This recipe yielded 50 nice ones with no losses along the way.
I have to write this out and file it in my "Wildcat Cook Book" so as not to forget how I did it:







I made up some dummies with various bullets loaded to 3.395" OaCL, and they all work well through the magazine of Win M70 (7mmRM donor rifle) and chamber snugly.
The final step in making this brass: fire-forming



Only four cases have been fire-formed so far, done on the day I picked up the rifle from Rusty McGee, Gunsmith.
Those four were not even annealed, I forgot!
The Four survived, no neck splits, which bodes well for the nicely annealed Fifty.

Here is one of those fire-formed cases as a dummy, flanked by a "Go" and a "No Go" visually showing the difference that a half turn of the sizing die makes:



The Sharpie lettering on the cases is covered with clear package tape to keep the ink from rubbing off. Those are tape edges, not chamber rings.

Rifles in Progress by
Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
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I think this is my last wildcat ... again!
A full custom die setup will require case forming dies as well as a standard "2-or-3-die" set.

Until then, home-made dies will do, in the study/reloading room:









Brass prep station on a little work table in the library/reloading room:



And a home-made "annealing station" set up on top of a chest freezer in the garage:



4 seconds in the flame per spinning case, takes about 6 minutes to anneal 50 cases.
Tuck a case into the Black & Decker "Power Driver," then spin it, then chuck the case into the water.
Tuck and chuck:





Everything is working out great with this wildcat, no neck-turning or reaming issues.
Minimal trimming to square and uniform midway in the four-step neck-down.
And brass length is then just right at the end of die forming the parent case to the new kitten.
One annealing before fire-forming.
And it looks like the survey of powders can begin with the fire-forming.
The 26 Ripmoor is the 26 Nosler Improved:
1. Caliber-length neck and proven Creedmoor throat and 30-degree shoulder.
2. Non-rebated case head.
3. Same or marginally greater case capacity than the 26 Nosler.
4. Starting loads are same as for the 26 Nosler.

What is not to like about this one?

Rifles in Progress by
Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
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Starting Loads:

VvN570: 77.5 gr
US 869: 85.2 gr
Retumbo: 76.4 gr
H50BMG: 81.5 gr
H1000: 73.5 gr





Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
Pet Wildcat Certifying Authority and Tree Rat Control Specialist
NRA Life Benefactor and Beneficiary to the Fourth Degree
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Well, this lurker for one sure appreciates the effort to get this off the ground. Outstanding, sir. Don't really have anything to add, just that you're not shouting into a vacuum.

wookie76,

Thanks for the reply. I am used to talking to myself, so it is like having an NRA Convention now that you have joined the thread.

The ten-step recipe above may be thought of as analogous to the Eight-Step Plan of AA.
It is a sort of like a Ten-Step Plan for WA, "Wildcatters Anonymous."
Try it and you might swear off wildcatting rifle cartridges ... or you might not.
Everybody is crazy about something, gotta be or they are just not living, they are undead zombies.

I am hoping to find another craziness, but for now I am crapping in high cotton with this one, living it up!

The cases have been tumbled and primed, annealing is only barely visible.

Neck tolerances: Compatibility with 26 Ripmoor chamber of this brass, as formed by WA Ten-Step Plan, is ideal!

When loaded with .264-caliber bullets there will be no neck turning or reaming needed unless maybe it gets fired a bunch of times and necks thicken.

The cases will probably be retired and more cases made before that happens.





Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
Pet Wildcat Certifying Authority and Tree Rat Control Specialist
NRA Life Benefactor and Beneficiary to the Fourth Degree
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Good stuff rip. A friend of mine did a 6.5-.375 Ruger a couple years ago and has since changed. I have his custom forming dies now from RCBS. Not sure what I am going to do with them.

Great postings. Since I now have a 26 Nosler I will be watching your progress with this as it is good info!! I was thinking of trying the US869, which is proving to be a bitch to get up here. May have to try others.

skyline,
Thanks for keeping the "Wildcat Forum" alive.

I have loaded 4 shots each with the 5 powders pictured above, at the 5 starting loads listed above, with 140-grain Bergers.
20 rounds for the first range session of the rifle pictured above.

The VvN570 has the biggest and ugliest grains I have ever seen! Like loading Tootsie Rolls!

Sperical/ball US 869 certainly is sweet by comparison, and is touted as best for the 26 Nosler.
But it is said to be not "ThermoBallistically Independent," and it does not burn completely in a 26" barrel.
Some say it is kind of a dirty burner.
It must be used as compressed loads of ball powder to get top speeds.

Sounds just like the discontinued (by Hodgdon) H870 which it replaced.

I don't like compressed loads of ball powders, but I love a 105% load of Hodgdon Extreme extruded powder(s).

If one of the Hodgdon Extreme powders gives good results I would prefer that: Retumbo, H50BMG, H1000?

How has your friend changed in such a way that he would give up his custom 6.5/.375 Ruger wildcat forming dies?
Has he found another craziness?

Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
Pet Wildcat Certifying Authority and Tree Rat Control Specialist
NRA Life Benefactor and Beneficiary to the Fourth Degree
https://home.nra.org/

RIP my friend is moving to the Caribbean and has divested himself of most of his rifles and I inherited a bunch of his "stuff" that he was having trouble selling. This is how I ended up with the forming dies.

I will also be babysitting a couple of his rifles incase he returns to go hunting once and a while.

The H50BMG I can get easily here and Retumbo as well. Interesting information on the US869, I had not heard any of that previously and I do of course have a 26 inch barrel.

Looking forward to hearing how the range session goes for you. Coincidentally I am busy building a new shooting bench here at home...... I live on a farm........... as I have some tinkering to do with several rifles. A bear decided to play with my old bench and reduced it to pieces suitable for the wood stove. New one is going in the yard on the back patio behind our bear fence. LOL

Skyline,

I see that your friend developed a Caribbean Craziness. OK. I almost did that once after seeing the "Northern Exposure" TV series episode where Jesse The Bear died (Holling found the bones of his old nemesis in a cave) and Enya's song "Caribbean Blue" was used as theme music for the episode's closing scene where everybody was admiring the bones of the dead griz on display in the local tavern.
At least that is how I remember it, from decades ago ... To your friend's new craziness!

Googled:

http://moosechick.com/320.html



Dang if this hasn't been the rainiest summer in KY that I can recall. Rained almost daily in July and is still doing it in August.

I got rained out at the range today. Barely had time to get off twenty shots before the gusty wind turned into sideways rain drenching the covered shooting benches.

I did not get to play with the 6.5 Creedmoors, but did get a starting load survey done for 5 powders in the 26 Ripmoor.
Ought to be a good starting point for the 26 Nosler too.

On balance, I choose Retumbo:
Retumbo is ThermoBallistically Independent,
for to hunt Alaska or the Caribbean without adjusting the load.
It burns 100.0% (completely) with 26" barrel in a 95% volume starting load at about 56Kpsi and in a 99% volume max load at about 65Kpsi.
It is almost as fast as VvN570.
I have an 8-pound jug of Retumbo.
I only have 2 pounds of VvN570.

H1000 gets honorable mention for possible accuracy load, but not for a top velocity hunting load.

VvN570 is very interesting also,
but Retumbo is it for me.

The round count on my barrel is now 24.
4 at the Gunsmith shop on 7-14-2016.
20 at the range on 8-5-2016.

I only had one really squirrely chronograph reading, and that was with Retumbo, but 3 of the 4 shots with that powder made the prettiest fire-forming 3-shot group at 100 yards.
I chose to ignore one "outlier" shot with Retumbo, also because that was the only round that chambered hard, for whatever reason caused by me, so I am writing it off. Home cooked loading and data analysis:

In the order that I shot them before the squall arrived:



I got excited after seeing two shots touching with H1000?












Rifles In Progress by
Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
Pet Wildcat Certifying Authority and Tree Rat Control Specialist
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All things considered, i can see why you would pick Retumbo. I will definitely be giving it a try.

We have been having a wet summer as well. It's making it hard to get hay up without it getting rained on a time or two. Getting ours rolled up today thankfully, next five days are calling for showers and chance of thunderstorms.

send some of that rain out to Idaho.

This is looking pretty good.

Is it possible to see a photo of the Ripmoor case next to a 26 Nosler case?
Cheers Malcolm

Rich,
Thanks for lookin' and postin'.
I sure wish I could send about half our rain in KY to ID. If Skyline could do it, he would too, sounds like. Let us know if you figure out a method.

Looking down the bore after the first shot of US 869, yes, there were unburnt spherical grains here and there,
like the bread crumb trail from "Hansel and Gretel."
I never did like that story.

Malcolm,
I will work on that, when the local emporium opens up I will ask to see one of those new-fangled 26 Nosler cartridges and then pull out a 26 Ripmoor.
Surely they won't mind me taking a picture on the countertop, even if I don't buy one.
I have certainly helped them finance their growth over the last 3 decades.

And now I am concentrating on Retumbo with 140-grain Berger VLD Hunting bullets, GM215M primers, and 3.390"-3.950" OaCL.
Will resume with 76.5 grains of Retumbo and go up in half-grain increments.
If I get to 3333 fps with 140-grainers, or any other funny business before that, I will quit.

Real accuracy testing will be done with fire-formed brass and I better order some custom dies for the 26 Ripmoor.


Rifles In Progress by
Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
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RIP........ hey can you send me the specs on your case and I will compare them to the specs of my friends 6.5-.375 Ruger specs. I have a custom set of Redding dies for it...... three die set with FL and neck sizing dies, plus two forming dies.

Just on the off chance these would work for you.

Skyline,

I'll send you a PM and see if we can work out something. I am sure those Redding dies would be very useful to me no matter if slightly different.

Kiwi Greg did a .264/.375 Ruger in New Zealand before the 26 Ripmoor was a twinkle in my eye.
He calls it the "26 Terminator" and says it is a simple neck-down of the .375 Ruger, no other changes, pretty short neck.

He said of the 26 Terminator: "It is my version of the 6.5-375 Ruger, shooting the Cutting Edge 120 at 3550-3575 fps & the Berger 140 Hybrid at 3320- 3350 fps into 0.5-0.75 moa.
I wanted to use the Cutting Edge 130 but the 1-9 twist is to slow even with the velocity."

http://www.longrangeonly.com/f...1b9f8756b22ed9cb7e96

The 26 Ripmoor has a longer neck, exactly 0.264" neck length, all of 0.005" longer neck than the 26 Nosler's neck.

Here are the specs on my case compared to the 26 Nosler:



I copied those specs form the Nosler reloading manual drawing and SAAMI.
Nosler claims the 26 Nosler water capacity is only 93 grains.
My 26 Ripmoor is closer to 96 grains.

The 26 Nosler looks volumetrically bigger externally than the 26 Ripmoor,
so all I can figure is that the Nosler case has significantly thicker brass walls somewhere, based on a shortened 300 RUM.
My .375 Ruger case basis is good enough for me.

Here are the chamber reamer specs that work like magic with that brass made by Hornady for the .375 Ruger (has a 6.5 Creedmoor throat):



Maybe the RCBS Cartridge Designer drawings above will satisfy Malcolm until I can get a real photo comparison.


Rifles In Progress by
Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
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Funny you should mention the case capacities as I had looked at the difference in the dimensions and wondered the same thing. Unless the Nosler 26 brass is way thicker in some areas and reducing the internal capacity, you would have thought it would hold a wee bit more than your wildcat.

Sent you a PM.

For Malcolm, 26 Nosler on the left, 26 Ripmoor on the right:



26 Nosler above, 26 Ripmoor below:



My handload is loaded with the component bullet sold by Nosler to the public for handloading, .264/142gr AccuBond Long Range (G1 BC = .719, G7 BC = .320).
I was amused (not surprised) to see the factory load of same bullet has a cannelure:



That factory load looks kind of rough compared to my handload, eh? But maybe the factory-loaded brass will get prettier after it is fired.
My 26 Ripmoor was fired once and resized and loaded with my make-do dies.
So reloaded 26 Ripmoor cartridges chamber in my rifle, even with make-do dies. Another mile stone is passed on this journey.

.375 Ruger brass plus .264-caliber bullets equals perfect.
At least it is as perfect as any wildcat rifle cartridge gets.


Rifles In Progress by
Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
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quote:

.375 Ruger brass plus .264-caliber bullets equals perfect.
At least it is as perfect as any wildcat rifle cartridge gets.

It is enjoyable following your experiments from a distance. It is especially good to see you develop the 375 Ruger case.

Glad you are happy with the 26 Ripmore. Of course, it would seem that the .26" diameter is a bit small for plains-game and elk. A good 338/375Ruger reamer that cleans up a 338WM would be more practical for me. I just picked up another 338WM (Ruger Hawkeye new $500) and it will probably shoot well. We'll see. If a re-barrel is necessary I might consider a 338 Ruger or 338 Norma.

For .26" the old 264WM has already developed plenty of barrel-burning capacity. I'm happy with the old 270Win and light mono-bullets for any hunting 0-500 yards.

416Tanzan,
Thanks for lookin' and postin'.
If you want to to do a .338/.375 Ruger it can be as simple as running a .375 Ruger case into a .338 Ruger Compact Magnum die.
One-step brass forming!
The neck length on the .338 RCM is 0.320", and shoulder is 30 degrees ... but I will not be tempted.
Not when I have this to be used on the big & tough stuff:







I will be zeroing the 26 Ripmoor with 140-grainers at 3300 fps, I hope.
With a Berger VLD Hunting G1 BC of .612:
Only 2.5" high at 100 yards
Spot-on at 300 yards.
Dead-on fun with the 300 yard gongs, or deer, caribou, elk, moose, or whatever thin-skinned nondangerous game within 400 yards.

And what a joy to have such a shoulder-gentle giant as the .264-caliber bullet, the small bore that thinks it is a medium bore.

Both the 26 Ripmoor in a Winchester M70 and the 10.4 Culloden Moor in a BRNO ZKK 602 are flawless feeders.
They make the perfect two-rifle hunting "wildcat battery."
The GSC FN never balks.
Slick as greased owl poop.


Rifles In Progress by
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Is there a Ripmost series follow-on?

DOPPELGANGSTER,
Your comment is like gasoline on the fire. Thanks.
I will have to rename a bunch, but I have these six clans of cats to herd:

Ripleast: 30-06 based
Riplittle: 9.3x74R based
Ripsome: .375 H&H based
Ripmoor: .375 Ruger based
Ripmost: .338 Lapua Magnum based
Riptorn: .416 Rigby based, full length, or greater sized cartridges


Rifles In Progress by
Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
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Hmmmm.

Perhaps a line of "Ripple" Cartridges.

"Refreshingly obscure wildcats"

"Ripples the largest of game"

That .408 with a long nose GSC does look pretty nice. If it is the 370 grain production bullet it has a .650 BC. That will definitely cover any hunting needs as long as the barrel has a twist between 10" and 12".

The closest thing that GSC does for the .416 is a 500 grain bullet with an .850 BC. The only problem with the 500 grainer is velocity. A Rigby case can probably only push the 500 grain bullet to 2400fps or 2450fps. So despite the fantastic BC I would probably stick with the projectiles in the 300-350 range. And the GSC bullet needs a 10" twist that our traditional Rigbys don't have. The 350 grain TTSX has a BC of .444 and that serves me for hunting 0-400 yards, where the lion's share of shots are 100-200 yards.

While on the subject of temptation, I ask myself: if my <$1000 rifle, bedded and tuned, is shooting sub-MOA with a sleek, very tough bullet in .416" shouldn't I just keep adding a few scratches and dings to it? Why spend thousands to basically duplicate what one already has?
There is a famous joke in the Middle East, the object of the joke is asked to touch his ear and he reaches around and grabs the ear on the opposite side of his head. (The joke is shorter: 'where's your ear?' [person grabs far side ear]) Hey, I'm not making a joke out of your dedication, far from it, I greatly respect what you're doing. I'm just explaining why some of us with more limited means are happy to cover the same ground more directly.

And yes, I do appreciate the enticement of using Lapua brass. I might even pick up a batch if Lapua were to market 416 Rigby. In the meantime, the Hornady stuff is absolutely excellent.

Excellent. As a demonstration, I will repeat a picture from a 2013 buffalo hunt. The load was .416 Rigby 350grainTTSX at 2825fps. The bullet lost its petals at an impact around 110 yards. Then the bullet went through the body at something of an angle to the off shoulder while creating a secondary mushroom with the remaining copper shank. Retained weight was 258grains/74%. Now the kicker is the brass. Despite the tremendous muzzle energy and relatively high velocity for the Rigby round, the brass slipped out like nobody's business, ho-hum.



Note the rounded primers on the left and pristine state of the casehead. In fact, the 338WM case on the right, used for the finishing shot, shows slightly more flattening of the same primer Fed215Match. The 338WM needs to use all of its capacity at full power.

OK, the story: the first shot at 110yards from the Rigby put a hurt in the buffalo. He appeared to be knocked over but recovered balance and disappeared into the forest. We followed him, 125-150 yards, into a tall grass patch. Wisely, it turns out, we circled that patch moving about 25 yards off trail horizontally before entering the tall stuff. We came up parallel to the silhouette of the buffalo standing, facing his trail. My second shot from the side apparently got near the spine because he dropped on the spot. But his head and neck were thrashing like a fish flopped on a deck. My son jumped up to about 10 yards behind the buffalo and put the 338 into the back of the neck/skull. Silence and quiet. Smiles.

416Tanzan,
Thanks for enriching the thread with a hunting tale. No flies on the .416 Rigby, except for that pesky 45-degree shoulder ... humor a wildcatter, with cartridges, not Ripple!

Yes, that is the GSC .408/370-gr HV. I can work it through the magazine of the 10.4x68mm Culloden Moor with +3.8" box.
My barrel twist is 1:13" like for a .408 Chey-Tac.
Will have to see how that works at slower than Chey-Tac speeed. Fingers crossed.
The .408/335-gr HV ought to be great anyway.

Maybe you need to get a sporting-portable, short-barreled .416 Barrett for those .416/500-grain GSC bullets? Barrett uses a 1:12" twist on theirs (for 395-grainers at 3250 fps from a 32" barrel, but your custom barrel might need to be faster twist, aye. Just kidding ...

I can also use the Barnes .416/350-gr TTSX, sized down to .408. I do like that one.

Temptation? Well, remember the original .416 Ruger of 1991, a Ruger No.1 rifle so chambered was given to Bill Ruger on his 75th B-day, and brass was finally made for it in 1997 by Jim Bell of BeLL.
From looking at pictures of it here:

www.ammo-one.com/416Ruger.html

It appears to be a .416 Rigby with 30-degree shoulder. That adds all of 0.1 grains of water to case capacity:





An amazing thing happens if you make the .416 Rigby shoulder angle exactly 20 degrees instead of 45 degrees, no other changes:
Resulting neck is 0.416" long.
Case capacity is increased by 0.3 grains of water.



Back to the 26 Ripmoor soon ...


Rifles In Progress by
Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
Pet Wildcat Certifying Authority and Tree Rat Control Specialist
NRA Life Benefactor and Beneficiary to the Fourth Degree
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quote:

Back to the 26 Ripmoor

Yes. And a few days ago that inspired me to check out a better BC bullet for my wife's upcoming deer hunt in Nov. She has a 270Win. That may be really pedestrian in a 26Ripmoor thread, but I checked at CEB.

CEB has a 270 MTH bullet with a .540 BC in .270 130 grains. The nose projection is only .735" so it fits in a normal magazine and works in a 10" twist.

At 3080fps that sleek bullet will only drift 8.6" in a 10MPH crosswind at 400 yards.

So I ordered a box. CEB is having a sale, too.

The tools available for today's hunters are amazing.

416Tanzan,

Your wife is knocking on the 26 Ripmoor's door with that load in her 270 Win. Outstanding! CEB has some great offerings.

Now back to "the devil made me do it":
The first steps in forming 26 Ripmoor from Hornady .375 Ruger brass could be done admirably with the .338 RCM and 300 RCM FL dies, set with a 26 Ripmoor headspace gage.
One could just stop at .338/.375 Ruger with a .320"-long neck, or maybe a .308/.375 Ruger with a .305"-long neck.





Rifles In Progress by Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
Pet Wildcat Certifying Authority and Tree Rat Control Specialist
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Thanks to Skyline I have some new dies, and 29 pieces of formed brass.
The two forming dies seem to do the stepdown from .375 Ruger neck to approximately
1) 33-cal bullet accept (maybe .338?)
2) 29-cal bullet accept (maybe .308?)
The final stepdown to .264-cal bullet accepting neck is done with the FL die in the Redding 3-die set:



Looks like the "Caribbean Crazy" guy did a simple neck down of the .375 Ruger, no other changes:





The FL sizing die in the Redding 3-die set has plenty of extra neck length in it.
All I have to do is shorten the die by grinding off the base of the die for exactly 0.0422" of die length shortening, i.e., 1.07188 millimeter.
Since this degree of precision is impossible for me, I will shorten the die by about 0.05", 1/20th of an inch,
and then set the headspace with the 26 Ripmoor go gage, as above.
That ought to be perfect.
These dies will work just fine.
Thanks again to Skyline.



Rifles In Progress by Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
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Glad they will work for you RIP!

Some more 26 Ripmoor fire-forming yesterday, great weather, started at 10 AM 73 degrees F, ended at 12:23 PM 81 degrees F.



I draped folded paper towels over the barrel and poured cold water on it to refrigerate the barrel for about 5 minutes between shots.



There were no signs of any problems except for a velocity that increased to quickly at the top end. 3358 fps with 140-grain bullet and 79.0 grains of Retumbo.
The primer fell out of that case when I ejected it,
and there was a shiney spot on the bottom of the case showing some slight extrusion of brass into the ejector cut on the Winchester bolt face.

I fired one more shot with that load and it gave 3341 fps and showed no signs of any problems.
No sticky bolt lift, no brass extrusion, no "primer fall-out," indeed no difference in primer appearance since starting at 76.5 grains.



79.0 grains of Retumbo is excessive, I reckon.

The highest velocity that the Nosler reloading manual No. 8 shows for the 26 Nosler is 3251 fps for 140 to 142-grain bullets.
They say the MAP is 65,000 psi for the 26 Nosler 26" barrel, and 88.0 grains of US 869, compressed ball powder.
I guess I exeeded that by quite a bit.

Here is what I got yesterday, 3-shot averages (except for the last load, quit after 2 shots), working up,
with Retumbo and 140-grain Berger VLD Hunting
26" barrel:

76.5 grains >>> 3256 fps

77.5 grains >>> 3272 fps

78.0 grains >>> 3288 fps

78.5 grains >>> 3309 fps

79.0 grains >>> 3350 fps (3349.5 fps ave for two shots only)



78.0 grains is not compressed but getting very close to a full case.
By the "shake test" I reckon 79.5 grains of Retumbo is a 100% volumetric load for this bullet, case and COaL.
That makes 78.0 grains a 98.1% load by volume.

Accuracy is about 1-1/2" for 3 shots at 100 yards while fire-forming.

I hope to improve on that with fully formed brass.

Re-stocking and re-bedding if needed, a 1-pound stock of 14.5" LOP would be nice.
And a new barrel after 500 rounds?

I better try no more than 78.0 grains of Retumbo, and maybe everything will get more consistent, accurate, and hopefully below 65,000 psi.
The volume of the fully formed case should be a little bigger, it surely won't be tighter.
Maybe that will let the pressure off, and maybe I should shoot for about 3250 fps instead of 3350 fps.



Rifles In Progress by Riflecrank Internationale Permanente aka Squirrel Killer
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RIP........ how goes the battle on the load development? I was basically out of the picture with our fall bear season for quite a while, followed by the long "getting ready for winter" list.

A question for you. How do you like the Berger VLD hunting bullets? I have never used them and don't know anyone with actual in the field experience with them on big game.

In the process of locating a decent supply of powder in the same lot number and then I will spend a bit of time playing with loads before it gets too cold.

Hi Skyline,

I been forgetting to look at this section, what with me having sworn off anymore wildcat creation: Nevermore!

However I must dance with the ones I brought!

But I have been distracted. Killed a couple of weeks visiting in Colorado.
Then came home and got the worst influenza-like illness I have ever had, which started a few days after I got the flu vaccine.
Nie onto four weeks to start feeling almost well again, but still coughing and have a froggy voice.
I can do a Karl "Sling Blade" Childers impersonation without even trying.



I will visit the range soon (and post results here) with 78.0 grains each of Retumbo and VvN570 behind the 140-grainer.
This time in fully formed cases for a shoot-off for accuracy and velocity with the 26 Ripmoor.
Will be trying H4350 in the 10.4 Spiridon Moor
with 300, 335, 350, 370, and 385-grain bullets, maybe 400-grainers too, just for kicks.

Let us know how you do with your 26 Nosler, please.
Your results and mine with the 26 Ripmoor might be similar.

Skyline,
I have survived a viral pneumonia.
Got a stumbling start on finishing up the load development today.
I had 9 more cases needing to be popped off.
So I loaded 5 of them with Retumbo 78.0 grains, and 4 of them with VvN570 78.0 grains.

RETUMBO: One fouling shot on paper at 100 yards, scope has not been touched since last outing, no adjustments to scope today.
Then 4 more shots with the Retumbo at 36 degrees F (2 degrees C):


The VvN570 was also loaded at 78.0 charge,
probably needs to have about a half to one grain more of powder to equal the Retumbo velocity.
I have a feeling the Retumbo is going to be more accurate:



Then, right on cue, it started raining sleet, so I went home.


Alas, I think I am going to stick with Retumbo.

Maybe 78.3 grains will be exactly 3300 fps now that I have a batch of 50 pieces of fire-formed brass,
and maybe it won't loosen the primers or my teeth!

Retumbo also has that good ol' TBI, ThermoBallistic Independence, not Traumatic Brain Injury.
At 81 degrees F the 3-shot average was 3288 fps.
At 36 degrees F the 5-shot average was 3291 fps.
Fire-forming both times, with 78.0 grains of Retumbo.

Now I am using the "Skyline" 6.5/.375 Ruger FL sizing die.
I did a "square deal" job of taking 50-thou off the bottom of it with a grinder and files,
then used a Dremel Tool polishing spud to shine up the edges and surfaces of the cut.
Set with go-gage for the 26 Ripmoor, it works like a charm.
I'll use it now on my 50 formed cases, thanks!

Well, the SAAMI 6.5/300 Weatherby arrived this year, and might do 3400 fps with a 140-grainer in a 26" barrel.

The 26 Ripmoor will do 3300 fps with the same barrel length and a shorter action, and a few grains less powder burning the barrel.

Brian Pearce, in the December-January 2017 issue of HANDLOADER, says the 6.5/300wby has a case capacity of "nearly 100 grains of water."

My 26 Ripmoor has a case capacity of "nearly 96 grains of water." 95.9 grains water to be precise, made from Hornady .375 Ruger brass.
That is gross water with once-fired brass.

The Nosler manual claims:
26 Nosler (with 100 grain Nosler bullets) "CASE HOLDS: 96.2 Gr. WATER"
26 Nosler (with 120-grain Nosler bullets) "CASE HOLDS: 94.3 Gr. WATER"
26 Nosler (with 123 & 125-grain Nosler bullets) "CASE HOLDS: 95.0 Gr. WATER"
26 Nosler (with 129/130-grain Nosler bullets) "CASE HOLDS: 93.0 Gr. WATER"
26 Nosler (with 140 & 142-grain Nosler bullets) "CASE HOLDS: 93.0 Gr. WATER"

So if Nosler is using a net case capacity with bullets specified seated to "TESTED O.A.C.L." which is 3.300" in all loads,
the 26 Nosler might be bigger in gross case capacity than the 6.5/300Wby.
The 26 Nosler is also bigger than the 26 Ripmoor,
which makes sense from the drawing comparisons.
No longer do I have to wonder if the Nosler brass is just a lot thicker than the 26 Ripmoor brass.
My confusion came from looking only at the case capacity in the Nosler manual for the 140-142-grain bullet data.

We need someone with once-fired 26 Nosler brass to measure the gross (overflow) water capacity of once-fired brass ... or google it.



Many are claiming the ball powder US 869 is best in both the 26 Nosler and the 6.5/300 Weatherby.
I do not get it.
Using US 869 requires about 9 or 10 grains more powder charge than what is needed with the Retumbo.
And the Retumbo has TBI to boot.
No more US 869 will taint my now-fire-formed brass!
Now to see how many loadings with 78.3 grains of Retumbo and 140-grainers it takes to loosen the primer pockets ...

Googling:

6.5/300 Weatherby Magnum: 101.1 grs. of water
https://www.americanrifleman.o...um-and-mark-v-rifle/
https://www.americanhunter.org...herby-65-300-magnum/
Sounds about right.

26 Nosler: Everything from "a useable case capacity of 93 grains of water" (a net value, I assume)
https://gunsmithtalk.wordpress...post-shot-show-2014/
to a more specific (a gross value, I assume) of 96.4 grs. of water is written as found so far:
Wikipedia: 93.5 grs. of water
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.26_Nosler
Ammoguide: 96.4 grs. of water
http://ammoguide.com/?catid=906
But the Ammoguide value is an algorithm-generated, comparative case capacity based on the external dimensions of the case.
By that method the 26 Ripmoor gross water capacity ought to be considerably smaller than what I got from measuring once-fired brass:

26 Ripmoor: 95.9 grs. of water
http://forums.accuratereloadin...951048622#2951048622
I better add the 26 Ripmoor to Ammoguide and let them do the algorithm case capacity calculation just for yucks.
Then maybe the 6.5/300 WbyMag will show up there too, just for comparison.

OK, Skyline has not yet measured his gross water capacity for 26 Nosler brass.

I trimmed one of my fifty 26 Ripmoor cases a little too short,
so I used it to make a COL guage dummy. 3.390".

I also discovered that the Berger VLD Hunting 140-grainers were bottoming out their long skinny points on the dead end of the seater plug, for inconsistent COL.
I have fixed this.
Will drop back to 76.4 grains of Retumbo and try five different makes of bullet.
Ought to get better accuracy with the fully formed brass, consistent COL, and at least one of those bullets!

If you look closely you can see the the ring mark of the seater plug on some of these bullet ogive surfaces.
None of these are bottoming out on their tips and getting inconsistent seating depths.
They are all loaded to 3.390" COL by adjusting to their ogives.
Accuracy might improve, especially since these are all loaded into fully fire-formed brass.
I keep trying to swear off this wildcat stuff, but you know how that goes ...

The same three hunting bullets and three "match" bullets shown above, as they appeared before being seated,
labeled with the G1 BC claims of the makers,
and the bullet length claims of my calipers:

This is what I came up with in case h20 capacity for the 6.5/300 Wby vs 26 Nosler ......
New unfired cases were used, I seated fired WLR primers and weighed the empty dry case, zeroed out the scale, filled case with water from sink faucet, tapped out all air bubbles and topped off level with case mouth, set back on scale for h20 weight and snapped a pic, fired cases will probably show a bit more capacity, most likely .3 to .5 gr increase from what I have seen with other cases of similar size ...

Thanks for that proman1.

Comparison is roughly like this for now:
26 Ripmoor: 95.9 grains water
6.5/300Wby: 98.1 grains water
26 Nosler: 100.5 grains water

That sure makes the Weatherby claims of 3400 fps with 140-grainers suspect, as with most, but not all Weatherby claims.
Weatherby claims their 6.5 is faster than Nosler's.
I blew a primer at 3358 fps in the 26 Ripmoor with 140-grainer, i.e., 3367 fps corrected from 5-yard velocity to MV.

Like I said, the 26 Ripmoor is dropping back to about 3250 fps.
Chronographing awaits resolution of life's interference with my hobby.

So, the 26 Ripmoor burns barrels a little less quickly than the other two,
its design wins the beauty contest too.

I am also thinking that a Bell & Carlson Medalist stock would not hurt the accuracy either.
Maybe my Winchester-Tupperware stock or the bedding could be improved ...