Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Help me decide where to go from here-6.5x55 127gr LRX

I have helped several local members get their rifle to shoot the mono's. Have seen seating depths vary from .030 off the lands to a guy with a 270 where the bullet was seated almost down to the beginning of the ogive ( where the full dia. of the bullet starts ) . Play with seating depths to start. If that doesn't work beading may be a necessity. Is your rifle free floated? If it is your next move can be to loosen the Bbl action & slip a thin piece of cardboard like from a cereal box between barrel & stock at the front of the forearm.. If this is to thick 3,4, or 5 pieces of paper can be used. What your looking for is 2 to 3 lbs max upward pressure. If this works then you know beading makes a difference. Another test is to shoot two THREE shot groups. Make sure you give plenty of cooling time between each shot & complete cooling down before your second group. This will tell you if your barrel is overly sensitive to heat up. Take your time & don't get in a hurry.

I suppose I could burn a few more since onwant this combo to work.

As to the barrel heating up, some of my smallest groups were fired st the end of a string of 6 or 9. The latest groups were shot in 15 degree temps...I was worried about letting the barrel cool to much

I get what you're saying, I honestly dont know if I want a rifle that cant handle 3 shots, or 5 really. The Tikkas that these replaced had no issues with similar profile barrels.

I'll start back at my original seating depth which had good and bad groups. Maybe do 3 groups out from there in .015 increments.

Scope and mounts checked out.

Barrel is floated, 4 sheets of printer paper back to the action.

Would take more force than o could have inadvertently applied to get the stock near the barrel.

Action screws i was able to get a little more turn out of. I compared it with my other finnlights and they had roughly the same amount. So I either just fixed all my rifles or over torqued them.....but at least they'll be the same.

I'll try a few more seating depths with h4350. If I can't get them to shoot with 4831sc, I'll pull the whole action and look it over. Maybe I'll just skip 4831sc and the lrx and try a more proven of rl22 and some match 140gr.....just to see if it is capable of shooting the groups I want, even if it's not with the components I want

Shot my .50, .60, .70, .80 and .90 depths today. Waited for my Redding Competition micrometer seater to show up. Sure does make quick work of multiple seating depth loads. All rounds verified with a Hornady comparator. Sadly, I don't think I found anything conclusive. This was 45.4gr. In hindsight, I probably should have gone with my 44.2 load that I thought was showing promise. My last outing, 45.4 had a decent group and I thought maybe the added velocity might help show differences when looking at seating depth alone.

Some quick notes, the .070 groups, the 2 close holes were the last 2 in the string. On the .090 group, the close holes were the first 2 of the string.

While I dont have a range in the backyard, I have one about 5 minutes away. Saw I had 4 LRX's left, rolled things back to the first outing, loaded up 4 44.2 rounds at the original seating depth of 2.975 or 2.388 using the comparator. Thats .190 off the lands.

first 3 shots are in the bottom 3, 4th shot is the loner, but not by much.

Back to the original question....open a new box and play with 44.2 a bit more or switch bullets or powder.

warpig,

You only have yourself to please. While it's not a group that gives you "internet bragging" rights, a 4-shot sub-MOA showing is plenty good enough for a medium/big game hunting load. If it were me, I'd load up any I had left with that final 44.2g load. If you need to buy another box, I'd load up the first 20 with that load and set it aside for hunting season and then maybe grab a new powder and play with the remainder of the box seeing if I could better it.

Good luck.

Problem si, according to todays groups, even the 44.2 is inconsistent. I broke open my 3rd box of LRX to try 44.2 @ 2.975 for 3 shots, 2,985 for 5 shots and 2.965 for 5 shots.....I wish the fliers were the 4th or 5th shot so I could possibly attribute them to barrel heat or something but thats not the case.

Going to hang up the Swede for a while and get to work on my 300WSM. I'll come back in a few weeks and start over with H4831SC or Varget. Possibly Accubonds as well. If my WSM prefers H4350, I may jsut come back and try the Accubonds.

I would try them at .050 off. I think you may still be seated a little deep. That is what Barnes recommends and it seems to work for me.

I did try them at .050 off, 3 shot group at 1.663. I could try .060 again as that 3 shot group came in under an inch. Think im just going to shelve this rifle for a few weeks. Its entirely possible that my expectations are unreasonable as well. I just an expected a little more, or at least equal accuracy out of the Finnlight as I got from most of my Tikkas. Maybe I'll just go back to shooting 3 shot groups for proofing as Ive done with all my other hunting rifles. Even then, this one is still inconsistent with repeating 3 shot groups.

Just for schits and giggles, did you try seating the bullets as long as possible? Max mag length or a light kiss?

I know it's contrary to popular opinion, but I've got two rifles that shoot lrx's best seated w/ a light kiss...

David

I did try 3.150 which is mag length. 3in, 3 shot group, all 3 holes were about 3in apart in a triangle.

It seems that you've exhausted the possibilities with various seating depth and 4350 but it's not getting you where you want to be..

I'd be looking at 7828 or H1000 to get those long bullets up to speed in a Swede.

I briefly had a Ruger in 6.5x55 but the majority have been M96 and M38. Slower burning powder helped me find more consistent loads in my Swedes.

Good luck with the project!

Good advice.

David

WAR- not sure what you are shooting at. if you want good groups you should try a 123 scenar or 139 scenar. I have shot 1000or more of each through my 6.5-284s. usually in the .3's. the 136 I have not shot yet.