Ruger American Predator 6.5 Creedmoor

B

badding0

New member
Just acquired this rifle and my starting question is going to be, has anyone had any experience with this rifle and the sierra 140 gr. SBT Bullet. I put a box of rounds through this rifle with the Hornady Superformance 129gr. SST's and the rifle did not like them. about a 1.5" "group". so I threw some loads together using Hornady brass, H4350 and Varget, CCI 200 primers with the Sierra 140 Gr. SBT. Surprisingly, the H4350 and Varget produced the same group, in almost the same exact spot right at 7/8" of an inch. I would like to tune the seating depth but if anyone has experience with this combo and can short cut me to a sweet spot with this rifle that would be awesome. or point me in the right direction on where to start. I do plan on doing a full ladder test. but I feel the seating depth should be settled first.
 
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If you are shooting at 100yds that doesn't surprise me much. Ladder test won't show much still you get out to 200-300 yds.
 
Sorry if I was vague in the first post. I have not shot a ladder test yet. Currently I have only shot a box of factory Hornady superformance 129gr. SST's. those wouldn't group so I loaded 3 rounds with varget and 3 with H4350. Mainly to see if the gun liked the sierra 140 gr. SBT's and it did. So I start my journey with finding the perfect combination. Starting with seating depth.
 
Badding0 generally load development starts with powder charges and then is refined with COAL. My point was if you are planning on doing a ladder test for load development you need to do it at a distance further than 100 yds. If you are satisfied with the results you got from 4350 and or varget you may want to shoot another group or two before modifying COAL. 3 shots is not much of test, though it sounds promising. Hope this helps.
 
I've never loaded for the CM but I've loaded over a thousand for the .260 Rem. 4350 is good as is 4831. I've never tried Varget but I'm sure it is good. With each bullet type I start with the lowest published load and load 5 with .5 gr variance. I usually just load 20 at a time. This usually gets me started. Once I find the load that works, I see if it does it again, then again. Later I play with OAL and primers. Now I'm shooting an AR10 and I'm stuck with the mag length but with your bolt you can load long and will probably find no jump or only a few thousands will work best. I've found Barnes Matchburners work as well as Sierra's and are a little cheaper. Have fun!
 
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