Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Best load for 6.5 creedmoor

Your input is needed. I have a vide variety of powder and bullets.

The one that shoots best in your rifle. Get a manual, find loads that are near 100% density and in the velocity range you want and start shooting. The only way to find out is to shoot. Then shoot some more. Then shoot some more. And keep track of the loads and results.

A good start is to duplicate the 120 and 140 amax factory loads, they are printed on the boxes factory ammo boxes. I tried the 140 in a ruger target rifle and it was near half moa for 5 shots.

I tried the 120 amax load in a hawkeye rebarrelled 6.5CM and it was well under moa. I used it as a basis for 120 BT and prohunter loads.

I don't have my notebook handy.. but you should be able to google them up pretty easy.

I've loaded 150 rounds to try. I'll give a report on Saturday afternoon.

My rifle is a savage action with a 26" 1 in 8 twist criterion barrel. I've been fiddling with the 140 Amax and 140 nosler custom competition for some time now and I haven't had much luck. The best I can do is about 1.25" at 100 yards. Today I put together some test loads with 129gr SST's and 129gr accubond LR. Both loads were with new Hornady brass, winchester large rifle primers, 44gr of H414 and bullets set .01 from the lands. I shot two 3 shot groups of each and got an average of .55" with the accubonds and .35" with the sst's. That's not bad for the first attempt. I guess my rifle prefers the 129'S. I'm looking forward to trying the shrink those numbers a little.

My LRP Savage wasn't happy with factory 120 or 140Amax or with powders in the 4350-BigGame range but is very happy with Nosler 123Custom Comp and 120 Scenar-L with IMR4064.
Feed it what it wants.

I have a Savage LRP in 6.5 Creedmoor and I got tired of having problems with the supply of 140gn VLD's. I'm giving the Nosler RDF's a run, but in the 130gn weight. I rationalise that the 130 still has a very high BC and the bearing surface should work well in the 1:8 twist. Shooting a 500metre match on Saturday. I'm jumping the Noslers 70thou with an OAL of 2.870 inch. The load is 42.9gn H4350 CCI LR primer.

Best load for doing what?

I've never shot a game animal over a quarter mile away, so the 130 grain AB over 35+/- grains of Varget is fast enough and very accurate.

Here's a good one for lighter bullets.

DF

I load the 120 Barnes, shoot great!

DF, nice shooting. Do you know the velocity of that load?

Like others have said, "Best for what?".

I got a load off the net that a guy was shooting in a 22" Bergara HMR like mine and my gun shoots it much the same (.75MOA for 5 shots, around .5MOA for 3 shots). 47.3+/-gr of RL26, Hornady case, 143gr ELD-X ( I use a drop tube).

The other shooter got about 2,850fps from his rifle. I've not chronographed mine yet. As always, work up your load, as I didn't start at 47+ gr.