u/bfunky

I've been on a journey with learning bottle neck cartridge reloading, currently loading for my 6.5 Creedmoor, I have maybe 400 rounds under my belt. I have reloaded thousands of pistol rounds in 9mm, .38, .357, and 10mm. I've been reading about ladder testing, not sure how I feel about some of it, but I like reloading and shooting, so whatever, its just more opportunity to have fun.

A lot of online resources like forums and here have folks pushing 140gn ELD-M bullets with 41.5 grains of H4350. My two manuals and the hogdon site show a max of 40 grains H4350. I've been chatting with Google Gemini (I know, I trust it not at all) and it says to do a ladder test between 40 and 41.5, asking about sources it says Hornady printed it on factor ammo boxes when the cartridge launched, and also cited a bunch of online forums, so I guess I'm asking here how many of you push into these higher territories vs how many stick to printed and trusted sources. I"m not asking for specific loads, just curious what the rest of you all do when it comes to these above book loads.

FWIW, my 40.0gn H4350 load from a 22 inch barrel gets me ~2620fps with a SD of ~20. I don't really need more velocity, just looking for a tad more accuracy and consistency.

I went shooting today, been a couple months since a rifle session. 100 yards, from a bench, calm conditions. I'm shooting a Ruger American Gen 1 in 6.5 Creedmoor.

I shot 7 strings of 3 different recipes, all were using the same components and process, only thing different was the powder. Now I have 3 recipes that give pretty consistent velocity and grouping is about the same, no clear outlier. All data captured from the Athalon Rangecraft chronograph. All 5 shot groups. All shot over roughly 75 minutes.

#1 140gn ELDM, Staball6.5, 42.0 grains (Cold bore group)

• 2619 avg
• 27.3 SD
• 75.5 ES

This group was ~2 inches low at my previous zero.

#2 140gn ELDM, Staball6.5, 42.0 grains

• 2617 avg
• 18.5 SD
• 53.8 ES

Dialed my scope up 2 MOA and was much closer to a true zero, the scope remained here for all subsequent shots. I attribute the lower SD and ES to the barrel now being warm.

#3 140gn ELDM, H4350, 40.0 grains

• 2613 avg
• 14.2 SD
• 42.7 ES

This was the second best group, but not by much. Zero was right on the money.

#4 140gn ELDM, H4350, 40.0 grains

• 2611 avg
• 24.0 SD
• 67.9 ES

Similar group to #3, just another string of the same load.

#5 140gn ELDM, H4350, 40.0 grains

• 2630 avg
• 26.3 SD
• 60.4 ES

This was the best group, right at 1MOA. Probably more in me getting back into shooting this thing than anything with the load. It was the best but by less than a quarter inch better than the other H4350 loads.

#6 140gn ELDM, Staball6.5, 42.0 grains, same as #2.

• 2632 avg
• 4.9 SD
• 12.8 ES

Chrono only captured 4/5 shots for some reason, so take the SD and ES with a grain of salt here.

#7 140gn ELDM, Superformance, 43.0 grains (only sting with these as my buddy needed to leave to take a crap)

• 2607 avg
• 8.3 SD
• 22.3 ES

This one is interesting, and the overall source of my question here. The H4350 and Staball6.5 were both really close to the same zero and POI, and velocity was more or less identical. This one was pretty close on velocity, good SD and ES, just a tad slower. The POI of this load is clearly about an inch and a half high compared to the other two loads, why is that? Same bullet, "same" velocity, but different POI. Is this because the rifle is recoiling more while the bullet is still accelerating in the barrel? I'm puzzled here, so I figured I'd ask.

I also know that these SD and ES are generally nothing to write home about, I could use some better brass, maybe a better scale and dies too, but you gotta use what you have.

So, any ideas why the zero here is ~1.5MOA higher for the same bullet and velocity?

Cheers!