Load?

[Tenkara]

Trying to find a starting point for reloads for 6.5cm, thinking of starting with 37gr h4350 and 143 eldx. Any suggestions or input?

[h20hunter]

I shoot that bullet exactly and need to double check my data. Haven't ran them over the crony but using same powder......

[h20hunter]

I'm at 40.0 which I believe,  no book in front of me, that I'm at or nearky at max load.

[Tenkara]

I shoot that bullet exactly and need to double check my data. Haven't ran them over the crony but using same powder......

What brass are you using?

[h20hunter]

Hornady brass and standard cci primers.

[CP]

I do 41.8g - but don't start there.  That's max by Hodgdon's data.  I think I started at about 39.0 and worked up.  Hdy brass.

[Karl Blanchard]

If planning on hunting this gun I would start by throwing those bullets in the garbage and going to something different. Has seen some badd stuff with those 143 grain pills

H4350 is a great powder for that chambering.  I had too much imr4350 on hand so went that route. Jumping a 140 hunting vld  90 thou over 44gr. MV of 2,790 in Norma brass.

[Tenkara]

If planning on hunting this gun I would start by throwing those bullets in the garbage and going to something different. Has seen some badd stuff with those 143 grain pills

H4350 is a great powder for that chambering.  I had too much imr4350 on hand so went that route. Jumping a 140 hunting vld  90 thou over 44gr. MV of 2,790 in Norma brass.

Talked to a friend earlier and he also suggested trying something different than the eldx, said he also had a bad experience with them, kind of a bummer I heard they group well but since I do plan on hunting  with it think I'll go a different route.

[Tenkara]

Thanks for all the info so far guys

[jrebel]

I use that H4350 and shoot the Nosler accubond (not long range) and have great luck.  I will have to check my grains before posting on here but they shoot amazing out of my Savage Stealth.  The Accubond has been a proven performer. 

With that said....I have killed two moose with the ELD-X and they appear to perform very well.  They are being shot out a 300 win mag so not really comparing apples to apples.  They also shoot amazingly well. 

[Karl Blanchard]

If planning on hunting this gun I would start by throwing those bullets in the garbage and going to something different. Has seen some badd stuff with those 143 grain pills

H4350 is a great powder for that chambering.  I had too much imr4350 on hand so went that route. Jumping a 140 hunting vld  90 thou over 44gr. MV of 2,790 in Norma brass.

Talked to a friend earlier and he also suggested trying something different than the eldx, said he also had a bad experience with them, kind of a bummer I heard they group well but since I do plan on hunting  with it think I'll go a different route.

yeah I gave them an honest run in multiple calibers and weights but they performed marginally and had two instances of full on bullet failure so washed my hands of them.  Too many good bullet options out there to settle for less than optimal 

[Tenkara]

Anyone tried the sierra game changers? I shoot the 150 game kings out of my 270 with great results.

[BULLBLASTER]

I shot 4-500 of the very early 143 with the translucent red tips and they were very consistent and reformed very well on the couple deer i shot with them. When the tips changed to solid red the consistency went to crap... they didn’t group the same and didn’t perform near the same on game. 

[Mtnwalker]

I am 1 season and done with eld-x, killed 2 muleys this year with 150’s from a 7 rem at 410 and 390, explosive fragmentation on both. Impact speed should have been around 2650. Bummer because accuracy was phenomenal. Dad killed his buck with a 147 eld m at approx 2550 impact speed and I was pleasantly surprised by the performance, heart shot with a good amount of internal damage and a nice 85 grain mushroom in the off side hide. Go figure

[HighlandLofts]

I usrbthe Geme kings and Hornady SST.

[syoungs]

I shoot the 143eldx over 41.5g h4350, found a good node there that prints an honest .75moa out of my howa in all conditions.

Its shot 6 antelope with that load. Of the 6, the bullet didnt impress me on 3, the other 3 were perfect performance. Shots were between 30 and 200 yards.
Seemed like starting them at 2750 was pushing em to fast. I'm going to switch to a different bullet when  my current stash runs out.

[Jonathan_S]

The 143s shot well in my 6.5-06AI. Accurate and pretty consistent.

Shot a bear last spring and a buck (twice) last fall. Performance was not impressive, particularly on the buck. I’ve also shot 20-30 coyotes with it and have been surprised how many runners there were. Not a giant body of evidence but enough for me when there are viable alternatives. Gave up and switched to the 140 vlds.

I still have an unopened box of 143s and I’m sure I’ll shoot them up eventually because they shoot so nice from my rig but I don’t trust them on big game anymore.

[Karl Blanchard]

The 143s shot well in my 6.5-06AI. Accurate and pretty consistent.

Shot a bear last spring and a buck (twice) last fall. Performance was not impressive, particularly on the buck. I’ve also shot 20-30 coyotes with it and have been surprised how many runners there were. Not a giant body of evidence but enough for me when there are viable alternatives. Gave up and switched to the 140 vlds.

I still have an unopened box of 143s and I’m sure I’ll shoot them up eventually because they shoot so nice from my rig but I don’t trust them on big game anymore.

I was there for Jon's deer and it was one of the full on failures I mentioned. The second shot was a spectacular kill, but it came 3hrs later after we gave up looking for him and chalked it up to a miss.

In my opinion and experience, the 140gr Berger Hunting VLD is the most spectacular. 264 bullet in existence. I've seen that bullet do impressive things from bull elk a really long ways away to bull elk really close and about every type of critter in between. 

[syoungs]

The 143s shot well in my 6.5-06AI. Accurate and pretty consistent.

Shot a bear last spring and a buck (twice) last fall. Performance was not impressive, particularly on the buck. I’ve also shot 20-30 coyotes with it and have been surprised how many runners there were. Not a giant body of evidence but enough for me when there are viable alternatives. Gave up and switched to the 140 vlds.

I still have an unopened box of 143s and I’m sure I’ll shoot them up eventually because they shoot so nice from my rig but I don’t trust them on big game anymore.

I was there for Jon's deer and it was one of the full on failures I mentioned. The second shot was a spectacular kill, but it came 3hrs later after we gave up looking for him and chalked it up to a miss.

In my opinion and experience, the 140gr Berger Hunting VLD is the most spectacular. 264 bullet in existence. I've seen that bullet do impressive things from bull elk a really long ways away to bull elk really close and about every type of critter in between. 

I was considering these, or the tsx's. how do you think these would perform on black bear? no exit has me worried, but if they work as good as people say, there probably wont be much blood trailing anyways? 

[Jonathan_S]

You can shoot a bear with a perfect bullet with an entrance and exit and they usually wont bleed on the ground much anyway. Black bears do NOT have much to say with a bullet on the high shoulder or tight to it. Deer go farther than black bears in my experience.

[Karl Blanchard]

The 143s shot well in my 6.5-06AI. Accurate and pretty consistent.

Shot a bear last spring and a buck (twice) last fall. Performance was not impressive, particularly on the buck. I’ve also shot 20-30 coyotes with it and have been surprised how many runners there were. Not a giant body of evidence but enough for me when there are viable alternatives. Gave up and switched to the 140 vlds.

I still have an unopened box of 143s and I’m sure I’ll shoot them up eventually because they shoot so nice from my rig but I don’t trust them on big game anymore.

I was there for Jon's deer and it was one of the full on failures I mentioned. The second shot was a spectacular kill, but it came 3hrs later after we gave up looking for him and chalked it up to a miss.

In my opinion and experience, the 140gr Berger Hunting VLD is the most spectacular. 264 bullet in existence. I've seen that bullet do impressive things from bull elk a really long ways away to bull elk really close and about every type of critter in between. 

I was considering these, or the tsx's. how do you think these would perform on black bear? no exit has me worried, but if they work as good as people say, there probably wont be much blood trailing anyways? 

I'd shoot them at anything in North America. Probably wouldnt be my first choice for griz though 

[92xj]

Any of you tried the hammer hunters?
I am blown away by their performance on game as well as numbers and would highly recommend them.  I have only tried them in man calibers though so not sure of the performance in the women's line, but I am sure they are great!

[syoungs]

 
Worst part of owning a creedmoor is perfecting the man bun before hunting season starts.

[92xj]

Worst part of owning a creedmoor is perfecting the man bun before hunting season starts.

Yours is getting long enough to start that bun trend.
Sorry I could chat earlier, had two new hires with me and had a long your of the site ahead of me.  I'll be out on the next video to chat.

[syoungs]

No problem! I'm sure I'll be there for the next few weeks of em lol

[CaNINE]

Here's my 6.5CM formula:

140 Berger VLD
43.0 grains H4350
Lapua Brass, small rifle primers
seated soft touch
AVG V=2850 fps
ES = sub 10

This combo has performed exceptionally well on deer/antelope sized game from 20 yards to 600 yards.  One shot kills, minimal meat damage.  Nothing has walked away. 

[Tenkara]

I usrbthe Geme kings and Hornady SST.

140 gr gamekings? If so how do you like them.

[Tenkara]

Also steering clear of the 143 eldx , idont want to chance it.

[jrebel]

Are poeple not finding their animals with the ELD-X or is an accuracy problem (meaning not grouping well / inconsistent)? 

[dmoua]

I just started working on my brother’s Ruger American Predator 6.5CM and found good groups with 43.1gr and 43.3gr of H4350 with 143 ELD-X. He shot a mule deer in Wa and a whitetail in ID last season with factory Hornady 143gr ELD-X precision hunter and had no tracking job.

[Hilltop123]

Are poeple not finding their animals with the ELD-X or is an accuracy problem (meaning not grouping well / inconsistent)? 

 

[syoungs]

Eldx is extremely accurate for me. More accurate then the build quality of then would lead you to believe.

I've had issues with them blowing up and not getting much penetration, and penciling through. Both in antelope.  The bullet did the job and I recovered them, but i wasnt impressed with what I saw performance wise. That coupled with all the other reports of similiar bullet behavior has me changing.

[doubletall]

In my Ruger American predator I use 41.4 grains of H4350;  Couldn't be happier with the accuracy.  I've only taken one animal, a blacktail at 25 yards.  I'm glad I didn't have to track it because the was no blood at all.  I couldn't find the entry hole until I skinned it.  I found 100 grains of the bullet in two pieces on the far side.

Backing up to the previous morning, I dropped a buck in his tracks at 300 yards.  All I saw from my prone position was four legs kicking in the air.  Done deal, so I thought.  I start to chamber another round and look up and he's up on his front feet trying to get his rear legs under him. The bullet jammed in the magazine and I had to smack it a couple times before I could close the bolt.  By this time he's on the move and I see a good trail of blood about 12 inches long streaming down the body.  The hit was high, above the lungs, below the spine.  I gave it about 30 minutes before I went up to where he hit the deck and found a small patch of blood. Beyond that I only found one drop in the immediate area.  I went down into the trees where he headed and after 2 hours I found another couple of drops.  About this time two friends showed up to help and we found a few more drops and established the direction he was traveling.  From there we didn't find any more sign in 3 hours.

I was pretty sick about loosing him didn't even want to go back out the next day until my buddy told me "it happens" and to get my ass back out go hunt.  I spent 3 hours the next morning looking for the buck not even thinking about looking for deer when the buck I killed walked right into me as I was gathering my gear after a nature break; I guess it was meant to be.

I'd still love to know weather that deer ran off and died or if it penciled through and it stopped bleeding.  I read on another forum about a guy that put an arrow in the same area and didn't recover the deer.  A month later he shot the same deer with a rifle.

Kind of a long winded way to say that I'm not sold on the ELD-X.

[Jonathan_S]

Are poeple not finding their animals with the ELD-X or is an accuracy problem (meaning not grouping well / inconsistent)?

Appears that most people are saying it's poor performance on game. I am cautious on insinuating bullet failure on lost animals. In my particular case I only referenced recovered animals and thankfully I haven't lost any with this setup.

[Karl Blanchard]

Are poeple not finding their animals with the ELD-X or is an accuracy problem (meaning not grouping well / inconsistent)?

Appears that most people are saying it's poor performance on game. I am cautious on insinuating bullet failure on lost animals. In my particular case I only referenced recovered animals and thankfully I haven't lost any with this setup.

  I never blame "bullet failure" on a lost animal because it's literally impossible to confirm it. I use the term failure because I feel the bullets didn't perform in the manner in which they were designed to perform.

In the case of Jon's Idaho buck last year, that most certainly would have been a lost animal if not for just some blind ass luck.

[MtnMuley]

I think it also depends on what rifle and barrel the OP is using.  Not so much on terminal performance, but accuracy. I have a couple 6.5's and one in particular really likes the 130 gr Berger Hunters over every other bullet.  Even more so than the 140's.

[Tenkara]

I think it also depends on what rifle and barrel the OP is using.  Not so much on terminal performance, but accuracy. I have a couple 6.5's and one in particular really likes the 130 gr Berger Hunters over every other bullet.  Even more so than the 140's.

It's a savage 12fv.

[NWShooter]

H4350 is slooooooooooow. Give RL17 a go.