Good morning from here in Wisconsin, my name is Dave and am new here. I've been a long admirer of the concept of long range shooting with rifles that also cross over into practical hunting outfits. I've shot many calibers and my favorite is 7mm REM mag. Currently I shoot it out of a Tikka t3 ultralight. Needless to say, when you pull the trigger, you know it. The gun bucks and contorts, but when you look through the scope, 3 shots will be touching each other at 100 yards. It is a very good hunting g rifle, but is brutal at the range. I saw and researched my first Cooper 10 or 12 years ago and finnaly "pulled the trigger on one" a week ago and adorned her with a Swarovski Z5 3.5 x 18 x44 and the rifle is an Excalibur chambered in 6.5x284 and is their long range model. The rifle has the heavy fluted Sporter barrel with factory muzzle brake. The speed k sheet says 24" barrel, but it measures longer, and I'm not I cluding muzzle brake. Maybe they measure them different??? No big deal, just interesting. At the range yesterday for the first time and doing the recommended barrel break-in I came to find that Nosler Trophy ammo shoots 1.5" groups at 100 yards, with the 140s DOI g slightly better than the 130s. One thing I noticed were they had a COAL of only 2.8" which in modern long action chambers is quite short. I then proceeded to some handloads that are 3.00" loaded with Nosler Acubond 130s driven by 51.5 grains of RE 22. Groups tightened to one cloverleaf ragged hole that was under an inch at 100 yards. Out at three hundred they spread out to just over 3". I think k I'm off to a good start. By the way, that Swarovski is crystal clear and gave me back 20 years to my 55 year old eyes. Thanks for letting me share, does anyone E have any loads in this chambers g they would like to share? Thanks again.
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New Cooper 6.5x284 LR
- Thread starter bearfart
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WeiserBucks
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Factory ammo is loaded to fit a short action, I would reload exclusively for your rifle. Use lapua brass , H4831 , H1000 or Retumbo. Depending on the twist, I would use 130 and 140 grain bullets.
Thanks, so far my best is 2" groups at 300 yards with 130 Nosler Acubonds blasting out of Nosler brass and 52 grains of RE 22. My 100 yard groups yesterday were better with 51.5 grains of RE 22. My shots today with RE 19 were not as good as my shots with RE 22. My COAL is 3.000" so far for all handloads. So far the rifle has been a joy to shoot...Thank goodness Cooper has that cheap rebarreling lol.
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- Dec 23, 2010
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Tagging this. Been looking at these Cooper Model 52 JLR and XLR long range rifles hard lately.
bearfart, congrats. Rifle sounds like it's shaking out nicely! Any chance you could post a pic of it?
bearfart, congrats. Rifle sounds like it's shaking out nicely! Any chance you could post a pic of it?
Axl
Well-Known Member
Welcome Bear! you have a great combo there. I have 50 year old eyes and bought my first z5 a couple years ago WOW what a scope. Just bought another last week didn't know what I was missing
Very nice rifle! I had the opportunity to handle the Cooper LR a few weeks ago. Great looks and nicely balanced. I have a Cooper 52 in 6.5x284 that I have been shooting for several years that has the same weight/contour Wilson custom barrel, 1:8 twist, fluted and braked , It will group .2-.3MOA using 140 Berger or JLKs with 58gr of Retumbo, Fed210, Lapua brass. Velocity is 2985. COAL 3.0"/.075" off the lands.
Yes, the Berger 140gr Hunting VLD's
I have a Cooper Model 52 with a 26" barrel. I'm shooting the140gr Berger VLD Hunting bullets using 55gr of Reloader 26 with Lapua brass and CCI BR2 primers. I'm seating them .020 off the lands and my velocity is averaging 2986 fps.
At 100 yards they make one big hole if I do my part and pretty much everything I've tried shooting through it has shot well. This is a group I shot the other day at 500 yards to verify my data.
At 100 yards they make one big hole if I do my part and pretty much everything I've tried shooting through it has shot well. This is a group I shot the other day at 500 yards to verify my data.
With the 26" barrel and 1 in 8 twist I am very interested in that Retumbo loading. On some other boards they advertise the same loadings, but some use the Federal Match magnum primer. Have you tried them? My first loadings will be with the 210 primers looking for overpressure signs before trying the 215s...And of course seeing which is most accurate.
As you have seen, Retumbo loads with the 140gr bullets has been used with both Federal 210M and Federal 215 primers. I have done testing with both primers and been able to achieve good accuracy and ES with either primer. I have found that using the same charge of Retumbo(57gr), the Federal 215M's will produce 50-75 FPS greater velocity. This velocity can be matched by increasing the charge weight of Retumbo by .5-1.0gr and using the Federal 210M primer with no apparent difference in pressure with my rifles. I settled on using the higher charge of 58gr Retumbo with the 210M in my Cooper because my accuracy and ES values, while perfectly acceptable with the 215M, were better with the 210M and 58gr charge of Retumbo. As with seating depth, charge and primer selection can be specific to a particular rifle/barrel.
My Cooper is exceptionally accurate @2975FPS with single digit ES.
Left target-100 yards, right target 200 yards
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Thank you very much. This will save me time and money...and not overstress my rifle. I've allready amassed the components and have fireformed Nosler brass, but am unable to get to the range for 2 more weeks. But when I do I will report back with results, Dave
