School me on the 6.5 Creedmoor

Bustercluck said:
Has anybody tried Staball? Or Staball match on their creedmoor?

I tried some in my 300wsm but didn’t really get into it for anything else.
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I have used Staball in the Creedmoor on the insintace of a friend , it was good but because I had a great supply of 4350 I never chased the Staball thing too much, it was not the big game changer many heralded it to be- only diligent practise with honest log entries will change the game for a shooter:p
Cat
 
iron cat said:
I have used Staball in the Creedmoor on the insintace of a friend , it was good but because I had a great supply of 4350 I never chased the Staball thing too much, it was not the big game changer many heralded it to be- only diligent practise with honest log entries will change the game for a shooter:p
Cat
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I did a bit of reading on the Staball match this morning and I think I’ll try some with heavy 223 and 308 bullets to see what happens.
 
tigrr said:
I will tell you that it will be the toughest caliber to fine tune a load for.
Look at how many are for sale!
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I've found this as well. I've had 2 different 6.5 Cr a Tikka T3X CTR and a Remington 700. I didn't think either of them got to where I would have hoped. Both sub MOA but couldn't get close to 1/2" MOA. On the other hand I've always found 308 and some other rounds quite easy to dial in a load as good I can shoot. Less recoil, less drop and drift with 6.5Cr but I've never been impressed. I'm not a serious competitive shooter though just a couple "fun" matches each year so I'm no expert.
 
I felt the same way FWM with my CM's until I switched to using other powders than H4350. When you research the CM on the web the most recommended powder is H4350 but I never could get mine consistently under 1/2"' for 5 shots. Most groups stayed in the 5/8 - 3/4"' range using match bullets and match rifles. I used up 2-3 barrels trying to get a good shooting load similar to my 6.5 x 47's. Once I switched however, I found it was easy to achieve 1/4" and under using heavy bullets.
 
SteveB said:
I felt the same way FWM with my CM's until I switched to using other powders than H4350. When you research the CM on the web the most recommended powder is H4350 but I never could get mine consistently under 1/2"' for 5 shots. Most groups stayed in the 5/8 - 3/4"' range using match bullets and match rifles. I used up 2-3 barrels trying to get a good shooting load similar to my 6.5 x 47's. Once I switched however, I found it was easy to achieve 1/4" and under using heavy bullets.
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What powder did you switch to
 
SteveB said:
I felt the same way FWM with my CM's until I switched to using other powders than H4350. When you research the CM on the web the most recommended powder is H4350 but I never could get mine consistently under 1/2"' for 5 shots. Most groups stayed in the 5/8 - 3/4"' range using match bullets and match rifles. I used up 2-3 barrels trying to get a good shooting load similar to my 6.5 x 47's. Once I switched however, I found it was easy to achieve 1/4" and under using heavy bullets.
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I’m not trying to be a smartass here… but why did you keep buying creedmoor barrels if they weren’t working for you?
 
FWM
I researched the net and found references to the "Secret Carolina" magic load. This used H4831SC and was rumoured to be very accurate and not particularly high pressure. However, that was with bullets I wasn't using. I then noticed that the powder I use in my 284 was supposed to give great velocities with the bullet weights I use so i tried that. Everything came together extremely fast. Within a few tests I was getting the accuracy I wanted. The powder is VV N160. I find this powder has very wide nodes and very easy to tune in both the 284 and 6.5 CM.
 
BusterCluck
I think that is a reasonable question and not bad at all so don't worry. I have had a lot of experience with the 6.5 x 47 Lapua and had 2 barrels sitting chambered in 6.5 x 284 with very low round counts. I had made a decision to go back to straight 284 because my 162 grain bullets were blowing up and I had lost a couple matches due to that in the 6.5 x 284. Because they were to be rechambered I decided to do both of them and a brand new blank all at the same time in 6.5 CM because that brass is available in both large and small primers. The 6.5 CM case is also only slightly bigger that the Lapua so I figured I would have no issues using the H4350 which is what I used in the Lapua. The first barrel only gave about 3/4" 5 shot groups no matter what I tried so I switched to the second barrel. It did the same with H4350 so I figured I had a rechambered barrel issue and I wasn't impressed with the barrel manufacturer anyway so I switched to the new barrel. It didn't shoot with H4350 either so I started looking for an alternative powder and ran across references to the "Secret Carolina load". Since that was a slower burning powder I tried what I had in-stock which was N160. Once I had a N160 test load in this new barrel I found it would also shoot in the rechambered barrels also.
I find this interesting because I shot several barrels out in the 6.5 x 47 Lapua using H4350 and did well. The capacity of the 6.5 CM must be just over the limit for good burning characteristics using H4350 and 146 grain bullets.
 
SteveB said:
BusterCluck
I think that is a reasonable question and not bad at all so don't worry. I have had a lot of experience with the 6.5 x 47 Lapua and had 2 barrels sitting chambered in 6.5 x 284 with very low round counts. I had made a decision to go back to straight 284 because my 162 grain bullets were blowing up and I had lost a couple matches due to that in the 6.5 x 284. Because they were to be rechambered I decided to do both of them and a brand new blank all at the same time in 6.5 CM because that brass is available in both large and small primers. The 6.5 CM case is also only slightly bigger that the Lapua so I figured I would have no issues using the H4350 which is what I used in the Lapua. The first barrel only gave about 3/4" 5 shot groups no matter what I tried so I switched to the second barrel. It did the same with H4350 so I figured I had a rechambered barrel issue and I wasn't impressed with the barrel manufacturer anyway so I switched to the new barrel. It didn't shoot with H4350 either so I started looking for an alternative powder and ran across references to the "Secret Carolina load". Since that was a slower burning powder I tried what I had in-stock which was N160. Once I had a N160 test load in this new barrel I found it would also shoot in the rechambered barrels also.
I find this interesting because I shot several barrels out in the 6.5 x 47 Lapua using H4350 and did well. The capacity of the 6.5 CM must be just over the limit for good burning characteristics using H4350 and 146 grain bullets.
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Ahhh, that makes sense and I’m glad I didn’t offend you. I used to shoot 136 scenar-L with h4350 when I had a creedmoor but that was a few years ago now. I’m going to try the .257 version this fall and see how it goes. I think it’s going to be a good match for those 134-135 grain bullets on the market.

What twist were the barrels you were running? I would imagine they were pretty fast for those heavy bullets in a 6.5-284.
 
SteveB said:
I only shoot 146's and use 7 1/2 twist barrels for my match rifles, however, I do have a 1 in 8 pre-fit Shilen which I use 136's and IMR 4064 for my "play" rifle.
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Oh, ok. That makes sense. Your post up top said 162 grainers in your 6.5-284, must’ve been a typo.

I was shooting with a guy last year who was having the same problem. He was shooting one of the heavy hornady bullets out of his 6gt. He was having lots of them explode. They were grenading all over the ground about 50 yards in front of the barrel. I’ve never had that problem, but I always figured it’s either a crappy bullet or we’re trying to spin them too fast at too high a velocity.
 
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No it wasn't a typo. I make my own 6.5 mm bullets in 136, 146, and 162 grain bullet weights. The 162's do blow up when the RPM gets too high. I think the long bullets generate too much heat as they travel down the barrel and after 15-20 rounds in a match I have had several blow. Never had any issues with the 136's or 146's. I had been shooting them at 2850 fps ish in a 7 1/2 twist. A friend has been shooting them in a 7 twist in a 264 Win Mag over 3200 fps and they blow regularly. However, the rpm is above 300,000 rpm.
 
SteveB said:
No it wasn't a typo. I make my own 6.5 mm bullets in 136, 146, and 162 grain bullet weights. The 162's do blow up when the RPM gets too high. I think the long bullets generate too much heat as they travel down the barrel and after 15-20 rounds in a match I have had several blow. Never had any issues with the 136's or 146's. I had been shooting them at 2850 fps ish in a 7 1/2 twist. A friend has been shooting them in a 7 twist in a 264 Win Mag over 3200 fps and they blow regularly. However, the rpm is above 300,000 rpm.
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SteveB said:
No it wasn't a typo. I make my own 6.5 mm bullets in 136, 146, and 162 grain bullet weights. The 162's do blow up when the RPM gets too high. I think the long bullets generate too much heat as they travel down the barrel and after 15-20 rounds in a match I have had several blow. Never had any issues with the 136's or 146's. I had been shooting them at 2850 fps ish in a 7 1/2 twist. A friend has been shooting them in a 7 twist in a 264 Win Mag over 3200 fps and they blow regularly. However, the rpm is above 300,000 rpm.
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That’s wild. You seem like an interesting guy who’s doing a lot of interesting stuff. Without doing any calculations I can see why you went back to the regular 284 win. You’d probably be doing better at the same speeds with one of the 184 grain 7mm bullets and barrel life would probably be quite a bit better.
 
Actually the 162's have a lot better BC than the 7mm's. I measured it at .745 which is a lot better and why i used them. If I used Re23 even the barrel life was similar. However. with the blowups and pressure spikes from the powder I moved away and went back to the 284's. The 146's have a BC very similar to the 284's at .650 so I use them in my 6.5 CM's out to 500 - 700 meters depending on the range and use the 284's for the long range stuff.
 
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