BTSniper heavy 6.5mm 180 grain VLD bullet!!!

[BT Sniper]

Been working on this one for a couple weeks in my spare time, been thinking about it for a couple years.

I enjoy the challenge of making a bullet no one else has and of course when you have the right tooling anything is possible. I have probably made many bullets that fit this description but the last one that stands out in my memory was my 130 grain 6mm VLD bullet I was successful with. This awesome 6mm bullet was at least 10 grains heavier then the next heaviest common commercial bullet of this caliber. That 6mm project took me a year from bullet creation to success on target. With a bit of luck I hope to have the same success with my latest bullet creation!

Here it is!

My BTSniper 180 grain 6.5mm caliber VLD bullet.






Berger and Sierra just came out with their latest offering in this caliber at 155 and 156 grains. There are more then a few posts on the net regarding the lack of a heavy 6.5 offering. Even at 156 grains it still seems like there is potential for a heavier commercial offering. I would be willing to bet the heavy bullets commercially offered today are limited to, and by, the number of most common twist rate barrels in the hands of today's 6.5mm shooters, that being a 1-8 twist. With the 8 twist it would seem the heaviest of current offered 6.5 bullets are at their limits regarding stability.

This weight limit really seems to go against the latest big case offerings in the 6.5mm caliber with the likes of the 26 Nosler, 6.5-300 Weatherby, 6.5 PRC and many of the big 6.5mm wildcats. They have the potential to drive a high BC heavy bullet yet are handicapped by these 145-155 grain weight class of bullets that seem to have an accuracy node well below the full potential of the big case. Sure they can get 3400+ fps from these bullets but then they get a rep for being "barrel burners".....

So...... it would seem there is potential if one of these big cases was chambered in a 7 twist and had a heavier and higher BC bullet that would shoot accurately at say 3000-3100 fps it would make for some exceptional long range potential with maybe a bit longer barrel life with the slowest of powders......

This is where having your own dies really comes in!

I happen to find a 6.5WSM barrel at 28" with a 7 twist! Perfect for the bullet I had in hand just two weeks ago. I now have this barrel in hand. I'm currently waiting on ordered brass and dies.

I have drawn down 700 jackets that are ready to make these awesome bullets. Still have to bleed some cores. For the fun of it I also drawed down 600 jackets made from 5.7x28 brass

I have run some numbers in quickload and plan to try RL-33 powder first. This the same powder I had success with in my 6mm-06AI with the heavy 130 grain bullets. With the RL-33 it predicts possible FPS reaching 3000 fps with a 180 grain bullet.

We shall see!

Here is my 180 grain 6.5mm bullet in the middle with a 180 grain Berger 7mm bullet on the left and a 140 grain Hornady 6.5mm bullet on the right.




Keep posted......


Good shooting and swage on!

BT

[M.A.D]

Now that sir, Is a thing of beauty...........

[BT Sniper]

My bullet happens to have the same 11s nose profile as the Sierra 142 grain match king. I suppose I could go even more VLD with the likes of the Berger nose profiles but then I loose a bit of weight potential with the formed bullet for given jacket.

The barring surface of the bullet is long but not bad. I get away with a little gain in having a slightly longer boat tail vs. both Berger and Sierra 6.5mm offerings. This bullet actually mirrors the look of my 6mm 130 grain bullet quite well and that one shot awesome for me.

BT

[BT Sniper]

Thought you might like that there M.A.D

[M.A.D]

I find it funny that people sook about barrel burners, Why not get a barrel with a shank thats say 4-5 inch es long and a barrel thats 4 inches longer than what you want to end up with... Eg Start off with 32 inches, By the time you burn the barrel out, you get 4 re chambers out of it.. Sure you will loose a little bit of velocity each time, But you still get full use out of the barrel..

[Michael J. Spangler]

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[Traffer]

With that quick of a twist would it be a candidate for a gain twist rifling?

[BT Sniper]

Never tried a gain twist.

Only worry I have is if the jacket thickness is enough to withstand the fast twist. My 130 grain bullets had a bit thicker jacket.

[BT Sniper]

I know benchmark barrels offers a gain twist and they make excellent barrels but at the moment I just needed a barrel to make "proof of concept" I picked up this barrel for a song.

[Traffer]

I would think that a gain twist would be easier on the bullet. But just a thought I really know nothing about this.

[BT Sniper]

Gun is together, brass is almost here, swaged 500 cores this evening.

Getting closer........

Brian

[garandsrus]

What jacket are you using? I assume you are drawing it down from a larger caliber jacket so it is long enough for your bullet.

[BT Sniper]

30 cal RCE jacket drawn down to 6.5mm

[475AR]

30 cal RCE jacket drawn down to 6.5mm

Which I hate to say is no longer available since RCECO/Richard Corbin has retired and closed down his website. I do see he is selling some leftover dies on flebay, but last I spoke to him he had no jackets avaliable.

[BT Sniper]

Search for 1.3" 30cal jackets. I have seen them listed for sale by someone else. Probably picked up all he had when he was clearing them out at discount now trying to turn profit.

BT

[BT Sniper]

Just finished seating cores in about 300 jackets.

Brass is here.

A lot closer to sending these beauties down range.


BT

[BT Sniper]

Shot these last weekend, started out with simply establishing max loads. Started with clean oiled barrel and fairly low pressure load according to quickload data, first shot went 2930 fps and I had to look twice..... QL predicted about 2750fps with this starting load, OK no problem.... next shot with 2 grains more powder went 3000 with a bit of pressure, one more grain of powder popped the primer at 3040fps. Obviously didn't go any further/higher in testing as I stopped there. So my first outing was a success with only 3 rounds fired. I was able to establish a max load and all bullets hit target nose first with no wobble at 100yrds. I have noticed in past with all other rounds, and in further testing of this round, that the first few shots threw a clean oiled barrel will produce higher pressure, future testing showed less pressure in this 6.5WSM with same bullets as the oil was shot out of barrel.

So my next outing I started a little lower then my previous starting load and worked up in half grain increments to the level that popped the primer in the last outing. I found that each grain of powder gave me 20 FPS in addition velocity. It was very windy that day but I was able to see which loads shot better then the others. As it turned out the load that was .5 grains under the established max load from the last outing looked to have most potential for accuracy. After I had fired 20 rounds or so I had three rounds left of the max load from the last outing, (the one that popped the primer) again watching for pressure signs I fired these three, this time all primers held tight with certainly less sign of pressure then my first outing.

I'll have to check my notes and get the correct numbers but accurate load so far was running right at about 3010-3030 fps.

I had loaded a few extra rounds of a load that happened to be 2 grains under the accurate load I found. It was a guess of what load might work but I wanted to have some extras for that outing to shoot at longer range to see how these bullets did.

Took me a couple rounds to get on target at 400yrds but once I did, and made scope corrections, I put three rounds inside 3" and was quite pleased. Now I had 4 rounds left and a larger metal target at 600 yrds. I dialed up the scope a few more MOA and let one fly, wind had died down a little but still had 5-10MPH in my face varying direction a bit. I was rewarded with a hit just slightly right of bull. Rather then adjust scope I simply shot the remaining 3 rounds in attempt to shot a decent group. I was thrilled as the next three rounds landed tight in same location in a nice little 2.75" group! It seemed too easy.... but I know it shouldn't be. A 1/2MOA group at 600 yrds with no load development and an unproven bullet of this size. I was having a good time, very pleased with my results and wished I had more rounds to fire as I felt I could have held a tighter group on that 600 yrd target with a smaller aiming point. But I was out of ammo ....

That was a week ago, family plans, work and windy weather has not allowed me back out again to really fine tune this load and bullet. Next is adjusting seating depth of loaded round and then finally fine tuning the load a bit with powder charge.

I'll have some pics of everything to share soon.

Specs.....

Savage action with 28" 6.5WSM barrel plus brake on end just because the barrel was threaded for one.

RL-33 powder with CCI BR primers and Win 270WSM brass necked down and neck reamed.

I lightened the bullet by 2 grains to allow a little better tip formation, my bullets are now running 178 grains and looking very good!

Now I have been researching an relatively unknown case that fit my idea of an ideal round for this bullet in a hunting set up. I was looking for something in a case length half way between the 6.5WSM and the 26 Nosler with good commercial brass available, my research lead me to the 7mm Blaser Magnum by Norma! This looks like a pretty good little round, especially if it was necked down to 6.5mm shooting my 178 grain bullets Check it out with a bit of google research. I hope to have one some day soon. Till then I am enjoying the 6.5WSM and certainly look forward to more shooting of these awesome bullets!

More to come!

BT

[Valornor]

Gain twist would definitely be something to look into. It'll help reduce pressure needed to start the bullet into the rifling, and with such a long bearing surface there is sure to be a lot of friction.

I'd love to see what the B.C value comes back as.

Good work BT! Keep us posted!

[Michael J. Spangler]

Wow. Awesome work.
I’m dying to see the BC got this

[475AR]

If worried about friction you could always coat them with hexagonal boron nitride, tungsten disufide or moly. I would bet that Hi-tek coating would work as well. (I have coated several hundred jacketed and plated bullets and they all shot well.)