When I decided to join the CBA and participate in local matches, my choices were pretty limited and didn't think I wanted to use my 7RM, 338WM, or 30-30 for competition. That left a couple recent acquisitions that are, for me, target rifles but only one, a Savage 12FV in 6.5CM, seemed to be a potential candidate. The other, a 22CM I assembled, was ruled out without consideration.
My 6.5 is an accurate 1/2MOA shooter with jacketed and a pleasure to shoot. It is bone stock except I chose to replace the OE "tupperware" stock with a laminated Bobby Hart LRT from Stocky's. Rifle now weighs 12 1/2 lbs including scope.
I purchased at least 400lbs of lead ingots and an older Lyman 61 furnace from Shuz in Oct 2020 initially planning to cast for pistol. He invited me to a CBA match at the local range, and I thought it would be fun to join, so became a CBA member and started searching for 6.5 moulds. Being it was mid-pandemic that proved challenging. The only 6.5 mould I could find was a NIB Lyman 266673 off eBay, yeah, I paid a premium for it.
By this time I had run some test sessions casting 44 cal boolits to see if I could get the hang of things and get the rhythm down. I felt comfortable giving the 266673 a go. Fully cleaned and degreased, pre-heated on edge of the pot, I went at it. As expected the first several drops were not well formed, but soon they started showing promise and it wasn't long before I was dropping well formed boolits with nice square driving bands and lube grooves.
In July I loaded 4ea over 17.0 & 17.4gr A5744 respectively and result was 5 of the 8 hit target @50yds, the other 3 were off the target on the backer. Don't recall velocity (think it was around 1650fps) but I had terrible leading in the bore that took 3 days to get out of the bore. I abandoned any further effort with that mould.
By pure luck I ran across the 266469 listed on Accurate Shooter site for $40 so snatched it up and decided to use a known alloy and ordered some Lyman #2 from Rotometals to case those 140s with. As with the other mould, I washed it thoroughly in lacquer thinner before use.
My 6.5 has a short throat requiring me to seat the 140s quite deep, see below:
I show a seated 129gr Nosler ABLR, which this rifle really likes, for reference, the 140s seen are culls I use for dummy rounds.
I weigh sorted the 140s and selected 103 that weighed 139.4 - 139.7gr for target use. Another 50 or so outside those weights were set aside for load testing. Target #1 from my first session with 140s:
And target 2:
The 140s were heat treated, lubed with Xlox 2500+, and seated to touch the throat, actually, they were seated long and set back by throat.
Shuz suggested I run a second test with a batch of powder coated 140s, half sized and half not, results were similar to non-PC'd. All boolits shot were gas checked.
I have the chono data if warranted. Am open to any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations.
My 6.5 is an accurate 1/2MOA shooter with jacketed and a pleasure to shoot. It is bone stock except I chose to replace the OE "tupperware" stock with a laminated Bobby Hart LRT from Stocky's. Rifle now weighs 12 1/2 lbs including scope.
I purchased at least 400lbs of lead ingots and an older Lyman 61 furnace from Shuz in Oct 2020 initially planning to cast for pistol. He invited me to a CBA match at the local range, and I thought it would be fun to join, so became a CBA member and started searching for 6.5 moulds. Being it was mid-pandemic that proved challenging. The only 6.5 mould I could find was a NIB Lyman 266673 off eBay, yeah, I paid a premium for it.
By this time I had run some test sessions casting 44 cal boolits to see if I could get the hang of things and get the rhythm down. I felt comfortable giving the 266673 a go. Fully cleaned and degreased, pre-heated on edge of the pot, I went at it. As expected the first several drops were not well formed, but soon they started showing promise and it wasn't long before I was dropping well formed boolits with nice square driving bands and lube grooves.
In July I loaded 4ea over 17.0 & 17.4gr A5744 respectively and result was 5 of the 8 hit target @50yds, the other 3 were off the target on the backer. Don't recall velocity (think it was around 1650fps) but I had terrible leading in the bore that took 3 days to get out of the bore. I abandoned any further effort with that mould.
By pure luck I ran across the 266469 listed on Accurate Shooter site for $40 so snatched it up and decided to use a known alloy and ordered some Lyman #2 from Rotometals to case those 140s with. As with the other mould, I washed it thoroughly in lacquer thinner before use.
My 6.5 has a short throat requiring me to seat the 140s quite deep, see below:
I show a seated 129gr Nosler ABLR, which this rifle really likes, for reference, the 140s seen are culls I use for dummy rounds.
I weigh sorted the 140s and selected 103 that weighed 139.4 - 139.7gr for target use. Another 50 or so outside those weights were set aside for load testing. Target #1 from my first session with 140s:
And target 2:
The 140s were heat treated, lubed with Xlox 2500+, and seated to touch the throat, actually, they were seated long and set back by throat.
Shuz suggested I run a second test with a batch of powder coated 140s, half sized and half not, results were similar to non-PC'd. All boolits shot were gas checked.
I have the chono data if warranted. Am open to any thoughts, suggestions, recommendations.
