6.5x284 Norma Shooters

Just shot my first round of handloads with pretty good success. I started with 51 gr. of 4831sc .030" out with Lapua brass and 140/142 Sierra Match Kings. The 140's seemed to group a little better all around. Both bullets shot moa groups at 100-200 yards but i'm hoping for a lot better results with my second re-loads. My gun is a 116 fcss. Anyone out there shooting this gun and caliber? If so what have you found that shoots the best? I think i'm gonna bump them up to 52 gr. of powder and shorten the jump to .020" and see what happens.

We're getting really good results with the 140 VLD seated .024 off the lands over 59.0 Retumbo and CCI-200 at 3064. As always, drop 10% and work up. Also a 116 FCSS.
Thats with white box Winchester 284 brass, YMMV

I just ordered some Berger's to try out also. I haven't been able to find any retumbo powder locally, so it looks like i'm gonna have to order some online. I have about 3 lbs of RL-17 i would love to try but haven't read any success stories about that powder for this cartridge. I have heard good things about h100v too. I will say i have fell in love with it in a very short time. The recoil is way less than i was expecting.

Once you get the seating depth dialed in with the Berger's, I think you'll be quite pleased with them.

Ok. Thank you for your help. Do you think jumping to .020" is too much? Maybe cut it in half and load some at .025" out also?

We started at 54 grains and loaded in .5 grain increments all the way up to 60. All were seated at .020 off. Once we found max, we dropped two grains and worked back up in .2 grain increments shooting for group size. Our best groups were at 58.8 and 59.0. Then we played with seating depth with those two loads.
My preference was to shoot an OCW, but it wasn't my rifle......

Don't take this the wrong way, it isn't meant negatively it's meant constructively.
Your questions are very fundamental, and covered in every loading manual out there. If you are this fresh to the reloading game, you would do well to not buy Berger bullets. They are expensive, occasionally persnickety, uber match quality. Something you aren't likely to be able to capitalize on yet. So save yourself some scratch, buy some bullets and learn your rifle and your weaknesses. Don't worry about what is, or isn't popular.
If the powder is in a manual, any manual, likely it will be more accurate at some load than 90% of all shooters are capable of.

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Originally Posted by darkker

Don't take this the wrong way, it isn't meant negatively it's meant constructively.
Your questions are very fundamental, and covered in every loading manual out there. If you are this fresh to the reloading game, you would do well to not buy Berger bullets. They are expensive, occasionally persnickety, uber match quality. Something you aren't likely to be able to capitalize on yet. So save yourself some scratch, buy some bullets and learn your rifle and your weaknesses. Don't worry about what is, or isn't popular.
If the powder is in a manual, any manual, likely it will be more accurate at some load than 90% of all shooters are capable of.

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Yes, i know how to read reloading manuals, but isn't that what this forum is for? I'm not incompetent sir. Just wanted to know what guys with the same rifle and caliber ended up with. I know what worked for some, won't necessarily work for me and I'm fully aware that the gun can shoot better than me. Thanks for pointing that out though.