I decided to give this much talked about chambering a try. I went to Whittaker Guns and purchased a new Tikka T3x Lite SS rifle with a 1-8” twist 24.3” barrel. I have mounted a VX3i 3.5-10x40 in Talley LWs and have zeroed the rifle with a box of factory Hornady 143 ELD-X cartridges (which shoot great) and am ready to start working on handloads. I also bought a couple of boxes of the relatively new Speer 120 gr. 6.5 Gold Dots. A couple of questions: are these bullets the Fusion bullets as loaded by Federal in other chamberings? And what powder would be the best for use with this bullet and other weight and profile bullets? I do know that Hornady used 39.0 gr. of Varget behind their 120 gr. A-Max in their original factory loads, so RL 15 should also work.
Reloading info is still in the infancy stage in this cartridge, or so it seems to me, so any load information will be appreciated. Understand that I do start low and work up. I seem to see a lot of RL 17 being used as well as H4350. What about one of my favorites, Big Game? What say you?
Last edited by lastround; 05/18/18.
