6.5 staball powder work ups.

[kmon]

Look forward to the report. Ialso think Staball is slow burning doe the Grendel but Hodgdon thinks CFE223 is too slow for the Grendel

[A5BLASTER]

Ok so here goes. First and formost I'm for sure going to run this ladder again next weekend. I had 3 rifles too work on today and since the bolt action isn't needed for the rest of this deer season it was the last up to bat.

My range closes at 2pm and by the time I had both my ar grendels dialed back in and was happy with the sight in, it was already 1pm.

So I had to fire all these rounds on a hot barrel. But here goes.

6.5 staball/129 ablr results
Ladder 25 to 30.8 grains
Starline new brass
Cci450 primer
Coal of 2.315

25-1716
25.2-1735
25.4-1746
25.6-1751
25.8-1754

26-1766
26.2-1785
26.4-1821
26.6-1856
26.8-1874

27-1920
27.2-1927]
27.4-1911
27.6-1948
27.8-1976

28-2026
28.2-2036
28.4-2038
28.6-2064
28.8-2070

29-2108
29.2-2117
29.4-2145
29.6-2171
29.8-2181

30-2155
30.2-2186
30.4-2200
30.6-2214
30.8-2298/spike

So there you have it gents. Had one are 2 rounds that look like they got a low charge and 30.8 was on a very hot barrel but looks like a SPIKE.

Will be interesting to see what this ladder does next weekend. I'm going to reuse the same brass for this ladder.

Also had enough time to grab some velocity data for American gunner. 10 shot average was 2520 fps.

Got too try a 5 round group from this rifle with
85 trex, 30.4 h335
120 gold dot, 26.8 varget
129 ablr, 25.5 h4895

The 3 test groups listed just above is what's in the pics.
Smallest group is the trex, next size up is 129 ablr and the biggest is the 120 gold dot.

I was rushing for time bad and pulled shots on each group. These were shot at 200 yards.

[A5BLASTER]

Just finished running all of these cases on my calipers and even the case that the chronagrah showed a SPIKE is well within spec and show no signs of high or over pressure at the case web.

So now that these cases are fire formed basicly too the cz chamber it will be interesting to see how much more case capacity I will have on the next loading.

Never payed attention to it on any of the loads I have done before.

Might be possible too get close too 2300 with my barrel and this powder.

Will know more come next weekend when I'm not rushed and can slow fire the ladder and not have a hot chamber on each round.

[kmon]

What you are getting is quite usable for the distance many of us hunt with that bullet. But that is slow for a 129 gr bullet from a 25 inch barrel

[A5BLASTER]

What you are getting is quite usable for the distance many of us hunt with that bullet. But that is slow for a 129 gr bullet from a 25 inch barrel

Yes it is. Don't think I have 100 rounds on it yet. Can't wait to run this ladder again next weekend.

I choose new brass because all my fired Starline brass is from the howa I had.

Didn't want to mix that into my cz. So I know going in that the first ladder would be short of full case capacity of fired brass.

In the end staball is going to be slower then say h4895, cfe223 or lever with that bullet but still more then enough juice to kill game out to typical hunting ranges.

I shot some 129 ablr's with h4895 at 25.5 grains and it had less drop. So even without running that load over the graph I know it's faster.

I did forget to log the average,hi,low,sd and es of that ladder.

Will make sure I get it next weekend.

[A5BLASTER]

Ok so got out and ran the second ladder with staball today.

Ran this one in .3 tenth increases, one round per charge, went up too 31.9 grains. Started at 25 grains.

All rounds had been vibra settled when loaded and 31.9 grains had a lil crunch to it.

Here is the data.

25-1730
25.3-1785
25.6-1813
25.9-1848

26.2-1859
26.5-1890
26.8-1896

27.1-1896
27.4-1920
27.7-1977

28-2018
28.3-2031
28.6-2067
28.9-2116

29.2-2148
29.5-2202
29.8-2212

30.1-2270
30.4-2276
30.7-2279

31-2272
31.3-2308
31.6-2324
31.9-2369

Plan on running some ladders with staball and the 85 trex bullets as well.

[65GbySeven]

Great data and thanks for sharing. Based on the speeds in Nosler's published data... a very crude deduction...Staball is the same as IMR4166 just ball versus extruded

[A5BLASTER]

Great data and thanks for sharing. Based on the speeds in Nosler's published data... a very crude deduction...Staball is the same as IMR4166 just ball versus extruded

Don't know bout that never messed with are seen 4166 before. I will say this staball is very case filling lol. If you can't load to a min of 2.315 forget it you can't use this powder with the 129 ablr.

Going to do a ladder are 2 with the lightest weight bullet I have. 85 Maker Trex. That way there us data at both ends of the spectrum.

[A5BLASTER]

So bringing this back to live.

Haven't run the 85 Maker yet but did run a ladder with this powder in PPU brass today with some 123 nosler CC.

Started at 27 and worked up 1 round every 2 tenths to 31.8 grains.


27-1870
27.2-1864
27.4-1871
27.6-1912
27.8-1915
28-1941
28.2-1977
28.4-1982
28.6-2036
28.8-2041
29-2065
29.2-2094
29.4-2110
29.6-2132
29.8-2142
30-2196
30.2-2221
30.4-2235
30.6-2253
30.8-2262
31-2280
31.2-2348
31.4-2323
31.6-2314
31.8-2340

Seems like I had some bad throws from my chargemaster lite when doing this ladder.

There was still plenty of room in the case for more powder. No pressure signs on the brass are primers and bolt lift was normal.

I may load up a few more starting at 31 and work it up to 32.8 and see where it ends out at.

Coal length for this load is 2.255. Looks like there could be promise with this powder with the lighter weight pills from say 123 and lighter, well maybe.

[Former Cav]

Brownells has StaBALL 6.5 and StaBALL Match .

https://www.brownells.com/reloading/powder/rifle-powder/staball-6-5-smokeless-powder-prod132913.aspx?trk_msg=5CA2BCJGVPOKVE1P22R8CPR8DO&trk_contact=URSAJE24PS7RGO9IV3Q6DEQ6UO&trk_sid=K20NRPL5NRC8J4PFAQ6RHIA1SG&trk_link=E24A4BTOVE941AJL7DMOKSU2FK

[Old Bob]

Brownells has StaBALL 6.5 and StaBALL Match .
https://www.brownells.com/reloading/...1AJL7DMOKSU2FK

https://www.brownells.com/reloading/powder/rifle-powder/staball-match-rifle-powder-prod147699.aspx

[Worstletter]

Wow these are really nice results. I'm going to try 6*5 staball with 123gr and see how fast we can go.

[Worstletter]

Well the results for 95gr vmax and 123gr eld are in and I would say no to 6.5 Staball in grendel. Shooting the Howa mini the 95gr only got up to 2400 fps with 32gr of powder. Accuracy was there but there's definitely better powders for that, same with the 123gr only got 2200 fps with 31gr. These were both loaded long to fill the case as much as possible. I can see this as a good powder for anything heavier but not for these typical loadings. O well.

[Legionnaire]

Thanks for the report. Staball 6.5 is waaay down the list of optimum powders in QuickLoad. Varget is higher.