Mine has been awesome, shooting great. It does seem a bit soft though..
New 6.5CM Alpha Brass questions
- Thread starter Ntv69
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Mine has been awesome, shooting great. It does seem a bit soft though..
I did back off even more yes to 40.0-41.0 grains and still had a couple of primers punch through at 40.6. Some primers pretty badly cratered. And had even more velocity with less powder this time. I am guessing it is because of a new lot of H4350? With Hornady brass I had exactly 2700fps @ 41.5 grains of H4350. Extremely accurate with good chrono #'s. With 41.0 grains in Alpha brass I got 2756 fps with the new lot of powder. 2655fps @ 40.0 grains. I even had primer metal getting forced into my firing pin hole in my bolt. But still no pressure signs such as heavy bolt lift or ejector marks at all. Primers do not seem to be flattened to the point of concern.
My next step is go back to the Hornady brass and see if it fires as good as it did before with absolutely no issues. That will give me an idea if this new lot of H4350 is actually that much hotter as well.
Also I have been researching and Bergara B14 has had issues with punching primers with small primer brass and Bergara recommends large rifle only-which is what I have from Alpha. Apparently the firing pin hole in the bolt was a bit on the large side and at some point Bergara started making the holes smaller. Bolt shrouds have also been breaking on people with hand loads in B14 6.5CM. There is an updated bolt shroud I will get my hands on as well.
May be an issue with that combination of brass in this rifle. I will try the Hornady again like I said and report back.
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Talked to Gary at Big Horn as well and he was suprised to hear the issue. He forwarded my email to Alpha Munitions and quickly got a reply from the owner soon after who even went as far as giving me his personal cell phone #. Have to hand it to Alpha for customer service. And their brass is very very consistent with incredible tolerances. Just have to figure out what the deal is here...
I loaded up 10 rounds at 40 grains H4350 and headed to range. This was my first time reloading so just wanted to make sure they went bang lol. First 3 shot were pretty damn good for a newbie with brand new brass untouched and a random charge. PM me your email if you want some pics of primers, I'm not very good at judging them.
https://imgur.com/a/zdPntK9
I would for sure make up Hornady brass rounds and test with the new powder.
Also I find new brass springs in, and once fired springs out. Maybe too much neck tension on the new brass, and new powder, and the thicker cases? I plan on going with Alpha brass when my Hornady runs out, however my Hornady is shooting great at 41.1 H4350, 140 VLDh @ 2710.
New batch of H4350 is definitely quite a bit hotter. I was at exactly 2700 fps with 41.5 grains in Hornady brass. Now I'm up to 2735 at 41.5 grains. Still no pressure signs and shoots under .5"
41.0 grains in Alpha with the new lot of powder gets me 2756 fps and is hard on primers. 40.4 grains gets 2693 fps. 40.6 grains is 2720 and starts to get hard on primers again.
Back to the range soon for more. I will try some 1× fired Alpha brass.
Looks like the Alpha will work for me at reduced charges but I lose velocity as compared to the Hornady brass, at least 30-40 fps.
41.0 grains in Alpha with the new lot of powder gets me 2756 fps and is hard on primers. 40.4 grains gets 2693 fps. 40.6 grains is 2720 and starts to get hard on primers again.
Back to the range soon for more. I will try some 1× fired Alpha brass.
Looks like the Alpha will work for me at reduced charges but I lose velocity as compared to the Hornady brass, at least 30-40 fps.
- Location
- sudbury, ontario
And where did you guys get the brass again ...anyone shooting out of a semi ?...any results ?
Your Alpha looks like it has a little more catering than your Hornady at 40.0
If your B14 is anything like mine you are near max load or at max load already. I punctured a couple primers at 40.6 in Alpha brass. But my new lot of 4350 is also hotter.
Alot less case capacity in Alpha. I filled up 1 Hornady and 1 Alpha to 41.5 just to see how full the cases were. The Alpha definitly fills up the case quite noticeably.
Your H4350 seems a lot hotter than mine. What do you use for a chronograph? I did some Satterlee load development, loading up 3 rounds each, starting at 38.8 up to 40.6 in 0.2 increments. Velocities ranged from 2500 fps@38.8 grains up to 2612 fps @40.6 grains on my MagnetoSpeed. For a starting reference i shot 3 rounds of Factory Hornady Match 140s and averaged 2675fps. FYI i have a 22" Barrel.
As far as primer cratering, they all look similar to my eye, if not even seemed to be better then the last time out. See pictures, lower charged on left in order up to max charge. FYI i just have CCI 200 Primers.
https://imgur.com/gywhXzg
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My new lot of H4350 is probobly hotter than yours yes. Definitly quite a bit hotter than my last lot. I have 2 more inches of barrel than you as well, so that probably acconuts for that bit of velocity difference. My 24" barrel shoots factory Hornady 140 ELDM pretty much right on 2710 fps just like it says on the box.
I use Lab Radar to chrono.
It's hard to tell in the pics. But the primers do look a little bit beat up.
But a bigger concern is as far as I can tell from the pic, is it looks like you have pretty signifigant ejector marks on the case heads. That is a definite for sure pressure sign that you want to back off from. It looks like even your 38.8 has ejector marks.
Pretty bizzare results for sure. I ran 40.5 grains today in 1×fired Alpha brass and got 2723 fps. ES-26 SD-8.4 over 9 shots. Group was ok but not where the gun should be or was. Primers all looked good. No signs of pressure. But that is my absolute max load for this brass in my gun. I will be backing of a decent bit more from that and working up this Friday.
I ran Hornady brass again today as well at 41.5 just to see what happened. 2739 fps ES 25 SD 7.7 with 10 shots in .55"
Suprised to see those swipe marks on your cases @ 38.8 and 2500 fps. I have had no signs of pressure at all. No heavy bolt lift. No ejector marks at all. Just punched tbrough 3 primers somehow and have had crater issues on hotter charges.
I use Lab Radar to chrono.
It's hard to tell in the pics. But the primers do look a little bit beat up.
But a bigger concern is as far as I can tell from the pic, is it looks like you have pretty signifigant ejector marks on the case heads. That is a definite for sure pressure sign that you want to back off from. It looks like even your 38.8 has ejector marks.
Pretty bizzare results for sure. I ran 40.5 grains today in 1×fired Alpha brass and got 2723 fps. ES-26 SD-8.4 over 9 shots. Group was ok but not where the gun should be or was. Primers all looked good. No signs of pressure. But that is my absolute max load for this brass in my gun. I will be backing of a decent bit more from that and working up this Friday.
I ran Hornady brass again today as well at 41.5 just to see what happened. 2739 fps ES 25 SD 7.7 with 10 shots in .55"
Suprised to see those swipe marks on your cases @ 38.8 and 2500 fps. I have had no signs of pressure at all. No heavy bolt lift. No ejector marks at all. Just punched tbrough 3 primers somehow and have had crater issues on hotter charges.
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Why PLEASE ? RJ
