6.5 TCU

[375Short]

For what it’s worth with my two samples: My wife’s 6.5TCU has a 24” mine has a 26”. At first I was worried Ram loads in my rifle may fall short in hers. I keep records of all our load data and what it told me was stop worrying about it. The biggest velocity difference has been with Varget and the 150 Sierra at 90fps in favor of the 26” barrel. With a published data full charge of IMR4895 under a 140gr the difference is 40fps and with a light charge of 4895 the 24” was 30fps faster than my 26”. Looking over all my load data with various powders and bullet weights the final average is a 39fps advantage to the 26”. You may find that much variation in two identical length barrels or one powder lot to the next. These two barrels are from different manufacturers and the 24” has many more rounds down it than the relatively new 26” so it’s not a direct Apple to Apple comparison but few things ever are in the world of reloading. My guess is with the relatively small case capacity of the TCU with most powder / bullet combinations it has got almost all the velocity it can by 24” and gains very little in the last two inches to 26.

[kendog]

Thanks. 2" coming off before the next match!
Did the mild 5744 loads produce any ringers? I have two kegs of the old original stuff just aching to be shot up.
Going to build another on a Defiance AnTi action. Any advantage to a twist tighter than 8?

[375Short]

The mild 5744 load did knock rams over. I would have never thought it would. BUT it took them very slowly and once the wind came up it didn’t matter because even off the bench I couldn’t hit one with that load. My guess is on a perfect calm day it may work but it is lethargic. I wouldn’t be surprised that with a longer test record it may leave as many as it takes. I think with a 120 for Rams I would go to full book published TCU loads, which are still mild. There’s not a lot of published data on the cartridge from rifle length barrels. There’s also a lot of new powder on the market since any of the data was compiled. Please post interesting discoveries or loads.

[375Short]

The 5744 load produced no ringers on the other three animals. We are going to shoot a HP match next month the 120gr 5744 load will be used on everything except Rams by my wife and I’ll use it on C and P. I’ll use a 130gr RDF on Turkeys and we are both going to use 150gr Sierras on Rams. We will go to a lighter Ram bullet in the future (except for Nationals in PA) but for now I’m to cheap to not use up the ones we have.

I have been lucky in that almost every bullet and powder combination tried has shoot well in both our rifles. Two exceptions: my wife’s 1-7.5 PAC-Nor barrel does not seem to like the Nosler 130gr RDF and both rifles have not found a happy place for the Barnes 145gr Match Burner. I’m sure this is partly Murphy’s Law at work because I purchased a bunch of the 145’s on a good sale.