L Cazador

The finicky part about reloading any caliber is the bullet. Berger has had so many complaints about their VLD (secant ogive) bullets that they have gone to a more reloader friendly hybrid ogive, a combination of a tangent ogive and secant ogive. Hornady is soon to follow as their ELD bullets can be hard to tune. That extra ballistic coefficient advantage doesn't matter when your can't achieve a consistent group or hit what you're shooting at! My two centavos!

I've been shooting benchrest since 1975 and I've been blending powders for most of that tenure. It's nothing that I would recommend to the average reloader. You need to know your burn rates and then you need to do a lot of experimenting to arrive at a safe load. With that said there isn't a 6.5 Creedmoor that will outshoot a 7/08 or a 260. When you consider the far superior powder capacity of the 7/08 and 260 it's a no-brainer. Are there some drawbacks like brass stretching etc., yes but that doesn't make the 6.5 CM superior. Hornady designed the 6.5 CM to sell ammo not reloading components. If I wanted more velocity and superior ballistics to shoot at a grand, I would be shooting my 6.5/284 Shehane instead of trying to blend powders for a 6.5 cartridge based on my old 300 Savage case! Next wives' tale is the 6.5 PRC. It's going to launch a 142gr. bullet to the moon. LOL!!

Jon Trammel in Breckenridge,Texas does it all. Excellent accuracy smith, phone:254-559-3455. When you fireform seat the bullets well into the lands and work with the bottom load in your reloading book for a standard 22/250. Do two fireforms before working on full loads. I found best accuracy in mine seated into lands at .010". Again I was shooting single shot.

My experience with Nosler brass is that it is going to be .002"-.004" thicker on one side of the neck than the other. And Lapua brass as of late is no better. Production has sped up in recent years due to consumer demand. And guess what, some quality specs that were never allowed to pass, are now passing. Some folks are certainly going to be happy with "minute of deer" shooting quality and just load their brass out of the box. For me, neck turning and developing the absolute best quality ammo I can shoot is number one in my book. I've been neck turning since 1975 and I believe there isn't a rifle cartridge that doesn't benefit from neck turning! By the way some Nosler brass is being made in Nevada by Nosler. Nosler bought the old 'silver state armory' manufacturing plant.

I have one in 6.5 Creedmoor. Bought it at Cabelas in December for $319 plus tax. Got a Savage $100 Visa reward on it which brought the price to $219! Shoots in the 2's, average .230" out of the box with a Leup 6.5X20 scope. Stock trigger set at just a shade under two pounds. Shooting neck turned Lapua brass with small rifle primer. I think it will do better with a better stock. So I ordered a thumbhole laminate from Boyds that I will pillar and glass bed. I'd say that's darn good shooting for a factory rifle.

Very well said! It will do everything the bigger cases will do with less powder, longer barrel life, less recoil, and better brass life. The short action thing is in your head if that what you like. Difference between a short action and long action is one inch! If that's too heavy or you can't manage the longer bolt throw than it's a plus. It's shiny new nickle!

How deep were those Bergers seated into the case? The one print I've seen showed a throat (W measurement on the print) of 2.1067- that was measured from the rear of the case as the 'datum'? If you want to specify a longer throat how is that accomplished? (Curiosity is getting the best of me). Is the smith taking a dummy round for measurements and then reamer the chamber and then ream a longer throat? I always buy the reamer myself and send a dummy round in with my order for the reamer. I also discuss what I want to accomplish with the cartridge with my reamer designer. When you receive your reamer check it out against the blueprint. If everything meets your specs, you give the reamer to your gunsmith. The one time I let my gunsmith order the reamer something got lost in the translation. Whoever does your reamer will also supply you with print. If they don't ask for one.

I've had experience with both the 22/250AI and the 6mmAI. Both had feeding problems with feeding that big square 40 degree shoulder cartridge. I found that a long action worked better for both cartridges and shooting single shot eliminated those feeding problems. I would give the 6mmAI the edge especially if you're going to shoot the 90's. The slow burning powders needed to propel those long heavy bullets really take up the volume in the case. A 7 twist is what I shot with the 90 grain Bergers. Be sure the reamer has the necessary throat length to shoot heavys otherwise you'll be sinking those long bullets way past the shoulder/neck junction and occupying valuable powder capacity. I used a reamer in both with a .120" freebore. Krieger still buys the best barrel steel on the market so I would choose their barrel over the other two. Having shot many years out of a south Texas blind, I never found a need for a repeater. A single shot always did the job!

Nominal bullet diameter for the 38 super is .356" but you can do .357" with some careful loads. I shoot .357" jacketed XTP for hunting with 7,0 grains of 800X and that's a pretty stout load.

You don't need to true that action and it has the recoil lug built in so you don't need a custom lug. I've done hundreds of rebarrels for my firearms and others. A custom barrel will make an improvement. I recommend Krieger. Send the barreled action to Krieger and have them spin a new barrel on. Another place to try is Gre-Tan gunsmithing in Colorado. Greg does an awesome job on just about any brand of firearm. His number is 970-878-5421.

That light ring mark from a lapped ring is easily removable from your scope finish with 0000 steel wool and WD40. Not necessary to use paint. Before lapping rings bed the bases with JB weld.

Buy a one piece stainless bolt from Pacific tool&guage. They are excellent. You can sell your old bolt. You could use the old firing pin assembly as long as you plan on shooting large primers in the Creedmoor. Your gunsmith can fit the new bolt to your new barrel. Buy a Krieger. You will also need to change the mag box, follower, and spring on your 700. Feed rails should work with the Creedmoor. When you're done you will have a very accurate rifle that will shoot much better than any factory rifle out there. Selling your rifle and then buying a factory rifle will be a cheaper way to go but that will depend on what you expect accuracy wise.

I agree!! This was started by the Humane Society so don't support that organization either!!

You have a head diameter issue with your Hornady brass. Measure head diameter of Nosler brass and Hornady brass. I think you'll find head diameter on Hornady is bigger.

Shoe polish, carnauba wax, Pam cooking spray, and grease all will work as a release agent. Plug any holes with modeling clay and remove the trigger assembly so you don't get any bedding compound in the trigger. Mask the stock with painting tape to eliminate contact with bedding compound. The amount of clean up work is directly related to amount of prep work that you do! Been doing bedding and glue in for over 40 years and it's not a complicated thing.

Is your rifle pillar bedded or has an aluminum bedding block? Without one or the other you will not realize full bedding benefits. You can still torque an action without pillars or an aluminum block. Almost any bedding compound will work better than nothing!

What you're seeing is polishing material. The core should be only about 3/4 of the way up. Yes it may affect expansion and cleaning it may damage the meplat. I've seen this with Bergers as well. It won't make much difference but if it bothers you don't use that bullet. I found that even some very slight things that affect my perception of the accuracy of my loads can affect my shooting, LOL!

Did you lap and align your rings with bar? Any type of turn in ring requires the use of an alignment bar and lapping to ensure everything is straight.

I've owned two March scopes that I used in competition and both were difficult to keep in focus. I thought I maybe had a bad scope on the first one but after my second one gave me problems I figured it was just inherent to the scope itself. Using one for hunting, I would say is not a practical thing.

Lance, did you monitor this with a bore scope. And how much better was the barrel when you were done?

It's spelled Huskemaw! Like many other scope lines, the upper end model is the best! My experience was good but I'll stick with my Nightforce scopes or even Leupold's new VX6 with anti cant reticle. I did not like the illumination feature, much better on Nightforce.

I've been doing this for more than 50 years! The last 25 years under the eye of a bore scope. What I learned the previous 25 years before the bore scope, forget that! Buying hundreds of custom barrels hasn't taught me anything either. What I did learn is some factory barrels can and will shoot very good. And some custom barrels can and will shoot exceptionally well! Every custom barrel can and will shoot better than any factory barrel!! Shooting any number of rounds down either barrel could and maybe will help. If you don't have a bore scope just go out and shoot it. A copper bullet down a stainless or chrome moly barrel is not going to do much to smooth anything out. Yeah maybe some pressure in the 60K range and some heat may help but the bottom line all that does is fire crack the bore. The best you can do is clean that barrel well and remove that machining fluid and metal shavings and just go shoot it.

In my 50 plus years of shooting and reloading I've never seen a change of bullets make such a change. I'd say you still have the problem. I recently had such an incident. I found that the base screws were too long. You could tighten them down and they would come loose after a few shots. The two screws on the front can be a problem because they can bottom out on the barrel threads. Tighten the front screw on the front base first and see if the base is tight. Do not install the other three screws if it's a one piece base. With the front screw only holding the base check to see if the base will move. Then back the screw out and check if the bottom of the screw is shiny.

That is for a Remington action. Click again and you'll see the trued action cost is $675.

Not sure where you saw a price of $380? PT&G has a good price but that one is unheard of.