6.5 creedmoor 123g hornaday eld-m 4895 loads

[mel80]

anyone using this combo yet ?
right now i have a 6.5 grendel which shoots the hornaday black eld-m really good
and then i have 2x 6.5 creedmoors ive been shooting some s&b 140g ammo out of for the time being

my goal here is to try to use the 123g bullets on both the grendel and creedmoor , and if not ill move up to the 129g in the creedmoor

most of my shooting is done at 500 yards +

my grendel


last outting witht he hornaday black eld-m


one of the creedmoors

and both together


ive got a 24 inch barreled creed i should be picking up on monday

[Rimfire5]

You might try a slightly slower powder than H4895 to see if it produces better accuracy.

I have three 6.5mm Creedmoor bolt actions that all shoot slightly slower powders better than the 4895 speed powders. Mine like H4350 and IMR4451 Enduron powders best. They also shoot IMR4350 and Reloader 17 (130 grain bullets only) almost as well. N150 powder shoots the worst of the powers that I tried.

Two of the 6.5mm CMs have 26-inch barrels and the third has a 24-inch barrel.
The 24-inch barrel shoots 130 grain bullets better than the heavier 140, 142, 143 and 147 grain bullets, probably due to the barrel rather than the length. The two 26-inch barrel 6.5mm CMs shoot the heavier bullets 142 SMK and 147 ELD-M bullets slightly better but also shoot 130 gr bullets and 140 grain ELD-M and Berger Match, Long Range and Hybrid bullets almost as well. The 123 gr SMKs shoot in the middle of the pack with the 4350 class powders.

[mel80]

i do have h4350 to try but only 1 pound of it , was hoping for good results with the 4895 since i have about 11 pounds of that

so those are my first 2 options to try , if those dont produce good results ill pick up something else

the creedmoor pictured above is a 20 inch barrel and the one i have coming monday well parts anyways is for a 24 inch build
i knwo at some point im going to end up building a 24 inch grendel to go with my 20 inch one as well

[mel80]

my creedmoor die set wont get here till monday so i loaded up some grendel rounds tonight to try tommorow, hornaday brass cci #400 primers 27g of 4895 and 123g eldm

come monday ill start working on some creedmoor stuff

[Old Stony]

I don't shoot long distance around my area, but do hunt a lot at distances that normally don't extend more than around 150 yards. I have found the Hornady 123 SST to work well for me in both of the 6.5 cartridges and they are very effective on hogs and whitetail deer. The Creedmore seems to be at it's best for me using H4350.

[AgedWarrior]

I have found that H4350, IMR4350 and RE-17 work admirably in the 6.5 crd. I mostly shoot Sierra 140 grain with H4350 in the Creedmore, but 120 Gold Dot and 123 SST bullets shoot nicely on top of IMR 4350.

In the Grendel I have found CFE223 and TAC to perform very good. I use CFE233 with Hornady 123 SST bullets in the Grendel. They give excellent performance in my CZ and AR.

I have not been inclined to try 4895 in either cartridge.

[stagpanther]

Cool creedmoors--first time I've seen one with a rail attachment for a potato-masher grenade!

[mel80]

First loads went bad in a hurry s&b brass winchester primers 37g of 4895 123g eldm blew the primers out of the cases not sure whats going on with that. The grendel rounds however were just fine

Do have some other brass to try besides the s&b stuff

[mel80]

The grendel loads shot better then the hornaday black eld,m ive been shooting so atleast thats good

Stag thats just my night setup here the other setup on my grendel

[stagpanther]

I figured as much with the thermal scope on--just teasing. I assume you are doing "crowd control" on hogs or some other pesky creature?

[mel80]

I wish i had thermals cant justify the cost though. Grendel has an atn xight hd 3-15x day/night scope with 66lrx ir illuminator and ive got the 5-20x atn xsight 4k pro day/night on the creed with an coyote cannon ir illuminator.

And yeah coyotes and othere pests no hogs here

Going to try some hornaday brass and h4350 loads today in the creed

[mel80]

thought i had h4350 it was imr 4350 , so i loaded up 10 with witht he hornaday brass at 42.5g and then i loaded 5 in the sellier and bellot brass with the same powder load as well

just to see if i blow out primers again in the s&b brass hopefully not since i have 300 pieces of that brass and only 40 pieces of the hornaday brass

i do belive something is up with my 4895 powder as i was below max in the grendel by a decent bit and the brass is showing over presure signs , so i loaded up a few more of those and droped 1g of powder to see what those do

hopefully i can get out tommorow and chrono all those

[stagpanther]

Are you using large rifle or small rifle primers? You might consider switching to the small rifle (stronger head, primer cup). I recommend ADG or Peterson brass. Some firing pins tend to pierce primers on creedmoors--are you seeing evidence of that?

[Old Stony]

CFE223 is sort of the most used powder in the Grendel. I have used it with very good results.

[mel80]

Are you using large rifle or small rifle primers? You might consider switching to the small rifle (stronger head, primer cup). I recommend ADG or Peterson brass. Some firing pins tend to pierce primers on creedmoors--are you seeing evidence of that?

all the brass i have is large primer, actually dont know i didnt recover any of the primers it blew then clear out of the cases , ill see what happens later today with the 4350, no issues with puncturing primers on the factory loaded stuff though, i did notice when i primed all that brass something didnt feel right , almost felt like primers were going in a lil to easy , when i primed the hornaday brass those felt like what im used to with my priming tool

[stagpanther]

If the primers literally blew/fell out after firing--chances are good there's one inside your lower receiver someplace.

[mel80]

first place i looked besides the mag none fell into either
sized some more brass and just for kicks stuck my large primer pocket reamer in it and its a bit loose

heres one i fired
just an ejector mark on the back of the case

[jetinteriorguy]

Just a suggestion, get a pair of the primer pocket go-no go gauges from Sinclair. One of the best investments I've made. It's a routine part of my brass prep now to check primer pockets with the gauge. When working up loads that are at the top of the limit one of the ways to monitor over pressure is to segregate 20 pieces of brass and check how many loads you get before the primer pockets are blown. I have a load that shoots really good, it doesn't exhibit any of the traditional signs of pressure, but the bolt lift is just ever so slightly sticky so this is one way I'm monitoring it to be sure. I have a suspicion I may have some oil in the chamber so I'm going to give that a good cleaning before the next outing and see if it helps.

[mel80]

ty ill grab a set found theese
https://ballistictools.com/store/sma...-pocket-gauges

this is the first time ive loaded that brass when i got my creedmoor i bought 340 rounds of sellier and bellot 140g fmj ammo just so i had the brass for reloading considering it was the cheapest stuff i could find at 11$ a box , ive got a new set of reloads to try with both hornaday brass and the s&b brass with 4350 powder , just need it to warm up

damn high today is 24*

i have suspicions the primer pockets in the s&b stuff is a tad bit loose just from what i felt when using my priming tool on them

[jetinteriorguy]

Oops, my bad. Those are the ones I was talking about. I was thinking I had ordered them from Sinclair.

[mel80]

43g of imr 4350 behind the eld-m 123 g bullets worked great and didnt loose any primers out of the s&b brass so atleast i have my starting point when it warms up later this week ill get out the chrono and do some accuracy testing

[stagpanther]

I developed a whole bunch of loads for both 6 and 6.5 creedmoors for quite few builds and occasionally encountered the issues you are having. I eventually got sick and tired of all the frigging, tuning, brass anxieties etc. and did two things that made the problems go away: 1) get the small primer brass from the manufacturers I mentioned above; and 2) get JP Enterprises' enhanced high pressure 308 bolt assembly, which is specially designed to deliver the proper pin strike in 308-type bolts used in higher pressures.

[mel80]

I just put ina pretty big order at brownells since the having a 1 cent hazmat 0$ shipping deal going got small primer brass 8lbs of h4350 few assorted 1lb powders to try in the grendel and a ton of other needed reloading supplies

[stagpanther]

I seem to recall my favorite powder for the Grendel was 8208 xbr--though I haven't shot them in ages.

[mel80]

Originally Posted by stagpanther

I seem to recall my favorite powder for the Grendel was 8208 xbr--though I haven't shot them in ages.

couldnt get my hands on any brownells was out of stock unfortunately or i would have grabbed some and i cant get any locally