6.5-284 Savage 116 load work up

Been playing with this rifle for a few months and had a workable hunting load that shoots .5 MOA at 200 with Berger 140VLDs and 2970 fps. These flew fine at .075 off the lands but I kept seeing flyers once in awhile. I started experimenting with another powder for fun and to have options. At any rate I decided to test a theory and see how well a deeper bullet seating depth would work. I screwed the seater down 1 turn and it pushed the bullet in another .030 to .105. Shot 2 rounds and they were touching. Loaded another 3 just as the wind calmed down and quickly sent them down range.

The result was a .25MOA 200 yard 3 shot group. Wiind picked back up, bad for tuning, so I shot 460 yards at a rock to confirm. My spotter said they were tight. Later we found a 1200 yard target. Dialed and sent it. Bad read on wind. Shooter and target wind direction were opposites. Sent another round hit, but was still off a bit. Adjusted, 3 rounds, good solid group. Ami shot it, hit. My 68 year old mother wanted to shoot it to so she destroyed a rock at 470 with 2 bullets within a few inches of each other and dead on. Out of ammo at that point. Dang.

I need to fine a tune a bit more I think but this stock savage finally gave me the .25MOA I was looking for. I was hoping this rifle would give me custom performance in over the counter price point. I hope I can make it consistent now.



http://i981.photobucket.com/albums/a...65newgroup.jpg

Very nice.

Fined tuned to 56.5 retumbo and .100 off lands. Took rifle out recently and shot 1000, 1100, 1500, and 1660. If the shooter does the job the rifle will put the bullet there with sub moa accuracy. Very impressed with this stock rifle.

That's a pretty stiff load of retumbo. I just load developed for a friend of mine and his really liked 53.5 grains of Retumbo with the 140 berger .025" from the lands. I'm not sure on velocity yet as my chrony was giving crazy fast readings for some reason that I know are unbelievable but it would print half moa groups at 600.

53.5 is under the starting load recommendations for Berger. At 56.5 I am still 2 grains under max. Did you verify drop and do a calculation to back up the chrony? My guess is 2750 and 60 inches drop from a 200 yard zero.

My load throws 140 Bergers at 2970 to 3000 depending elevation and temp. Speed is calculated from chrony, from drop, and from ballistics solutions from 200 to 1660 yards.

Well my chrony was throwing out numbers like 4125 fps. I know that's bogus and I'm chalking it up to the hazy cloud cover throwing it off. I typed in a velocity of 2950 in my shooter app and after dialing 10 moa I was about an inch high at 600 so I'm guessing my velocity is very close to that. The shooter app predicted 9.7 moa for 600 yards.

What length of barrel are you shooting? Mine is 24. Wish I could get that much speed at your level.
Seems really fast for that low of powder level.

26" shaw barrel and lapua cases with CCI primers.

Made it back to the range again today and the chrony wanted to cooperate a little better. 53.5 grains of Retumbo in my rifle is getting me 2965 fps with a E.S. of 14 fps and a S.D. of 7.4 and half minute accuracy at 600 yards.

I like Hybrid V 100 for my 6.5x284, very constant, runs through my my powder charger well and is accurate out to 1k when I do my part. Hybrid is also a little easier to find than other powders these days.

Hybrid HV 100 is a very under rated powder, and is very versatile, actually I kind of want it to stay that way, so I don't have to start hunting for it, It fits right in between H4831 and H4350.

Dean

I agree I have found hybrid on the shelf where H4350 is as rare as hens teeth. I would be interested on how it works in a 260 7-08 or 284. I just want a couple of 8 pound cans first.

Was shooting at 1540 last weekend and hitting 1 moa high roughly. Adjusted speed to 3000 fps and bingo. Sent a few more rounds to verify. Then picked a .5 MOA spot on a rock at 1300 and used the new numbers to pin it. Rifle is shooting well. Love this little savage.

That thing shoots better than mos GA precision rifles it seems.

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Originally Posted by jsthntn247

That thing shoots better than mos GA precision rifles it seems.

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I have seen some top notch stuff and shot a few too. Most of those will shoot .5 or less easily with amazing consistency and longer barrel life. I would love to have a few custom rifles for the AWE factor but these savages shoot well with out the high end price tag IMHO.

I guess I feel lucky to have a nice rifle that shoots well. I am super happy this rifle has exceeded my 1000 yard goal and is pushing past 1300. Right now I have several 1st round cold bore hits at 1300 but nothing past that yet. I am still learning and developing wind reading skills.

Example I shot 1540 this weekend. It was tough to spot shots and reviewed the video and still could not call a few. Most shots landed 1-1.5 MOA. I moved to another rock and could not spot any of the shots. We could hear the impact but that was it. I moved to 1300 and had a tighter 1 moa or less group of 5 shots. Unfortunately Ami did not pay attention to the camera so I can not go back and review. I recorded her shooting at 1300 and she struggling a bit. Her group was about 2moa. In all fairness though, she is very much a beginner at any rifle shooting let alone a LR rig. I am impressed she is willing to get behind the cross hairs.