Took the wife's new rifle to the range Tuesday to do initial workups on what I hope to load for hunting, thought I would share my initial results into the hive mind in case anyone can use any of my data to help their own shopping/reloading goals.
Rifle: CVA Cascade, 24" 1:8 6.5 PRC
Brass: Norma, once fired
Powder: H1000
Primer: CCI BR2
Bullet: Norma Bondstrike 143gr bonded tipped BT, .020" off lands
Charge weights were 56-58.7gr in .3gr increments. Rounds were fired round-robin 1 at a time, with time for barrel cooling between shots, though fairly high ambient temps may have skewed results near the end of my testing, when my measured barrel exterior temp would remain above 105° at all times (ambient air temp started at 78°, peaked around 102°).
Attached are my velocity notes. Disregard the scribbles in the bottom right; I sent a few proven rounds from my Creedmoor to check velocities and some from my Mosin M44 for S&G.
With this load combo, 58.1 seems like it's sitting in a pretty happy node, little variation up or down velocity-wise, though the groups at 58.4-.7 are a little disappointing, I sort of want to blame the heat...I started around 0730hr, and by 1030hr the temps were getting up to the upper 90's and the barrel was very reluctant to cool.
I suspect I'm to blame for the flyer at 57.8
I've loaded some more rounds at .015" and .025" off the lands at 58.1gr to see if the ES and SD sweet spot stays put, and if tweaking seating depth will help the horizontal at all.
All told, if the load pans out, it won't have to be sub-half-MOA for me to be content. Consistently under 1MOA with small velocity variations around 3k fps will be more than adequate for it's intended use...namely Mulies and the occasional Elk inside 500yd. It's a relatively thin-barreled hunting rifle, after all, and I don't drill flash holes or turn necks.
This may be unnecessary info-dump, but my searching turned up very little on loading the round, so if I'm treading (relatively) new ground, maybe my data can help someone later.
Rifle: CVA Cascade, 24" 1:8 6.5 PRC
Brass: Norma, once fired
Powder: H1000
Primer: CCI BR2
Bullet: Norma Bondstrike 143gr bonded tipped BT, .020" off lands
Charge weights were 56-58.7gr in .3gr increments. Rounds were fired round-robin 1 at a time, with time for barrel cooling between shots, though fairly high ambient temps may have skewed results near the end of my testing, when my measured barrel exterior temp would remain above 105° at all times (ambient air temp started at 78°, peaked around 102°).
Attached are my velocity notes. Disregard the scribbles in the bottom right; I sent a few proven rounds from my Creedmoor to check velocities and some from my Mosin M44 for S&G.
With this load combo, 58.1 seems like it's sitting in a pretty happy node, little variation up or down velocity-wise, though the groups at 58.4-.7 are a little disappointing, I sort of want to blame the heat...I started around 0730hr, and by 1030hr the temps were getting up to the upper 90's and the barrel was very reluctant to cool.
I suspect I'm to blame for the flyer at 57.8
I've loaded some more rounds at .015" and .025" off the lands at 58.1gr to see if the ES and SD sweet spot stays put, and if tweaking seating depth will help the horizontal at all.
All told, if the load pans out, it won't have to be sub-half-MOA for me to be content. Consistently under 1MOA with small velocity variations around 3k fps will be more than adequate for it's intended use...namely Mulies and the occasional Elk inside 500yd. It's a relatively thin-barreled hunting rifle, after all, and I don't drill flash holes or turn necks.
This may be unnecessary info-dump, but my searching turned up very little on loading the round, so if I'm treading (relatively) new ground, maybe my data can help someone later.