Initial 6.5x47L Load Development

[diggler1833]

Picked a sub-par weather day to do it, but I've been chomping at the bit to start messing around with my latest range toy.

Rifle: FN SPR A2 bought new. Krieger 1:8 twist, M24 contour, 26" threaded (although I doubt I'll ever put anything on the end). I bedded the action and Krylon'd the stock to give it more of an M40A3 appearance.

Optic: Bushnell DMR II 3.5-21x50.

The rig:

***Load data***

Brass: Lapua

Bullet: Lapua 123gr Scenar

Primer: CCI BR-4

Powder: Varget

I've only put 25 rounds through the rifle so far, and they were the uber expensive factory Lapua 123gr Scenar. After a couple shots and cleans, I put four (5) round groups downrange that were all in the .6 - .7 range.

Decided to try 30 rounds of handloads in 3-10 MPH winds that were shifting a lot. It is really too early for load development, but what the heck. If I can narrow it down some, I'll really buckle it down after I get about a hundred rounds down the tube.

Went from 35.0 to 36.5 in .3gr increments. Looks like I'll have to sacrifice a piece of brass to make an OAL gauge, but until I do that I just went .005 longer than the factory stuff. You can really push the 6.5x47 hard (way over book max), but this is a recreational rifle for me and not a comp gun.

First group of handloads after the CBS was in the .4s. Promising for sure. Second group of 5 shots went into the .4s again even with a full value wind at this point. Then the groups progressively opened up with each increase in charge weight. Made a couple .7s, a .9 and then finished off right at an inch. The vertical dispersion wasn't good, so I can't blame the wind.

The winner of the day:

At this point I'm going to fire the remaining 25 factory rounds that I have, and then try to fine tune a bit around the above load. Hopefully my barrel will have sped up by that point and I can break the chronograph out. It'll probably also help when I start reusing the brass...this is all on virgin cases too.

My goal for this thing is just an easy going recreational rifle that stays solidly under 1/2 MOA.

Enough babbling for now. Will update whenever I get more time to piddle.

 

[diggler1833]

Update:

Rounds 66 - 70 down the tube produced a 2 inch group at 300 yards (~.6 MOA).

Seeing the paint that chipped off and thinking that was where my impacts were, I dialed down a tenth mil and tried one last group of head shots. After the first shot hit low, I put the .1 back on the scope and fired four more.

Not a bad showing for factory ammo at this range. Average velocity was 2,724 with an ES of 29 and an SD of 9.

 

[clintbailey]

I traded into a Bartlein barrel, threaded for R700 and chambered in 6.5x47L several years ago. It was still at 30" and unturned, weighed more than some of my whole hunting rifles I think LOL. I ended up selling it back to the guy, I hated to turn it down and chop it to where I'd like it, not a fan of heavy rifles. At that point, I hunted a lot (like a couple days a week from Sep-March), and knew I'd never want to pack that thing around; nowadays I'd probably build it!