orch
Well-Known Member
Well I finally got my 6.5 RSAUM built and back from the smith.... I've been wanting a .264 of some sort to round out my gun cabinet for a couple years. Been holding onto 30" heavy lilja barrel blank for over a year, reading all the 6.5 GAP 4s and Sherman Short Mag stuff and finally pulled the trigger on my build this fall...
Anyways decided to go with the 6.5 rsaum, not the gap version but similar...
Loaded up my first 50 test rounds on the weekend and started testing loads...
Basically just started with H1000 and 140gr Berger hybrids going off all the data that the 6.5 gap 4s guys have been running.
Well all I can say is wow! Right around 61.5gr H1000 I'm getting just over 1/4" centre to centre 5 shot groups at 100 yards, velocity just shy of 3100fps and Es of 5 and sd of 2 with virgin brass over my magneto speed! Go figure, most of the Gap 4s guys are in the same load range...
Now.... I know I should just quit there.... But I have been seeing a lot talk about reloader 26 and how it seems to be some new magical powder when it comes to squeezing more speed out of a cartridge without spiking pressure and getting really good sd and Es numbers.
I have 2 lbs of rl26 I could try.
I know I read some posts where the Sherman SS guys were using it and it seems from what I can decipher the Sherman SS has pretty much the same capacity of the rsaum after pushing the shoulder back and blowing the case walls out.... So I'm thinking the load data should be similar...
Any 6.5 rsaum or 6.5 Sherman SS guys out there have any experience with reloader26 in their rigs.
I keep telling myself I'm not gonna hot rod this thing but I'm pretty sure I could ring another 150 fps outta this thing no problem with h1000.... If I could get that with rl26 at lower pressure than h1000 I'm thinking it'd be worth it...
Orch
Anyways decided to go with the 6.5 rsaum, not the gap version but similar...
Loaded up my first 50 test rounds on the weekend and started testing loads...
Basically just started with H1000 and 140gr Berger hybrids going off all the data that the 6.5 gap 4s guys have been running.
Well all I can say is wow! Right around 61.5gr H1000 I'm getting just over 1/4" centre to centre 5 shot groups at 100 yards, velocity just shy of 3100fps and Es of 5 and sd of 2 with virgin brass over my magneto speed! Go figure, most of the Gap 4s guys are in the same load range...
Now.... I know I should just quit there.... But I have been seeing a lot talk about reloader 26 and how it seems to be some new magical powder when it comes to squeezing more speed out of a cartridge without spiking pressure and getting really good sd and Es numbers.
I have 2 lbs of rl26 I could try.
I know I read some posts where the Sherman SS guys were using it and it seems from what I can decipher the Sherman SS has pretty much the same capacity of the rsaum after pushing the shoulder back and blowing the case walls out.... So I'm thinking the load data should be similar...
Any 6.5 rsaum or 6.5 Sherman SS guys out there have any experience with reloader26 in their rigs.
I keep telling myself I'm not gonna hot rod this thing but I'm pretty sure I could ring another 150 fps outta this thing no problem with h1000.... If I could get that with rl26 at lower pressure than h1000 I'm thinking it'd be worth it...
Orch
loving this cartridge!
