Anyone have a load for the 26 nosler yet?

[critrgitr]

Has anyone come up with a load for the new 26 Nosler yet? I've got the brass, dies, and will have a custom rifle any day now. I would like to have a few light loads ready for my smith to test the rifle. I contacted nosler and got no help at all. I really hope their **** poor way of releasing this caliber won't affect its longevity. I am tempted to back down a 6.5 stw load to start, but am hesitant for obvious reasons. Thanks in advance for any advise on loads.gun)

 

[Edd]

What bullet are you wanting to use?

What are the obvious reasons you wouldn't use a 6.5 STW for reference?

 

[65WSM]

Dear Critter Gitter:

I too am interested in what bullets you intend to use. The Nosler load will be with the 130 and 120 Longrange Accubonds as advertised. I have lots of experience with the two 6.5 WSMs and before that with two 264 Winchester Magnums. One of my WSMs is limited (9 inch twist) to the 130 ABs and 130 Berger VLDs. What twist did you get?

I would like to know how much water volume your cases will hold? How long does your chamber allow seating. What is the length of your magazine?

I think you can start with .264 Win Mag data from the threads here and add more powder as the pressure signs allow.

I will bet that VihtaVuori N-570 will be your go to powder for velocity and accuracy with 140 Bergers. Reloader 33 might be good too. Retumbo will be accurate and fast with the 120 and 130 gr bullets.

Ignore old data for the .264 that says that H870 is a wonderful powder. It never gave me anywhere near the advertised velocity and was not accurate. It was surplus from 20mm antiaircraft ammo.

 

[critrgitr]

I am planning on using the 120 gr. barnes ttsx or possibly the 127 gr. lrx. My barrel is a 1-8" twist. 3 groove lilja that should finish close to. 27". The action is a blueprinted remington 700 (used old 7 mag) with factory long action magazine. The case capacity is 93 grains. I am leaning towards trying the retumbo as you mentioned to gain a bit more velocity. I will have to check with my smith on seating length. The saami drawings shows max length as 3.340". Thanks

 

[65WSM]

I purchased 5 boxes of 120 Tipped TSX bullets. I did not find them accurate. I have 4 rifles in the caliber.

I have found the 270 TSX in .375 H&H accurate and I am loading them now 200 TTSX in my .35 Whelen pump. I like the design of the bullet, it seems to be more accurate in larger calibers.

 

[65WSM]

With that kind of case capacity, the 140 Bergers will fly just as fast or faster at 200 yards as the lighter 120 and 130 gr bullets. I have tried Norma 215 and suggest that it VV N-570 and Reloader 33 are going to be your velocity leaders in the 26 Nosler. Why isn't there data on the Nolser page? Has anyone called them? Nosler's factory load seems very conservative, like Remington loads the .264 Win Mag or their Ultra Mag ammunition. If I can get to 3300 FPS comfortably with 67.7 gr of powder with 140 gr Berger bullets from the WSM case, you should see published velocities at least 100 fps over that with 140 gr bullets. Shouldn't the 130 gr bullets be a hundred FPS faster than that? They are in my rifles. 3400 fps with 130 Accubonds (HBN coated) in a nitrocarburized barrel, 26 inches.

 

[65WSM]

Model 70 with a Rock Creek 5R barrel, 26 inches shooting 140 Berger VLDs. Note the velocity at 12 feet.

 

[critrgitr]

Thanks for the help 65wsm. I Talked to nosler several times without much help, and they were getting pretty short on their responses. They keep saying they are developing loads and will post as soon as tested in production brass. I am a bit surprised they released the brass without giving folks a starting point. Maybe their rifles aren't available yet.

I had great accuracy (1/4" 3 shot groups at 100) with 130 ttsx out of my 270 wsm, and really like the 280 lrx out of my 338 edge. I am not a big fan of how the bergers fall apart. Last cow elk I shot with the 210's out of my 300 rum at 400 yards had 4 exit holes and fragments throughout the front shoulders. She didn't go anywhere, but neither have the elk I shot with the ttsx's or lrx's.

I was just about to have a 6.5 wsm built when nosler announced the new 26. Should be a great caliber, but I've got lots of experimenting to do.

 

[Edd]

I don't have any load data but I will tell you how I would approach finding a load for it, if it were my rifle. Using the 127 gr LRX, I would fill the case with Retumbo to the body shoulder junction. Then I would dump the powder and weigh it. My starting load would be about 80% of that with the bullets seated at least .050" from the lands. I would check velocity and watch for pressure signs while increasing the powder. If the case got full before the pressure got too high, I would switch to H1000 and start over.

The reason I would use this method is because I think that is what Hodgdon would tell you to do.

 

[critrgitr]

Thanks Edd, I'll give that a try.

 

[Swamplord]

Will this help ?
Hot off the press !

 

[Edd]

Good grief, you can't get 100% load density with a 129gr bullet and H50BMG.

 

[davkrat]

A 130 grain around 3300 fps. How is that much different than a 7mm Rem Mag? I understand the BC's will be better for similar weight bullets in different calibers. So often it seems gun nuts like splitting hairs

 

[critrgitr]

I saw they finally posted that up yesterday. Looks like lots of experimenting left to do.