Usually on the giving end of advice...need help

[dok7mm]

I turn all my brass based on on my chamber neck I.D. I usually turn .003" and never over. 004" total clearance and my bullets slide easily into fired brass.

I'm just wondering if the Peterson brass (before you turned it) that had . 002" total clearance. Perhaps your fliers were from individually thicker necks on the Peterson. I turn a lot of Peterson brass and it's not uncommon to turn quite a few that have thicker necks.

I no longer load 6mm, but RL-26 wouldn't be my choice over Retumbo or RL-23.

It could be several things, but hope you find the problem.

 

[Bang4theBuck]

I turn all my brass based on on my chamber neck I.D. I usually turn .003" and never over. 004" total clearance and my bullets slide easily into fired brass.

I'm just wondering if the Peterson brass (before you turned it) that had . 002" total clearance. Perhaps your fliers were from individually thicker necks on the Peterson. I turn a lot of Peterson brass and it's not uncommon to turn quite a few that have thicker necks.

I no longer load 6mm, but RL-26 wouldn't be my choice over Retumbo or RL-23.

It could be several things, but hope you find the problem.

To your question, yes the Perersen Brass had .002" of clearance before I turned them. I did find when I turned them that some were definitely thicker than others.

I dont have any RL-23 or Retumbo, amd honestly don't care to chase it in this current marketplace. I have good inventory of RL-26 and H1000. I am determined to make one of those work. It seems completely possible when 4 out of 5 shots in a string have good ESs. I think the issue is either with ignition or neck tension. Hopefully I've dealt with both of those in my loading last night and will have some good feedback to report after my range trip today.

 

[Bang4theBuck]

OKAY FELLAS.....RESULTS ARE IN!

With great input from everyone, I made some adjustments. The adjustments I made were to solve the problems that could be the contributors to the high ES problem. Due to the complications of component availability and time, I did not make only singular changes to be measured singularly and isolate the results of each change. Instead, I followed a couple of theories on the problem and made multiple changes to the scenario to solve the theoretic problem. Here is what I did:

THEORY #1‐ NECK TENSION WAS NOT CORRECT NOR WAS THERE SUFFICIENT CLEARANCE BETWEEN CHAMBER CASE NECK AND LOADED CARTRIDGE NECK DIMENSION.
So, I neck turned the brass so that when loaded there was .005" clearance. And then when I resized the brass after turning, I removed the expander ball from the decappimg rod and sized the brass without it. This gave me .005" on neck tension. I did this to all of the cases, as the resulting dimensions were nothing out of the ordinary or extreme.
THEORY #2‐ THE BR2 PRIMERS WERE NOT OPTIMAL FOR USE WITH RL26.
So, I loaded a fixed charge of powder in every case. The charge I chose was a not a Max load, based on previous loading, which is why I chose it. I picked 55.5 grains of RL26 and then I tried BR2s again, as well as GM215M primers and CCI250s. I also loaded up a 56 grain charge of H1000 (1.2 grains below book max) and made up a string with BR2s and with GM215Ms.

Here are the general results:
1. All.of the ESs came down from what they were, some just a little, some very significantly. Also, velocities were up quite across the board...some just a little, some as much as 65 or 70 fps. I attribute this to the work on the necks and the increased neck tension.
2. In all cases, the magnum primers produced increased pressure signs and higher ESs.
3. In all cases the BR2s produced significantly lower ESs (ES of 8 and ES of 17) as compared to the Magnums (ES of 41, 37 and 42).
4. In both cases, the BR2s produced higher velocities than the magnums.
5. The H1000 produced significantly lower velocity (84 fps lower) that than the RL26, and the charge was .5 grain higher.

Summary points:

1. Fixing the neck tension and clearancing of necks was the key thing.
2. RL26 and BR2 perform well together in this case (avg velocity of 3588, ES of 17, and .79 moa, without any real tuning).
3. All of these loads were a little spicier than they need to be, so I am going to order more bullets and use the RL26 and BR2s and start again on charge weight 5 shot ladders looking for the next lower node.
4. Also realized while loading that the Hammer Hunter bullets have a light machining oil on them assuming from manufacturing. I cleaned the oil off of all 20 bullets before loading. This might have been part of the deviation problem before as well.
5. I am excited to finish this load and hunt with this rifle this season. Coyotes and deer are in trouble!

Thanks for all of the help Fellas!

 

[dougduey]

To your question, yes the Perersen Brass had .002" of clearance before I turned them. I did find when I turned them that some were definitely thicker than others.

I dont have any RL-23 or Retumbo, amd honestly don't care to chase it in this current marketplace. I have good inventory of RL-26 and H1000. I am determined to make one of those work. It seems completely possible when 4 out of 5 shots in a string have good ESs. I think the issue is either with ignition or neck tension. Hopefully I've dealt with both of those in my loading last night and will have some good feedback to report after my range trip today.

I've had too many issues with RL26 in my 6.5-284 that I won't use it anymore. I'd always get the one flier with RL26 in my 280AI. The point I'm making is, as I'm sure you are very aware, we can't always make our rifle like what we want to feed it. I have a feeling H1000 will work out for you. If you have any H4831, you should seriously consider it as an option.
If you're hell bent on staying with RL26, I'll give you the advice I received from my gunsmith, friend, and HOF Benchrest shooter, Speedy Gonzalez. The load is probably just a little too hot and you need to drop down about 0.5 gr. Also, he is big on increasing neck tension.
Take that for what it's worth.

 

[dok7mm]

Looks like the tension, clearance change and charge weight made the difference.
Glad to see you're nearly there.

 

[Bang4theBuck]

12-18-22 Update- BONUS CONTENT ALERT!
I titled this update "HAPPY CAMPER"!
I finally got enough of my other chores done where I could pick this back up and final tune the load. I went back to the range and loaded with the components that looked to be top performers in the development:

Petersen neck turned brass
CCI BR2 primers
RL 26 Powder
88 grain Hammer Hunter

Results:
Final load velocity is 3616 fps
ES over 10 shot string is 13 fps
Group size is just over 1/2 MOA.
When I run the numbers on downrange performance, it carries 1800 FPS to 875 yds. It carries 1000 lbs of energy to 625 yds. and with a 100 yard zero is only 5.25 MOA dial up at 500 yds.
These numbers make me a Happy Camper!

Bonus content:

Just for Giggles, I loaded up a few rounds using the 110 Hornady A-tip after hearing how well they performed on game. On the first string I shot, I got 3461 FPS, ES of 10, and sub 1/2 MOA group. The down range numbers on this load are more impressive, to me, than the load above. It carries 1800 FPS to 1175 Yds, it carries 1000 lbs of energy out to 1000 yds, and is also only 5.25MOA of dial at 500 yds. Also a 10 mph full value wind only drifts this bullet 1.8 MOA at 500 yds.

My biggest problem now is deciding which I will load, which is especially difficult now as the last part (bonus on the bonus). Both of these loads shoot to the exact same zero at 100 yds...... It's like a fairy tale!

Couldn't be happier!