Seems to me your barrel is not long enough to maximize the slower RL 22 powder. Your getting consistent half moa from a factory rifle and still wasting components looking for a load? WTF man?
Hit the range to get some 5 round groups with several of these loads over the last 10 days. Want to make sure the results posted above were not a 1 day wonder.
Once again had great results with several of them. This rifle will shoot sub MOA with almost anything I throw at it!
For deer hunting, do I NEED to keep working on fine tuning--no. But I love it, and it gives me more trigger time and more consistency ensuring that when it is time, I do my part.
I am down to 4 loads now and will do 10 shot groups of each and pick one.
Glad I decided to start reloading for this rifle. I was thinking about offloading it due to the factory loads/accuracy being less than optimal. This has made me a reloader for life.
Sounds like your making some good progress now. I too couldn't give 2 shcitts about every last bit of velocity for the LR game. As longs as I'm getting reasonable velocity with good groups then who cares if I have to dial 6.5 mils or 8 mils to get to 1000yds as I'm still dialing anyways.
As long as my groups are good with low ES and SD then I'm happy as those 2 figures tell me my loads are consistent thus accuracy should be consistent.
I usually start at about .30 jump for a hunting bullet and chosen powder. Once I find a load with promise I will load 10 each at .20, .25, .35, and .40. If any show improvement I work that, if not I stay where I am.
I completely agree about the SD/ES. those are 2 areas I originally was giving little attention but now play a very key role in my load development. In regards to jump, i would have never believed that a .10 change in jump could impact accuracy the way it does. I can attest with a couple of the loads (specifically the ABLR 142) it can be night and day. I have already messed with jump a bit and found my sweet spot with the 142's is an OAL of 3.180-3.190. With the 129's it doesn't seem to matter as much as they perform similarly from 3.165-3.185. The VLD 140s in my rifle want as small a jump as possible (unfortunately my throat is too long to get close to the lands) .
Don't rely on your local sporting goods store for reloading advice.
Don't necessarily believe your chronograph if it's an inexpensive one and you're shooting in changing light conditions.
Stay within the maximum loads given by the bullet manufacturer. All bullets of the same weight are not equal when it comes to generating pressure.
When you say "I was loading to 100% of the fill ratio and higher," if by "fill ratio" you mean maximum charge listed in your reloading manual, stay at or below that. Until you have more experience under your belt.
Smokepole gave you some sage advice right there. You would do well to heed it.
I have never played with the 6.5mm vld's so it is hard for me to comment there. The 215 amd 200's shoot very well in my 300WM but the 212gr ELD-X'S consistently shoot tighter for me so that is what I use.
I have always heard that as long as you have decent neck tension it's fine to seat the bullet out to whatever length leaves atleast one caliber diameter of bullet in the neck. In other words for you as long as you have 264 in the neck you should be fine.
You said you had the Hornady chamber gauge, so run a vld to touching the lands, pull it out, Mark the bullet and see how much is left in the case neck. Based on my experience I'm betting there is plenty.
It doesn't make a hoot 'n hells difference what the ES, SD, BS, or PP is as long as the damn things go where you want them to and you don't blow you or the rifle up!! Stick with what the loading manuals say do and don't be fartin around trying to make the sumbitch shoot like onto a lightening bolt!!
After moving away from RL22 and to the H4350 and H4381SC I have had exactly zero signs of pressure on the loads listed above but with the velocities and accuracy I am getting there is no point in pressing any further so I am not going after any more velocity. I will simply be playing with the seating going forward.
In addition have had others at the range with me who are much more experienced in reloading who have checked my brass, etc to ensure there are no pressure signs. Lastly my local smith actually checked brass as well and then fired some of the rounds I had worked up to ensure there were no issues/pressure signs. All checked out.
Reloaders much smarter than me have said that the classic "pressure signs" are not reliable indicators and by the time they show up, you could be operating above "safe" pressures.
Since pressure = velocity you're much better off relying on your chronograph, taking into account the length of the test barrel used to generate the load data.
Good Morning Smoke, I saw your post this morning around pressure and how I would be wise to determine pressure based on velocity (from chrono) and factoring in my barrel length.
Are you referring to something along the lines of "QuickLOAD" If so, Is there a specific program you recommend or is QuickLOAD it?
Morning Swede, what I'm saying is that rather than rely on pressure signs to know when you should stop increasing the charge weight, rely on your chronograph. So, when you hit the top end of velocities from your reloading manual, you're at the top end of safe charges for your rifle. Sometimes, with some loading manuals, you can exceed those but they're good guidelines.
Use the barrel length given with the reloading data; many loads are shot with 26" barrels and you shouldn't expect to duplicate those velocities with a 22-incher, or 24 for that matter. The general rule of thumb is 25 fps loss per inch of barrel length.
I've been loading for a 6.5 Swede T3 as well for about 6 months now. My best accuracy was with the 143 ELD-X loaded .005 off the lands. I had great results with H4831SC and reloader 17 with both the 142 lr AB and the 143 eld-x. The 142 lr AB printed just over 3" at 500 yds while the ELD-X printed closer to 2". I loaded some more AB with a .030 jump but haven't had time to shoot yet. My ELD-X load I ended up with Reloader 17 being my go to powder but will test one more time when the temp drops to freezing to clarify my load.
