Thread: 6.5 Grendel load trouble shoot

Originally Posted by onlyhsh

Thank you very much and this Quickload looks like an incredibly useful tool.

Gordon's tool does the sameand it's free to download.

Originally Posted by feratox

I had a set and found they drifted quite a bit between start and finish. Got so pissed off with them they leapt off the bench and flew into the opposite wall.

Quite a rewarding feeling that

Originally Posted by onlyhsh

Hornady 1500 G2, I know it is not that flash but could it be out by that much though?
I did rattle the cartridge after loading them and I gotta admit they sounded like they had a lot of space in there.

We load a very similar load but an 123gr. SST and 8208. Our load is 27.7g and its not compressed but very close, anything over 28g and you could defiantly hear faint crunching when seating the bullet. We also seat a bit deeper however at 2250 COAL. Be careful with 8208 it can spike in pressure quickly especially when your close to the lands. There must be something up with you scales if you can shake and rattle the case ????

Never was able to get good results with my 1500 g2, ended up going balls deep on an autotrickler setup and fuck, what a setup. Reloading is not for the money saver. Gordons Reloading tool is bloody good, download it on the computer and will give you more data than youll ever need

Originally Posted by onlyhsh

Hornady 1500 G2, I know it is not that flash but could it be out by that much though?
I did rattle the cartridge after loading them and I gotta admit they sounded like they had a lot of space in there.

A decent beam scale might be a more reliable option ...

Originally Posted by Shamus_

A decent beam scale might be a more reliable option ...

Yep. Over and over I've pointed this out to new hand loaders. Get a mechanical beam scale. The el cheapo digital with strain gauge innards will let you down with zero drift. And something with a digital read out doesn't mean it's accurate.

Although I've progressed to top end digital (I'm at an age when I can afford it) I've still got my old Ohaus beam in the cupboard. I'll never get rid of it.

Thanks a lot for the tips team. Lesson learnt here: go mechanical or go hellla expensive.
While we are on this buzz, I've got the Hornady calliper as well, is that all good though?

Yep, Hornady calliper is fine.

Could your powder have gone bad? How old is it? How's it been stored? Has it been left open at any point? The electronic scales are shite and drift all the time but mine never drifted more than about 0.2gr. If yours is similarly crap, this doesn't account for the missing 200-300fps. Bad powder could...

I recall loading for a Howa Mini with 123 ELD-M's and at 28gr of 8208 I was seeing the onset of pressure signs with speeds above 2400.

Do you have any other powders on hand that you could try?

I'm a Mitutoyo man myself which comes about from my trade background.

The Hornady will most likely be a Chinaman. I also have a Chinese digital calliper and it works perfectly OK. It's the one I tend to let lay on the bench amongst other stuff.

My first Chinese calliper I sent back. It failed to measure repeatably. One test I gave it was to open the jaws to a random position, note the reading, zero the display, fully close the jaws and you should see the value you noted with a minus sign. My first Chinese callipers would fail this test roughly once every 5 times and would return a value not even close to the zeroed value.

I don't have personal experience with your Hornadys but they should be fine.

One issue I have heard of and I don't know what brand it was but the particular calliper ate batteries.


Back to your digital scale - have you checked them with a check weight. Use a light 22 cal projectile as a test weight and check each time before, during, after use. Keep that projectile aside. Or make a test weight out of something suitable close to your loading weight.

Originally Posted by Pommy

Yep, Hornady calliper is fine.

Could your powder have gone bad? How old is it? How's it been stored? Has it been left open at any point? The electronic scales are shite and drift all the time but mine never drifted more than about 0.2gr. If yours is similarly crap, this doesn't account for the missing 200-300fps. Bad powder could...

I recall loading for a Howa Mini with 123 ELD-M's and at 28gr of 8208 I was seeing the onset of pressure signs with speeds above 2400.

Do you have any other powders on hand that you could try?

Sadly got no other powder I could try
Did suspect things might have gone wrong but the smell was fine though. The smell test was the only test I found on internet.

Originally Posted by zimmer

I'm a Mitutoyo man myself which comes about from my trade background.

The Hornady will most likely be a Chinaman. I also have a Chinese digital calliper and it works perfectly OK. It's the one I tend to let lay on the bench amongst other stuff.

My first Chinese calliper I sent back. It failed to measure repeatably. One test I gave it was to open the jaws to a random position, note the reading, zero the display, fully close the jaws and you should see the value you noted with a minus sign. My first Chinese callipers would fail this test roughly once every 5 times and would return a value not even close to the zeroed value.

I don't have personal experience with your Hornadys but they should be fine.

One issue I have heard of and I don't know what brand it was but the particular calliper ate batteries.


Back to your digital scale - have you checked them with a check weight. Use a light 22 cal projectile as a test weight and check each time before, during, after use. Keep that projectile aside. Or make a test weight out of something suitable close to your loading weight.

Great suggestion mate, I was just looking for check weights to buy, but actually having a projectile would be good to use as a nice and cheap check weight. Cheers!

Originally Posted by zimmer

Back to your digital scale - have you checked them with a check weight. Use a light 22 cal projectile as a test weight and check each time before, during, after use. Keep that projectile aside. Or make a test weight out of something suitable close to your loading weight.

I do that with a cheap digital scale I got from aliexpress. I have a 6mm bullet that I use as a check weight every few minutes while measuring powder. 108.4gr everytime, no drift

really like the 100gn bullets in the grendel
the sierra 100gn flat base hollow point with from 32gn-34gn of cfe 223 was a fantastic combo in my howa
very similar to a 243 but in a mini action prefect hunting rifle

Originally Posted by Roarless20

I do that with a cheap digital scale I got from aliexpress. I have a 6mm bullet that I use as a check weight every few minutes while measuring powder. 108.4gr everytime, no drift

Nice one.

The other check is to note the negative value the scale displays each time you remove the powder pan from it. I sure you probably already do this.
I have written on both my powder pans their weight to remind me each time I'm setting up and zeroing the scale. eg I have an old Lyman pan that weighs 153.08 grains.

I have a el cheapo electronic scale (balance?) I bought off Tardme years ago. I don't use it to measure powder though. Handy for confirming projectile or case weight. It drifts a tad but I know to expect that.

Mystery solved.
I somehow believed I had a solid measure of the max COAL as 2.328 and rolled with totally (blind) confidence.
Got a more experienced mate measured my max COAL to be around 2.291 and I've loaded a few to 2.280.
Now 28.0gr to 28.3gr of 8208 has put me comfortably in the 2500 zone, no pressure signs yet.
I can finally sleep it bit easier knowing where things went weird
Thanks a ton for all the help and suggestions. Definitely learned a lot