6.5 Creedmoor Loads

[horsemen61]

I am looking for your most accurate 6.5 Creedmoor load if you wish to PM me that is fine yes I understand I use at my own risk so should everyone else this information is to be used at your own risk just wanting to see what is working for other guys?

 

[TheDomFather]

41.5 grains of H4350 with a 140gr Hornady ELD-M at 2.800" which is right out of the hornady manual as the max load. I found 40.5-41.5 gr to be very accurate and I am getting right about 2700fps out of a 24" barrel with 41.5 gr

 

[farmerboy78]

I have 2 loads at the moment for my custom kreiger ruger precision rifle.

A- Peterson srp brass
130gr nosler rdf
39.5gr varget
CCI 450
2892fps
B- Peterson srp brass
107gr sierra tmk
40.7gr varget
CCI 450
3112fps

In the past with a prior savage lrp I had 1 load.

A- Norma. 308 reformed brass
123gr amax
43gr varget
Wlr primers
This was a hot load so definitely work up!
I'm not really sure of the oak on these loads.

 

[dh1633pm]

Hornady Brass, Winchester Primer, 140 Grain Barnes Matchburner, 42 grains of AA2700. Your results may vary and check your books.

 

[jmr40]

41.5 grains of H4350 with a 140gr Hornady ELD-M at 2.800" which is right out of the hornady manual as the max load. I found 40.5-41.5 gr to be very accurate and I am getting right about 2700fps out of a 24" barrel with 41.5 gr

Same powder charge under a 143 ELD-X hunting bullet. I don't quite make 2700 fps but my barrel is 22"; it's under 1 MOA consistently. Often close to 1/2 MOA. I haven't tried them, yet, but 139 Scenar's are supposed to be good too. The 155 Scenar's are the most accurate bullet I've fired in my 308 so I want to give them a try eventually.

H-4350 is THE powder for 6.5 CM, but it is getting hard to find due to the popularity of the 6.5 CM. I still have 2-3 lbs of H4350 so I'm OK for now. I keep reading that IMR 4451 is supposed to be just as good, and it is available. When I get low on H4350 I may try IMR4451.

Reloader 16 is another powder that is getting a lot of attention. It'll beat H4350 by about 75-100 fps with a max load. But it is a fairly new powder and I've yet to actually see any.

 

[rayatphonix]

41 grains of RL 17, Hornady brass and 140 gn Nosler CCs. I don’t know what the velocity is, but it shoots very well in my CM bolt actions.

 

[Charlie98]

I couldn't find any IMR or H4350, so I just started up with IMR4451 and the 142grn SMK. Preliminary accuracy has been very good, I expect better results when he gets the scope mounted correctly...

 

[TheDomFather]

I shot a .268" group in this load development, proof that a blind squirrel can still find a nut every now and then!

Here were my load development results:

 

[Captcurt]

The gun dictates the powder. I had three Creedmoors at the same time. My Bergara liked H-4350 and 129gr Nosler Accubond LR. The Weatherby didn't like anything and the cheapo Ruger American Predator liked H-4350, R-17, Imr-4350 with 120 gr. Speer, 129gr NALR, 130 Accubonds and was not picky with the amount of powder. It would take about anything and keep it sub-MOA. Even had a few 3-shot groups .40"

 

[TheDomFather]

I just got some reloader 17 to load for .224 valkyrie, I will have to build some loads to test it for 6.5 creedmor as well

 

[Varminterror]

After 2 6.5creed’s of my own, and discussing load data at length with other precision rifle competitors, I’m largely convinced if your rifle doesn’t shoot well with 41.5grn H4350 under the 140 Hornady or 143 X, there’s probably something wrong with your rifle.

 

[Blue68f100]

My 6.5 CM AR has a 24" Kreiger match barrel and shoots really good with several loads. I started out with Lapua Brass (SP), Varget 38.4gr behind the Sierra 130gr TMK, ~2850fps . Also got good results with RL17 and the 130gr TMK using Starline Brass or Lapua, ~2925fps. At the time I did these I did not have any H4350 powder. Shooting less than 1 moa at 300 yrds if I do my part. I worked up a load with Starline Brass, H4350 and 140gr ELD-M bullets. 42.3 gr of H4350 shot better than the 41.1gr. These have given me 1" groups at 300 yrds if I do my part. Need to work up to these since they are over Max on some manuals.

 

[TheDomFather]

My 6.5 CM AR has a 24" Kreiger match barrel and shoots really good with several loads. I started out with Lapua Brass (SP), Varget 38.4gr behind the Sierra 130gr TMK, ~2850fps . Also got good results with RL17 and the 130gr TMK using Starline Brass or Lapua, ~2925fps. At the time I did these I did not have any H4350 powder. Shooting less than 1 moa at 300 yrds if I do my part. I worked up a load with Starline Brass, H4350 and 140gr ELD-M bullets. 42.3 gr of H4350 shot better than the 41.1gr. These have given me 1" groups at 300 yrds if I do my part. Need to work up to these since they are over Max on some manuals.

Nice shooting my friend!

 

[Charlie98]

I’m largely convinced if your rifle doesn’t shoot well with 41.5grn H4350 under the 140 Hornady or 143 X, there’s probably something wrong with your rifle.

As captcurt mentions, every rifle is different, but in doing load research for the 6.5CM I found an almost universal truth... and that's one of the 4350's and a quality ~140grn bullet. When I was powder shopping, any of the 4350's were long gone... hence the reason I subbed in IMR4451.