Badlands BD-2 load data

[SheepShapeAK]

Anyone tried Winchester StaBallHD yet? Right next to Retumbo on the burn rate chart.

Winchester StaBALL HD

Winchester® StaBALL™ HD is a temperature-insensitive, double-base, BALL® Powder, stable in extreme-hot or -cold conditions. This slow-burning magnum powder provides optimal loading density in large capacity magnum cartridges appropriate for the burn speed, which is ideal for 6.5 PRC, 7MM...

shop.hodgdon.com

 

[Bghunter338]

Anyone tried Winchester StaBallHD yet? Right next to Retumbo on the burn rate chart.

Winchester StaBALL HD

Winchester® StaBALL™ HD is a temperature-insensitive, double-base, BALL® Powder, stable in extreme-hot or -cold conditions. This slow-burning magnum powder provides optimal loading density in large capacity magnum cartridges appropriate for the burn speed, which is ideal for 6.5 PRC, 7MM...

shop.hodgdon.com

Good morning, yes I tried it in my 27 Sherman mag a couple days ago. I'm shooting the 150gr SBD2. I hit pressure at 3426, and compared to the H1000 I'm using now it hit pressure in the upper 3500 range. It's was a little slower but not bad, I'm going to try it with a 170gr bullet and some heavies in my stw and see how it does.

 

[cbuck516]

Anyone tried Winchester StaBallHD yet? Right next to Retumbo on the burn rate chart.

Winchester StaBALL HD

Winchester® StaBALL™ HD is a temperature-insensitive, double-base, BALL® Powder, stable in extreme-hot or -cold conditions. This slow-burning magnum powder provides optimal loading density in large capacity magnum cartridges appropriate for the burn speed, which is ideal for 6.5 PRC, 7MM...

shop.hodgdon.com

I have only tried it in my 300 PRC with ELD-M 225gr so far, but I hit pressure ~100fps earlier than N565 and ~150fps earlier than N570. I did find decent accuracy, but I'm not willing to give up that much velocity with a hunting load.

 

[nralifer]

Good morning, yes I tried it in my 27 Sherman mag a couple days ago. I'm shooting the 150gr SBD2. I hit pressure at 3426, and compared to the H1000 I'm using now it hit pressure in the upper 3500 range. It's was a little slower but not bad, I'm going to try it with a 170gr bullet and some heavies in my stw and see how it does.

If you look at the speed difference between a 150 gr bullet vs a 170 gr bullet using H1000 in the 27 Nosler the 150 is pushed 229 fps faster. Given the fact that the 150 gr 277 SBD2 has a higher BC than the 170 gr Berger you will be way ahead with the SBD2. I used the 2021 Hodgdon Annual Manual

 

[SheepShapeAK]

Sounds like I should probably just buy 24lbs of it. You know, just in case.

 

[JTH]

I'd choose the group with the least amount of vertical and shoot five shot groups just below, at, and just above that charge and seating depth at 100 to see what you get. Then take the best group and verify out at distance.

With one exception, those 64.7-65.9 shots look like they're close to the same waterline.

Need to find that node with the least amount of vertical and then fine tune with the seating depth.

You might need to take it to 100 before you take it out to distance. Really depends how much you're sitting on for components and what accuracy you'll be satisfied with.

Tested seating depth with a powder charge of 65.3 grains. Similar to my 300 PRC, 0.040 off the lands was the ticket, center to center on this 3 shot group was 0.667". This was at 200 yards::

 

[JTH]

Preparing for a mid September hunt, switched out to my hunting scope, a SFP with a little thicker crosshairs and lower magnification range. Zeroed at 200 yards, then took it out to 600 yards and dialed 29 clicks. Shooting West to East, wind was SSE at 9 mph. Printed an 8 shot 5" group at 600. Average speed was 2810 with an ES of 25 and sd of 7 over 20 rounds (sight in and also shot some steel plates) I will do a little tweaking yet on powder charge and seating depth but this is getting pretty close to done. I'd say the BC on these is pretty darn accurate.

 

[SheepShapeAK]

Tested seating depth with a powder charge of 65.3 grains. Similar to my 300 PRC, 0.040 off the lands was the ticket, center to center on this 3 shot group was 0.667". This was at 200 yards::

View attachment 484864

I'd say that .040 off load is a keeper if that's your group at 600 yards. That's gotta be a 1/4 MOA group if not smaller. Time for a five to ten round verification string.

 

[SheepShapeAK]

Anyone shot the .284 160 grain SBD-2's through their SAAMI Spec 7 PRC yet?
It would be really cool if Badlands made a 185-195 grain mono for hunting. Especially since CE has a 185 and Berger has the 195 grain EOL in .284.

 

[JAYgs8163]

Can't imagine the twist rate that would be needed for that since the 160 needs a 7?

 

[nralifer]

Anyone shot the .284 160 grain SBD-2's through their SAAMI Spec 7 PRC yet?
It would be really cool if Badlands made a 185-195 grain mono for hunting. Especially since CE has a 185 and Berger has the 195 grain EOL in .284.

I'm sure they have but we haven't had feedback. From 7 mm Sherman Short I know of several of our customers have made single shot kills on Elk with spectacular penetration including through and through length wise penetration from either direction with 145 and 150 gr bullets. The 160 gr already is 5.8 calibers long and sports a BC higher than bullets of that weight and heavier while able to be pushed at significantly higher MVs. To make a heavier bullet would exceed the 6 caliber weight metric which could cause it to be unstable at long distances. I would venture to say that the 160 grain will penetrate as well or likely better than a 185-195 gr lead core especially at 200-300 yds. The terminal performance envelope for that bullet and even the lighter ones is wider than lead core bullets.

 

[SheepShapeAK]

I'm sure they have but we haven't had feedback. From 7 mm Sherman Short I know of several of our customers have made single shot kills on Elk with spectacular penetration including through and through length wise penetration from either direction with 145 and 150 gr bullets. The 160 gr already is 5.8 calibers long and sports a BC higher than bullets of that weight and heavier while able to be pushed at significantly higher MVs. To make a heavier bullet would exceed the 6 caliber weight metric which could cause it to be unstable at long distances. I would venture to say that the 160 grain will penetrate as well or likely better than a 185-195 gr lead core especially at 200-300 yds. The terminal performance envelope for that bullet and even the lighter ones is wider than lead core bullets.

I ran some numbers in my ballistics calculator and if I were able to push the 160 SBD-2 at least 3050 FPS, then I would have plenty of speed and energy on target at 1000 yards. The calculator is saying 1680fps out to 1150 with 1004 ft-lbf of energy on target.

I think I remember someone stating the SBD-2 will open up down to 1200 fps? My memory may be off though.

 

[codyadams]

I ran some numbers in my ballistics calculator and if I were able to push the 160 SBD-2 at least 3050 FPS, then I would have plenty of speed and energy on target at 1000 yards. The calculator is saying 1680fps out to 1150 with 1004 ft-lbf of energy on target.

I think I remember someone stating the SBD-2 will open up down to 1200 fps? My memory may be off though.

I personally wouldn't go anywhere near that low, 1700 is really low in my opinion, and would be my minimum. I would prefer to keep them 1900+ for best performance though.

 

[SheepShapeAK]

I personally wouldn't go anywhere near that low, 1700 is really low in my opinion, and would be my minimum. I would prefer to keep them 1900+ for best performance though.

825 yards gives me 1900fps on the dot.