StaBALL 6.5

I've tried it. Got good ~.75moa accuracy with the same caliber as you. What's your powder weight? I'm right at about 2750-2800 fps with 44.2 grains

I haven't tried it yet, had some in my cart at midsouth shooters supply, but went with ramshot hunter, big game, and h4350 instead. Haven't go e a ladder with big game yet either, but I will soon. Hunter and h 4350 have worked very well so far proving to be very accurate in my 24" rem 700 7mm08 and 22" savage m11 in 243 win.

I got some StaBALL 6.5 to try with 270 Winchester.
I'm going to try working up loads with 130, 140, and 150 grain Hornady bullets.
I do not have a chronograph, thinking about getting one of those that goes on the muzzle end of the rifle barrel, but not decided yet about that.
Hodgdon does have load data for 270 Win. I did notice that their stated pressures are way higher than for loads they list for IMR and Hodgdon powders such the 4350's, I-4064, etc. The StaBALL max pressures were all over 60,000 PSI. That makes me a bit nervous. I had read somewhere that rifle pressures should never exceed 65,000 (I think that comes from SAAMI, not sure) and the StaBALL pressures are close to that. Should I be concerned about that?

Also, I see they have load data for cartridges derived from the 308, and they have load data for the 30'06 and cartridges derived from the 30'06 but I've read that Hodgdon says not to use StaBALL in 308, that it is unsuited for that cartridge. Anyone know why it is not to be used in 308? I don't shoot any 308's anyway but I was just wondering what safety hints I might get out of understanding that warning.

Anyone use it yet in 270 Win?

Right....

I wish they would release some 6.5 Grendel Data for it!

Max loads in published load data are the maximum charges that the manufacturer was able to use in a test barrel with a certain bullet without generating pressure over the SAAMI MAP limit for that particular cartridge (65ksi in the case of .270 Win). By their very definition, max charges are, of course going to be near the max allowable pressure, that's the point, to tell you the max charge weight that's safe to use with a certain bullet. If you go over the book max enough, pressures will go over SAAMI MAP.

The only reasons that you see max pressure numbers well under 65ksi in Hodgdons load data is if you're looking at older CUP pressure numbers which are generated differently than the modern piezo pressure transducer PSI numbers, and therefore cannot be compared, or, you're looking at a powder that is too slow/bulky for enough to fit in the .270 case to hit max pressure. In that case, the max load is the max charge that Hodgdon could physically fit in the .270 case, the grain weight will be followed by a "C" for Compressed, and the max pressure will be whatever that load happens to generate. This is also why StaBall 6.5 is not suitable for .308, it's too slow and you cannot fit enough in to give an optimal pressure curve, before you run out of space.


As for the OP, I've been playing with StaBall a bit and while I haven't had time to work up a 6.5 CM load, I have worked up a good .30-06 load:

190gr ABLR over 56gr StaBall @ 2,635 fps from an 18.5" barrel

Accuracy was good, under MOA for five, but I'll have to see if I can find my targets in the moving boxes. Another plus is that it seems to be relatively available. One of my local shops gets it in fairly often and it also pops up online pretty regularly. So far it seems similar to a ball version of RL16 with maybe a bit more temp sensitivity, which still makes it a nice option in my book.

I will say that the latest Quickload library has StaBall 6.5, but the predictions seem to be a good bit off, not sure why.

Thanks to Gtscotty and Fine Figure Man for more info.
Well, I always say that if I am wrong or misunderstand something, I am old enough and man enough to admit it, so here I go: I was looking at the Hodgdon data for 270 Win for StaBALL 6.5 and the 4350's and others such as H4831 and I-4064 and noticed that the StaBALL max loads produced pressures in the low 60,000's, which seemed to be close to the max pressure of 65,000 and it made me nervous, more so because the max loads for the other powders produced much lower pressure. I was wrong. I was misunderstanding because even though I do know the difference between PSI and CUP with regard to firearms ammo load testing, I neglected to notice that the older powder data was listed for CUP and not for the PSI units that StaBALL was listed for. "Numerically" the other powders seemed to produce lower pressures. I was wrong about that. OK, not worried about the pressures generated by StaBALL max loads now.

Now, wondering if anyone uses it for 270 Win ?

Hodgdon is good about noting whether load ata pressures shown are in CUP or PSI, unlike some other publishers of load data.

I've purchased StaBALL 6.5 powder but I haven't loaded anything with it yet. My plans are to try it in 7mm-08 and 7X57mm Mauser to begin with.

I'd like to see Hodgdon publish StaBALL 6.5 load data for 280 Remington as I'd like to try it in 7X64mm Brenneke, maybe the 2021 Annual will have that in it.

Mr. Zorg said:

...
I'd like to see Hodgdon publish StaBALL 6.5 load data for 280 Remington as I'd like to try it in 7X64mm Brenneke, maybe the 2021 Annual will have that in it.

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Hodgdon doesn't list any StaBALL6.5 loads for the 280 in their 2020 manual; I suspect SB6.5's burning rate isn't quite right for the 280.. They do use Superformance with 120- and 140g. bullets, and it achieves the highest velocities.

jeffreybehr said:

Hodgdon doesn't list any StaBALL6.5 loads for the 280 in their 2020 manual; I suspect SB6.5's burning rate isn't quite right for the 280.. They do use Superformance with 120- and 140g. bullets, and it achieves the highest velocities.

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I emailed Hodgdon about the lack of data for the 280 Remington with StaBALL 6.5 powder earlier this year. On July 14, 2020 I received this response from an individual who gave his name as Luke Otte.

"Right now we do not have a scheduled date for testing the 280. It is on the list but we are trying to get everything done that is going into the Annual manual for this year."

So I've taken a wait & see attitude, hopefully it hasn't been removed from "the list", and even more hopefully that data will appear in the 2021 Hodgdon annual. If not 2021, maybe 2022, or maybe 2023, etc.

As far as Superformance powder I'm not really interested in it because of its limited applications. The muzzle velocity of 3000 fps for the 280 Remington cartridge in my Hornady #10 Handbook for Superformance powder with 139 - 140 grain bullets is equaled in StaBALL 6.5 load data for the 7mm-08 cartridge and I also have a 7mm-08 rifle. Where the 280 Remington and 7X64mm Brenneke cartridges outshine the 7mm-08 cartridge in my opinion is with 154 grain and heavier projectiles, especially the 7X64mm Brenneke with standard barrel rifling twist rate of 1:8.66 inches and typically long throat (European style) in rifles chambered for 7X64mm Brenneke. That's the region I'm looking for StaBALL 6.5 load data for 280 Remington personally.

valleyforge.1777 said:

I got some StaBALL 6.5 to try with 270 Winchester.
I'm going to try working up loads with 130, 140, and 150 grain Hornady bullets.
I do not have a chronograph, thinking about getting one of those that goes on the muzzle end of the rifle barrel, but not decided yet about that.
Hodgdon does have load data for 270 Win. I did notice that their stated pressures are way higher than for loads they list for IMR and Hodgdon powders such the 4350's, I-4064, etc. The StaBALL max pressures were all over 60,000 PSI. That makes me a bit nervous. I had read somewhere that rifle pressures should never exceed 65,000 (I think that comes from SAAMI, not sure) and the StaBALL pressures are close to that. Should I be concerned about that?

Also, I see they have load data for cartridges derived from the 308, and they have load data for the 30'06 and cartridges derived from the 30'06 but I've read that Hodgdon says not to use StaBALL in 308, that it is unsuited for that cartridge. Anyone know why it is not to be used in 308? I don't shoot any 308's anyway but I was just wondering what safety hints I might get out of understanding that warning.

Anyone use it yet in 270 Win?

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I also bought some to try in 270. I called Hodgdon. They said that for this powder to work well a certain load density needs to be reached and I cannot remember well enough to tell you what percentage that was, but essentially this is why it was not a good candidate for 25-06.
I have it loaded up according to Hodgdon data but have not shot it yet, 130 gr. Speer hot cor.

I'm presuming that I can rely on their online load data from Hodgdon for the 270 loading with StaBALL? Speer's online load data does not have anything for StaBALL in 270, not a big surprise.

I also have some Shooter's World SW4350, (Lovex S070) to try for 270 Win, Separate topic, so I will take that to a new thread. I am hoping to try loading some StaBALL for the 270 Win sometime in the spring (waiting on custom dies being made by Whidden with 14-16 week wait time).

Mr. Zorg said:

I emailed Hodgdon about the lack of data for the 280 Remington with StaBALL 6.5 powder earlier this year. On July 14, 2020 I received this response from an individual who gave his name as Luke Otte.

"Right now we do not have a scheduled date for testing the 280. It is on the list but we are trying to get everything done that is going into the Annual manual for this year."

So I've taken a wait & see attitude, hopefully it hasn't been removed from "the list", and even more hopefully that data will appear in the 2021 Hodgdon annual. If not 2021, maybe 2022, or maybe 2023, etc.

As far as Superformance powder I'm not really interested in it because of its limited applications. The muzzle velocity of 3000 fps for the 280 Remington cartridge in my Hornady #10 Handbook for Superformance powder with 139 - 140 grain bullets is equaled in StaBALL 6.5 load data for the 7mm-08 cartridge and I also have a 7mm-08 rifle. Where the 280 Remington and 7X64mm Brenneke cartridges outshine the 7mm-08 cartridge in my opinion is with 154 grain and heavier projectiles, especially the 7X64mm Brenneke with standard barrel rifling twist rate of 1:8.66 inches and typically long throat (European style) in rifles chambered for 7X64mm Brenneke. That's the region I'm looking for StaBALL 6.5 load data for 280 Remington personally.

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So far (for the most part), if they're using h100v in a cartridge, they'll get some staball data, looking at .280 160 data, should be a good fit for staball.

Hi. Any further updates on this powder and tested loads? I've got some to try for my 270win, 7-08, and 22-250.

Walkalong said:

Tried it in 6.5 Creed, shot fine, never found a small SD load. I beat Hornady 143 eldm factory ammo ES/SD, but not what I could get with 4350

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Yeah I just couldn’t get it to shoot better than other powders I have so for me it’s moving to the back of the stack in powder column for me in the 6.5 Creedmoor

I tried StaBALL 6.5 in some .243 loads with Sierra 85 gr HPBTs, but couldn't find an accurate load. Probably wasn't the best choice for that caliber and bullet, but it's what was available during the really lean times. I'm hoping it will fare better in the .30-06 loads I put together with Hornady 150 grain BTSPs.