I bought a 6.5 55, Remington 700 came with a shilen heavy barrel, and 250 different makes of moly coated bullets all 120 gr. I payed 650 bucks for all, I have been shooting the 120 grs there good (1 " at 100yds) Not great, what will the 140 gr do ? What do you guys shoot in your 6.5 55. Oh IMR4350 42gr as well.
120 or 140 for your 6.5 55
- Thread starter huntersmith
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How badly is the throat worn????
What is your twist rate??? It might not be able to stabilize longer bullets.
How many rounds down the bore???
All of this has a lot to do with answering your question.
I fooled around with Moly Coated bullets for a brief time period. What a pain in the butt.
Many are under the impression that with moly coated bullets, you don't have to clean the copper fouling out of the bore. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When the accuracy starts to go off, it goes fast and doesn't come back until all of the copper and moly grunge have been cleaned out. Then, you have to shoot enough rounds to "season" the bore again, just like some rifle require a few rounds down the bore to get to the sweet spot.
With "some" rifles, moly coating your bullets will actually increase the span between cleanings.
In many cases, I believe those rifles would have been the jewels we all love and occasionally come across that seldom foul and seem to retain accuracy forever.
There is also a myth that moly coated bores, from the bullets, will last longer. Not in my experience.
There were several of us on the HBR circuit that fell for this line and bought all of the paraphernalia to coat the bullets with moly powder and carnuba wax. It involved cleaning the bullets, tumbling in steel balls to impregnate the moly onto the bullets, then tumbling in a separate tumbler, again with different steel balls, to impregnate the carnuba wax into the moly on the bullets.
If you got a mix and match bunch of bullets with that rifle, you can bet the previous owner wasn't doing a lot better than you are. Usually, when a good shooting recipe is found, most people don't try to fix what isn't broken anymore.
I'm willing to bet that rifle has a 1-9 or 1-10 twist rate as well, which won't stabilize 140 grain bullets well. The only way I can get 140 grain bullets to shoot in a 6.5-06 I have, which I bought from Eagleye several years ago, with a 1-9 twist, is with flat based bullets, loaded to the nuts.
Another issue you may have is whomever reamed the chamber, used a reamer with a long throat, for 160 grain bullets.
The result of such a reamer, is a long unrifled throat, that is called freebore. In some cases, if the throat measurement is tight enough, accuracy won't be effected. It is a rare rifle that isn't though.
What is your twist rate??? It might not be able to stabilize longer bullets.
How many rounds down the bore???
All of this has a lot to do with answering your question.
I fooled around with Moly Coated bullets for a brief time period. What a pain in the butt.
Many are under the impression that with moly coated bullets, you don't have to clean the copper fouling out of the bore. Nothing could be further from the truth.
When the accuracy starts to go off, it goes fast and doesn't come back until all of the copper and moly grunge have been cleaned out. Then, you have to shoot enough rounds to "season" the bore again, just like some rifle require a few rounds down the bore to get to the sweet spot.
With "some" rifles, moly coating your bullets will actually increase the span between cleanings.
In many cases, I believe those rifles would have been the jewels we all love and occasionally come across that seldom foul and seem to retain accuracy forever.
There is also a myth that moly coated bores, from the bullets, will last longer. Not in my experience.
There were several of us on the HBR circuit that fell for this line and bought all of the paraphernalia to coat the bullets with moly powder and carnuba wax. It involved cleaning the bullets, tumbling in steel balls to impregnate the moly onto the bullets, then tumbling in a separate tumbler, again with different steel balls, to impregnate the carnuba wax into the moly on the bullets.
If you got a mix and match bunch of bullets with that rifle, you can bet the previous owner wasn't doing a lot better than you are. Usually, when a good shooting recipe is found, most people don't try to fix what isn't broken anymore.
I'm willing to bet that rifle has a 1-9 or 1-10 twist rate as well, which won't stabilize 140 grain bullets well. The only way I can get 140 grain bullets to shoot in a 6.5-06 I have, which I bought from Eagleye several years ago, with a 1-9 twist, is with flat based bullets, loaded to the nuts.
Another issue you may have is whomever reamed the chamber, used a reamer with a long throat, for 160 grain bullets.
The result of such a reamer, is a long unrifled throat, that is called freebore. In some cases, if the throat measurement is tight enough, accuracy won't be effected. It is a rare rifle that isn't though.
mossyhorns
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"..... I have been shooting the 120 grs there good (1 " at 100yds) Not great, "
We clearly have a different opinion of what is " great" accuracy. Assuming this is a hunting rifle you're doing very well with this sort of accuracy. I shoot both 120's and 140's in my swede and have had " great" results with both. Overall my smallest groups have been with the 140'g bullets ( hornadys actually). Re 19, 22 and IMR 4350 all produce tight little clusters.
One of my rifles has a Shilen barrel with 1:8 inch twist and likes both
We clearly have a different opinion of what is " great" accuracy. Assuming this is a hunting rifle you're doing very well with this sort of accuracy. I shoot both 120's and 140's in my swede and have had " great" results with both. Overall my smallest groups have been with the 140'g bullets ( hornadys actually). Re 19, 22 and IMR 4350 all produce tight little clusters.
One of my rifles has a Shilen barrel with 1:8 inch twist and likes both
I have have had luck with everything from 100gr Hornady's up tp 140gr all with success. There is no guarantee the 140's will shoot any better. Only way to know is to try them and see. My current hunting bullets are 120 Speer's in the wife's Mauser and 130 Accubonds in my savage.
You guys need to quit beating your own drums and get back to the OPs question.
Don't get me wrong, your information is great, as long as "HIS" rifle is capable of using it.
He has a Rem 700 with a custom fitted barrel. Take a look at what Shilen offers. Many of the twist rate options are to slow to stabilize bullets over 120 grains. Some are to fast and induce so much twist in the light bullets that they will spin apart at high pressure loadings.
Your rifles, may or may not have a similar twist rate. Include your twist rate and barrel length with your information and you will be helping him out. If not, you're leading him down an expensive garden path.
He might be able ot get away with flat based 140 grain bullets but not boat tails. etc.
Just a few weeks ago, I found a barreled action going for cheap. It was chambered for the 260 Rem. The problem with it was, it had a 1-12 twist rate. 100 grain bullets were the max that it would stabilize. It shot them very fast and into extremely tight groups.
Of course, the rifle had been built as a special purpose varmint hunter. A job, it did and still does very well. I sold it to a fellow that is plagued with coyotes and ground squirrels. He gets all excited talking about it.
We don't know what the OP has. Neither does he from the sound of things, unless he's made some effort to find out.
Those glorious old Swedes and Krags, are wonderfully accurate, if they have decent bores. They have 1-7 1/2in twist rates.
Remington, made them in 1-9 twist rates as did Winchester. Not sure about Ruger. My Tikka T3, has a 1-8 twist rate. My Bench Rest rifle has a 1-7/12 twist rate.
With the 6.5 offerings, twist rates are extremely important as to which bullets will shoot well.
The fact that the OP was given around 250 120 grain bullets of different makes, suggest a slow twist rate. On the other hand, maybe the original owner didn't want to shoot heavier bullets and was using lighter bullets which don't work as well and are spinning to fast.
Now, why did the original owner get rid of the rifle. Just wanted a change???? Doubtful, if it shot well. He may have been using extreme pressure loads or just did a lot of shooting with unacceptable powders and burned the leade way out there. Maybe not.
The OP, will save a lot of time and money by establishing his barrel's twist rate before he even starts reloading or buying ammo for it. At least he will have a definite place to start from.
The OP, is strangely silent. Makes me wonder if he even has a PAL???????????
c-fbmi, that is a very nice group.
Slow powders are the 6.5 bore's best friend. Now, I have to load some of those up and give it a try. What length is your barrel??? Is it the standard Classic 22in bbl??
I've used H1000 but even though accuracy was just as good, velocity was nowhere near yours.
Don't get me wrong, your information is great, as long as "HIS" rifle is capable of using it.
He has a Rem 700 with a custom fitted barrel. Take a look at what Shilen offers. Many of the twist rate options are to slow to stabilize bullets over 120 grains. Some are to fast and induce so much twist in the light bullets that they will spin apart at high pressure loadings.
Your rifles, may or may not have a similar twist rate. Include your twist rate and barrel length with your information and you will be helping him out. If not, you're leading him down an expensive garden path.
He might be able ot get away with flat based 140 grain bullets but not boat tails. etc.
Just a few weeks ago, I found a barreled action going for cheap. It was chambered for the 260 Rem. The problem with it was, it had a 1-12 twist rate. 100 grain bullets were the max that it would stabilize. It shot them very fast and into extremely tight groups.
Of course, the rifle had been built as a special purpose varmint hunter. A job, it did and still does very well. I sold it to a fellow that is plagued with coyotes and ground squirrels. He gets all excited talking about it.
We don't know what the OP has. Neither does he from the sound of things, unless he's made some effort to find out.
Those glorious old Swedes and Krags, are wonderfully accurate, if they have decent bores. They have 1-7 1/2in twist rates.
Remington, made them in 1-9 twist rates as did Winchester. Not sure about Ruger. My Tikka T3, has a 1-8 twist rate. My Bench Rest rifle has a 1-7/12 twist rate.
With the 6.5 offerings, twist rates are extremely important as to which bullets will shoot well.
The fact that the OP was given around 250 120 grain bullets of different makes, suggest a slow twist rate. On the other hand, maybe the original owner didn't want to shoot heavier bullets and was using lighter bullets which don't work as well and are spinning to fast.
Now, why did the original owner get rid of the rifle. Just wanted a change???? Doubtful, if it shot well. He may have been using extreme pressure loads or just did a lot of shooting with unacceptable powders and burned the leade way out there. Maybe not.
The OP, will save a lot of time and money by establishing his barrel's twist rate before he even starts reloading or buying ammo for it. At least he will have a definite place to start from.
The OP, is strangely silent. Makes me wonder if he even has a PAL???????????
c-fbmi, that is a very nice group.
Slow powders are the 6.5 bore's best friend. Now, I have to load some of those up and give it a try. What length is your barrel??? Is it the standard Classic 22in bbl??
I've used H1000 but even though accuracy was just as good, velocity was nowhere near yours.
If you have a cleaning rod and I'm sure you do, wrap a cleaning patch around your jag, so that it fits tightly in the bore.
Mark your cleaning rod in line with a reference point on the rifle. Also mark a top dead center back by the push handle.
Push your rod down the bore, until the "top dead center mark" is at the top again.
Make another mark at the same reference point used when you started pushing the jag.
Now, push the rod all the way through, take off the patch and pull the rod back.
Measure the distance between the two reference marks you used to establish where the rod started and where the rod made one complete turn.
The whole process will take less than five minutes. Maybe more if it's your first time.
The rifle was a good deal, especially if the throat is in decent condition. That barrel is worth $400. If you add the cost of installation and reamer, add another $250-$300.
The stock and action are worth a minimum of $350 and if it has a match trigger, depending on type, more.
If the throat is worn, that barrel can be set back by a gunsmith, until the rifling is almost pristine again. If the smith has a reamer, it may cost another $250 to bring it back to being a tack driver, if it ever was.
That rifle should be capable of 1/4 inch groups at 100m.
You don't mention if the scope came with the rifle.
There is no adjustable parallax on it that I can see.
You need a proper match grade scope, with adjustable parallax to get pinpoint accuracy.
The scope you have is likely only parallax free at 150m, this will give you up to 1/2 inch of parallax at short ranges and increase accordingly at longer ranges.
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Yep all factory original, one of my Classics has a 24" tube but I'm not there right now and I don't remember offhand which one it is, I think it's the Bob. I do not know the factory twist either, just that I have 8 boxes of 140 Partitions and this is the bullet I want to shoot from this rifle, so far so good. This Rem has a very long throat, good thing it has a long action to go with it.........My COAL IIRC is 3.23".
I'm using the first Lapua brass I've ever owned and it came with the rifle, WLRP completes the load.
I haven't tried 120s or 130s as I want this rifle to shoot the Parts that I have. I also have 2 X 260s and a 264 WM in this bore but have other bullet plans for each of them.
I have accumulated something approaching 10,000 bullets for the 6.5 over the years, so I have certain bullets designated to certain rifles for certain purposes.
I'm using the first Lapua brass I've ever owned and it came with the rifle, WLRP completes the load.
I haven't tried 120s or 130s as I want this rifle to shoot the Parts that I have. I also have 2 X 260s and a 264 WM in this bore but have other bullet plans for each of them.
I have accumulated something approaching 10,000 bullets for the 6.5 over the years, so I have certain bullets designated to certain rifles for certain purposes.
Here's some photos with the M65 using IMR 4350 and 39 grns. of the stuff.
First time out with this rifle.......thanks Kevan.......
...... and new to me Leupold scope.
And to MarbleMouth, full target too.........
It's the target on the left..................right?.................
[URL=http://s614.photobucket.com/user/kamlooky/media/Tikka%20M65%206point5x55/DSC06067_zps1df08cc9.jpg.html]
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First time out with this rifle.......thanks Kevan.......
...... and new to me Leupold scope.And to MarbleMouth, full target too.........
It's the target on the left..................right?.................
[URL=http://s614.photobucket.com/user/kamlooky/media/Tikka%20M65%206point5x55/DSC06067_zps1df08cc9.jpg.html]
[/URL][URL=http://s614.photobucket.com/user/kamlooky/media/Tikka%20M65%206point5x55/DSC06080_zps49e2530f.jpg.html]
[/URL][URL=http://s614.photobucket.com/user/kamlooky/media/Tikka%20M65%206point5x55/DSC06079_zps5e5877a1.jpg.html]
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