6.5 SAUM & 142gn ABLR

[adamjp]

I've been working a load for the 142gn ABLR this last few months and it just isn't working.

With 130gn Berger VLD Hunting the rifle will put a 3 shot group into 1/3 MOA any time I like from a cold bore.

With the 142gn ABLR the best I can do is 1.3MOA.

I've tried AR2217 (H1000) from 59 to 61gn in half gn increments.

I've tried a steady load of 59.1gn stepping bullet seating depths from 30 thou off (magazine length) to 100 thou off. Best seems to be in the 85 to 90 thou jump zone.

Can anyone give me some pointers? At the moment it feels like I'm sitting on several hundred dollars of bullet that appear to be complete crap for their intended use.

 

[DrMike]

The ABLR does best in my experience when it has a looooong jump to the lands. I allow at least 0.100 inch jump. What are you allowing in your SAUM?

 

[jmad_81]

I have tried them in 2 different 6.5 SAUM. I had better luck with Retumbo than I did with H1000. With that being said I was never able to achieve satisfactory results, and I tried hard.

 

[gerry]

They often do like to be seated deep like DrMike mentioned, some guns just don't shoot them well though for some reason. Hope you can get them sorted out.

 

[longrangehunter]

I'd also look at using Retumbo, as for the bullet....... The gun will either like it or not, so why fight what doesn't work. Just move on to something else, whatever you use, if placed right will dispatch whatever you hunt.

 

[JD338]

Maybe give the 129 gr ABLR a try.
I had pretty good luck with them in my wife's 6.5 Creedmoor first time out, shooting a group that went .662". She shot a nice 3.5 year old doe with that load.
I'm going to get serious with it in the next few weeks.

JD338

 

[adamjp]

Thanks all. I will give some a go at 120thou off.

 

[adamjp]

Well, 120 jump worked better than anything closer. I'm now getting a 3 shot group under .5 MOA at 200m, usually two shots close together and one shot separated.

Thing is, same rifle, same shooting session 20 minutes later (let the barrel cool) will drop 3x 130gn Berger VLD-H into a .3 MOA group at 200m. So far I'm not very impressed with these very expensive Noslers.