Gents:
What twist do you prefer for 120-129 6.5 bullets.
Am particularly interested in the Nosler 120BT, 123Amax & 129LRAB
Appreciate it
8 1/2" is plenty for those bullets....
For a 6.5-06 I would go 1:8. Also gives flexibility if you want to fling the 140's at some time
My 6.5x284 is 1:8.5
donsm70
Thanks for all the replies--appreciated.
I doubt any running of 140s in this rifle will happen--will stick with said range.
8 no matter what bullet....
9 will stabilize the ones you mentioned. But go ahead and build on an 8 or 8.5. You'll never wonder if it'll handle the 140s should you take a fancy toward them.
Tomk, with the number of posts you have, this O.P. may be a rhetorical question. But in case lead goes away in the field, I would suggest something. My online Powley scale with my 6mm Wildcat goes off scale between 85 and 87 grain bullets. So I bought a box of Hornady GMX 80 grain gilding metal bullets. These are every bit as long as my Speer 105 Spitzers. Twists deal with bullet lengths, not weights. So, go with the quicker twist, as an insurance policy for a possible future with only solid copper alloy, lead free, bullets in it.
F.W.I.W. my wildcat has about 5.5 grains more capacity than the 240 Weatherby. I'm trying to find out if I can put enough H-1000 or IMR 7828 under 100 gr. flat based lead cored spitzers, to shoot them accurately out to 700 meters. My test bed is a re-chambered, take off, 26 inch long, Shilen Rem6mmBR barrel, which is on its last legs. It uses the older 1 in 14 twist, and so far a Speer R.N. 105 flew true to over 500 yards. Even with a H 1000, equivalent Powley predicted start load, it got out there really quick.
You didn't say what you want to shoot at, nor how far, in your O.P. My take is to be able to drill a coyote at 500 yards, and possibly a larger Mulie buck along the Salmon River breaks, with instant CNS killing terminal ballistics. At 500 yards, my 270 Win. would let a buck go a long ways down hill. But the jury is still out on this concept. I won't even have my finished Neil Jones Products, wildcat reloading dies back until sometime in Sept., at the earliest.
My 8.5 does great with 140 gr. VLD's, 1/2 MOA.
DF
I have an Obermeyer 8.75 twist on my 6.5-284. No issues what so ever with any bullet weight.
have pondered lead and do agree bullets most likely will tend longer in future--but if it comes to mandated lead-free, would do my best to burn it out and then re-barrel...:)
light mule deer rifle, some whitetail possibly, not long range and when I have the desire to shoot a 140, it will be out out one of the sevens on hand.
I was curious to see if anybody was adamant about a particular twist just for that bullet range and that doesn't appear to be the case
I have chambered all three twists. IF I am not shooting 140 VLDs, I choose the 9 twist. I works wonders for everything else. I can ALWAYS shoot better groups with a 9 twist than I can an 8 twist with the 108 Lapuas and 123s. Never been an exception.
I have only had a few 8 twists as I much prefer 8.5. I currently have an 8 twist on my 6.5-284 hunting rifle as it is the only twist that Shilen had for it in the ratchet rifling. It is a good barrel but it sees ONLY 130 and 140s.
The 9 twist works wonders with the 140 Sierra Game King too. One of my favorite 6.5 hunting bullets.
tomk, The advertisement on the box of my Hornady 80 gr. GMX's says to use standard lead cored bullet loading data. So its a case of them being both longer and lighter. Higher velocity also affects stability, so this possible transition away from lead, will be a kind of balancing act.
FWIW, I also thought, mistakenly, that these 6mm, 80 gr. GMX's, were boat tails, from what was printed on their sealed box. No, they are flat based, so I had to quickly pick up a Hornady sleeved seater die in 6mm, off of E-Bay, to get them into my home brewed cases.
But I'm still fighting with too thick of case necks, for my chamber. Shooting for groups is still out there, but I have determined they are shooting true, (point on), if just not all that accurate, out at 500 meters.
Shooting 110 gr. Federal ammo with Barnes TTSX bullets, only gave me about 50 fps. less than Federal's printed velocities, in my 22 inch bbl'd, L.H. Ruger 77MkII. So you may find that this stepping up in velocity, alibi's the stability factors, pretty closely. Your existing barrels may work just fine, with these newest generation of homogenous metal bullets.
And by the time lead is phased out, I'm guessing there will be still newer and better, copper bullets.
Well, if things go well, these barrels will get worn out with bullets on hand...:)
My 8 twist Hart also shoots 160 grain woodleighs into bugholes. It was built with only 140s in mind, but nice to be able to shoot a heavy if I wanted to on big stuff.
9" will work. If I were ordering a twist I would go with an 8.5"
A lot of depends on what altitude you'll be doing most of your shooting in. I live at around 4000 feet in Montana, and normally hunt between about 3000 and 8000, depending on the game and the season. Had a 1-9 6.5-06 for a number of years and it shot the 140 Berger VLD extremely well. In fact it was the most accurate bullet in that rifle, and I tried a bunch of them.
I would never hamstring myself right out of the gate by a marginal twist. My 6.5x55 is an 8 and it shoots everything including 100's extremely well.
Big shrug.
It was a test rifle that shot so well it ended up as mine. If I had been building it myself, it probably would have had a 1-8 twist (as all my 6.5mm rifles do now).
But the Miller twist formula indicates a 1-9 provides far more than marginal stabilization for a 140 VLD in the typical hunting conditions I shot it in. And in addition to shooting very well with the 140, the drop at longer ranges was spot-on with any computer program, indicating the bullets weren't losing at BC due to the Sg being a little low.
All I'm doing is reporting what happened, and why.
My post was a general response. I err on the side of caution with twist, having made mistakes in the past. My 9 twist Ruger 243 is supposed to like 105's, but it doesn't.
"All I'm doing is reporting what happened, and why."
Geez John, and as we now know ---NSA knows too.
Tom is already a little twisted, so how does that affect the recommendation?
Tim
don't get me started on drop points, Olt!
BTW, there are salmon coming up the ribber. I'd walk down the hill but the net is still unmended.
Maybe I could bring a net.
So the new gun is for shootin fish in a barrel/ribber????
Tim
It's all about fair chase, brother--never in a barrel. I figured the 120s would be about right for the application...
Trusting you are on call for the steelies this year. Usually skip the sammons here.
Am thinking a drilling for the 6.5 with each barrel having a different twist, so I can get to the bottom of this 6.5 stuff.
Drilling with different twists---now you are cooking on the front burner. Always thought they were cool. Kinda heavy though for an old fart to carry around though.
You could chamber a 120BT, a 130AB and a 140+ something and hunt most anything.
Thanks Tim, appreciate the advice. You know I always thought a drilling should have a TI action and synthetic stock.
Do have a boat net on hand...no need to bring your own.
BTW, what twist is your 6.5?
Tom
Best I can measure the twist is 1 in 9.5" and 24.5" long.
Yeah, go figure. Who has that combo. You gotta shoot em to know for sure.
It really likes 129gr Horns, 130 ABs and 130 TSX.
It will shoot 120s, 125s and 140s good enough to kill deer in the limited amount of testing I did with them.
Get off your butt and do this. You could have worn out a barrel by now if you had gone ahead when you first had this urge.
What you gonna build on? Or is that a whole new thread???
Tim
As a matter of fact I am sitting on my butt...did you make that barrel?
Did a 6.5x284 for the girlca in CO with a 1 in 8, on mauser (the knife money down the drain...)) which is not wrung out as yet and have a g33/40 action waiting for a proper hills rifle--above.
Have deep regrets that it is not going to a museum where it could be cherished by fawning historians or at least to someone who would put exhibition wood on it and safe queen it--but that's all I have to work with and have a rule against selling junk to the uninformed. Thus, am resigned to that special place in hell...:)
Just let the daughter to all the shooting with her gun and save some money (for knives of course).
My 6.5x284 is from an FN made gun that Browning released in Canada mid 1900s. It has very nice wood. It had a short 6mmx284 barrel on it. Long story short, I got it cheap, played with the 6mm version then put on a barrel my gunsmith had laying around and chambered the 6.5. The rest is just history.
It works, but so does my 270 and 284 and 308 just fine. Plus a couple others.