6.5 Creedmoor Barnes 127 grain LRX and Reloader 16 Load Development

[rockchalk06]

I haven't made a dedicated hunting load for my Tikka yet as I'm still breaking it in. I'll fireform what will be 200 rounds of brass tomorrow morning and will start it. Going to try a little different load work up still a ladder test, but 3 times over to find OCW and give me some better data.

Equipment used will be the following:
Tikka T3x Lite D-18 "Tuk" with a Stainless with a 24.3" 1:8 Twist. Round count will be 200 at the start of this. Barrel broken in and will be cleaned prior to shooting a monolithic
Alpha OCD LRP x1 Fireform brass
Barnes 127 grain LRX
Reloader 16 Powder
Federal 210M
Goal: Push this 127 past 2800 and find a nice speed node to hang on for hunting.

 

[rockchalk06]

I've been researching powder choices for the past couple of weeks and these were my conclusions and why I settled on Reloader 16.

1. H4350 just can't get the speeds I need with this bullet. Love the powder, but it doesn't have the gas. I did some load development on a buddies 18" Cross with this bullet and had to use StaBALL 6.5 to get better velocities. Looking at my notes, I gained 120 FPS with 6.5 from that short barrel. Hodgdon shows you should be able to hit 2800 with a charge of 42.3 grains of H4350. I found pressure really fast at 41.9 when seating this bullet to Barnes 2.750" COAL recommendation. Primers were cratered good and plenty, but the bolt lift was horrible. I was using Peterson brass v's the Hornady that Hodgdon had published.

2. StaBALL 6.5 is available and supposed to be temp sensitive. Most video's I have seen put it below both H4350 and Reloader 16 but much better than Reloader 17 or Superformance. It worked well in loading short at 2.750" as it was almost compressed. I'm starting at a .050" jump which is around 2.860". I have not had any luck with ball powders seating long. Very erratic velocities on exact same powder charges. I did some testing with it on 6GT and 10 shots with the same charge and seating depth gave me an ES of over 40.

3. Reloader 16 is supposed to be a good happy medium of both 6.5 and H4350. Big con is cost and availability. I found it at Midway and had a B-day code that made the sting less. I picked up two pounds and for what I want to do, this should last me 300 plus rounds and a loooong time hunting. It's extruded and should help with case fill. It's been noted as being very dirty and recommended to clean more often. That won't be an issue for me.

 

[rockchalk06]

Seating Depth:

Jam on this bullet in my rifle is 2.305" CBTO. I normally come off that .015" or .020". .020" off was 2.285" and gave more than plenty of bearing surface in the neck and plenty of room in the mag. From what I have read and some trusted folks, these bullets like a jump. A big one from what I'm used to. Recommended was .050" jump to start. That is where I will start with this velocity test. That ends up being 2.255" CBTO.

This starts me right past the first groove into a solid point on the bearing surface. I have plenty of depth to work with should I go deeper during testing.

 

[JEVapa]

I would like to ask why the Barnes 127 LRX and what kind of game?

 

[rockchalk06]

Deer and possibility Antelope.

The bullet seems to come up a lot in discussions on hunting light skinned game. Lots of praise for it's performance.

I loaded these for my buddies Cross as he wanted a solid copper bullet. Sample size of one, but he high shoulder shot a doe around 130 yards and it was bang flop. Solid pass through bone & lung.

 

[rockchalk06]

Neck Tension:

.003" has been my go to for hunting. I will run with this for all of these tests. I have the mandrels and bushings to get 002" should I not get the results needed.

Loaded round measures .292"
Forster .288 bushing with no expander ball
Inside neck diameter is .260" after above
T2 Sinclair SS mandrel .002" under bullet diameter
.003" neck tension

 

[rockchalk06]

Case Prep:

Cases were fired in my Tikka from virgin brass.
Tumbled with Pins, Blue Dawn and Lemi Shine for an hour. Soaked in denatured alcohol then dehydrated for a few hours @115°
AMP annealed
Tumbled in untreated corn cobb to remove all the oxidation from the annealing process
Lubed with Imperial Sizing Wax
FL Sized with Redding S Type Die and a .290 Redding Bushing. Set to bump shoulders .001" (I need to get a .289 and .288 to skip the next step, but I have not bought them yet)
Forster Bushing Bump Neck Die with .288 bushing set to size about 95% of the neck and not touch the body or shoulder
Tumbled again in untreated corn cobb to remove all lube. (I'm lazy and do not want to wipe it all off)
Inside necks coated in Imperial dry lube
T2 mandrel ran (twice) through neck
Trimmed to 1.910" chamfered and deburred
Primed

 

[rockchalk06]

Charge Weight:

Max charge weight is kind of all over the place with published data.
Barnes is showing 41.0 grains with a velocity of 2833
Hornady is showing 42.5 grains with a velocity of 2850
Alliant is showing 44.4 grains with a velocity of 2949

I have some numbers to research.

 

[Ndenway]

Are they publishing load data through test barrels or through factory production rifles?

 

[rockchalk06]

Good question. Most never publish it or the conditions. I use these velocies as just a reference point. If for some reason I surpass it significantly below their posted charge, it gives me a safety net to stop and check everything again

 

[Ndenway]

Samey same,

I've got a rifle that far exceeds max published data in several of my load manuals/books, one manual of which was with 26" test barrel & three manuals of which were with 22" production rifles.

This rifle's 22" sporter barrel has many many rounds through it now & leade is a bit worn so it handles the exceeded published max charge weights before flattening/cratering primers.

Course it don't shoot sub 3/4" 5 shot groups with "hunting bullets" anymore either, closer to 2" groups now which is still good enough for deer sized hunting out to 300 yards.

 

[rockchalk06]

Everything arrived yesterday and today for this load. Decided on the following charge weights:
44.5
44.3
44.1
43.9
43.7
43.5
43.3
43.1
42.9
42.7

Will load 2 at each charge weight. I'm going to shoot these low to high and then high to low. Both shots will be at the same POA for each weight. Basically a double and reverse of the normal ladder test for shits and grins.

 

[rockchalk06]

43.1 grains needed just a standard funnel. 43.3 started to have some crunch. Ended up pulling that round, starting over with a 10" drop tube. No issues until 44.1 grains. Little crunch that didn't affect OAL at all. Just like I prefer. This has produced excellent results in every caliber and every load with this case volume.

This was with a .050" jump around 2.86ish COAL. I'll need to watch this if I end up jumping further.

Those blue tips have me ready for some KU Football!!!!

 

[Pochanaquarhip]

Maybe I missed it but what brass are you using ?

 

[rockchalk06]

Maybe I missed it but what brass are you using ?

Alpha OCD Large Primer

 

[rockchalk06]

First shots at 42.7 ran 2849 on the Garmin. No cratering, no heavy bolt lift either.

43.3 broke 2900 FPS. Same as above. No pressure

 

[rockchalk06]

Carbon build up after 24 rounds suppressed wasn't anymore or less with Reloader 16 than any other powder, but copper from these monolithic bullets was. I will have to watch this in the long term.

 

[rockchalk06]

Testing went pretty good. I may have choked the 1st ladder test. I cleaned the barrel in prep for these solid copper bullets and fired 4 fouler shots to settle the barrel down. Speeds on t he 4 were 2758, 2748, 2724 and 2730. I kinda thought the barrel has settled down, but I may have been wrong or? Looking at my graph, I just don't know.


I did notice an overall increase in speed on the 2nd ladder v's the 1st.

43.7 had speeds within 7 FPS of each other, but POI was very nice. 43.9 had good POI, but little more spread on the velocity. Test #1 had a very defined flat spot between 43.5 and 43.9. First test POI's were all on top of each other. 2nd test POI was bad as indicated by speed. Test 2 had a flat spot from 43.9 to 44.3, but POI was no where near together. What I did notice is a consistent dip in velocity at 44.3 with a spike at 44.5. My guess is there is something going on with case volume at that charge it does not like. Sometimes this ladder test works like a charm and others it does not. It was cool to see the difference though. It did prove that this combo like somewhere between 2910 and 2960.

I'm going to explore 43.8, 44.0 and 43.5 at this seating depth.

 

[rockchalk06]

Groups this morning weren't as good as I'd hoped, but I do have something to work with.

43.5 @.050" jump
SD: 11.1
ES: 25.4
Average: 2907

Shots 1 and 5 kinda had a mind of their own. ES was high, but what makes me think this group has potential is shots 2-3-4 very close and 2897, 2899 and 2896. Shot 1 was over 2900 at 2919 and shot 5 was 2922.

43.8 @.050" jump
SD: 8.8
ES: 26.4
Average: 2920


Shot 5 was way under at 2909, but the others were fairly decent. Even though the SD was lower, those 3 from group one have me thinking it needs a little slower speed.

44.0 @.050" jump
SD: 11.1
ES: 32.8
Average: 2941


Even without shot 1 going wonky, numbers were way to sporadic. ES was too high for me. This is where crunch got more noticable too.

I'll go back and do some seating depth tests with 43.5. I'm going to go both shorten and lengthen my jump. Lots of data shows .050"-.075" shoots well in different barrels. I'll explore both

 

[rockchalk06]

Seating Depth tests went pretty good. All loads were 43.5 Grains of R16 and I started at .055" jump. .050" was my depth I did velocity testing with.

.055" jump had a pretty crazy POI shift. Optic was not touched from the previous testing. ES was too high.


.060" had a incredible ES, but the group was pretty bad.


.065" was really good. I couldn't find shot #3 with the optic, but was surprised when I pulled the target. ES was pretty decent.


.070" looked good on the Garmin, but the group opened way up.


.075" wasn't too bad on paper for 3 shots. Numbers looked really nice. I will note this for a possibility later on.


.080" is where I stopped. I didn't load anything deeper, but kind of kicked myself for not. Group started off good, but shot 3 went wide. Giant spread between shots 1 and 2, but they hit close. I have no doubt this will open up further out.




.065" jump with this combo turned out to be the best of the day. Temps were 72° to 76° and I had a ton of wind. Storm north of the club brought a bunch of wind. Should .065" not pan out at further distances, I will go back to .075".

I loaded up 20 rounds at .065" jump this afternoon. I will shoot 10 at 100 and 10 and 200 tomorrow morning and see if I can duplicate above. If I can, I'll pretty damn stoked for this.