Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting 26 Nosler with 160 Matrix

Sakohunter264,

The rifle itself is pretty handy, despite the medium-contour 26" barrel. For the testing I mounted a fairly heavy scope, a 10x40 Leupold Mark 4, mostly because it's dead-reliable and the adjustments dead-nuts, the reason I've used it for a lot of rifle testing over the past several years. It's also in Seekins rings, which are fairly heavy. As a result, right now the rifle weighs 9-1/4 pounds, but if I were to use it for hunting the scope would probably be a 6x36 Leupold in Talley Lignhtweights, which would bring it down to right around 8 pounds.

Yeah, it will damage some meat, but more will depend on the bullet and range than sheer high velocity. I've used the .257 Weatherby quite a bit with various bullets at 3300 to 3550, and unless you use a very frangible bullet at "woods" ranges, it doesn't damage any more meat than typical big game rounds.

Interesting ballistic puzzle, BC vs. velocity. The evolving data benefits rifle shooters of all types, not just LR shooters. I for one appreciate the work and effort that goes Into figuring it out. I thank you, JB and others for sharing.

DF

JB,

Has anyone determined the easiest way to modify a std box mag to get three 26 Nosler rounds down. I think two down would be the max unaltered.

DF

I have no idea.

Probably a wider-than-standard box would do it. Personally, if rebarreling a 700 (or whatever) I wouldn't care if the magazine held two or three rounds.

I hadn't thought about settling for just two down, but why not.

After all, a charging pronghorn or WT isn't likely to be a pressing issue...

So, as Hillary says, "What difference does it make"?

Probably not that much in the greater scope of things...

DF

This is the key that many fail to consider- a wind drift advantage is not just a sheer magnitude advantage given a standardized and constant 10 mph full-value wind condition. The major benefit to a lower drift bullet, is the insensitivity and inelasticity of that bullet in changing wind conditions, and the tolerance of that bullet to shoot through incorrect wind calls without being affected as much as a bullet with a lower BC.

Yeah, I would think that if it's possible to shoot the 160 Matrix VLD with a BC of .685 at 3300 it would be tough to beat

I think you'd be smokin' that round if you got to 3,300 with Matrix 160's...

Nosler is barely getting 3,300 with 140's and those aren't the accuracy loads.

DF

According to my calculations, to get 3300 with a 26" barreled 6.5mm the case would have to hold at least 120 grains of powder. (The Nosler case holds 93, filled to the mouth, and about 90 with a 129-grain bullet seated.) Unless, of course, somebody leaned on the pressures pretty hard, as many do.

A 30" barrel would probably add 120 fps, but let's be generous and say 150. Then case capacity would only have to be around 108 grains, and if you loaded to 75,000 psi it could be dropped a little further. Most of the handloads for the 7mm STW worked up by handloaders were 70,000+ when Remington tested them (the reason factory loads have never been near as fast), so it could be done.

My guess case and barrel life would be pretty short.

I hit over 3300 with the 140's in the .264 WM with RL-33. Have you tried it yet in the 26?

RL-33 is too fast for 140's in the 26. The best powder for 140's is US869.

How long is your .264 barrel?

Not John, obviously, but Nosler maxed out their 129 ABLR at 3,363 with 82 gr. of RL-33.

DF

And they don't even list RL-33 with 140's, apparently because slower powders did better, such as RL-50.

26" barrel

Do you have any WC-872? It's slower than US-869 and I bet will drive the 160's FAST. Accuracy and Temperature stability may not be tops though.

The US-869 acted much faster in the .264 than the RL-33. Interesting how powders act differently in different chamberings.

No, don't have any WC-872, and I wouldn't waste time "estimating" pressures with it either, since no U.S. magazines will run articles including handloads that "appear safe." Or at least they haven't since Layne Simpson developed with 7mm STW, and it turned out the minimum pressure of his handloads was around 70,000 psi and some were close to 75,000.

Tthat's pretty typical of pressure-guessing, which is based primarily on brass deformation. Depending on hardness, cartridge brass often won't deform at 75,000 psi, and because today's custom rifles (and even many factory rifles) are built to such good tolerances, hard bolt lift often doesn't occur until pressures are above 75,000.

Powders often swap burn rates in different applications, but I did do a little experimenting with RL-33 and 140's, even though Nosler only lists data for the 129's. It was very accurate (as it was with the 129's) but top velocities were far behind US869, and also were well behind Ramshot Magnum with 129's.

However, I had something other than the standard pressure-guessing indicators of bolt-lift, ejector-hole marks, etc. to use to check pressure: the velocities of Nosler's pressure-tested loads, plus the head expansion of new brass after firing with those pressure-tested loads. When either velocities or brass expansion went higher, ejector-hole marks showed up on the case heads.

And they had Norma 217 (MRP-2 equivalent, reportedly) out performing RL-50 with 140's and it's a faster powder.

DF

Before Nosler published their data, I did a bunch of powder comparisons with published data, just to see where they might fall in the 26. It was interesting, and far from reassuring, especially how often 50BMG and US869 swap burning rate in different applications.

Which is why I always get a kick out of handloaders claiming one burn-rate chart is more accurate than another.

Heck, if it's in print, it's gotta be right...

Shore nuff, if it's off the "innanet" and has a major bullet/powder company logo at the top...

DF

And, that's probably more accurate than the grains of water case capacity data floating around the "innanet"...

DF

I've been reading this daily guys, just been busy getting ready for a competition tomorrow. My buddy chambered up a 26 Nosler last week and it's off getting a Melonite treatment then he will start running the 160's...