New Rifle & New Brass

[VA-XBolt]

Ok everyone, I'm kind of looking for a "what would you do" in this situation.

Brief background, I picked up a new custom 6.5cm rifle back in October of 2021, and only have about 40 factory rounds down it for initial sighting in, all due to some complicated family and personal health issues. Anyway, I'm hoping to get back to building up loads for it and have enough brass to use for the life of the barrel.

Common wisdom seems to say that you don't worry about final load development until you've got a couple of hundred rounds or so down the tube. In addition, load development using new brass seems to again suggest that you use fireformed brass to use for your final load development.

So, how much new brass would you use to start load development with, and why? 200 cases, 300 cases, 400 cases or? FWIW, this is all Lapua LRP stock that I've got in hand.

Any thoughts appreciated.

[jvw2008]

Custom rifle. Intended for hunting or target?  Makes a difference on how I would set my plan for the brass.

[VA-XBolt]

Target. The longest I can shoot at any range within a 2-hour drive from home, is 1200 yards. All on steel, as I can't put up paper on any of the three ranges near me beyond 100 yards. So, it's really all for me having fun and getting out to shoot when I can. FWIW, the target rifles (new and older) are now on the MDT chassis. Maximum rounds in any single day would probably be 100 to 150. 

My hunting rifle is already dialed in with the 156gr Bergers. Pretty much all whitetail, longest possible distance there would 300 yards on my sister's farm out in Missouri. Didn't get out last November due to a right shoulder replacement, but before that, all my deer taken were between 100 and 125 yards.

[jvw2008]

It's a rare barrel that doesn't continue to speed up through the first 100 rounds. Your barrel in "broken in" but not "fully seasoned". The purest reloader of a decade ago would say shoot another 60 rounds and then start load development.
Load development is a fluid process through the life of the barrel with a major selection of components initially followed by fine tuning of seating depth and powder charge with powder lot changes.
Recently I have started looking at load possibilities very shortly after break in. During break in you can often find the seating depth for your particular bullet that your rifle favors. By the time you get 100 rounds down the tube you are a poor tuner if you haven't nailed down 90% of your final load specifics. At that point your barrel should be seasoned a final adjustment shouldn't take more than another 40 rounds. I would use virgin brass for all of the initial load development and use the remaining virgin cases to shoot that load - especially if you are using Lapua or Alpha brass. As you build your inventory of fire formed cases you can go back to see how you need to tweek you virgin brass load to maintain precision - usually just a slight tick up in charge.
High quality virgin brass pays for itself in many many ways. Better than half of the benchrest matches that I have won have been with virgin Alpha brass in either a 6 BRA or 6 Dasher.

[VA-XBolt]

Back on the number of cases to use.

My initial thought is 300 cases for development and reloading, figuring or hoping for 3000 rounds for barrel life before a barrel change, and 10 reloads per case, which might be high or low. I don't have any experience with the Lapua brass, as my prior reloads for hunting or target (other rifle) were once fired Hornady brass.

So, as I said, I was hoping for some feedback as to what the rest of you all do.

[jvw2008]

Caveat to above post.
If your virgin brass headspace is beyond 3 thousandths, you can protect your virgin brass by developing a low pressure (slow velocity)load to fire form them or develop a load that utilizes a slight bullet jam.

[jvw2008]

For the precision expected from a target rifle, I would not use Hornady brass with the protocol I described. Just too much variability in case volume.

If using Hornady I would fire form all cases being used for load development.

Like I mentioned above, high quality brass pays for itself in many ways. If you can get precision from virgin brass you save a lot of barrel life and a lot of dollars in components used to fire form cases. Alpha brass is absolutely the most consistent brass out of the factory, however, the 6.5 CM Alpha virgin cases have a little less case capacity than I prefer. You can still make it work very well though it you don't insist on maximizing case pressure.

[VA-XBolt]

or develop a load that utilizes a slight bullet jam.

What I've found with the longer Bergers (156gr) in my hunting rifle, is that I had to use "magazine fit" as the starting point for the seating ladder tests. OCW for the hunting rifle ended up at 40.4 grains of H4350, and a final muzzle velocity of 2640fps. The starting point for the 156gr Bergers was 39.2 grains of H4350, and about 2540 fps.

So broadly, I'm figuring roughly the same starting point and seating issues for the longer Bergers on the new rifle.

[jvw2008]

If you found a jam was necessary you could single load the first firing of the virgin brass then develop a different load for your "fit in the mag" rounds. That might be more of a PIA than you want to deal with. 😊

[VA-XBolt]

Yes, probably a PITA as you've noted.

I was looking at magazine fit, at least on the target rifle on the off chance that I'd try out some PRS shoots, but given latest health related issues, that's probably not a high probability either.

Generally, for the past few years, I've been trying to reduce the variables for shooting, and I would like to settle in for one load for each rifle. Somewhat related, lots of guns out there that I love and could possibly purchase, but I'm not going to be adding new calibers to the current mix. Just too much overhead and too many complications in that for me right now.

[gman47564]

Va as of late I have been working with 100 count pieces of new brass when starting with a new barrel.. I have learned over the years theirs no need to load more than a 100 rounds at a time.. because by the time you get that 100 shot up your load may need tweaked again.. also with a new barrel I have been doing a 10 round break in and then going right into load development.. and try to have a good load dialed in in the first 50 rounds.. as jerry said a tune is fluid.. and needs tweaked around on as you go.. no need to waste 200 rounds down the barrel to season it.. also if your rifle has a tight headspace on it .. meaning the brass doesn't grow more than 2 or 3 thousandths.  Then your once fired brass should load and shoot about the same as new brass..

[jvw2008]

With a target rifle intended for groups on paper. We usually start with a few more so the same lot of brass can be maintained for that barrel. This is especially true if the brass is not annealed between cycles. To get thru a season of 1000 yd benchrest requires 300-400 cases that have been cycled 3-4 times. After the 4th firing necks are getting hard enough that they really need to be annealed. If you started with only 100 cases they would only get you thru 3-4 matches using the non-anneal protocol.

[gman47564]

He's gonna go bang steel every now and then.. 

[jvw2008]

He's gonna go bang steel every now and then.. 

Yes I know - that's why I took so much time to explain the difference. 😊

[VA-XBolt]

If you started with only 100 cases they would only get you thru 3-4 matches using the non-anneal protocol.

I'll be annealing after each firing.