6.5 x 55 quest ends

Rutland lad

Well-Known Member
You may recall my expensive (time and money) quest to make Barnes 120 grain TTSX/TSX work in my 6.5x55. I detailed this in a previous post.
In my exasperation the torch was passed to a friend and ex colleague of mine who had similar poor results with the Barnes - and he’s an experienced reloader.
We then decided to try Fox Classic Hunter in 123 grain. After some work he arrived at a charge weight which seemed to work well, but being OCD like myself, he continued the quest and found a better sweet spot CF15CF30-8B3C-46B1-9DA0-036216810CAF.jpegToday’s target. In the field at 100m off a bench using bags for support as I’m after groups.
starting bottom right - not bad, just about 1.5” group
bottom left, getting my eye in now, down to 1.2” group
top left is the same load in Sako case, again not too shabby for deer stalking,
but then - top right. Three rounds of the ‘preferred load’ giving a 0.8” group.
Much happier now.

That’s it. Job done. All that remains now is to see what the effects are on deer, and if satisfactory then I’ve a winter of reloading ahead of me to build up some stock.
To all of you that gave me moral support on here, thank you. It was worth not giving up even though I felt like it. On many occasion.
To those of you struggling with the change from lead to copper/nontoxic - keep going. You’ll find a load that works.
 
Do you mind sharing the powder and charge weight and oal you have ended with, with the usual of start low work up?

Cheers
 
Out of interest did you test any more than 3 of each? Really you want to do a larger group to fully appreciate the variables. That group top right does look promising but I’d want to check it was consistent over a longer test (personally).
 
Good man and well done, all seems to be coming together rather well. I think the road to perdition copper is inevitably potholed because of different rifles, chamberings, twist rates, (and even opinions) ad nauseum but encouragingly most of the SD chaps who set out have actually arrived, Indeed there are lots of encouraging testimonies from those who set off earlier than the rest of us. For me the point is that just like traditional bullets some rifles “like“ one bullet by brand, shape, weight, etc. and others just don’t, so why should copper be any different? In my own case my 6.5 does not like GMX and thus has ended the relationship but appears to have started quite a serious relationship with Yew Tree. I just hope the romance continues to blossom!
🦊🦊
 
Out of interest did you test any more than 3 of each? Really you want to do a larger group to fully appreciate the variables. That group top right does look promising but I’d want to check it was consistent over a longer test (personally).
Already done. 5 round groups.
This was literally a 20 round shoot to confirm what I already knew and to give me some practice. And to throw some same load into different cases to see if they had the same POI and grouping. That would mean the 100+ once fired Sako could be added to my stash. That bit didn’t quite work, so it looks like I need to buy some more Lapua cases.
 
I’ve tried to copy and paste the Fox Classic Hunter load data page as sent to me by Ed at Edinburgh Rifles.
For some reason this won’t copy and paste onto here.
But that data is enough to get you started on a load - my colleague also used QL to refine the load data and worked up to a level still well under QL showing RED.
 
Good man and well done, all seems to be coming together rather well. I think the road to perdition copper is inevitably potholed because of different rifles, chamberings, twist rates, (and even opinions) ad nauseum but encouragingly most of the SD chaps who set out have actually arrived, Indeed there are lots of encouraging testimonies from those who set off earlier than the rest of us. For me the point is that just like traditional bullets some rifles “like“ one bullet by brand, shape, weight, etc. and others just don’t, so why should copper be any different? In my own case my 6.5 does not like GMX and thus has ended the relationship but appears to have started quite a serious relationship with Yew Tree. I just hope the romance continues to blossom!
🦊🦊
I was going to try Yew Tree next if the Fox didn’t come good. But I was a little reluctant as it’s a frangible bullet and my butcher wasn’t keen on that.
 
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