Thread: 7mm08 and staball 6.5

Anyone out there using staball 6.5 in a 7mm08? I’m starting to sort out a load with the 120 grain ballistic tip and have had some great accuracy so far up to 52.5 grains which is a half grain off Hodgdon book max with a bit more fiddling to do. I don’t have a chronograph unfortunately so I usually work out an approximate velocity off observed drop data so I can’t offer too much in the way of specifics. Anybody else have any experience with this powder?

Not in 7 mm 08 but use it in 3006, 22 250, 243,303, 6.5x55 to name a few, I have read it’s very good in the 708. A versatile powder.

Hi @Mararoa,

I've started working up a load using the 150g eldx. I did a 7 shot ladder to get approx velocities and they were good. The 7 shots all grouped within an inch too.

I then chose a given charge weight around book max (but seated much further out) and loaded up a bunch to shoot some groups and hunt with. Got very low ES/SD (12/4 if memory serves me) and grouping was 0.8" over 8 shots. Also killed some animals. I now plan to Fiddle with seating depth and charge weight a little to see if I can refine it a bit.

Seems to give consistently higher velocities for a similar (in theory) pressure load to AR2206H at least in my rifle, which is a tikka with 18" barrel.

So velocity measured was similar to predicted by load data? I’m sort of interested to know as velocity predicted by hodgdon load data is quite a bit higher than the usually preferred powders like 2206h, 2208,2209. Accuracy for me was outstanding with three 3 shot groups between .29 and .4 of an inch. If the velocity is there then it seems like gold dust.

@Mararoa hard to say as I my barrel is shorter and not sure how much reduction in velocity is due to barrel length versus powder reality. I would say your velocities will be better than the adi powders but maybe not as good as book data suggests. If you're coming through Dunedin any time you're welcome to borrow my chrono to test it out.

Very kind offer, thankyou. I was thinking the same thing, hogdgon book data seems optimistic, adi often works out pretty close. And a shorter barrel does muddy the waters, I’m at 20 inch so there’s always going to be some loss.

If you have a look on some of the US centric forums, a lot of people state that real life velocities are much lower than advertised on Hodgedon. I'm less worried about that and more interested in how it actually performs in my rifle compared with other powders. At this stage it seems at least as accurate and about 70fps faster than a roughly equivalent pressure load of AD2206H, so that's good enough for me to keep using it for now.

Yeah I’ve read the same thing on the US forums. Generally people are reporting lower velocities than predicted by the book data but some are getting some pretty fast loads. I’m not one to squeeze the last few feet per second out of a load but more is nice. It’s the accuracy potential that’s got me most interested.

my reloading book is tucked away in a box some where after moving but from memory I was half a grain under hogdons book max with staball 6.5 win brass fed 210s and 154 interlocks. got 2646 average out of a 17 inch barreled Kimber and 20 fps ES just dropping the charges out of the thrower. trusty three shot groups where a nice clover leaf at a hundy. this particular rifle only likes interlocks. everything else I have tried shoots two to five inch groups. was on the verge of rebarreling it but stumbled on the magic combo after reading up on the forum and had a eureka moment. verified the load out to 525 and was very happy.
have shot one deer with it so far at 20 meters...
one of the odd things was that when I weighed out every powder charge very carefully the ES was 40...was a bit short of time so I set up the thrower and knocked out 50 rounds in a jiffy and Es halved and the group tightened up noticably. scratched my head and thanked the god of reloading for his generosity.

I would think that would be a pretty good velocity for a reasonably heavy bullet out of a short barrel. Using the 25fps rule there could be another 175 feet per second with a 24inch barrel and good accuracy.

I'm getting 2745 fps with the 150g eldx with book max velocity (18" barrel) so that roughly tracks with black ferns experience above.

@Mararoa

I'm happy to meet you at the range with the Chrony. I take it you're at fiordland firearms club? Send me a PM.