A few months ago I got the idea to build another custom rifle and decided my 300 RUM had lived a good life but wanted to rebarrel it to something different for hunting pigs. I have a few AR platforms in 338 Federal and one in 6.5 Grendel so the shorter and mid range was covered but I wanted something for punching paper and longer shots in open rice fields on pork. After a ton of research I settled on a 6.5-284 Norma. The cartridge is known as a barrel burner but inherently its accuracy is unquestionable.
I had settled in on using 140gr Berger VLDs and had the rifle throated accordingly. After dropping the gun off I knew I had some time to wait so I started reading everything I could get my hands on. Load manuals, websites, forums, etc. Every load manual I read had 7-10 powders listed along with their suggested "most accurate load". While I was in a bit of information overload 2 powders stood out in everything I read...H4831SC and H4350 with H1000, RL 22, etc mentioned as well although not as much. With the 140gr Berger I kept seeing 50-51gr. of 4831SC mentioned as a "pet load" or "go to" load on forum after forum. Since the barrel life of the 6.5-284 is an issue I wanted load development time to be at a minimum. Finding powder, primers, and bullets has been an issue I again dove into the internet and started buying stuff where I could find it. I settled on H4831SC as my starting powder with CCI BR2 primers behind the 140gr Berger Hunting VLDs.
Got the call this past Monday that the rifle was ready and mounted the scope, double checked all the screws, and loaded up about 30 rounds of starting loads. Here is the finished rifle.
Rem 700 LH long action
Swapped the bolt to a PTG spiral fluted standard bolt face
8" twist Krieger Remington Varmint Contour Fluted and finished at 28"
6.5-284 Norma chamber with .296 neck
bedded in HS Precision Varmint stock
Jewell trigger set at 1lb.
Measured my chamber for COAL and decided I was going to start with the VLD jammed 0.010 into the lands. Started my loads at 47.5gr and worked up to 51gr which was the max load in the Berger manual. I figured at 98 degrees with the bullets jammed I was going to find my rifles max pressure load somewhere in there and I watched for max very carefully as I worked up. Just basic 3 shot groups at 100. Here were the results;
All of them shot well with nothing over 3/4" but 50.5 and 51gr. were clearly sweet spots at sub 1/4" with no pressure signs and the focus of more development. That being said I am 28 rounds into my new rifle and already have a load that shows a lot of promise. I guess moral of the story is that for some cartridges there are "proven recipes" that have worked over and over and using those as a starting point can sometimes be beneficial. Doesnt always work but a little homework pays off. Only downside is that sometimes tinkering with load development is the fun part.
I had settled in on using 140gr Berger VLDs and had the rifle throated accordingly. After dropping the gun off I knew I had some time to wait so I started reading everything I could get my hands on. Load manuals, websites, forums, etc. Every load manual I read had 7-10 powders listed along with their suggested "most accurate load". While I was in a bit of information overload 2 powders stood out in everything I read...H4831SC and H4350 with H1000, RL 22, etc mentioned as well although not as much. With the 140gr Berger I kept seeing 50-51gr. of 4831SC mentioned as a "pet load" or "go to" load on forum after forum. Since the barrel life of the 6.5-284 is an issue I wanted load development time to be at a minimum. Finding powder, primers, and bullets has been an issue I again dove into the internet and started buying stuff where I could find it. I settled on H4831SC as my starting powder with CCI BR2 primers behind the 140gr Berger Hunting VLDs.
Got the call this past Monday that the rifle was ready and mounted the scope, double checked all the screws, and loaded up about 30 rounds of starting loads. Here is the finished rifle.
Rem 700 LH long action
Swapped the bolt to a PTG spiral fluted standard bolt face
8" twist Krieger Remington Varmint Contour Fluted and finished at 28"
6.5-284 Norma chamber with .296 neck
bedded in HS Precision Varmint stock
Jewell trigger set at 1lb.
Measured my chamber for COAL and decided I was going to start with the VLD jammed 0.010 into the lands. Started my loads at 47.5gr and worked up to 51gr which was the max load in the Berger manual. I figured at 98 degrees with the bullets jammed I was going to find my rifles max pressure load somewhere in there and I watched for max very carefully as I worked up. Just basic 3 shot groups at 100. Here were the results;
All of them shot well with nothing over 3/4" but 50.5 and 51gr. were clearly sweet spots at sub 1/4" with no pressure signs and the focus of more development. That being said I am 28 rounds into my new rifle and already have a load that shows a lot of promise. I guess moral of the story is that for some cartridges there are "proven recipes" that have worked over and over and using those as a starting point can sometimes be beneficial. Doesnt always work but a little homework pays off. Only downside is that sometimes tinkering with load development is the fun part.
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