Need help reloading

[a_savage02]

I clean my rifle's when they stop shooting. I would make sure everything is good and tight on my rifle's. I use h 4350 - fed match 210's, and 135 bergers in my 6.5 creedmoor it is a hunting rifle with a #4 barrel but is a tack driver. I anneal my brass after every firing, and that has helped my loading, and accuracy.

Yes I have heard people do that I might start cleaning a little less. I was able to pick up 8lbs of h4350 from brownells a month or two ago haven't started using it I have been trying to find multiple powders that will work sense you never know when your gonna be able to find the one that shoots the best in your rifle. I also have 4 different calibers I'm reloading for for target shooting and am trying to get a powder I might be able to use for all? I'm currently loading 30-06 custom build which is shot the best for me. My 6mm creedmoor and 6.5 creedmoor and I'm waiting on a barrel for a .270 I have sitting in the safe and I'm gonna build that into 6.5-06 a square.

 

[Eric H]

Iv tried imr 4350 and am curtly trying staball 6.5. I am thinking of trying VV N-160 I think it'll get me close to full case capacity. It's worked well in my 30-06

Try a combination of 41.5gr H4350, 140gr ELDM and FED210 primers. COAL 2.810 for your 6.5 CM

 

[Oldtime Shooter13]

I had accuracy issues when I was using my magneto speed.

I have heard of accuracy issues with magneto speed attached to barrel? I have never used one for that reason! Get your ballistics data and shoot same load without magneto speed to as a test. That is the very first thing that I would do, don't question everything else until you rule out chit attached to your barrel!
I personally don't like anything strapped, attached or anything in contact with my barrel. Everything else's that you state you are doing sounds to be good reloading practices!

 

[a_savage02]

I have heard of accuracy issues with magneto speed attached to barrel? I have never used one for that reason! Get your ballistics data and shoot same load without magneto speed to as a test. That is the very first thing that I would do, don't question everything else until you rule out chit attached to your barrel!
I personally don't like anything strapped, attached or anything in contact with my barrel. Everything else's that you state you are doing sounds to be good reloading practices!

Yeah Iv come to the conclusion I'm gonna try and shoot some groups at different powder charges and worry about ES and SD later.

 

[Starlite]

It's really impossible to say what is causing your inaccuracy issues with so little to go on but it sounds like you have a good understanding of reloading principals.

Maybe it isn't related to the reloads at all. Good accuracy starts with the 3 "B"s. Barrel, bedding, bullets. Try some factory ammo and see how that rifle shoots. If you get the same accuracy, then it's the rifle that needs attention rather than your handloads.

Agreed. I'll also crimp some loads too. I've been pleasantly with some test loads.

 

[Janno05]

I know that components are hard to come by these days, so I have tried to condense down my load development. When you are using a 6 or 6.5 creed, let someone else do the leg work and just work up to loads and refine as needed. This is an excellent resource, I just picked their most common load with H4350 and a 105gr nosler cc and tried it out when I built my 6 creed. I was shooting sub 1/2 moa groups while initially breaking in the barrel, and ES is single digit. I can't shoot any better than that, so I haven't tried tweaking anything.

6 & 6.5 Creedmoor Load Data – What The Pros Use

This past year I asked the 173 of the top-ranked precision rifle shooters in the country about the ...

precisionrifleblog.com

 

[swat]

if you go out to shoot fire a fouling round in your barrel first, then let it set for a few minutes. my load is exactly the same as above. but start out in the 39.6 grains. watch for pressure sign's.

 

[Tree Farmer]

I'm trying to develop a load for a 280 AI. So far, so good. Here's what I did:

1) started with a middle book load and did a seating depth test. The rifle showed a real preference for .060 off the lands.

2) did an OCW test from the middle load up in .3 gr increments with the preferred seating depth and observed grouping. The rifle again showed a preference for higher pressure/velocity. I used my MS chrono during this phase and my es was lowest with with the highest velocity.

3) my next step will take this high end load and start refining powder charge, seating depth, neck tension, etc, etc. It took me less than 30 shots to get to this step. I think I got lucky with this rifle, but this process may help you narrow down what your rifle likes and then go from there.

 

[spladi]

A whole lot of help expressed here for you, but it sounds like you have a pretty good handle on 100 yd. accuracy anyway. How about your handle on cleaning and rounds fired?

 

[TXTrained]

It's really impossible to say what is causing your inaccuracy issues with so little to go on but it sounds like you have a good understanding of reloading principals.

Maybe it isn't related to the reloads at all. Good accuracy starts with the 3 "B"s. Barrel, bedding, bullets. Try some factory ammo and see how that rifle shoots. If you get the same accuracy, then it's the rifle that needs attention rather than your handloads.

Sound Advice

 

[Stgraves260]

There are so many variables that have a key role into reload. The variables I use are twist rate of my barrel. That way I know what grain bullets I can shoot. Temperature stable powders. Then I refer to my reloading books for that bullet manufacture I'm loading for. For instance I shoot Berger, so I have Berger's reloading book. I shoot Hornady, so I have a Hornady reloading book as well. In your book it will tell you your most accurate loads and your fastest bullets. I lean towards accuracy. If you are chasing speed then you are also probably chasing kinetic energy. So in my opinion if you are chasing those 2 things and can not achieve them in the caliber you are using than you need to change calibers. What I mean is don't buy a 300 Win Mag and expect 22-250 velocity. Don't buy a 6 MM and expect 7 Rem Mag energy because you have this Theory in your head that if you can load a 6MM at 5,000 FPS you can achieve the same knockdown power as a 7 Rem Mag. I hope this helps.

 

[rsbhunter]

Ok, honestly did not read all the posts, but if you are "annealing" with 750° tempilac, you're not really annealing...I've just finished building an induction annealer... And while thats no great achievement, the research I did on annealing did educate me. Watch the " Reese on the range " videos on annealing and Eric Cortina videos on you tube.....you need somewhere in the 900° to 1000° temp range to anneal for the short time we heat it, without it migrating to the head area....not saying this is the solution to you're situation, but it might help....also, Barnes bullets always have shot well for me....rsbhunter

 

[Chrsm]

Wow the guys head is going to explode

 

[SuperBruce]

I have been cleaning barrels after ever range day. Cleaning back down to bare metal. But I might start just doing carbon removal tell I get to about 200-300 rounds down the barrel then do a more thorough cleaning. What do you recommend Iv been watching Eric cortina on YouTube and you cleans his rifles after every time he shoots. He says it's one variable he does and knows it won't cause him any accuracy issues cause his barrel is always clean. I mean I'm no F Class shooter but I figured it wouldn't hurt always having a clean barrel.

First off, as others have already stated: if your rifle won't shoot a box of factory 140 eldm ammo it's probably a rifle thing and not your ammo, so a quick way to narrow things down. Now on with the show.

Only an anecdote, but for me "cleaning back down to bare metal" has had different results in different barrels. On a factory rifle that meant stripping lots of copper out and it could take a good 5 or more shots to "stabilize" the barrel again. I wasted an embarrassing amount of ammo figuring that one out. Now on my proof research barrels, which gather next to no copper, cleaning out the carbon is basically "cleaning back down to bare metal". With those barrels the first shot post cleaning will make the group ~1 MOA and the remainder will be to their ~0.5 MOA which is where I typically want the group size.
Also consider trying some Hornady ELDM bullets, preferable the 140's if you can find them. I've had great luck with medium jumps with hornady bullets: they don't need to be right at the lands and according to the precision rifle blog that may even be where group sizes are least consistent. Wrt powder, I've found Staball to be a great powder for many applications but the burn nodes are on the narrow side and tend to be either right near max or way low. I personally love staball, but H4350 is definitely more forgiving.