95 vmax

6.5shooter

Well-Known Member
Hi folks,Im wanting to try some 95 vmax in a 6.5x284 throated for 139/140 gr bullets but im not sure if they will work because of the long freebore. Before I go buy a box, has anyone tried this and what powder\load? Im using 4831sc for 140 bullets but I suspect I will need a faster powder for the lighter bullet. Garry
 
Sorry but I really believe that you have been well and truely duped about this "bullet has to be seated close to the lands" bit.

It seems that Hornady agree with your thoughts on the powder and do not list 4831 (you do not say whether it's Hodgdons or IMR BTW) they got highest velocities from H4350, IMR 4359 and H414. Next tier down was N-160, Win 760, Reloader 15 and IMR 4064.

Now about this bullet jump :rolleyes: for several years my stalking load for my Swedish Mauser was the Speer 120Grn flat based bullet. It's physically impossible the get the ogive to touch the lands in this rifle as the ex-military barrel is throated for the 160 grain service loads. Oh yes years ago I picked up a couple of boxes of Norma 77 grn SP loads for the Swede and they shoot MOA or less too. NOW THAT IS A BIG BULLET JUMP!

At first as I too had sort of believed what I had read over and over again about this needing a small bullet jump was worried that the rifle might not shoot very well with this bullet but I tried a few loads and found much to my surprise that it easily shot MOA and with the right powder and seating depth to get onto the right node it seems happily shot way under MOA. Just thought I was lucky. Then the same thing happened in my 6.5x53R when I tried the self same bullet in it. K this one only has the three leaf express sights but at 200 yards on Bisley Short Sibera we found it shot them into a similar size group as the 160 grain bullets. The sights and me the shooter being the limiting factors not the bullets and jump to lands.

Since then I have found that nearly every one of my rifles prefers quite a bit of jump, some bullets and loads like the Hornady 130 Grn SP in the 30-30 and .308 cannot get near the leade and shoot bug hole groups if I get me part right behind the butt.

On new load/cartridge/bullet combination I now start with the bullet seated to the base of the neck and start development from there. Only two rifles have proved troublesome using this method. We do not know how many rounds have been fired through either. The bedding had been tampered with on the 6mm rem and it now shoots a bit better but not as good as one would have hoped. More work to do there I'm afraid :oops: the 25-06 also need the bedding correcting due to a bit of compression over time. The problem is that the barrel is heat crazed for the first 10" or so so we may never achieve it's true potential unless a new barrel is fitted however we have managed to get grouping under MOA with the 10 Grn Sierra bullet..
 
All Weatherby calibres are designed with more free bore than standard calibres. A good explanation why can be found on several Weatherby websites
 
Weatherby use free bore to get around excessive pressures on their poorly thought out cartridges. In fact if you look into them you will find than there is nothing about a Weatherby cartridge that is Weatherby's idea. they are all taken from others ever the much vaunted Double Venturi shoulder. If I recall correctly he took that idea from Powell-Miller. The belt from Holland & Holland large case for small bore was also an old idea. High velocity well he was way behind on that, Ross, Newton, Brenneke and Ackley to mention a few all came way before him.

In fact apart from him being able to sell snow to an Eskimo there is not much good to say for the man really.
 
Hi, a friend of mine started to use these through his RPA Interceptor 6.5-284 and i know he loaded them pretty hot but several bullets broke up before reaching the target! Thankfully he found this out during load development so changed over to 120 B/T's.
 
Thanks for the replies lads!
It is an rpa with a 30" barrel so they would be driven very hard!
Im glad you told me about youre friend exprerimenting with them as it never crossed my mind that this might happen, with the tight twist and the 6.5x284's ability it would make sense so I may try amax instead. Thanks for the heads up.
;)

Regards

Garry
 
Weatherby use free bore to get around excessive pressures on their poorly thought out cartridges. In fact if you look into them you will find than there is nothing about a Weatherby cartridge that is Weatherby's idea. they are all taken from others ever the much vaunted Double Venturi shoulder. If I recall correctly he took that idea from Powell-Miller. The belt from Holland & Holland large case for small bore was also an old idea. High velocity well he was way behind on that, Ross, Newton, Brenneke and Ackley to mention a few all came way before him.

In fact apart from him being able to sell snow to an Eskimo there is not much good to say for the man really.

I think most designs are taken from ones previously used. Certainly most of the more modern cartridges are almost exact copies of wild cats used in the 60's and 70's

As regularly stated on forums, the best rifle in the world is the rifle you currently own :D
 
It's about what goes on inside the cases as well as what goes on outside the case,Ive used the same head for a couple of years,the throat has grown so many fow,they are still loaded at the same length and accuracy hasn't change,these manufacturers seem to have found the magic load for there cartridges,I haven't used factory stuff for 10 years and I can honestly say when I did they were all good,last time I tried some was when I was having a reload accuracy prob with a 25.06,I bought some 120gr federal fusion and they were brilliant,0.5 to 0.75 inch groups at 100yds
 
Consider the bullet jump in a revolver. It has to go from the cylinder across a gap of maybe 25 thou, enter the barrel and engage in the rifling. And revolvers can be very accurate.

Spot the ex "wheelgunner" :).
 
Consider the bullet jump in a revolver. It has to go from the cylinder across a gap of maybe 25 thou, enter the barrel and engage in the rifling. And revolvers can be very accurate.

Spot the ex "wheelgunner" :).

You forgot about the swaging of the bullet in the smooth bore cylinder throat before it does the jump into the forcing cone ;). Several revolver makes were well known for having under sized cylinder throats. Yet some of those PPC and 1500 shooters could stack those bullets nearly on top of one another.
 
True I did forget about that.
I once did a long range pistol comp and got all six shots inside a 12" circle. Not bad with open sights and a 6" barrel (model 27 S & W).

Ah, the good old days ! ... the trouble with them is you don't realise they are good till they are old :rolleyes:.
 
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