Recent test of Federal Gold Premium factory ammo, 1F reloads. Incredibly happy with results, and the cost effectiveness of this ammo for reloading.
Started with:
Federal Gold Medal Premium Berger 130 OTM Large Rifle Primer Factory Ammo. $40-45 per 20 rounds. They were on sale at FOC for $36.99 just a few weeks back FYI.
Rifle:
Impact 737, JC Custom Barrels 6.5CM Saami chambering, 25" 4R, MTU profile. 4-port Brake.
Brass:
"FC 6.5 Creedmoor" headstamp. All once fired brass was in good shape. 260 pieces.
Cleaning:
Wet tumbled 1 Hr with steel pin media in a 90% full Frankford tumbler, 100 at a time. 1 tablespoon-ish Ivory dish soap.
warm water rinse & media clean out.
Dried on a cookie sheet at 220F for two hours in the oven.
Annealing:
NONE. I usually run an AMP ii #####, but wanted to check the hardening of this brass over a wide spread. Neck hardness was within tolerance, via Brinnel tester.
Inspection:
Brass came out very clean, neck edges were nice and smooth on exterior. No missing primers, no cracked necks.
Lube:
Hornady One Shot. Cases put in 50 round frankford trays, 100 at a time, sprayed lightly from 4 sides with a little overspray in the necks. A light dusting, just till the cases felt greasy with no visible build up.
Sizing:
-MEC Single Stage Press. (I love this press)
-In a very clean chamber, with extractor and ejector removed and bolt face cleaned, cases were bumped back until bolt dropped free. The difference between friction on bolt you could feel and no friction was 0.0002(2/10,000"), so kudos to Whidden dies and JC Custom Barrels.
-Whidden Click FL Bushing die w decapper and neck mandrel. 090 bushing to reduce neck slightly.
Bumped shoulder back 0.0025 from 1F original spec brass. (Hornady 6.5 shoulder gauge, Mititoyu calipers).
Pockets:
Primer pockets inspected, cleaned/reamed with Sinclair LRP tool in a hand drill(Festool drill has very little runout, fyi, vs dewalt/Makita). All pockets had material removed, with about a 1/4 teaspoon resulting from 260 pockets cleaned. Pockets were shiny and chatter free, material removed from bases only, primer pocket holes very uniform
Trimming:
-None. 1F length within spec of 1.9140, showed very little growth, which could result from low pressure or stiff brass with reduced flow.
Neck Tension & prep:
-Necks/case blown out with compressed air.
-All cases, now with tight clean necks, run over a Sinclair .290 neck expander mandrel. Cleaned mandrel every 50 rounds(one tray's worth). I do this before trimming or chamfering, to ensure the chamfer happens on a perfectly round neck, resulting in a symmetric, repeatable chamfer.
***variations in chamfer seemed to cause the biggest seating pressure difference, and ultimately caused some SD #'s to grow.
-Neck interior given a .25mm chamfer, Lyman ELD neck reamer in Festool drill. Just a light pass at low rpms to negate chatter.
-1/thou final tension.
-Cases inspected and run over a .30 cal nylon brush in the drill, couple of strokes to buff out the necks. Cleaned brush every 20 or so, whenever brass bits showed up on it or it felt greasy.
Inspection:
-Cases held all dimensions from case 1 to case 260, checks every 10th round. No hydraulic damage from lube, no doughnuts or sizing rings present.
Priming:
-CCI BR2 LRP, RCBS hand primer. Seated fully to depth of Sinclair reamer pocket.(ZERO primer issues in this configuration). Primers were six years old, no special storage parameters.
Bullets:
Lapua Scenar-l 136OTM 6.5(264). Same batch, no weight sorting or meplat trim.($65/100)
Powder:
H4350, sealed 1lb's, same batch, 2 years old.
50 Rounds Load Development:
Autotrickler V4, FX 120. Tweezing single grains to closest .01 grain if charge is over set throw.
-3X 10 cases loaded for a Satterlee ladder test, starting at Max spec of 42.9, down to 41.0 in .2 grain increments.
1. From a freshly cleaned barrel and chamber, I fired 10 factory Federal GMP 130 berger rounds to foul and check zero.
2. Fired first string of ladder, got pressure signs of heavy lift starting at just 42.3gn, ejector marks at 42.7. (Disregard nomenclature on ladder test chart, I bumped the charges back a grain after re-evaluating starting load.
3. Fired second string of ladder, found low Vdev node between 41.0 and 41.4, of just 18 fps.
4. Fired five additional factory fouling shots, reconfirmed zero.
5. Fired five shots from ladder batch. 41.0, 1, .3, .5
6. Hand loaded three shots at 41.3; 2943fps, 2945, 2941.
Temp 78F, Humidity 35%, Alt 232m
Settled on 41.3 for a fast load, 41.1 for a soft load.
Pulled remaining unfired ladder test bullets, then loaded all 230+ rounds at 41.3gn.
Shot 96 rounds at 100-500m this weekend past. Incredible accuracy & consistency.
Magneto'd first six rounds, rounds 34-46, rounds 92-96. All roughly 70-80F exterior temp. Hard bracket for magneto on chassis.
29 Rounds chrono data, over 96 total shot.
Avg MV: 2942fps( fast, but no pressure or bolt lift observed).
AVG SD: 6fps. (best was sd3 on a 5 shot somewhere in the middle of the entire string)
ES: 13fps
Accuracy:
-Best group was 7 shots under .375", off the bench, 0 wind @ 100m, 72f.
-Best real world group was 6 shots in <3" vertical on #5 ring, 500M, 15mph switch wind. R->L. (For the Service guys out there, thats 0-v, 6-5, 4-4, 10 shot string at 500)
Summary.
I'm super happy with the Fed Gold casings, Lapua 136 SCL's and BR2 combo with H4350. Though they may get 1/2 the life of Lapua, they cost less than 30% of the investment, yet yield consistent results, and I'll be testing them for longevity, with various soft to hot loads, annealing and some growth monitoring.
Big shout out to Mike Treadnick at ELLWOOD EPPS for all the tips and gear selection.
Started with:
Federal Gold Medal Premium Berger 130 OTM Large Rifle Primer Factory Ammo. $40-45 per 20 rounds. They were on sale at FOC for $36.99 just a few weeks back FYI.
Rifle:
Impact 737, JC Custom Barrels 6.5CM Saami chambering, 25" 4R, MTU profile. 4-port Brake.
Brass:
"FC 6.5 Creedmoor" headstamp. All once fired brass was in good shape. 260 pieces.
Cleaning:
Wet tumbled 1 Hr with steel pin media in a 90% full Frankford tumbler, 100 at a time. 1 tablespoon-ish Ivory dish soap.
warm water rinse & media clean out.
Dried on a cookie sheet at 220F for two hours in the oven.
Annealing:
NONE. I usually run an AMP ii #####, but wanted to check the hardening of this brass over a wide spread. Neck hardness was within tolerance, via Brinnel tester.
Inspection:
Brass came out very clean, neck edges were nice and smooth on exterior. No missing primers, no cracked necks.
Lube:
Hornady One Shot. Cases put in 50 round frankford trays, 100 at a time, sprayed lightly from 4 sides with a little overspray in the necks. A light dusting, just till the cases felt greasy with no visible build up.
Sizing:
-MEC Single Stage Press. (I love this press)
-In a very clean chamber, with extractor and ejector removed and bolt face cleaned, cases were bumped back until bolt dropped free. The difference between friction on bolt you could feel and no friction was 0.0002(2/10,000"), so kudos to Whidden dies and JC Custom Barrels.
-Whidden Click FL Bushing die w decapper and neck mandrel. 090 bushing to reduce neck slightly.
Bumped shoulder back 0.0025 from 1F original spec brass. (Hornady 6.5 shoulder gauge, Mititoyu calipers).
Pockets:
Primer pockets inspected, cleaned/reamed with Sinclair LRP tool in a hand drill(Festool drill has very little runout, fyi, vs dewalt/Makita). All pockets had material removed, with about a 1/4 teaspoon resulting from 260 pockets cleaned. Pockets were shiny and chatter free, material removed from bases only, primer pocket holes very uniform
Trimming:
-None. 1F length within spec of 1.9140, showed very little growth, which could result from low pressure or stiff brass with reduced flow.
Neck Tension & prep:
-Necks/case blown out with compressed air.
-All cases, now with tight clean necks, run over a Sinclair .290 neck expander mandrel. Cleaned mandrel every 50 rounds(one tray's worth). I do this before trimming or chamfering, to ensure the chamfer happens on a perfectly round neck, resulting in a symmetric, repeatable chamfer.
***variations in chamfer seemed to cause the biggest seating pressure difference, and ultimately caused some SD #'s to grow.
-Neck interior given a .25mm chamfer, Lyman ELD neck reamer in Festool drill. Just a light pass at low rpms to negate chatter.
-1/thou final tension.
-Cases inspected and run over a .30 cal nylon brush in the drill, couple of strokes to buff out the necks. Cleaned brush every 20 or so, whenever brass bits showed up on it or it felt greasy.
Inspection:
-Cases held all dimensions from case 1 to case 260, checks every 10th round. No hydraulic damage from lube, no doughnuts or sizing rings present.
Priming:
-CCI BR2 LRP, RCBS hand primer. Seated fully to depth of Sinclair reamer pocket.(ZERO primer issues in this configuration). Primers were six years old, no special storage parameters.
Bullets:
Lapua Scenar-l 136OTM 6.5(264). Same batch, no weight sorting or meplat trim.($65/100)
Powder:
H4350, sealed 1lb's, same batch, 2 years old.
50 Rounds Load Development:
Autotrickler V4, FX 120. Tweezing single grains to closest .01 grain if charge is over set throw.
-3X 10 cases loaded for a Satterlee ladder test, starting at Max spec of 42.9, down to 41.0 in .2 grain increments.
1. From a freshly cleaned barrel and chamber, I fired 10 factory Federal GMP 130 berger rounds to foul and check zero.
2. Fired first string of ladder, got pressure signs of heavy lift starting at just 42.3gn, ejector marks at 42.7. (Disregard nomenclature on ladder test chart, I bumped the charges back a grain after re-evaluating starting load.
3. Fired second string of ladder, found low Vdev node between 41.0 and 41.4, of just 18 fps.
4. Fired five additional factory fouling shots, reconfirmed zero.
5. Fired five shots from ladder batch. 41.0, 1, .3, .5
6. Hand loaded three shots at 41.3; 2943fps, 2945, 2941.
Temp 78F, Humidity 35%, Alt 232m
Settled on 41.3 for a fast load, 41.1 for a soft load.
Pulled remaining unfired ladder test bullets, then loaded all 230+ rounds at 41.3gn.
Shot 96 rounds at 100-500m this weekend past. Incredible accuracy & consistency.
Magneto'd first six rounds, rounds 34-46, rounds 92-96. All roughly 70-80F exterior temp. Hard bracket for magneto on chassis.
29 Rounds chrono data, over 96 total shot.
Avg MV: 2942fps( fast, but no pressure or bolt lift observed).
AVG SD: 6fps. (best was sd3 on a 5 shot somewhere in the middle of the entire string)
ES: 13fps
Accuracy:
-Best group was 7 shots under .375", off the bench, 0 wind @ 100m, 72f.
-Best real world group was 6 shots in <3" vertical on #5 ring, 500M, 15mph switch wind. R->L. (For the Service guys out there, thats 0-v, 6-5, 4-4, 10 shot string at 500)
Summary.
I'm super happy with the Fed Gold casings, Lapua 136 SCL's and BR2 combo with H4350. Though they may get 1/2 the life of Lapua, they cost less than 30% of the investment, yet yield consistent results, and I'll be testing them for longevity, with various soft to hot loads, annealing and some growth monitoring.
Big shout out to Mike Treadnick at ELLWOOD EPPS for all the tips and gear selection.
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