So.... 6.5 PRC fliers.....NOT ANYMORE!!!!!

My Desert Tactical shot 147's better than 143's in factory ammo. For reloads it shot 130 VLD-t with 4831sc max book load very accurately and 153.5 with 58.1 565 1/2 moa. All loaded to mag length. I shot a cow with the 153's at 368 last year and typical of every animal I've shot with Bergers she went 30 yds and died.
 
The only time I had crazy things happen with that gun were 100% operator error. I shot a .19 group with the 130 vld's and didn't shoot anymore groups. Just went to steel from 200-600 yards and things got wonky real fast. I could figure out how it could go from shooting so good to so bad so quickly. Shot everything I had, picked up the gun to leave and my scope was rattling on the action. I forgot to remove the rail and clean oil from the screws and it had finally caught up to me 60 or 70 rounds into owning gun. Once the problem was resolved it went back to shooting very accurately again.
 
I'm shooting right at the max listed in the Nosler manual of H-1000, ADG Brass, Fed 210M Primers, 140 Grain Accubonds. I do not know the COAL but can get it for you but it would probably be different for your rifle anyway. I do get slight ejector marks but no heavy bolt lift. Nosler lists 58 grains of H-1000 as max so work up to that load if you try it, please. Just because that load is usable in my rifle does not mean it will work in yours.
 
If switching powder to H1000 you get the same results my bet is it needs bedded, at some point not being bedded will become an issue ive seen it to many times. I had the same issue as Dmagna with a 280AI also, 23 fixed it.
When problems like this happen I try and rule out all mechanical issues first.
 
Check out the Hornady podcast episode "your groups are too small" for more info, but as the poster above me said, 2 shots together and one shot out isn't giving you any helpful info. If it shoots the other combo well, then I would move on and stop trying to make this powder/bullet combo work. Try some new powder/bullet combos. Load up 10 rounds near max (for your rifle) and if it doesn't meet your criteria, move on. If it does, load up 35 and put them in on group to statistically confirm it. Anything less than that and you're just reading tea leaves.
 
. Anything less than that and you're just reading tea leaves
Tell that to alot of good BR and F- Class shooters. Did you watch the Video with Eric Cortina with he the Horny guy.
I'm sure Hornys testing was done at 100 yards there a big difference between 100 and 500 and beyond. I know for a shadow of a doudt seating depth makes a difference past 100 yards so I know that claim is pure 100% B.S
 
I have mounted scopes and worked up loads in 5 or 6 new Savage rifles in the last 12 months. Every one of them had problems with the action screws and the pic rail scope base screws being completely drenched in brown machine oil and not even close to being torqued. Now I won't even shoot a new Savage until I have stripped it down and cleaned every screw and applied blue locktight. On 2 of these guns the action practically fell out of the stock and/or the pic rail was found to be wobbling while shooting first rounds at the range trying to break the gun in.
 
Trying to get it done in a hurry is problematic. You might find a factory load that works for now.

I'd bed it even with a block for sure. After that, if it still wanders, I'd try different primers and seating depth. On a hunting rifle needing fed from a magazine, coal may not be optimized but rather a compromise.
My choice primers have been Federal, but availability has lead me to try whatever I could find.
 
I learned a long time ago that it is cost-effective to bed the rifle before you ever pull the trigger.

Seating de;pth is a very important issue, I will run a single shot if I have to, but a Wyatt's mag box in my Rem 700's solves all issues where I get .125 more COAL, and they do make a 4.000" length for 28 Nosler and STW's, etc.

Attempting to work up a super accurate load without flyers in an unbeded rifle is lunacy at it's best, depending on the stock.

Bench techniques to eliminate flyers are another subject.
 
The only time I had crazy things happen with that gun were 100% operator error. I shot a .19 group with the 130 vld's and didn't shoot anymore groups. Just went to steel from 200-600 yards and things got wonky real fast. I could figure out how it could go from shooting so good to so bad so quickly. Shot everything I had, picked up the gun to leave and my scope was rattling on the action. I forgot to remove the rail and clean oil from the screws and it had finally caught up to me 60 or 70 rounds into owning gun. Once the problem was resolved it went back to shooting very accurately again.
My older boy(14 yr old) has a Savage tactical left hand in 308. He used it on coyotes with a thermal this winter. As he was switching scopes he noticed that the rail was loose. How he never missed a dog at 200+ I'll never know.
We stripped it down and cleaned it and blue lock tighted it. It is a new rifle also, and so far everything we have tried in it has been under MOA.
 
I have mounted scopes and worked up loads in 5 or 6 new Savage rifles in the last 12 months. Every one of them had problems with the action screws and the pic rail scope base screws being completely drenched in brown machine oil and not even close to being torqued. Now I won't even shoot a new Savage until I have stripped it down and cleaned every screw and applied blue locktight. On 2 of these guns the action practically fell out of the stock and/or the pic rail was found to be wobbling while shooting first rounds at the range trying to break the gun in.
See post #27 above.
I did check the rail and the stock screws on Wyatt's 6.5 PRC. I went 20 in lbs on the rail and it clicked. I went 45 in lbs on the stock screws and it clicked. So all seems tight.
 

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