6.5x284 LOAD HELP

[NW Hunter]

Yah Brent, I do.
Brass is all weighed and put in ammo boxes by order of weight. Any brass that is not reached the headspace of 1.7985" is separated out for foulers.
All bullets are separated out by bearing surface length, bagged and tagged.
All primers are reboxed in order by weight.
All loaded shells for 3 shot groups are within 0.2 grains of each other.
I full length resize with a Redding type S (experimenting with 291 & 292 bushings) and seat bullets with a Redding Competition die.
My Forster Co-ax press has them at .002" and under using a Sinclair concentricity gauge.

I also had my smith check out the barrel while it was being threaded for a Muscle Brake. He said it was very straight while spinning on the lathe. He also put a target crown on the muzzle.

Thanks for the ladder test pictures.

 

[BrentM]

Well dang man, you have put in the time for sure. For a 6 hour drive you come down and shoot with me : )

There are so many ways and opinions on how to get to an end result it is mind blowing. In the end it may be the rifle is not capable of shooting much better if at all then .5 moa. I do believe you can find accuracy nodes at different speed levels and may need to rethink the approach to speed vs powder etc. I am a speed freak so I went to a 28.5" barrel to shoot light loads at 3050 to 3100. It seems all my rifles liked 2900 to 2950 and then again around 3050. I am pretty sure I could get 3150 out of this set up but I also know the pressure is going to be at max and I am tired of dealing with replacing brass at 7 to 8 firings. So why bother and who cares really, except me.

This is why I tested the h1000. A temp stable powder with less speed but potentially higher accuracy nodes that are easier to find and tune. hmmm. I just begun testing this powder but I am intrigued by what I see.

Personally, I am going to stick with the ladder test for initial load development at the 400 to 500 range and tweak from there. The reason, my last 6.5-284 I sold to a guy on here shot 1.5" 3 shot groups at 630 yards. It shot .3 to .5 at 100. I would rather have my rifle shoot tiny groups at 500 than 100 any day since it is a LR rig.

 

[NW Hunter]

I will definitely shoot ladders of both Retumbo and H1000.
I just need to figure out seating depth CBTO and which bushing to use,
Brent, are you using a bushing die and if so, which bushing works for you?

 

[NW Hunter]

Hotolds442,
I has looking back through the thread and saw that you had given your thoughts on .075" off lands with a 300 yard ladder test.
That looks to be a good point to try.

 

[NW Hunter]

BrentM, that's funny you should say that. I have a cousin who went mulie hunting in Idaho last year and we might go together this year. I don't yet know the particulars on the area, but he scored a respectable buck. He said he had multiple sightings of big bucks, but it just didn't happen.

 

[BrentM]

I do use a bushing for the neck. Right now I settled on .001 tension. I am pretty sure I am using a .291. I forgot to double check this morning before I left for work. I neck turned just enough to clean up the circumference of the neck and make the cases uniform. I believe I am at .014 but gosh, I will have to grab my notes to be certain, just forgot to do it this am. I could be using the .292 and .0145. The problem is I have several calibers I set up, 243, 7mm 08, 7 mag, 204, 6.5-284, 260 rem.

I did measure my fired case necks for reference to yours, .2955 was the common number over 10 cases.

 

[NW Hunter]

I remeasured my .140" turned necks and they average .142" to .145" after two firings. I will see if the .292 bushing will bring good groups back.
BrentM , did you do your ladder tests with mag primers?

 

[BrentM]

Yes sir. I wanted to see how the ladder went with the mags. My current load is with large rifle and works nicely. Same powder charge with mag is 30-50 fps faster.

 

[NW Hunter]

Thanks Brent. Appreciate your time and input.
Hope your day was great.
Randy

 

[NW Hunter]

I got back out to the range today with two thoughts in mind.

First was to work with the .150" off the lands load that showed promise earlier.
Results were just so so.

Out of respect to Greyfox and all he has shared with us, my second goal was to reshoot .075" off the lands. I looked at some older targets and thought I might have a node between 57.0gr. and 57.5 gr. of Retumbo using a 292 bushing. I settled on 57.3 grains with the 292 bushing.

I did a primer test on these loads using 215M, CCI BR2, Wolf LRM and Win LRM.

The 215M and CCI BR2 loads have been shot before and today's groups repeated past groups in shape and size.

The Win LRM showed the same pattern as the 215M.

The Wolf LRM primer shocked me with a .189" group!
Velocity with the Magnetospeed was 2897 fps. I will work up this load to see if I can find a higher velocity node.

Is this what you all would do?

 

[Hotolds442]

I went out today too,we got my sons 6.5x284 dialed in with the VLD's over 59.0gr of Retumbo at .024 off the lands, CCI200. Magnetospeed says 3064. 5 shot group, 4 clover leafed at roughly .030" and one called flyer. Now that that's done, I'll wait for some cooler weather and verify the load then.

 

[NW Hunter]

Things are looking up for us all.

 

[Greyfox]

The Wolf LRM primer shocked me with a .189" group!
Velocity with the Magnetospeed was 2897 fps. I will work up this load to see if I can find a higher velocity node.

Is this what you all would do?

Yes, I would try that. I'm curious about how old your lot of Retumbo is. Your velocities match those I was getting about four years ago. More recent lots over the last couple of years are consistently running around 3000FPS in my LRH with 57gr/magnum primers. Given your Magnetospeed is giving accurate velocities, and your Retumbo behaves like my older lots, you may be able to take the charge up to 59gr (work up slowly though). 58-59gr was the high node in my older lots compared to my current lots, high node at 57-57.5 gr.

 

[NW Hunter]

I believe I bought that lot January of 2015. The store told me they had just got it in. I purchased 4 one pounders of the same lot #.
I was shocked that the Wolf LRM gave less velocity than the CCI BR2 primer.
This lot of Retumbo has given a velocity of 3010fps with 58.2 grains and Fed 215M primers with a 24" barrel.

Anyway, I will work up to find where the higher node is.
Thanks Greyfox