Berger 130 or 140's in 6.5mm

[Si-Snipe]

A Q for the target boys. What is the best choice for outright accuracy between 130 and 140 Bergers? Looking to develop a target load and thought someone could save me some time. I'll be shooting 600-1000 yds with them. I know there is a BC advantage with 140's but often a specific bullet can exhibit more inherent accuracy or appear less fussy. Those of you who have tested both please share you findings.

 

Many thanks

Si.

[silent_varmintor]

Hi Si,

 

 

This is just my thoughts on this... I tried like heck to get the Berger 130 VLD Hunting to work in my 6.5x47, they just would not shoot consistently at all. I then changed to Nosler 120 BT and the difference was amazing !!! At 250 yards the 130's were grouping around 1.5" at best, the Nosler's grouped 0.6" at 250 yards. I was working out the DOPE for various ranges and 2 shots at 600 yards measured 1.2", i know its only 2 shots and doesn't count as a group but at the time i was just working out DOPE, wish i had put another down range.

 

What i do want to try is the 130 Sierra TMK's. I called about them at a few places but all was out of stock. I do however have around 400 of the Nosler 120 BT's so ill carry on with these for now and when the TMK's become a bit easier to get a hold of.

 

Also i am aware it was target you specified and if it were me i'd be looking at the 130 TMK's.

 

 

Regards

 

 

Craig

[Sherlock]

Let us know how you get on with the 130 TMK's

[Si-Snipe]

Craig I found the 130 TMK fussy in my rifle although I did get them to shoot well. A few others found the same.

[Laurie]

Hannams has the new 130gn Berger Tactical OTM AR-Hybrid in stock now. I'll try them in 260 Rem shortly - would have had a first range test yesterday if we'd not had Storm Doris. These look like the ideal design for 6.5X47L and 260, but aren't cheap - RRP is £56 something / 100 !! My advice FWIW in the Creedmoor is just go straight to 140s. The standard chamber and the cartridge design are pretty well optimised for this bullet weight and I've had very good range results straight off.

 

My past experiences with 130gn VLDs have not been encouraging - neither the Berger VLD nor Norma Black Diamond would perform for me in three different 6.5 rifles / cartridges, and I decided in the end that the 123gn Scenar is a much more tolerant bullet and has fantastic ballistics for its weight. Some people have had good results with 130 VLDs in the 6.5X47L - Darrel Evans with his AI (Foxing-2-Nite on UKV) and a very good F-Class shooter I know gets really good match results with the Golden Match (non moly) version of the 130gn Norma. (Brian Fox got them for him as a 500 bullet order.)

 

I'll try both the AR-Hybrid and the Sierra TMK in 260 in coming weeks to get a feel for these two new designs.

[DaveT]

I would definitely echo Lauries comments re the 123g Scenar....superb to 1000 yards in my 260 and quite possibly beyond.

 

I have found the 140g Berger hybrids to offer great accuracy and flat trajectory beyond 1000 which is why I suffer the expense!

[Brillo]

I found the 130 VLDs worked really well in my Lawton 6.5x47L with H4350 @ 2850 fps.

Oddly, most VLDs I've tried in the past always performed best seated into the lands, but the 130's shot best 15 thou off.

[Si-Snipe]

I took advantage of a break in the weather today to run a charge weight test and results are looking positive.

[Big Al]

Good shooting Simon, you can draw a lot of positives from that test.

[Si-Snipe]

Good shooting Simon, you can draw a lot of positives from that test.

Thanks Al. It's a great result. It will be great to see what the next stage of tuning brings to the table.