So, mistakes were made. Others will be blamed.
This is going to get a bit long, so have a beer and kick back.
My first mistake is trying to find a load for a powder that doesn't have a published load for it. Second mistake is using bullets for the load that doesn't have a powder listed for it.
So here's the rest of the story.
Cartridge in question is 6.5X54 Mannlicher Schönauer.
There are few published loads for this, and most revolve around IMR. That's probably the way to go. The main problem with that, however, is when powders are scarce, IMR is one of the first ones to go. So go to the back up plan.
I like Vihta Vouri powders. Not as many people use them, and so they tend to be available when others are out. Additionally, it's temperature stable, and burns very clean. I thought N160 would be the way to go, and contacting the tech guys at VV, they confirmed that they had not tested a load, N160 would probably be their first choice for the cartridge.
I'd also like to try Norma powders, because Norma has published loads for their Oryx bullet, but I can't find Norma 204 or MRP (their recommended) anywhere.
But I do have QuickLoad, right?
I also have four bullets I'd like to try. The Oryx 156 grain would be a good hunting bullet, and I can finally find Hornady 160 grain RNSP locally. I also have in my collection 100 Woodleigh 160 grain RNSP and 50 160 grain Protected Point.
I'd really like to get the Oryx and Protected Point bullets working. The RNSP bullets are awesome out to about 100m or so. But muzzle velocity starts at only around 2200fps. And they lose velocity quickly, because they are not very aerodynamic. A spitzer type bullet would retain velocity much better.
Off topic now, but real world example. When I was in Germany, the requirement for Hochwild was minimum 6.5mm caliber, and 2000 joules of energy at 100m. There is a similar requirement in Poland. An RNSP bullet meets the minimum caliber, but only hits around 1950 joules at 100m. A more ballistically efficient bullet could take 2000 joules out to 150 to 200 meters. There's also a great deal of bullet drop, and you're probably not going to reach out and touch a Gams at 300m, even though that's what the rifle was designed to do. So that's why I'd like to get the Oryx or PP round working.
FWIW, conversations with Woodleigh indicate the load for their RNSP and PP bullets should be similar, but that's not important right now.
I do have Quickload. So I started noodling some loads. Now, YES, I know that's only a start. So what I did was map out the pressures for some published loads from the manuals I have, and compared that to proposed N160 loads to try and stay safe. QuickLoad will tell you when you approach max pressure, and I did NOT want to go there. My initial loads "matched" the plotted initial loads for IMR, Norma 204, and Norma MRP. Nothing crazy. Max pressure (CIP) is about 52,000 psi, and everything I plotted was well short of that.
One point on the different bullets: They all have to be loaded to different lengths to fit in the magazine, but no loads were compressed loads. All my "min" loads were around an 80% case load, and max loads were less than 86%. Burn in the barrel was between 92% and 98%. Not fully efficient, but it is a short barrel, and a hotter powder would have other issues, like a faster pressure spike.
All brass was unfired Norma, primers were Federal Match. Bullets were loaded to a length that fit the magazine, and had a great deal of jump to the lands. Maybe not perfect for accuracy, but no chance of jam.
So first up was the Oryx. I started low, and worked up to 37 grains. Got about 2100 fps (QL predicted 2200), and absolutely no pressure signs. I could probably go higher, but I don't think I need to. QL did say I could go higher, but again, not sure I need. May check for accuracy, and tweak. But that works.
Next up was the Hornady. QL also said 37 grains was safe, and I could probably go higher. QL predicted about 2100 fps, but my Labradar says only 1950 or so. No pressure signs. Hornady has a cannelure, but I was beneath it (a little long, but shorter than the book COAL of 3.063). The reason for long is the MS feed ramp likes a long bullet, and loading at the cannelure is a sure way to jam things up when you work the bolt.
Good so far. A little slow, but good.
Now the Woodleigh RNSPs. They look a lot like the Hornadys. There's a bit more lead at the point, and a bit blunter than the Hornady, and unlike the Hornady, there is no cannelure. All bullets were lightly taper crimped.
QL says a good starting safe load was 34.5 grains. The pressure curve roughly matched the Norma MRP. Labradar reported 2200 fps. NO pressure signs. I checked with my 10X loupe, it was not a casual glance. No bolt marks on the base, primer solidly seated, bolt opened easily.
I should have stopped there, right?
Next up was 34.8 grains. Only 0.3 of a grain increase. Maybe I might get a slightly stiff bolt lift if I was getting too much.
Wrong.
Velocity was a nice 2250 or so.
The bolt was stuck tight. Not "oh, this is a little stiff", but pound on it with a piece of wood to get it open tight. Not only was the primer completely gone, the case itself was totally trashed. To the point where I turned a rimless case into a rimmed case. No ruptures, thank God, and the rifle is fine, though perhaps I can say it was newly proofed. But that 0.3 grains was a huge increase.
I stopped there. I never tried the PP. I'm going to dump powder and start over.
I guess my two choices are to just play with the Oryx, which makes sense because they are certainly more available than Woodleighs, and just abandon the PPs, or back off to 33 grains, and stop before 34.2. For the PPs, go a little lighter, maybe start at 32.5 or 33. The PP bullet is about an eighth of an inch longer than the RNSP bullet, so that's a lot of friction in the barrel.
Truth be told, 2200 fps from the carbine barrel with 160 grains of RNSP should be effective on most things in North America. and I have no plans to do a WDM Bell and go elephant hunting with it. I am concerned about using 270 grain Woodleighs in my 9.5X57, but I have about 300 Hornady bullets to play with first.
The bottom line, if you've made it this far, is 0.3 grains can make a huge difference, even if it's well within what QuickLoad predicts.
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
www.nosler.com
