MagMan
Well-Known Member
Bottom to top
.264-124 HH
.284-143 HH
.284-155 AH
.308-178 AH
.308-181 HH
Introducing the Absolute Hammer
- Thread starter RockyMtnMT
- Start date
Help Support Long Range Hunting Forum
Bottom to top
.264-124 HH
.284-143 HH
.284-155 AH
.308-178 AH
.308-181 HH
Got some 123's on the way. 6.5 creed with lapua app brass. Got some cfe223, H4895, a tiny bit of varget, some shooters world precision on the way, and R16. I'm guessing I could fill the case, scrape it off, and shove one home with the R16 
. I'm thinking the SW, and possibly the H4895 will be my possible go to's. Can't believe nobody's run these through a creed yet! Got over 3000 with R26 and 143's. I feel like 32-3300 with the 123's should be doable with the right powder?
. I'm thinking the SW, and possibly the H4895 will be my possible go to's. Can't believe nobody's run these through a creed yet! Got over 3000 with R26 and 143's. I feel like 32-3300 with the 123's should be doable with the right powder?Warrenoliver
Well-Known Member
Worked up some loads for my tikka t3 6.5x55. 123 Absolute Hammer, lapua brass never fired, federal 210 match primers and Varget powder. Started at 44 gr. @ 2915 fps and ended with 48 gr @ 3167 fps. Had slight heavier bolt lift and ejector mark at 48 gr. Settled for 47 gr. @ 3095 fps and a nice 0.35" 3 shot group.
RH300UM
Well-Known Member
To give others insight to my success with the Absolute Hammer I will be as detailed as possible.
My rifle
7saum built by RBros Rifles and is cleaned religiously!
Remy short action
Wyatt box mag
Broughton twist 26 inch #4 contour with muzzle brake
Manners EH2 with a Mathews fabrication cheek piece.
Huskemaw scope with Hawkins Hybrid base/rings
Harris bipod
Load
155 AH
COAL 2.966
ADG brass neck turned to 16 thou neck wall thickness (1 fired,annealed in a AMP machine)
No tumbling or cleaning of brass
brass prep is chamfer case mouth and clean primer pocket
Full length sized with a Redding typeS die lubed with Imerial sizing die wax
Using a 312 bushing gives 3thou neck tension
Case neck is coated with Imperial dry neck lube
CCI primers are seated with a RCBS hand priming tool
67 grains of Re26 is dispensed in a RCBS chargemaster 1500
Powder is then dumped into the case through a DIY powder drop tube to fit the powder in the case without compressing it.
Bullet is seated to 2.966 COAL and CRIMPED with a Hornady custom seating die
Then each round is checked for runout and concentricity with a Hornady tool
This gives me 3348 fps and 6 Es at 4800 feet ASL and 38-73 degrees
80 degrees gives 3347 fps with 13 Es at 4800 feet ASL
Extremely good accuracy that measures.240 for 3 shots at 100 yards for the cold load
.491 for the warm load. You MUST consider shooter input to these groups.
shot a .4 moa 3 shot group@1k with the cold load. Probably won't repeat it but I've killed a lot of rocks since to VERY confident in the load/rifle combo
I've shot 62 of them so far. Took 18 in the 7saum to get to this load.
You MUST have more neck tension and CRIMP this bullet.
I found that primers made a huge difference for my rifle.
I used 215GM exclusively with my conventional loads with this rifle but after erratic performance I changed to CCI250's and it was what I needed.
Shot another 3 round string this morning at 1076 yards to check cold bore performance and killed another 1moa rock
Ordered some more to load up for hunting season
My rifle
7saum built by RBros Rifles and is cleaned religiously!
Remy short action
Wyatt box mag
Broughton twist 26 inch #4 contour with muzzle brake
Manners EH2 with a Mathews fabrication cheek piece.
Huskemaw scope with Hawkins Hybrid base/rings
Harris bipod
Load
155 AH
COAL 2.966
ADG brass neck turned to 16 thou neck wall thickness (1 fired,annealed in a AMP machine)
No tumbling or cleaning of brass
brass prep is chamfer case mouth and clean primer pocket
Full length sized with a Redding typeS die lubed with Imerial sizing die wax
Using a 312 bushing gives 3thou neck tension
Case neck is coated with Imperial dry neck lube
CCI primers are seated with a RCBS hand priming tool
67 grains of Re26 is dispensed in a RCBS chargemaster 1500
Powder is then dumped into the case through a DIY powder drop tube to fit the powder in the case without compressing it.
Bullet is seated to 2.966 COAL and CRIMPED with a Hornady custom seating die
Then each round is checked for runout and concentricity with a Hornady tool
This gives me 3348 fps and 6 Es at 4800 feet ASL and 38-73 degrees
80 degrees gives 3347 fps with 13 Es at 4800 feet ASL
Extremely good accuracy that measures.240 for 3 shots at 100 yards for the cold load
.491 for the warm load. You MUST consider shooter input to these groups.
shot a .4 moa 3 shot group@1k with the cold load. Probably won't repeat it but I've killed a lot of rocks since to VERY confident in the load/rifle combo
I've shot 62 of them so far. Took 18 in the 7saum to get to this load.
You MUST have more neck tension and CRIMP this bullet.
I found that primers made a huge difference for my rifle.
I used 215GM exclusively with my conventional loads with this rifle but after erratic performance I changed to CCI250's and it was what I needed.
Shot another 3 round string this morning at 1076 yards to check cold bore performance and killed another 1moa rock
Ordered some more to load up for hunting season
RockyMtnMT
Official LRH Sponsor
I finally got caught up enough to spend some time catching up on the thread.
So last weekend we did two days of loading and shooting the Absolutes. Had some great results and some that were a little puzzling.
What we are doing to figure out a load is start with a known powder for the bullet weight. Work that combo up as far as possible and glean from that data where to go next. Best to start with a combo that you can't get into trouble with.
1st rifle we worked with was a Ruger American 6.5 Creed. This rifle has always been slow, but shoots well. I think we figured out why it is slow. Appears that the chamber is big and rough. Previous load with the 124g HH was 40g Varget at 2920 fps. So we started there and went up to 43g and a vel of 3062 fps. This was showing stiff extraction and ejector mark. Again I think this is due to a poor chamber. I think we should see another 100 fps. We then tried 6.5 staball, blc2, tac, cfe223 and 8208xbr. They all got to basically the same place. This is when we started mic'ing the brass and seeing that it is all expanding more than it should. Also the fired brass is all rough from marks in the chamber. Felt like we kinda wasted our time on this one.
We then went to our 6.5-05 ai 28" barrel. This rifle is built on an old Ruger Mauser style action. Here we did what I tell everyone not to do and went straight to a powder that we thought would be good. We are using Peterson 270 win brass trimmed and fire formed. We went to H100V and started at 55g and a vel of 3422 fps worked up to 57g where we got an extractor mark and a cratered primer and a vel of 3573 fps. The primer pocket on the Peterson brass was still tight. I would consider this a very max load, brass good for about 3 firings.
Now we went to my 280ai 22" 8" twist Proof barrel. My previous load for this rifle was the 143g HH at 3126fps with rl23. We decided to start with H100v and work up. Started low at 56g, 1g under a max load from Hodgdon for a 130g bullet. We worked this load up in 1g increments with very nice 40 fps per g increases. We took it up to 64g and a vel of 3427 fps. At this mark the old Win model 70 big firing pin hole was giving too big of a crater. Backed it down to 63g and a comfortable 3387 fps shooting nearly one hole at 200y. Will be sending the bolt in to get it bushed next week after I fire the 140g AH at 1000y to check bc.
Now we took on the 30 cals with the 178g AH. 1st the 30-06 in a factory Rem Long Range 26" barrel. Loaded at 3.56" oal we started with H100v with this one too. Started with Win brass and wlrm primer and 54g. This is one g over the start load for 180g in the Hodgdon data. Took this up to 60g and a vel of 3036 with a slight leak around the primer. We then switched to Lapua brass with wlrm primer and went up to 62g with a pimer leak. Swithed to f215m primer and lost the leaky primer. Backed it down a g and went with 61g and a vel of 3080 and shooting 7/8" at 200y.
Went to the Browning Hell's Canyon 300 rum from here. Started with a known load for the 181g HH at 95g. I will add that the long nose of the 178g could not mag feed in the short magazine. We had to single feed at an oal of 3.790". Started with 95g rl26 and took it up to 97g and a vel of 3515 fps. This showed an extractor mark on the adg brass. Tried n565 and retumbo with basically the same result. So in the rum size cartirdge we did not see the need for faster powder but did see about 120 fps gain over the 181g HH. It seems at this point that the big capacity cartridges are not showing as much gain in vel as the normal and standard magnum cartridges.
Then ran a 262g .338 AH in my 338 Lap imp. We found this cartridge with 100g plus to finish out at the same vel as I had previously ran the 260g HH. More testing to be done here but right now looks like once we get into cartridges approaching 100g powder capacity that we may have reached the end of the vel advantage of the Absolute. More testing needs to be done here. The Absolute still has what it was originally designed for, no engraving on the nose of the bullet messing up the bc from rifle to rifle.
Hopefully we will have some time to shoot some more this weekend. Hope this is helpful.
I still want everyone to start with powders that are known for the weight of the bullet and start working from there. Always better to start with stuff that you can't get in trouble with than to jump into something that you think will be good on a whim. Collect data and determine where to go from there.
So last weekend we did two days of loading and shooting the Absolutes. Had some great results and some that were a little puzzling.
What we are doing to figure out a load is start with a known powder for the bullet weight. Work that combo up as far as possible and glean from that data where to go next. Best to start with a combo that you can't get into trouble with.
1st rifle we worked with was a Ruger American 6.5 Creed. This rifle has always been slow, but shoots well. I think we figured out why it is slow. Appears that the chamber is big and rough. Previous load with the 124g HH was 40g Varget at 2920 fps. So we started there and went up to 43g and a vel of 3062 fps. This was showing stiff extraction and ejector mark. Again I think this is due to a poor chamber. I think we should see another 100 fps. We then tried 6.5 staball, blc2, tac, cfe223 and 8208xbr. They all got to basically the same place. This is when we started mic'ing the brass and seeing that it is all expanding more than it should. Also the fired brass is all rough from marks in the chamber. Felt like we kinda wasted our time on this one.
We then went to our 6.5-05 ai 28" barrel. This rifle is built on an old Ruger Mauser style action. Here we did what I tell everyone not to do and went straight to a powder that we thought would be good. We are using Peterson 270 win brass trimmed and fire formed. We went to H100V and started at 55g and a vel of 3422 fps worked up to 57g where we got an extractor mark and a cratered primer and a vel of 3573 fps. The primer pocket on the Peterson brass was still tight. I would consider this a very max load, brass good for about 3 firings.
Now we went to my 280ai 22" 8" twist Proof barrel. My previous load for this rifle was the 143g HH at 3126fps with rl23. We decided to start with H100v and work up. Started low at 56g, 1g under a max load from Hodgdon for a 130g bullet. We worked this load up in 1g increments with very nice 40 fps per g increases. We took it up to 64g and a vel of 3427 fps. At this mark the old Win model 70 big firing pin hole was giving too big of a crater. Backed it down to 63g and a comfortable 3387 fps shooting nearly one hole at 200y. Will be sending the bolt in to get it bushed next week after I fire the 140g AH at 1000y to check bc.
Now we took on the 30 cals with the 178g AH. 1st the 30-06 in a factory Rem Long Range 26" barrel. Loaded at 3.56" oal we started with H100v with this one too. Started with Win brass and wlrm primer and 54g. This is one g over the start load for 180g in the Hodgdon data. Took this up to 60g and a vel of 3036 with a slight leak around the primer. We then switched to Lapua brass with wlrm primer and went up to 62g with a pimer leak. Swithed to f215m primer and lost the leaky primer. Backed it down a g and went with 61g and a vel of 3080 and shooting 7/8" at 200y.
Went to the Browning Hell's Canyon 300 rum from here. Started with a known load for the 181g HH at 95g. I will add that the long nose of the 178g could not mag feed in the short magazine. We had to single feed at an oal of 3.790". Started with 95g rl26 and took it up to 97g and a vel of 3515 fps. This showed an extractor mark on the adg brass. Tried n565 and retumbo with basically the same result. So in the rum size cartirdge we did not see the need for faster powder but did see about 120 fps gain over the 181g HH. It seems at this point that the big capacity cartridges are not showing as much gain in vel as the normal and standard magnum cartridges.
Then ran a 262g .338 AH in my 338 Lap imp. We found this cartridge with 100g plus to finish out at the same vel as I had previously ran the 260g HH. More testing to be done here but right now looks like once we get into cartridges approaching 100g powder capacity that we may have reached the end of the vel advantage of the Absolute. More testing needs to be done here. The Absolute still has what it was originally designed for, no engraving on the nose of the bullet messing up the bc from rifle to rifle.
Hopefully we will have some time to shoot some more this weekend. Hope this is helpful.
I still want everyone to start with powders that are known for the weight of the bullet and start working from there. Always better to start with stuff that you can't get in trouble with than to jump into something that you think will be good on a whim. Collect data and determine where to go from there.
Awesome report, Thank YouTo give others insight to my success with the Absolute Hammer I will be as detailed as possible.
My rifle
7saum built by RBros Rifles and is cleaned religiously!
Remy short action
Wyatt box mag
Broughton twist 26 inch #4 contour with muzzle brake
Manners EH2 with a Mathews fabrication cheek piece.
Huskemaw scope with Hawkins Hybrid base/rings
Harris bipod
Load
155 AH
COAL 2.966
ADG brass neck turned to 16 thou neck wall thickness (1 fired,annealed in a AMP machine)
No tumbling or cleaning of brass
brass prep is chamfer case mouth and clean primer pocket
Full length sized with a Redding typeS die lubed with Imerial sizing die wax
Using a 312 bushing gives 3thou neck tension
Case neck is coated with Imperial dry neck lube
CCI primers are seated with a RCBS hand priming tool
67 grains of Re26 is dispensed in a RCBS chargemaster 1500
Powder is then dumped into the case through a DIY powder drop tube to fit the powder in the case without compressing it.
Bullet is seated to 2.966 COAL and CRIMPED with a Hornady custom seating die
Then each round is checked for runout and concentricity with a Hornady tool
This gives me 3348 fps and 6 Es at 4800 feet ASL and 38-73 degrees
80 degrees gives 3347 fps with 13 Es at 4800 feet ASL
Extremely good accuracy that measures.240 for 3 shots at 100 yards for the cold load
.491 for the warm load. You MUST consider shooter input to these groups.
shot a .4 moa 3 shot group@1k with the cold load. Probably won't repeat it but I've killed a lot of rocks since to VERY confident in the load/rifle combo
I've shot 62 of them so far. Took 18 in the 7saum to get to this load.
You MUST have more neck tension and CRIMP this bullet.
I found that primers made a huge difference for my rifle.
I used 215GM exclusively with my conventional loads with this rifle but after erratic performance I changed to CCI250's and it was what I needed.
Shot another 3 round string this morning at 1076 yards to check cold bore performance and killed another 1moa rock
Ordered some more to load up for hunting season
Great stuff Steve, Thanks
Varmint Hunter
Well-Known Member
You are getting as much velocity out of your Creed (3,000 & 143gr) that most of us get from the 6.5 PRC.
It's pretty common for guys using R26. There's a whole thread on here with a bunch of data. Reloder 26 with 135gr+ is magic. 26" barrel gets me a little more. I went up to 3050fps and found pressure there. Slight ejector and bolt swipe. That's a pretty compressed load. Good accuracy was down around 2900-2950 if I remember right.You are getting as much velocity out of your Creed (3,000 & 143gr) that most of us get from the 6.5 PRC.
Now I just need to wait till Tuesday for these to show up. Also need to see how much R16 I can stuff into a case with a drop tube. I doubt it will hold enough to the neck shoulder junction for these...
Varmint Hunter
Well-Known Member
I run 47.0gr RE26 in a 26" Browning and get 2,875 , give or take, with a 140 Berger. Interestingly enough, I also found the Berger 135gr Cl Hunter bullet to be "magic". Using the same 47.0gr RE26 I get about 2,890 ft/sec. Yesterday I shot a 1.14" and a .77" at 400yds using a Hell's Canyon LR McMillan.
How much RE26 are you using to get 3,000 ft.sec with the 143s?
Last edited:
I was wrong, 49gr was my max and it got me 3009fps, not 3050. 47gr in my 26" savage got me 2883, so pretty darn close to your Browning.
Please provide load details, barrel, brass, twist, etc for all. Thanks!
I'm working on the load data spreadsheet to post.
jeremy.b
Well-Known Member
I ran Steve's 30-06 numbers with a close approximation of the 178 AH + h100v and QL would indeed show pretty representative velocities (using a normal starting pressure) but obviously very high pressures. So armed with that (and I've suspected this for a while) we MIGHT be able to increase the pressure threshold in QL to 75k or so with normal fill %'s and it might give us a set of powders to consider. I do doubt we can get much closer than that though with how QL is simulating everything else.
@RockyMtnMT do you have any plans to design lighter weight (say 220-230gr) 338 AH's in the near future? I'm not sure I'll have enough powder capacity in my M70 338-06 to get very far with a 260 AH (but I can try!)
