Fiftydriver
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Have been spending the last couple months working on testing my new Carbon Stalker rifle model along with the new 26 Stalker wildcat. This post will focus on the new wildcat. I designed 26 Stalker to replace my old 6.5mm Allen Magnum wildcat. The reason is simply because the 338 RUM parent case is just to hard to find these days.
The 26 Stalker is based on the great 300 Norma Magnum necked down to 6.5mm and fireformed to my APS shoulder and case body specs common to all my wildcats.
On the left are two fireforming loads, middle are the formed 26 Stalker cases and on the right is a loaded 6.5 Allen Magnum that the Stalker will replace. Note the difference in case length while offering nearly identical capacity.
The test rifle is one of my new Carbon Stalker rifles based on my new APS Stalker receiver, Game Hunter stock and Proof 26" carbon barrel and one or my small PK brakes on the muzzle. Bare rifle weight is 7 lbs. not bad for a full dimensioned rifle.
I started testing the 26 Stalke using the Peterson 300 norma mag brass. Very happy with this brass and will be the brass i use on all my Stalkers. This is actually a customers rifle and he wanted to try the 143 gr. ELDX bullet.
Using RL33, the 26 Stalker topped out at 3420 fps with comfortable pressures. Long range accuracy was just fine but Not great. Was concerned the 8 twist at these velocity levels was producing just to high of rpm levels for this bullet.
Next up i tried some berger 140 gr. Hunting VLDs. This bullet proved to be much faster in the 26 Stalker then the eldx. Topping out at 3550 fps with comfortable pressures using RL33. Long range accuracy was very impressive, in fact the customer shot the rifle at ranges from 500 to 1300 yards and most were well under 1/2 moa. At 1300 yards he shot a pair that went inside 8" so from a 26" barreled, 7 lb class rifle, more then happy.
The 26 Stalker so far has been very easy to work with. Always concerned about powder bridging issues with these smaller caliber, fat case designs but so far no sign if that. We need to do some testing for temp change pressure swings but at 3550 fps we have plenty of room to adjust for that.
All in all, very happy with the results of the new 26 Stalker. The customer also had a 26 Nosler rifle with him when we shot the 26 Stalker, using factory nosler ammo with the 140 gr accubond listed at 3300 fps. We got an actual velocity of 3245 fps in the 26" barrel and from the ejector ring on the nosler case head, i would say thats about max. Getting an extra 300 fps over the nosler with same barrel length and what appears to be less pressure so happy with that.
The 26 Stalker is based on the great 300 Norma Magnum necked down to 6.5mm and fireformed to my APS shoulder and case body specs common to all my wildcats.
On the left are two fireforming loads, middle are the formed 26 Stalker cases and on the right is a loaded 6.5 Allen Magnum that the Stalker will replace. Note the difference in case length while offering nearly identical capacity.
The test rifle is one of my new Carbon Stalker rifles based on my new APS Stalker receiver, Game Hunter stock and Proof 26" carbon barrel and one or my small PK brakes on the muzzle. Bare rifle weight is 7 lbs. not bad for a full dimensioned rifle.
I started testing the 26 Stalke using the Peterson 300 norma mag brass. Very happy with this brass and will be the brass i use on all my Stalkers. This is actually a customers rifle and he wanted to try the 143 gr. ELDX bullet.
Using RL33, the 26 Stalker topped out at 3420 fps with comfortable pressures. Long range accuracy was just fine but Not great. Was concerned the 8 twist at these velocity levels was producing just to high of rpm levels for this bullet.
Next up i tried some berger 140 gr. Hunting VLDs. This bullet proved to be much faster in the 26 Stalker then the eldx. Topping out at 3550 fps with comfortable pressures using RL33. Long range accuracy was very impressive, in fact the customer shot the rifle at ranges from 500 to 1300 yards and most were well under 1/2 moa. At 1300 yards he shot a pair that went inside 8" so from a 26" barreled, 7 lb class rifle, more then happy.
The 26 Stalker so far has been very easy to work with. Always concerned about powder bridging issues with these smaller caliber, fat case designs but so far no sign if that. We need to do some testing for temp change pressure swings but at 3550 fps we have plenty of room to adjust for that.
All in all, very happy with the results of the new 26 Stalker. The customer also had a 26 Nosler rifle with him when we shot the 26 Stalker, using factory nosler ammo with the 140 gr accubond listed at 3300 fps. We got an actual velocity of 3245 fps in the 26" barrel and from the ejector ring on the nosler case head, i would say thats about max. Getting an extra 300 fps over the nosler with same barrel length and what appears to be less pressure so happy with that.
