PhilM

As per SMLE, They’re all I use in my 6.5CM AI AT. Yeah there’s better bullets ballistically, but they don’t shoot as well for me, and at 1000yds then shoot incredibly well (with the 136 Scenar L a close, but much more costly second). My load is Lapua SRP Brass, BR4 primers, 42gr H4350. Slowly working my way through a box of 1000 139Scenars, and think I’ll pick up another shortly.

A memory from Pre-Covid times with the AT.

So rather than resurrect the HAM radio thread from a few years back, I thought I’d post this little update. Due to CV19 there has really never been a better time to get a license. The old requirements to attend a club and do practical assessment aswell as an exam have all been waived. Now it’s just an online multiple choice exam, so buy the book, do the practice exams (there are apps out there) and you’ll have a Foundation license in no time at all. This allows 10W which with Cw, HF and/of digital modes will allow worldwide comms. Much better than the cheap licence free walkie talkies people end up with in their go bags. Of course there’s still a place for HTs for local comms but you could upgrade them to 2m/70cm for VUHF operation at upto 10W making them hugely more versatile. Also with cheap Chinese radios, a mobile HF rig won’t cost the earth these days and can be quite compact, couple that with a long wire antenna and it’s portable worldwide comms in your pack. Just though I’d mention it, Intermediate (upto 50W) is also available only with the practical assessment waived for now. The full license exam is apparently on the way too (for upto 400W). Its a decent time if you were ever considering it, and given the numbers of people studying across various Facebook groups, it seems the old requirement to join a club and do the assessments was always what stopped many people bothering!

Nightforce NX8 1-8x24 F1 w/Zerostop (FC-MOA) for sale. Very light use, bought new last summer. Great condition, no damage, as it’s used you can see some ring witness marks, but they don’t even touch the coating. Comes with box, Power throw lever, Rubber Scope Caps, Lens Cloth, Manual & a NF sticker. £1200 posted. SOLD.

Stealing the title from Viht’s own marketing - but they claim N555 is their new 2020 release powder specifically for the 6 & 6.5 Creedmoor, 260 Rem, .284 etc https://www.vihtavuori.com/new-n555-high-energy-powder/ Anyone got their hands on any yet? Where do we think it sits in the market? Will it live up for the unobtainium H4350? More temp stable than RS62? Fingers crossed its as good as they market it!

I’d buy a 22LR SA80 also. Having used the A2 & A3 versions in competition and indeed a variety of other nations rifles on the range, my preference would be an A3 over other kit such as the M4 in my limited experience with the M4. I like the balance of the SA80 with the weight being back in my shoulder and with it being a bullpup - being short and easily pointed. The A3 is a good bit of kit other than burning fingers on the side of the gas block through the hole in the hand guard and the ever enduring sh!te trigger.

Having had a CZ452 they are a bit agricultural but accurate! (I changed out the trigger spring as Pops mentions also). I now have a HW60J which is a nicer bit of kit to shoot with the two stage trigger etc Much more refined but of kit.

For 10 years I shot 900-1000 recreationally with a Nightforce NXS 3.5-15x50, mostly at 10-15x. I’d place more value on glass and quality tracking than magnification. I have since upgraded to an ATACR 5-25x56, and I shoot the same now usually on 20-25x, it’s a little more comfortable, but I could easily shoot the same on the NXS at 15x.

So, planning.... I’m betting nobody was exactly geared up for this! Anyone find their previous preparation stand them in good stead? Are the morons of society behaving as expected? Any thoughts for the future?

Hoping to make it down there soon! Was away for this one, but sounds like that wasnt a bad thing!!

Hi Banus, I did if you recall PM you back to advise it was being collected by another member, and if that fell through I’d contact you. I sent the same also to Brillo who also enquired. A member on here did collect it and I thought £50 for very nearly two tubs full was a reasonable price. Not sure why Scotch Egg has been posting about excessive varget prices and Dick Turpin? Anyways, it’s gone and inline with my original idea, to someone who has a pet Varget load they’d like to keep using!

I can’t work it out. I stripped the die to see what’s going on, and lined it all up. I inserted a case inside the seating sleeve, all the way (it has a shoulder milled in, so this case is inserted all the way until it stops). Looks ok. Then I lined up the seating stem, positioning it at its lowest possible (where the bottom surface of the top is in contact with the upper surface of the seating sleeve). I sat a 139 Scenar in there for illustration and also added a second case by the side to demonstrate the maximum possible seating. As you can see, it’s not a lot, not really acceptable for the maximum possible. My big issue is to achieve this maximum seating, the case has to be all the way in, the seating stem has to be solidly down all the way, and to achieve this it needs the rod wound all the way in and the micrometer all the way down too. Maybe I’m missing something here, but when I follow the instructions for normal setup, the die doesn’t even push a bullet into the neck at all. Ive sent Whidden this précis and photo, to see if they have any words of advice, but I can’t see what I’m doing wrong!

Thanks John. The brass is brand new and neck tension wasn’t an issue - I went on the seat the bullets with another seating die to continue my session. Ill take another look at it tomorrow, I’ll strip the die down, it may be something daft like the seating stem isn’t in it (I recall having to specify which I wanted, but don’t remember fitting one). It was literally like the die was too tall, and for my rounds to be loaded it needed to come down loads to actually push the bullet into the case! It wasn’t even getting close! (Session saved by reverting back to my non fancy Lee seating die!). Ps, I actually ordered the non-bushing FL sizer die for when I do come to size them next time around.

Picked one of these up as part of a die set (it was the click adjust FL sizer I was really after). Anyway, I’ve watched the video on setting it up and am still mega confused and not having any results! It doesn’t seat any bullets and is so far from seating bullets the case comes out empty and the bullet is usually lodged in the seating stem until I give it a tap to make it fall out. The mic bit was set on zero. The stem wound out the top about an inch, the body was screwed into the due until it touches the shell holder (tried contact with both the solid body, and the moving sprung sleeve). I then wind in a further two turns. Put the round in the shell holder, raised the ram, wound down the seating stem in the top until it touches a dummy round (set at target length length), and then tried a real case/bullet to seat and nothing! Infact the only way I could get it to do anything was then winding the mic portion almost all the way down.... Clearly I’m doing something wrong! I didn’t struggle with my Lee seating die like this! Anyone have any pointers? Thanks!

Accuracy International AT with 26” 6.5 CM LW barrel. Factory Ammo: Sako TRG 136gr Ammo (Scenar-L) 2832FPS av. (10.8SD) Hornady 120gr ELD-M 2922FPS av. (27.5SD). Hornady 120gr A-Max 2972FPS av.(20.0SD) Hornady 140gr ELD-M 2789FPS BA. (20.0SD) Home Loaded: 139gr Scenars, Lapua Brass, CCI BR4, 42gr H4350 2786FPS av. (5.4SD)

Anyone still using this? I have switched exclusively to factory ammo for fox for my .223 T3, and am going to be starting reloading for my AR15 shortly, but starting from scratch I’ll pick up a tub of something available (RS52 for 69/77 TMKs?). I have a tub and a half or so (will measure it when I’m back) of Varget if anyone in the Wiltshire/Cirencester/West Oxfordshire area is interested? (Maybe everyone has moved on by now?)

Great condition Nightforce Unimount 1.125, 20moa for 30mm scopes. With box and instruction paper (as pictured). NF Part No A190 (NFUNIMTUL1125). £SOLD

I purchased my AI AT from Sporting Services about 18months back. It came as an AT308 and also I bought a 6.5 Creedmoor barrel for it at the same time from SS (it was a LW in the same profile as the normal 308 one). When I collected the rifle it was all ready, both barrels identical on the outside (bar the cal stamping) proofed and ready to go. If you end up going for a SH rifle from another source, I wouldn’t hesitate to contact Sporting Services or Baldie on here to supply the 6.5 CM barrel.

Easy to forget a 223 with a 55gr bullet is likely to be up around 990m/s with a decent length barrel. I guess most target 223 shooters (CSR etc) are 62gr and above.

Have a Boxx 5 gun safe for sale, £70. No internal locking top, so for SGC use or rifles if you have a separate ammo safe. Dimensions are 135cm tall, 30cm wide and 22cm deep. A few cosmetic marks on the door as per the pictures. Collection only, Wiltshire. (Possibly can deliver to Brize Norton area).

With the Whidden custom dies, is it not the case that really they are only valid for the barrel you send them the fired brass from? Im around 400 rounds in to my 6.5CM barrel, so plenty of life left and am going to have to dump my Lee/Hornady dies which I necksized with and move to FL sizing each time, and with that want a good dies like the OP. Can anyone explain with their click adjustable dies, what exactly you are adjusting? Any why would you want to adjust anything given from Whidden it’d be a custom die made from your fired brass.

Custom Drag Models are the way forward really for long range shooting, especially when shooting through transonic and beyond - available in lots of of AB products such as Kestrels etc. If you’re not shooting ELR however G1/G7s suit most people well. Ive always had good success using G1 advertised BCs with G1 models in calculators out to 800m or so, and that’s with boat tailed bullets, I guess the flight profile of the boat tailed bullet will always match the G7 better, but the G1 won’t be too far off. But either are trying to “best fit” the projectile against a modelled curve, where a Doppler radar gathered custom curve (CDM) will always be better at long ranges.

Yes, worked fine when they were only 1-3 times loaded, 4x fired on this lot and whilst the die seems to work just fine, the brass jsut didnt have the neck tension. As I say, its been mentioned to me before by someone this may happen with the 6.5CM brass, but I've no idea why?