has been really busy, but I finally made it back out to do some shooting.
I bumped up the Retumbo powder charge in .3 of a grain increments looking for a higher accuracy node.

Started at 57.6 and ended at 59.1.
At 59.1 grains, the group shot horizontal with no pressure signs. Magnetospeed read 2990fps at 69 degree outside temperature. I think I will shoot 59.1 at long range to see if accuracy holds up.

If it doesn't hold up, I think I will move base to ogive distance .003" closer and .003" farther from .075" off lands to see if that works.

Does this seem right?

NW Hunter,
The 59.1 load is really good! Usually you will not have to "tweak' the seating depth after finding your load accuracy node,but you MAY have to on occasion. Test you load on out checking your vertical dispersion. Use the chronograph to check the SD and velocity as you go along to check any "odd" target strikes out of the horizontal.

 

[NW Hunter]

barefooter56,
Thanks for your insight. I just finished annealing 100 pieces of brass. I will load 30 rounds at 59.1 gr. and go have some fun at distance.

 

[NW Hunter]

It's been a while since my last post. I went out Labor Day and sighted in at 100 yards with 59.1 grains. of Retumbo. I then shot 3 rounds through the Magnetospeed and got 3012, 3036, 3022.

We went to our cliff face at 950 yards @ 6 degrees.
Using a Strelok Pro program,, I dialed in 18.6 MOA vertical. I held dead on horizontally as the canyon was eerily still.

I picked a spot where two different cracks in the rock face met and hit the spot.
My second shot hit the spot again.

I was shocked as I have fought this rifle and it's load since I bought it.

I believe the big change was going to Wolf large rifle magnum primers.

No more fliers in my groups and first indications are that it will do great on long range shots with the Berger HVLD 140 bullet.

I am as surprised as anyone about this. I must be going through the reloading learning curve.

Thank you to all of you that gave me different ways to look at this. I will be taking the 6.5 to Idaho for mulies. Can't wait...

 

[carpetman2]

BrentM, I was the guy who bought your rifle and this is what it can do with Hornady SST's. The one loner in the white was where the wind stopped just before my shot. These are two 5 shot groups @ 555 yards in 6 mph cross breeze, right to left.

 

[TackDriv3r]

I've had this Savage weather warrior 6 months now and have tried the recommended Retumbo load of 57.5 grains at .075" off lands, Berger 140 grain HVLD's, Lapua brass with inconsistent results.

I just had a Mini Magnum Muscle brake installed and thought I would start over with load development. I set up loads CBTO at .075" off, .100" off, .125" off and .150" off.

I also did a primer test using CCI BR2 and Fed 215s.

All loads shot with a load of 56.0 grains of Retumbo.

No chronograph readings yet.

Any thoughts on how you would proceed?

Randy

On my 6.5x284, I used H4831SC and H4350 and a variety of bullets, and got a mixed decision after testing, so I stuck with one bullet, one powder ( H4831SC), one primer and a round robin test. Made several 4 round loads from 50, 50.5, 51.0, 51.5, up to 54 grains. 51.5 and 53.5 grains were cloverleaf and the rest were spread out. So I selected those two loads and stuck with one load and tweaked it with bullet seating depth and shot very well. Did not have to experiment anymore. Try the H4831SC and the H4350, you should not go wrong with those powders, also the RR test. Also try the MatchKings 142's. Good luck.

 

[Greyfox]

There is an effective option for load development that very few, if any, speak about. One of my 6.5x284's was producing inconsistent results with the Berger 140 VLD's. The (Swampworks) JLK 140 VLD's completely changed the results with .25 MOA precision, ES under 10FPS at 2975MV, and most importantly, give outstanding performance on game from 100 yards to 1000+ yards. The JLK's use the same J4 jackets used by Berger, equal or better BC, and are very consistent. It's been 6 years and several lots of bullets later and my recipe is unchanged with 600+ rounds down the tube. I use 57gr of Retumbo, Fed 210M, and seat .075" off the lands.
This JLK was taken from the opposite side, under the hide, of a big Alberta mule deer taken at long range. He was DRT as has been most of the few dozen deer and antelope I have take with this rifle.

 

[BrentM]

Carpetman2 Nice work! Glad to hear from you.

 

[Wachsmann]

I've been reading through a lot of these threads and I currently have an ok developed load but still not the best that I would like. My beef is the high ES that I get with my load. Its 57 grains of retumbo at .075 off the lands. As I've read there are some things that I'm not doing. I'm trying not to wreck this lot of brass to fast. I also know my gun seem to close the ES as I increase the powder charge (close to max) when I used other powders. I may tweak the powder charge up to 57.3 and measure ES again. Also when reloading I use a full length sizing reading die with ball expander set up just enough to knock the shoulder back so the gun feeds nicely. My question is there any one thing that stands out that has dropped your ES speed down more than any thing else...like using a neck bushing die, turning the necks or doing both, weighing out you brass, sorting bullets by weight and bearing surface, etc...etc...etc... I'm shooting the 140VLD's. Currently getting about .6/.5MOA at 100. I do shoot out to 1000 yards with it but it can have some fliers that are deffinatly outside of what I'm looking for. At the 1000 or really it like 1020 yards me and the gun usually do about 1.5 MOA to 2 MOA. I think sometimes if I had a better bench setup it would be also better. I shoot off my home depot little work bench with a front bi-pod and a small rear sandbag. If I shoot prone I set the feet of the bi-pod on a frisbee so it acts like it on the bench. I still us the rear sandbag. I know weighing out bullets can make a change but I haven't seen any extreme in the berger bullets. I had to do this with the ABLR 142s. That made a great difference with shooting them. I had some that was coming close to the 2 grain off 1.7 grains to be exact.

 

[barefooter56]

Wachsmann,
Which way are the "flyers" going? Vertical , horizontal or out at an angle say 2 or 4 o'clock if you're a right hand shooter. 7 or 11 if you're a lefty.
Vertical = load
Horizontal = mother nature ( usually )
Angle = us loose nuts behind the butt plate ( cheek pressure, trigger control, ETC)
I would suggest upgrading your bench equipment before messing with the load. As far as the bipod is concerned. Try making two small holes in the dirt so and put the feet in them so you can preload the bipod slightly before firing. Also you may want to have a fellow shooter observe how the rifle is recoiling with what you have now. If its jumping that can really foul up the detail. Try some carpeting under the bipod feet on the bench to see if that helps. If you are going to do anything with the load after solving your bench issues. I would suggest experimenting with primers at this point before doing any powder or bullet seating depth changes. Small moves done one at a time at this point.

 

[BrentM]

IMO bullet weight is not that big of a factor but bearing surface is. I had a lot of Bergers with .030 difference. I have not had a lot that bad since but I can tell you it caused inconsistent groupings and pressure signs.

Also, depending on your brass you may have neck thickness issues that you were not aware of. I neck turn all of mine just enough to clean them up. .0145 generally. It helped reduce neck tension and bullet alignment issues.

 

[tbrice23]

IMO bullet weight is not that big of a factor but bearing surface is. I had a lot of Bergers with .030 difference. I have not had a lot that bad since but I can tell you it caused inconsistent groupings and pressure signs.

Also, depending on your brass you may have neck thickness issues that you were not aware of. I neck turn all of mine just enough to clean them up. .0145 generally. It helped reduce neck tension and bullet alignment issues.

I just checked about 100 out of a box of 500 140gr 6.5mm HVLDs. Outstanding!
Bearing surface variance ( measured with double comparators) was less than .003" and weight variance was less than .3 grains for the 100 or so.... I quit after that.
Thumbs up Berger!

Neck tension variance is a killer. Annealing helps a lot.
I've even had to skim neck turn Lapua brass to clean it up.

 

[etisll40]

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