Almost 4 years..

[gman47564]

In January 2019 I screwed a new criterion 26 inch heavy varmint contour barrel on my 6.5 creedmoor savage stealth.. I kept pretty close track of the round count for the first 1000 rounds but lost track of it over the years.. I'm guessing it has well over 2000 rounds down it now maybe closer to 3000..
  This is a rifle I shoot alot.. and have shot alot of little groups with it..

The rifle has come along ways since I brought it home new in the box.. it now sets in a mpa chassis with a trigger tech trigger and a vortex razor on top..

I've always shot berger 140 hybrids in it untill recently when I ran out of them and couldn't find any so I switched to a hornady hpbt 140.. worked up a load with them and it shot them well..
Before I ran out of the hybrids I noticed they wasn't shooting as good as what they normally did and I really didn't think much of it just figured I was out of tune with them..
Here recently I came across more 140 berger hybrids and got stocked back up on them with 1500 setting on the shelf in the man cave.. I also acquired 200 6.5 alpha ocd creedmoor cases.. so went to work on the new case's  and bergers and after about a 130 rounds down range trying to get the hybrids to shoot I gave up on them.. they just wouldn't shoot well.. which had me scratching my head.. the hpbt hornadys were shooting good in the alpha cases.. that lead me to the forum here digging up my old thread where I talked about screwing a new barrel on the stealth and seen it was dated January 2019.. didn't realize I had been shooting that barrel for almost 4 years..
After seeing that and even though it's shooting the hpbt's good I decided it's time for a new barrel.. so I called James up at northland shooter's supply and ordered a 26 inch criterion in a mtu contour this time.. I want to shoot them bergers.. 

[autoxforfun]

Grant, that is a lot of rounds for a barrel.  I've been finding that around 2500 rounds on a 6.5CM is about all I can get and still shoot small groups....and I like the 140g Hybrids.  Something I need to get more disciplined about is checking the erosion of the lands.  I just checked one of my Dashers that was not shooting as well as I expected and the lands had moved out over 0.060.  So I am going thru and checking all of my competition rifles to confirm my seating depth.  This seems obvious but when the gun is shooting well I didn't worry about it....but it will sneak up on you.

[gman47564]

Bob distance to the lands was another clue that pointed me to a new barrel.. the 140 berger was barely in the case of the modified case.. but the biggest one was it just simply wouldn't shoot little no matter what I did with the tune

[gman47564]

Got my new barrel yesterday.. despite being under the weather and not working yesterday I managed to get the new barrel on and the gun back together.. that's all I got done with it though.. looking forward to getting a dozen or so rounds down it for break in and delve into load development with it and the alpha cases..

[jvw2008]

Don't forget to drop your load a little bit with those cases.

[gman47564]

Will do for sure jerry..

[DHuffman]

The rifle has come along ways since I brought it home new in the box.. it now sets in a mpa chassis with a trigger tech trigger and a vortex razor on top..

 

I wasn't aware the Savage triggertech was out yet, I'd understood it was coming........ next year?

[DHuffman]

Grant, that is a lot of rounds for a barrel.  I've been finding that around 2500 rounds on a 6.5CM is about all I can get and still shoot small groups....and I like the 140g Hybrids.  Something I need to get more disciplined about is checking the erosion of the lands.  I just checked one of my Dashers that was not shooting as well as I expected and the lands had moved out over 0.060.  So I am going thru and checking all of my competition rifles to confirm my seating depth.  This seems obvious but when the gun is shooting well I didn't worry about it....but it will sneak up on you.

It will sneak up on you ever time! I pretty much check my distance to lands and test my seating depth every match. If I don't re measure I'll test 2 or 3 thou further in to stay on it.

[DHuffman]

Last "official" announcement I'm aware of.

[gman47564]

Dave now you got me questioning what trigger I put in it.. I will go out and see if I still have the box.. we talked about these triggers for savages about a year ago.. I'm pretty sure bob runs some of the same triggers I'm using..

[gman47564]

Dave your right.. my trigger isn't a trigger tech.. I miss spoke.. the trigger I have in my 6.5 creed more is a jard trigger.. my apologies..

[DHuffman]

Dave your right.. my trigger isn't a trigger tech.. I miss spoke.. the trigger I have in my 6.5 creed more is a jard trigger.. my apologies..

LOL no apology necessary I thought you were holding out on us and were a beta tester for TT LOL

[gman47564]

Nope.. but I would test one for them if they wanted me to.. lol

[autoxforfun]

I have been happy with the Jard triggers that I have installed. Probably the best currently available...my opinion obviously.  I won't replace them if Triggertech comes out with a Savage trigger, but will definitely give one a try in one that still has the Accutrigger.

[gman47564]

Got around to breaking my new barrel in today.. for me any more that consist of loading up 10 rounds. Shoot one and clean x 2 then shoot 3 and clean then shoot 5 and clean. After that I go into load development.. so after the break in I loaded 6 rounds at 41.5 gr of h4350 then 1 round at 41.7 then 41.9 then 42.1 and 42.3 and 42.5.. I used the first 5 to foul the bore then strapped on the magneto speed.. the 5 foulers made a ragged hole.. after strapping on the magneto speed I understood why.. 41.5 gave me 2809 41.7 was 2832 41.9 was 2844 and I stopped at 42.1 with a speed of 2884.. so the alpha cases isn't going to take near as much powder as my old hornady cases.. and I may have a pretty fast barrel.. I'm going to load 41.4 ,41.5 and 41.6 and see which one shoots the best.. then take it and test seating to figure out where it wants to shoot.