My BIL just wowed me with a gift of a 6.5 Creedmore WITH scope - powder choices

[lezmark]

One heck of a surprise. I like to reload everything I shoot, so I did a powder inventory and it looks like I have quite a bit of H4831 and 8208XBR, and one pound of Varget. I can find recipes for each of them and am looking at loading 140 grain. What would be the powder of choice here of those? Thanks!

 

[IALoder]

Out of those 2 powders H4831 will do the best. I bet H4831 would do well with 147's! Most guys running 140gr are using H4350, RL-16, others in the "4350 burn rate" area. I prefer RL-16 with 140's in my 6.5 CM.

 

[Blue68f100]

Varget has been good with the 130 pills. But H4350 dominates the 140 gr.

 

[sisyphus]

I was looking for one powder to do 375 Ruger and 30-06 with. I was headed toward 760, but then I saw the numbers for Staball 6.5 and think I may go that route. It was made for the Creedmoor craze, so you may want to look at the load data for Staball.

 

[ms6852]

I was looking for one powder to do 375 Ruger and 30-06 with. I was headed toward 760, but then I saw the numbers for Staball 6.5 and think I may go that route. It was made for the Creedmoor craze, so you may want to look at the load data for Staball.

IMR 4350 will handle both of your calibers too.

 

[jmr40]

With 140 gr and heavier bullets H4350 is considered the holy grail powder for accuracy. There are others that might give more speed but H4350 is what everyone uses looking for accuracy. IMR4350 and H4831 are in similar burn rates and in theory should be good. I just haven't seen any reports of anyone using them. Lots of people report good luck with R16, R17, and a few with R19. I experimented some with Ramshot Hunter a while back when I was getting low on H4350. My initial results were promising, but before I got too far into experimenting I found some H4350 so I didn't follow up.

Right now finding any powder is a challenge so you might have to use what you have until things get better.

 

[wombat13]

Nosler online load data shows 8208xbr as the most accurate powder tested with their 140gr bullets, so I’d start with that. If you’re looking to buy, I’d look at H4350 for reasons stated above, 6.5 StaBall because Hodgdon developed it for the 6.5s and shows it offering much higher velocities, and RL15 or RL17 because Barnes indicates they are the most accurate powder with their 140 gr bullets and 130 gr bullets respectively.

 

[Charlie98]

Either of the 4350's is the Darling of the Dance with 6.5CM shooters, another alternate is IMR4451, the Enduron companion to IMR4350... it's what I use because I couldn't find either of the 4350's at the time. H4831 is another, and for you, where I would start if you are shooting 140+ grn bullets (I load the 142grn SMK) since you have it on hand.