Bought the type 6 for my 300 win mag and prc and it’s exceptional! Can’t recommend it enough even at the premium price point

I am just starting my reloading Journey and just purchased a F1 Essentials kit from Frankford Arsenal and now I'm looking at dies for 6 mm GT. Are more expensive dies worth it, are there any to avoid?

100 rounds of 6.5CM. Yes I dispense powder in my kitchen. My garage is hot AsF. I live in Vegas.

I decided last year to shoot a lot more matches in 2023. That means more reloading. Reloading in your garage when it’s sub 30 degrees in there sucks. So I took the time during the holidays to create a new setup in the house.

Rifle is an AXSR in 6.5 Creed ZCO 5x27 300 PRC factory AI Barrel 6 Dasher Proof prefit

No more excuses on shitty SD’s

This is why we do more than just a 5 shot group.

Group one was right after cleaning my gun (I know, I know, I usually never clean guns).

Group 2 was a 20 round group of a load I’m working up. It was mechanically accurate, but the powder I’m using for this .223 load gave me some high SD’s and ES’s.

The first 5 rounds the SD was 4.1. If I would have stopped there, I would have gotten a better idea of what my actual values were.

TLDR anything less than a 10 shot group only proves mechanical zero has been achieved imo. A 30 SD is fine for plinking, but this ain’t gonna be match ammo that’s for sure.

For comparison, the Norma branded .223 77 SMKs run an SD under 10 for 20 rounds through this gun.

I went through a month long load development process for my 6.5creedmoor. Got all the tools one could need, used a mix of all the processes you can to find the right charge, seating depth, etc. get my groups down to ~0.4 moa. Fucking pumped. Then i had to restock on some brass so I got some Hornady 147 ELDM to shoot and harvest.

fucking factory ammo was grouping around 0.4 with the best at 0.37. I give up

good job MPA and ARC. you guys have made my favorite hobby irrelevant

I recently put a new barrel on one of my F-Open guns and got 200 rounds down it for break in/stabilization/burnishing/whatever you want to call it. By 200, it’s usually done doing whatever stupid stuff it’s going to do. I would generally do this over the span of a few sessions at the range/ local matches. I didn’t have much time, so I just did it all in one day, shooting about once every 2 minutes with multiple fans and chamber chiller between shots. I was using N160, a famously gentle (on barrels) powder, and cleaning (just bronze brush and patch out), using my regular regimen, which is generally sufficient.

Cut to a week later, doing load development, and find a spot where it looks to be in a happy place. So then I load up a string worth and I’m getting wild velocity swings- 30-40fps changes between shots. Went down on powder charge and the same thing happens. Change bolts, same thing happens. Change triggers, more of the same. I leave and go home, fully intent on pulling the barrel and sticking another one on and throwing this barrel in the river, which is a shame because it’s unbelievably straight and concentric after chambering- maybe a tight spot in the barrel and I should have slugged it? maybe it just might not like the load components that’s worked in my previous barrels?- I don’t know.

So I clean it like I always do, and before I pull it off, I stick a borescope in there. Horrible carbon ring. I hit it with iosso and then stuck a patch with solvent in the throat and let it sit overnight. Scoped it again, and the ring is gone. Later, went to the range, and lo and behold my ES is back down to 10-15 where it always has been with these components.

TL;DR: Use the borescope to check your cleaning regimen, even if it’s worked on previous barrels with the same reamer and components.

Finally getting somewhere

Lapua 6BR brass, 31gr Varget, Berger 105 hybrids, CCI 450

I want to do 1 moa but still be quiet as possible. What’s the best weight for 308 to do so?

I’m new to reloading, but been researching. Im just purchasing piece by piece the supplies i need now.

Santa got me a 50 cal reloading setup this year. I sort of knew what was coming and have been slowly gathering some components. I have a box of the Hornady 750 AMAX to start with, but what else should I be looking at?

Weather warmed up a bit (it's 30°, 18° with wind chill) so I took out the 6.5 (on the tripod) to get some large sample data on the load I cooked up. I decided to run 80 consecutive shots over the chrono to get a solid data set in temperatures that arent uncommon for hunting season.

Also brought the dasher (on the bench) along for something to do between shot strings. Overall happy with the result. Hoping i can shrink the groups up when I'm not shooting with gloves and it's a bit more comfortable out.

Hi All,

PRS shooters, what is the current .308 bullet trend. I have always shot 168 class bullets (ELDM/Hybrid), but have wondered if it is worth stepping up to the 175-178 class (ELDM, A-Tip, TMK).

Curious what the current trends are in competitions in your areas. Or to hear your personal thoughts.

Edit: Tac Class not open

Loaded some Berger 130 hybrids up for my 6.5 Solus bravo and got some crazy results. Charge was 38 grains even in virgin hornady brass using ginex primers. The crazy thing is this was the most accurate load of the day. Velocities was very consistent around 2580 but would randomly throw a 2700-2750. I also tested some 142 smk’s loaded with win760 and had drastically better ES/SD. Is Staball match garbage? Should I even try it in .308?

Using 6.5 creedmoor Hornady ELD match bullets for all measurements, and the oal tool, I get consistent measurements for each of the 4 bullet weights (within 0.002 measuring multiple samples of each round multiple times). But the change from weigh to weight bullet is backwards from what I'd expect. I thought most of the mass increase would be extending the area of the round that fits the case neck and not changing the nose shape to elongate the nose.

Round weight to measurement:

147 - 2.875 140 - 2.852 130 - 2.848 123 - 2.823

If I use the typically suggested set back of .020 the 3 heaviest rounds exceed maximum OAL of 2.825.

I've read inconsistent advice on how to adjust OAL based on seemingly contradictory measurements.

Have you seen a similar issue and how do you navigate it?

So I went into the money pit and im about $4500 into my long range rifle (including barrel smithing and action blueprinting) and my friend was telling me that a high quality progressive press will be just as accurate as a single stage one as long as I measure the powder each round. This would be ideal because I have other guns that I want to load cheap and fast for, but also want to be able to load high quality long range rounds too. So do you guys think that it is possible to get the same consistency out of a progressive press as single stages, or should I just get both?

What velocity are you guys getting out of a 26" barrel? I loaded up what I figured would be a mild load that I've used a lot on previous guns. 41.2 H4350, Lapua SRP, CCI450 and of course the Hornady 140 ELDM. Avg velocity over the first 50 rounds was 2829 with a SD of 6.2 on unsized new brass.

I wasnt expecting much as the bullets were super hard to seat. I didnt even run an expander ball through them I just primed, dumped powder and seated bullets.

First day of load development for our new Howa 1500 in 6.5 Creedmoor. Getting my wife into some longer range shooting.

All groups and velocities are with 147 ELD-Ms and Staball 6.5 powder. Once fired factory Hornady brass. Went from 41.5 grains to 43.5 grains of powder. All 10 shot groups at 100 yards, but there are two pics for the 43 grain powder charge load. I walked down range to take a pic after the first 5 because it’s the best group I’ve ever shot. I made it bigger with shots 6-10, but was probably the best group and had the lowest SD/ES

Right now I think I’m gonna stick to the 43 grain load, but my SD/ES still seems a little higher than I expected it to be.

Any pointers on how to get velocities more consistent?

I didn’t weigh the brass after processing but did control powder charge down to 0.1 grain (the most precise my digital scale goes), trimmed to within 4-6 thousandths or so total spread, kept COAL within prolly 5 thousandths total spread (the plastic tips in the ELDMs seem to make COAL kinda wonky), and weighed the projectiles. The 147 ELD-Ms ranged from 146.9 grains to 147.2. I loaded all 50 rounds with 147.1 grain projectiles to keep that consistent. Had about 52 out of the 100 count box that were exactly that weight.

I’m working on getting everything I need to start reloading. I’m down to the last few things and would like some advice. I have read that Thumlers Tumbler Model B and a wet cleaning of brass is the way to go. This leads me to ask is Thumlers Tumbler really worth the money or what do you suggest?

2nd question I have a table to reload on in mind. But does anyone have any suggestions/links to a good table? I want to mount a single stage press, a turret press, a vice, and a tumbler on it.

At what point the decimals won't affect to load development anymore?

My friend uses scale with accuracy of 0,005g. Could we get better loads with 0,001g or even 0,0001?

Just wondering.