The Creedmoor Forum

You can get "Gunwerks Brass" directly from them.

https://www.gunwerks.com/store/cartridge-brass/gunwerks-brass
or just call them.. If you don't get it soon there are a bunch of other brass that will work just fine.. My Favorite "Nosler' and Hornady stuff folks have been using for years with great results..

Hope all is going well and that you make it out for your "Elk Hunt"!! Get anything figure out with the .28 nosler??

Remember: only do one thing at a time. Work on your powder charge till you get some good horizontal "Looks like your close" groups and then start messing with seating depth.. Seems to me most times I start with about .020 thousands I hardly find anything that shoots as good. Not saying that there isn't I just haven't seen things change to dramatically moving farther away like .040, .050 or anything in between.. Your definitely in the Ball Park for sure..

Just shoot the 140 Grain Game king- Its one heck of a bullet!!

Ljwebb: This is what I do so you know your barely in the lands instead of the throat.  When you slide the gauge in with the bullet in the case- Slide the rod forward until you think its engaging the rifling then take a screw driver and tap the rod just slightly with the handle of the screw driver and I mean barely.

Take the gauge out and then yes tap the bullet out. Like Gman said do this numerous times and eventually you will start seeing numbers that are very close together. This will be your "Starting" point to seat the bullet off of and most of us go about .020 or 20 thousands off the lands or for a different way to phrase it is farther away from the land or deeper in the case.. From there we usually don't touch seating depth till later. This is where you start using .02 of grain increments in powder charge until you see pressure signs or good groups and possible if you do have a chronograph good velocity.  Folks with more knowledge on all this will help you out along the way~~~

The reason you are getting a reading in the first place is this: It's a starting point in which we use as reference- Everything needs to stay consistent so once you get a reference everything will be based off that!  You might be .001 or .002 into the lands in your initial reading but that's ok as you will want to start load development away from your reference point- I would never start developing loads with the bullets into the lands as that builds lots of pressure and that's not a place you want to be..

Thanks JVW for the help..

From what I have been reading thou is it's not about having the rifle exacly level, its about leveling the scope reticles to the bore once all that is squared up you can put a level on the scope to make sure you are holding it level or in the same spot from there on out?? At least that's the concept I have been studying.. And here is what Im referring to- You can have your rifle canted 6 degrees and as long as your keeping the rifle canted 6 degrees everytime you will shoot in the same spot? The concept of getting your crosshairs in alignment with the bore is key as well as to make sure your scope internal mechanisms are tracking correctly and true.. And maybe i'm just not explaining or saying it correctly so please forgive me.  Maybe this is the easiest way of saying it: Your lining up your crosshairs on a plum bob line or a line that is exactly verticle at 100 yards then tighten down your scope rings- Then you put a level on your gun and it shows your gun is canted off either left or right. Does that matter as long as once you have your scope correct on the plumb bob line and then attach a level on the scope that shows the scope is level isn't everything square unless the internals of the scope aren't tracking correctly or the scope isn't in alignment with the bore???

And yes I have watched Byran Litz "Tall Target Test" and that's what convinced me to get the Box to Bench stackable targets to I can shoot up to 30 MOA to make sure everything is correctly tracking in verticle line in 10 MOA increments..

I was having some issues with Reticle Perpendicularity  in which I was dead center at 100 yards and was quite a distance off to the right at 600 yards. It appears my reticle what not aligned with my bore.. So got some targets and read up on it in an article by Darrell Holland.. And now things are getting back on track!! First link is the new development load developement targets and tracking targets. Second Link is how to know if your reticles are perpendicular to your bore.. And I'm sure this is going to cause lots of discussion and I hope it does so we can all learn!!

https://www.boxtobenchprecision.com/

https://www.longrangehunting.com/articles/reticle-perpendicularity.34/

as Gman stated: Could be gun canted? Reticle in the Scope not tracking properly? or Spin Drift which will allow the bullet to move left or right "Depending on how your rifling is in your gun" the farther distance you shoot to.

Boltman: I agree with that statement of not taking long shots at an Elk quartering away.. I don't take shots at elk, deer or for that matter any animal short of a coyote quartering away.. not ethical and a few inches off is a very bad shot. Broadside right behind the shoulder and most critters never make it more than a few steps!!

I don't think the op was asking anything about quartering away thou.. And that is why I suggested to keep shots 600 and less. With the velocity and bullet weight there will be no problem getting into the vital of a broad side elk and taking it ethically with a 6.5 PRC..

Are there bigger badder rounds and calibers out there- Sure there are but they sure do kick a lot more and most folks aren't as proficient with them. The 6.5 creedmoor an 6.5 prc are much more manageable and folks can usually shoot them with such accuracy that shot placement is highly increased because these calibers are shot more so folks practice religiously..

6.5 creedmoor is good to go in all western states: Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Idaho, Colorado and Utah.

Sorry to all for the confusion on my statement of Berger Bullets coming apart..  So what I was referring to is berger bullets in a hunting situation come apart once they hit or enter an animal.

I'm sure they don't came apart in flight although I've heard. Oh Never Mind just wanted to start a joke about Hornady Bullets but that's a bad joke that's been discussed way to much on this forum already--- 

Oh GMAN.. I wasn't bashing you at all.

I think its how I wrote it where I said I agree with Gman I never shoot bergers.. What I meant to say is I agree with you in the .020 seating depth is where I start and usually the gun shoots just fine there and just tweak the seating depth to shoot small holes..

Sorry if you interpreted that differently.. 

115 grain VLD hunting out of my wifes 25/06 going around 3100 fps.. Shot two different whitetails and all you could find is pieces like flake gold..

The bullets that have done the best for me are Speer, Scirocco and Noslers which retain most of their weight after being fired.  Below are 140 grain regular nosler accubonds out of my 6.5 creedmoor.

But again I know some folks just love Bergers, I just haven't had good luck with them..

I agree with GMAN!! I never shoot bergers as i'm not a fan of bullets that don't hold together- Its just me..

But with all other bullets it seems as thou .020 thousands in most cases seems to be a winner and then just playing with seating depth brings the groups together.  Like gman said there are quite a few that will disagree and that's just because they have different ways to get to thier end result which is as close to all bullets in the same -o-.........

Litehiker: The 6.5 creedmoor and the 6.5 PRC are both good for elk. It all comes down to shot placement- I would keep the shots 600 yards or less but again that's just me..

The 6.5 PRC hold more powder and pushes the bullets somewhat faster and i'm a firm believe that speed does kill.. I don't want to push my creedmoor more than 2780. But the PRC definitely reaches far beyond that- 2900 FPS i'm hearing somewhere close is the node..

6.5 PRC- Thumbs up for elk!!!

Bergara Ridge Rifle for the money 739.00.  Its accuracy is as good as a quite a few custom rifle makers rifles for 1/2 or more the price, heck a bartlein barrel blank is 355.00 dollars!!