Thread: A Soggy Sarurday Put to Some Use

Greetings All,
I got up this morning and it was raining, again. There was another 25 or so mm in the gauge to go with the 63 mm from last week and the place is sodden. This might be a good day to catch up with some loading.
First cab off the rank was the T3 6.5 x 55. I had sorted out a decent load for this back in 2019 but had been using up odd loads remaining in the box. There were only four left. A small batch of Lapua cases was prepped and primed and loaded with 129 grain Hornady SST projectiles over 45.5 grains of recent production AR2209. The load chronogaphed 2,805 fps from the standard barrel. This is quite a bit faster than the Hodgdon data but still well within safe pressures. All done now we just need some fine weather to check the zero and head for the hills, when it stops raining that is.
Next it was the M38 also in 6.5 x 55. I had been using 129 grain Hornady Interlocks in this rifle but had run out. Some 120 grain Speer Gold Dots had been purchased earlier in the year. Some Norma cases had been sized, annealled and prepped. A handfull of the Gold dots were loaded in the Norma cases ahead of 44 grains of an older and slower batch of AR2209. 46 grains of this powder had previously chronographed 2,780 fps with 120 grain projectiles so I am expecting around 2,650 fps. From previous experience this load is likely to shoot close to the remaining 129 grain loads.
Next, after a cuppa and watching a bit of footy it will be time to sort through all the .308 load leftovers from 40 pluss years of loading for it. Tomorrows weather is likely to be much like today so some progress should be made.
Regards Grandpamac.