TexasCHLforum.com

K-Texas wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2019 12:29 pm

mrvmax wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2019 6:51 am I loaded up some 6.5 PRC for my new Savage High Country rifle. There is not a whole lot of load info yet so I called Barnes and Berger to get some load info. I already had some 110 gain TTSX bullets from Barnes that I am trying and some new Berger 140 grain Elite Hunter bullets. I have some Norma MRP powder so I am using that but I need to buy some H1000 to try. I have a lot of powder on hand but not many that I can load 6.5 prc with. Both of these loads will be used for hunting and as long as I can keep under 1 moa with them i will be pleased. If anyone else is loading 6.5 PRC let me know what you are loading up.

mrvmax, here's something that might help. If Quik Load is to be believed, scroll down to the 4th post and you'll find a list of powders suitable for the 6.5 CM. The poster used a 140 gr. Hornady SST and gave the QL stats for all powders at 60,000 PSI. What the benchrest guys are after are powders that are close to 100% load density at 60,000 PSI because the 6.5 CM pressure limit is 62,000 PSI where when reached, they are looking for 107% load density, which means 7% compression.

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/thread ... s.3941829/

MRP is listed, and as you will see, it gave very good velocity at 60,000 PSI with load density at 106.7% while 99.7% of the powder burned completely. I have had some experience with the Norma powders, and there are 2 that are very close to 100% load density at 60,000 PSI. I chose Norma URP for that reason. The other is N204 that I have loaded in 7mm-08 REM. Western has 2 other suitable powders on the list with Ramshot Hunter and AA 4350. In general terms, it is the 4350 class of powders that seem to do best in the 6.5 CM. RL16 & 17, Accurate, IMR and Hodgdon 4350, naturally and Norma N204 and URP and some others fall into that group.

Evidently, at the time that the list was generated, RL16 was not available. One of the things I was pursuing is which Bofors powder is sold to Alliant for RL16. There are some crossovers since Bofors makes Norma powders and sells some to Alliant as well. Contrary to some opinions they are not all the same. RL15 and N203B are very similar. Down to .1 gr. in a test conducted. RL22 is Alliant's version of MRP. Some believe that RL19 is based on N204, but that's not the case. The powder that Bofors sells to Alliant for RL19 is slightly slower burning. But on the list, look at the powder immediately below Norma URP and you'll find Bofors RP19. I haven't been able to confirm it as yet, but it looks quite possible that Bofors RP19 could be the powder sold to Alliant for RL16.

The chart is very useful for powder selection, and provides some excellent information.