This is for a Remington XP.

waht kind of velocity are you looking for??/?

the great thing is that 6.5 bullets are usually made to open at some pretty low velocities.. based on some of those older Euro cartridges....

take a look at some of the cast bullet loads for the 6.5 x 55 and the 6.5 x 54, or the Ariska...play with some of those....

the 6.5 doesn't need high velocity to penetrate like crazy....

faster powders will work better in shorter barrels....

my powder recommendations to explore are 2400, RL 7, IMR 4198, Blue Dot, H 110, SR 4759....

I myself on that application would see what Blue Dot and SR 4759, and RL 7 would give me first....

as always, work up...

cheers
seafire

You didn't say what bullet weight but up to 120gr I would think you get good results w/ IMR4064 & RL15 from the shorter bbl. The .260 works well w/ slower powders but muzzle blast will go way up in the 14"XP. For the 140gr, maybe go to IMR4350.

I have a 30-06 rem pump with the short barrel (18.5"). Before reloading I was buying the light magnum, super fast premium factory shells and getting a real kick out of it.

I started reloading and did a lot more shooting trying to find a good load. I went with faster burning powders and found they helped a lot. Late in the evening while finishing up some final comparison stuff I noticed a lot of barrel flash with the premium factory stuff. Hmm. A fair bit of powder burning well after the bullet left the barrel? My handloads had far less flash as well as better accuracy.

The other thing I noticed was that most of the powder/bullet combinations gave the best accuracy at or just above the starting loads. Towards maximum the grouping always got big fast. Furthermore the gun was way nicer to shoot with the lighter loads (perhaps there is an another variable here).

I don't know if your barrel is short enough to have the same experiences as mine, but deviate from the faster-is-better bullet velocity trend and see how it goes.

A load for what?

I think you`ll find the highest velocities with the same powders that produce it in the longer barrels. I`d stay with the light/med weight bullets and something like H4350, R19, R15, or Varget and a 100/125 gr Nosler Partition or anyones 120 gr for hunting.

This is for my gunsmith. He has one and has loads for rifles, but he was wondering if anyone had some good loads for XP's. He was looking at the 125g partition or other 120g bullets primarily, for use on deer and hogs.

BTT.

quote:

Originally posted by sambubba:
BTT.

would you be so kind as to tell a non computer expert what the heck btt means?

i know i'm going to be really angry at myself when you tell me the answer.

thanks in advance.

Stinger, it means back to the top when you want an existing post moved to the top like a new one.

quote:

Originally posted by sambubba:
Stinger, it means back to the top when you want an existing post moved to the top like a new one.

thanx sam, i was pretty close to figuring it out.

i was sitting around a while ago winding my a$$ and scratching my watch and did an accronym search on the internet. holy smoke, did i learn a bunch.

but, thanx again.