130gr 6.5 bullet alternative

was out the past few weeks shooting my 8 twist 6.5 creedmoor rifle, Savage model 10T. was tryih the 140 SMK, 142MK, hornady 140eld and the 143 eld and the 147 eld. nothing really grouped well at 200 maybe an inch on some fluke groups, i happen to have a few Bergers 130 vld hunting match grade bullets, they shot excellent, only have a few left, they are costly, looking for an alternative bullet to try in the 130gr, going to try some sierra 130gr TMK next week, any other bullets i am missing to try that are not 50 bucks a box. looks like this barrel like the 130's by far.

chet

I like the 123 Sierra Match Kings
The 140 Berger Hybrid is also doing well

I had that same rifle. Never could get it to group as well as my 10T 308. Even sent it to savage. They said it shot within specs. Did some research on savage rifles and was told to adjust the torque on the action screws. Helped allot. Think I ended up at 35 lbs. I still sold it to fund a 110 FCP 338. Good luck.

Hornady has a 130gr ELD that might work for you.

What about the 129 SST?

Try the Nosler 129 AB Long Range. I got 1/2 MOA with RL 16 in my out of the box 12FV in 6.5CM.

As mentioned the Hornady 130 ELD-M is worth a look.

Berger 130s are expensive indeed, worth it but costly. Give the hornady 130gr a try.

question, maybe someone has been down this road, example the berger 130vld as i mentioned about works great, going to look for some of the bullets you guys suggested, i have a few sierra 130TMK, and with .010 off the lands the bullet is only in the case approx .050, so would the 130 gr hornady bein the case more than the TMK

chet

Good question. Guess you'll have to get some hornadys and find out.
In the past I too was not happy with digging into my pockets deep for the bergers but once I found there sweet spot and did my home work I got them grouping unbelievable groups. I shoot 130gr vld .003 off lands and recently found another node at slower speeds which is by far more accurate. I'll gladly pay the price. ....however, I will catch,them while it's free shipping on orders over $150 through bruno out of Arizona. I'll buy 500 at a time.

I have worked some loads for the Hornady 129 SST using W760 and WLRM that are coming into focus. I am working powder and coal ladders and it looks like this bullet will produce some very good loads with small SD and velocity above 2900. Groups are now close to 1/2''. I am finding the 6.5 has small windows in jump that produce fine accuracy. Some are as close as .015 to as much as .045 and even more for short bullets.

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Originally Posted by Marine

I have worked some loads for the Hornady 129 SST using W760 and WLRM that are coming into focus. I am working powder and coal ladders and it looks like this bullet will produce some very good loads with small SD and velocity above 2900. Groups are now close to 1/2''. I am finding the 6.5 has small windows in jump that produce fine accuracy. Some are as close as .015 to as much as .045 and even more for short bullets.

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marine

you are right about the window to find the right accuracy, i went to the williamsport 1000yd nationals last year, was talking to some of the shooters there,and asked a few why there was not a one 6.5 creedmoor there, and few said they are too finicky on bullet length. i am seeing this pattern myself, after 1600 rounds plus i do see the same thing, going one way plus or minus .010 makes a difference, you will see it more pronounced at 200yds, i stopped load testing at 100yds, cant tell too much at 100yds, 200yds and even 300 will show you what loads are working best.


chet

Did I miss where you stated the powder you ere using?

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Originally Posted by Robinhood;4


32694

Did I miss where you stated the powder you ere using?

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hi robinhood

the powder is H4350, was out again today, i had about 15 of the Norma golden target left, shot 5 with 41gr h4350 and 5 with 44.8 superformance, the superformance showed a noticeably better group, going to increase the H4350 chg with the same bullet and see the results, and i loaded 3 of the norma's with 38 varget, shot decent but did not have my chrony today. ?? on that load and i did not give up yet on the heavier bullets, i tried 3 142 SMK with 40.9 H4350 .010 jammed, not bad, need to do more on this bullet, but for sure the 140SMK were very poor around 1 1/2 to 1 3/4"

chet

Try some SMK 142 and look around 42.3 H4350. There should be a node there +or-.1-.2 grns. depending on brass. For a bunch of people that is a sweet spot. try GMM primers. CCI may be plus or minus a little. YMMV.

Same powder charge area for the 140 ELD and even the 147 ELD. 41grns is low with a 130 but working up is a good idea. I run the 140 and 147 ELD with 43grns of H4350 set at .020" and .030" off lands respectively.

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Originally Posted by Rob01

Same powder charge area for the 140 ELD and even the 147 ELD. 41grns is low with a 130 but working up is a good idea. I run the 140 and 147 ELD with 43grns of H4350 set at .020" and .030" off lands respectively.

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Almost the same for my 260 rem Match... 43 grains H4350 & Hornady 143 ELD-X but I'm .004 off the lands.... 2.32 OG or 2.92 COAL... I was hesitant to list my load because of the difference between the cases of 6.5 Creed and the 260 Rem.

Warning!!! this is a max load in my Rifle using Lapua brass.

Yeah I definitely wouldn't start there and that was also using Hirnady brass so other brass like Lapua would use less. I started at 40.5 and worked up.

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Originally Posted by Rob01

Yeah I definitely wouldn't start there and that was also using Hirnady brass so other brass like Lapua would use less. I started at 40.5 and worked up.

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I worked up to that load also... Started at 41 and went up in 1/2 grain increments.... had a good node that started at 42.5 but lacked the MV I was wanting.

so off to the 200yds range again today, results were surprising, i was saying that my barrel likes the 130's better, the 140's with H4350 at 200 i have to be really on my game to get 1 inch, so i loaded up some 140's this morning with Hornady brass, gm215M primer, 45grs Superformance and the sierra 140smk.at 2.790 OAL. the groups shot good, first 4 shot were with 5/8" blew the last one to near an inch. so the question is I have not tried Lapua brass yet, being the case volume is less than the Hornady, approx how less would be a good start from 45grs of SF. I am thinking 43.5grs hoping the Lapua brass will give me the same groups. so the chronograph will be on my next trip to the range and see what this SF powder in getting. are RL-16 17 or 26 worth a try.

chet

I found RL-17 and 130 VLDs were a good combination, but I don't shoot competitively.

I'm currently running the 130gr TMK in my 260 for much the same reason as the OP has mentioned. I hate spending 50 smackers on a box of bullets, and I further hate not being able to buy the components. A good powder to try would be IMR 4451.

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Originally Posted by chetc

so off to the 200yds range again today, results were surprising, i was saying that my barrel likes the 130's better, the 140's with H4350 at 200 i have to be really on my game to get 1 inch, so i loaded up some 140's this morning with Hornady brass, gm215M primer, 45grs Superformance and the sierra 140smk.at 2.790 OAL. the groups shot good, first 4 shot were with 5/8" blew the last one to near an inch. so the question is I have not tried Lapua brass yet, being the case volume is less than the Hornady, approx how less would be a good start from 45grs of SF. I am thinking 43.5grs hoping the Lapua brass will give me the same groups. so the chronograph will be on my next trip to the range and see what this SF powder in getting. are RL-16 17 or 26 worth a try.

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Chetc,

I used Hornady brass to start with when I began load development on my .260 (upsized .243 brass) While I could load up to 42.8 grains with a 143 ELD-X in that brass, I found it to be showing some pressure signs when fired. I also found that the primer pockets got pretty loose pretty quick with that load. I switched to Lapua for the same reason everybody else does... The case is thicker, and handles the pressures better. I bot 100 cases to start and yeah, they are expensive. But I'm on my 5th or 6th firing of those 100 cases with loads that are MAX in my rifle, and they are still going strong. I shied away from them because of the price for a long time, but now I wouldn't use anything else. There is a little bit of volume difference, but very minor... I can get 43 grains of H4350 in mine with the long pills... I think you can probably get 43.3-43.5 grains in there if you compress it.

I tried a lot of different powders during my load development: H4831, H4831SC, VItavory, 7828, RL16, RL17, RL25, RL26, Ramshot hunter, IMR 4451, H4350... H4350 was the best of both worlds in my barrel giving me the MV and the accuracy I wanted. H4831SC gave me the best accuracy, but lacked the MV I wanted. I found the RL16-26 powders to be very dirty (left a ton of carbon in my barrels) and I never got the MV from them that other guys have experienced... Particularly the RL26. Also... As another bullet option and should be cheaper is the Hornady 130 ELD-M I've heard good things about them too.