Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting 6.5 PRC, 143 ELDX seating depth

What's the general consensus on seating depth for the 143 ELDX? Smooch and rock on, or do these bullets prefer a bit of a jump? I have a carbon barreled Howa with copious amounts of room in the mag.

It touches the lands at 3.020. I'm going to start out with 58 grains of H1000, Nosler brass and Fed 210's

Any help appreciated. It's hot and humid and the quicker I can get on this, the better. I'll do all the fine tuning when it cools off.😁

Thanks

My only experience is with a friend's rifle and factory ammo with 143s. They are loaded to just under max box/ mag length (SA) which is 2.985 ish, best I can remember.
Rifle shoots very well.

COAL of a factory Hornady ammo is 2.955" ,just measured 2 of them.

Yep, I tried 10 loads yesterday with a 2.950 COAL, and got 2 inches at 100 yards(off sand bags).

The rifle is pillar bedded, with quality rings and base. The scope is a proven SWFA SS 10x.

The factory 143’s weren’t awesome in my 6.5 PRC either. Loaded them at .005” off with RL26 and it was very good.

I just loaded five rounds, .003 off the lands. We'll start there. Wish I could find some 26 around here. That stuff is like hens teeth! I do have four pounds of H1000 and 5 lbs of IMR 7828 SSC. So, I should be ok.

Wow ..that's terrible !

3 of us shot the new CVA my friend had. 3 shooters 3 shot groups , biggest group was .75"

I'd love me some RL26 ! None around here for a long time.

I'll be following this thread. I have parts piling up for a build.

Good luck on the R&D.

139 gr. Scenar and 147 gr. ELD-M R-26 and Retumbo have been the ticket in the 6.5 PRC for me, H-1000 FPS were slow. Rio7

Retumbo and 26 are nowhere to be found in my neck of the woods. I did, however, find a couple hundred 139 Scenars to try out( if I can't get the ELDX to shoot)

I’d be fine with either of those myself. They will still be plenty fast and H1000 is about as good as it comes.

My current 6.5 PRC load is Magnum and the 139 Scenars. Fast and pretty consistent as well.

Nice setup there. That's the group size that I'm going after. This rifle will be primarily used on big bean fields with a crop damage permit next spring.

So, I tried 4 more loads at different COALs, and I was not getting anything worth while. So, like Stick says, start at the [bleep] start. Double checked my base screws and re-torqued them, checked torque on rings. Then took the stock off and found the problem! Somehow a small paperclip made its way into my recoil lug! I then put the rifle back together and went to the range with three rounds I had left.

58gr H1000, 3.960 COAL and got this. I'm going to load a few more and go from there, but this is looking good.

No flipping idea how I dropped a paperclip in there!😳

Nice. That looks like you’re on the right track.

Watch the bastards, the ogive is inconsistent. Assume nothing, measure it, back off 0.02 to 0.03 to begin with, find a load there, then fiddle with OAL from smooch to 0.05 jump.

I recently had a bad problem. It was 6.5 PRC but with 147s, not the 143s. The factory ammo measured 2.955". When I got done setting my depth with handloads I was at 2.950" .. pretty close. I had a little jump. Well, I shot a few factory loads and the bolt lift seemed a bit stiff. I didn't follow up. After sight in, I moved to the handloads and went through a fair pile, then switched back so the gun would be sighted in with the factory match ammo in case I needed it for something back at home. I blew the primers out of 2 of the 10 shots and had very serious bolt lift on 3 more, the other 5 of the ten I shot were merely snug. Back at home I partially pulled the bullets from the factory ammo then repeated my process for setting seating depth. Measurements .. 2.880" "smooched" putting the factory 147 grain ELD match ammo rammed 0.075" into the rifling. I loaded some of the component 147 grain ELD match bullets and repeated the process. Those "smooched" at 2.950". The only sane explanation is the ogive is varying pretty wildly with those Hornady 147s.

I should be loading the 143s, along with some 130s and 147 grain ELD match, and some 156 grain bergers, tonight. Going to be VERY alert to OAL deviation.

Tom

It’s always a good idea to verify distance to lands with a new lot of bullets.

Or to check the brass for the "dreaded donut." About 1/4 of my first batch of Hornady 6.5 PRC cases had 'em--which was easily fixed once I realized what was going on. But it was sure puzzling at first....

Plus, donuts can cause slight variations in seating depth.

That, too. Good point.

Are you saying cases from the factory had the donut? I didn't know that could happen. i thought the donut came from reforming cases by necking down larger diameter necks? Or is it necking up? I can never remember.

It has been a while, but I got a bag of factory fresh Winchester brand 7mm08 brass with donuts.

Stick a bullet in a case that will accept it but allow you to pull it out with your fingers. There are several ways to achieve this. Run it into your chamber and jam it home with your bolt. If the neck tension is too tight you may extract a case without a bullet, so be aware of that. Remove cartridge from gun. Measure it. Back your seater off an eighth of a turn and roll with it. It'll be close. If you have a micrometer on your die, there you go. BTW, your powder charge will dictate your load far more than your seating depth. Get it within a few hundredths of the lands and drop the hammer. Then you skosh it one way or the other. Don't get too caught up with all that jazz.