26 Nosler - Very strange

[Engineering101]

In a previous thread I indicated that my new 26 Nosler acted like it had a broken scope while trying to work up a load with the 127 grain Barnes LRX. After trying three different scopes it was obvious that the scope was not to blame. The 120 grain TTSX was no better. Groups at 100 yards were around 5 inches!

I figured I got a bad barrel and took it back to my smith. He said it looked fine. With this kind of velocity I wanted to use a tough bullet like the Barnes but just for the heck of it I tried a 140 Beger HVLD. The rifle put 3 shots into 1.094" at 100 yards and 1.438" at 200 yards. Now we are getting somewhere no? I can live with 0.75 MOA. After that I thought that I should get one more sample so I loaded up some 140 Accubonds with the same load as used for the Bergers and went to the range. See the attached picture of the resultant target. This was shot at 200 yards. It put 4 shots including the clean cold shot into 0.719" at 200 yards. The 3-shot group after the clean/cold shot measured 0.375"! If someone out there can explain to me how a rifle can act like it is broken using one bullet and shoot sub 0.5 MOA with another, I would sure like to hear it. Have you ever seen anything like this? I never have?

 

[kraky2]

I've only had one rifle that acted that crazy. It is a 300 wby ultralight. I about half wore out the barrel on every decent hunting bullet and slow powder suitable and was barely "pie plate" at 200.
Finally tried stuffing the bullets really deep...like ogive barely out of case mouth deep....shazam...it went under moa to 300.
Its a pretty long thin barrel plus another 2" for muzzle brake. This hobby can and will drive you crazy some days.

 

[Engineering101]

kraky2

Wow. If I would have had to figure out to stuff the bullets that deep I never would have got it to shoot. How did you figure out to do that?

 

[kraky2]

I read a magazine article where they were testing either a ul weatherby or another lightwt and they had the same problem to a lessor degree till they seated deep. I've got 4 "normal" weatherbies that shoot great near "magazine" length so I fought the urge to try something different. But like your gun....never seen a change make "that" much difference! Lol!

 

[gillettehunter]

I have a Rem 700 in 25-06 that was/is that way. tried 4-5 different bullets and at least 3 different powders. Couldn't regularly get under 2 in until I tried the Ballist tips. 3/4 inch groups. Then a couple yrs later the accubonds group 1/2 inch.... Tear your hair out trying to get it all figured out. Bruce

 

[Korhil78]

I would definitely try the accubond load again to see if it is repeatable

 

[HARPERC]

I had a 6mm Shilen barrel that really only started to shoot at 150+ rounds. Who knows?
5 inches sucks pretty bad. I hope it holds.

 

[ShootnMathews]

I have a savage 6.5-284 that I bought to shoot the 140 hunting VLD Berger in. I've tried different powders and different lengths but no matter how I load them there will be two bullets touching and one flyer out of every 3 shot group. I've always had good success with nosler BT and grouping so I bought a box of 140 BT's. They shoot one ragged hole at 100 and I've only shot them twice at any distance which was 500. At that range I shot 2 Clay pigeons in two shots. Then another day I shot a 3 shot 1.5" group. Can't argue with those results, but I'd still love to get those bergers to shoot.

 

[Engineering101]

I've already loaded the rest of my virgin brass (all 13 of them) and am headed to the 600 yard range. I've got a bear hunt starting the Saturday after next so there is not much time to monkey around. Now that I've found the recipe I don't expect any trouble. I should have figured Nosler would have designed and tested the 26 Nosler to work with their bullets and sure enough it does.

 

[slewis12]

I had a 300RUM Custom rifle made and how I do my load development is buy the highest velocity powder and charge close to max charge for it and load 3 rounds of every bullet i have for said caliber in my case was 180 grain ETIP, SST,accubond, 175LRX and tested 4 differenent factory ammo barnes 180ttsx, hendershot 180 swift sirocco2, nosler trophy grade, and underwood 180 interbonds, well the gun shot .5 or better with nosler trophy grade, hendershots, and my 180 etip loads with RL25 @95 grns. 1 moa with the sst load at 95grn RL25 the rest was 1.5 moa or worse i dont pick the bullet i let the gun tell me what it likes i treat it kind of like eating dinner i order wat i like so i dont get stuck on a particular bullet if you are looking for speed and accuracy i found for me thats the best way to go for a speed and accuracy load now all i do is play with my oal to squeeze that last little bit out of the grouping. but every body does something different that works me though

 

[Mikecr]

It makes sense to me that the cartridge is way too big for light bullets.
I'm sure your ES was huge. And did you ever determine best seating for each bullet?

 

[Engineering101]

Slewis12

That is a pretty interesting load development approach. I can see where it would be effective and you would not have the problem I had of falling in love with a certain bullet BEFORE you know it works. In fact, I'm pretty sure it just happened to be the worst possible bullet choice I could have made. I came really close to pulling the barrel yet with the Accubonds, it looks like this could be one of my best shooting rifles! Crazy but true.

Mikecr

I arrived at my current new favorite load (I've only ever fired 4 of them!) by switching out the 140 gr Bergers which were starting to shoot OK in favor of the 140 gr Accubonds. I wanted a tougher bullet as the bear I'll be chasing are likely to be around 100 yards (brushy country). The Bergers were seated at 0.003" off but I moved the Accubonds to 0.025" off which I thought would be more to their liking. See target posted earlier.

With the anticipated limited barrel life of the 26 Nosler and the fact that I can't really shoot any better than shown on that target, I'm calling it good and taking this load after bear next Saturday. At 100 yards or less, no need to get fancy with seating depths and such at this point. In fact, I'm pretty sure any changes I make to this load will just make it worse.

It was never my intention to use light weight or even medium weight for caliber bullets in the 26 Nosler but the 127 LRX is nearly as heavy as they come from Barnes in 6.5 mm. Now that I switched I kind of like the idea of the 140 grain Accubond. As you said, it is a better match to the 26 Nosler's 101.6 grain H2O capacity and it is not to hard, not too soft and has a pretty decent BC. The bear is not going to know what hit him.

 

[kraky2]

Just curious...what kind of bear are you chasing "in Brushy country"?
I would be thinking really different about bullet choice in brush.
No plastic tip OR hollow point would be on my menu.
Accuracy is almost meaningless for 100 yd hunting if its dangerous bear.

 

[Engineering101]

It is not dangerous bear but just regular Olympic Mountains (actually Skokomish Wilderness) black bear. I won't be shooting through the brush which is why shots will be relatively short. There is the odd chance that we see one at long range but I don't figure that to be very likely given the territory and cover. Should that happen though I will be ready. The most likely scenario is we get to go camping with guns and have a good walk (it is about a half day backpack into the wilderness). High mountain blacktail is also open but I'm more interested in the bear as we saw fresh sign on a scouting trip a week ago. Also, my buddy foolishly agreed to guide a friend who drew a goat tag a couple weeks after this hunt so we will also be scouting for some big billies. We already know where they are so it is more about finding a way to get to them where you don't need a rope. This place is rugged so that might be easier said that done. So there you go. I'm kind of hoping the bear is still around but we also have deer and goat on the menu. Should be interesting.