6.5 Creed with 120 grain pills and H4350

"My 20 " Ultra light 6.5 CM loves 43.5 grs RL17"

Jim how is accuracy with this load in the 120's?

I have a Remington Seven SS HS with 20 inch barrel hung up in the Calgary mail (since Dec 7), and some 120 grain Barnes TSX with dies not shipped yet from Epps. RL17 is in the bullet room all ready to go and will be my first sets of reloads.
 
With the SMK 123 and h4350(mine didn't like the SMK 120) could get .75" groups at best and some in the ladder test around 1.5". Tried imr4350 and groups went down to .25" in ladder test to .75 at worst. 5 shot groups at 100m.
140 hybrid Berger's with h4350 still has my best consistent grouping, for some reason I keep trying the lighter bullets.
 
I will try 140s yet. I have some good groups now but 2730fps for a 120 is a little slow. Might be better off with 140s. I think 2800 is alright but the ELDM 120 has a large ES. May be chronograph error. I will try it again yet. That one gave me 2736 and 2742 and 2790 and grouped .522".
When I made the previous post I thought it was 2800 but I was wrong. They're both a little slow.
The SMK velocity was 2723 and 2732 and 2737 and grouped at .550".
 
shotcup said:
"My 20 " Ultra light 6.5 CM loves 43.5 grs RL17"

Jim how is accuracy with this load in the 120's?

I have a Remington Seven SS HS with 20 inch barrel hung up in the Calgary mail (since Dec 7), and some 120 grain Barnes TSX with dies not shipped yet from Epps. RL17 is in the bullet room all ready to go and will be my first sets of reloads.
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Avg 3 shot group is 3/4" to 1 " at a hundred and will HOLD about moa at 200 and 300 yards too ! Never group tested pass 300 ! RJ
 
I tried varget today and achieved spectacular results.
38.5 grains under a 120 eldm produced a .430" group at 2750fps. And, 42 grains of H4350 put 5 eldm 120s into .920" at 2805 fps. Each group had an ES of 10 fps. Every varget load from 38.0 to 39.5 grains was sub moa.
 
Some have stated that H4350 is cold sensitive. I use it in my 6.5 x 55 with large magnum primers to compensate. Seems to work.
 
chuck nelson said:
I wouldn’t.
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The original Hornady duplication load was using Varget for the 120 and 140 grains bullet.
The load data was printed in the back of each box of ammo they were selling.

For the H4350..
https://www.americanrifleman.org/Webcontent/pdf/2009-6/200961145351-hornadycreedmoor.pdf

For short range the 120 is shooting very well even better than the heavies. The Pro compete - they shoot long range and the heavy help buck the wind. For range work 100-300 , the 120 is more than enough and shoot sub moa in many guns.
 
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Meroh said:
Some have stated that H4350 is cold sensitive. I use it in my 6.5 x 55 with large magnum primers to compensate. Seems to work.
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H4350 is now an Extreme Series of powder - stable as Varget - temperature wise.
But I did have some older H4350 , and they are not Extreme series. Only the new offering are.
Check the container for the Extreme logo...
 
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My can of H4350 says extreme on it. It gave very consistent velocity yesterday. It was only -4°C.
I'm still surprised that the accuracy I'm getting is at a slower speed. I expected the 120s to be accurate going a little faster. I'm using Federal 210M small rifle primers. There doesnt seem to be any ignition problems so far.
 
Tokay444 said:
In that weight class I’d be looking to shoot something faster burning, like Varget.
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chuck nelson said:
I wouldn’t.
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thatmikeguy said:
I tried varget today and achieved spectacular results.
38.5 grains under a 120 eldm produced a .430" group at 2750fps. And, 42 grains of H4350 put 5 eldm 120s into .920" at 2805 fps. Each group had an ES of 10 fps. Every varget load from 38.0 to 39.5 grains was sub moa.
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You’re welcome.
 
So far, the 120 smk seems to prefer H4350 and the 120 eldm prefers varget. Best smk group with varget was .75".
Maybe it would tighten if I played with more charge weights. With H4350, the best smk group was .550".
 
thatmikeguy said:
My can of H4350 says extreme on it. It gave very consistent velocity yesterday. It was only -4°C.
I'm still surprised that the accuracy I'm getting is at a slower speed. I expected the 120s to be accurate going a little faster. I'm using Federal 210M small rifle primers. There doesnt seem to be any ignition problems so far.
Click to expand...

If your rifle barrel has a 1-8, or faster twist rate, it might be spinning them a bit fast for optimum stability at higher velocities. My 260 has a 1-7.5 twist and I can load hotter but the groups open up pretty fast. I've tried different seating depths but velocity always seems best a mid spec.

My Tikka T3 does the same thing with lighter bullets.
 
bearhunter said:
If your rifle barrel has a 1-8, or faster twist rate, it might be spinning them a bit fast for optimum stability at higher velocities. My 260 has a 1-7.5 twist and I can load hotter but the groups open up pretty fast. I've tried different seating depths but velocity always seems best a mid spec.

My Tikka T3 does the same thing with lighter bullets.
Click to expand...

That's interesting. I use T3X with a 1:8" twist.
 
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I actually had 2 varget loads that had excellent precision.
38.5 and 39.5 grains which produced 2750 and 2800 fps.
The faster load grouped .490" and had an ES of 14 fps. Only slightly worse than the lighter load with a .430 group and an ES of 10fps.
 
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