After shooting the rifle yesterday, I cleaned the barrel, and loaded up some more ammo to try. Load was 43.5 grains of StaBall and a 129 grain SST, Hornady case, CCI primer. I've not had much success with the 129 SST in the other 6.5's I had, but want to give it a chance before forgetting about it. I tried a different target setup this time, and it suits my eyes better. The first shot is marked, the other 4 went into about .65 of an inch, with the entire ground still being about 3/4 of an inch. I believe I can work with this powder and bullet combo and come up with something that will work. All in al, I'm pretty happy with the rifle.

Dang, nothing to complain about there! Congrats on the load!

That rifle shoots very well. Did the StaBall produce a lot of black residue? I recently tried a starting load in a 243. It took about 10 wet patches to get the black out. Accuracy was pretty good but extreme spread was high. Probably need more powder, as the velocity was low too.

Please turn your bale spikes down or hang something on them. That gives me the willies. A friend's brother fell backward into his bale spike and was killed. Different situation but his tractor was in the shed facing front and he fell from a ladder. One spike caught him at the base of the skull and that was the end.

Nice!!!

SST are llke grenades on a animal and deposit alot of energy inside the body.

Anson, that loader has a tendency to leak down, and I have to raise it back up every few days. The picture came at a time right before I raised it back up. As far as the StaBall goes, I’m still experimenting and will let you know how it does. I haven’t even set the chronograph up yet.