# Finally! My 6.5 Sherman Has Arrived



## waspocrew

Well it was quite a long wait (almost 11 months), but my rifle was finally delivered yesterday. Hopefully I'll be able to get out and fire form some brass this coming weekend. Our current Renal block is proving to be pretty dense material, so this will have to wait until after the Friday exam.

Specs on the rifle:
- Trued Rem 700 Action 
- 1:8 twist Bartlien Light Palma barrel finished at 26"with 6 straight flutes
- 2 Port mini-brake
- Greybull precision stock
- Jewel Trigger
- PTG bottom metal

All work done by Lane Precision Rifles out of Pocatello, ID

The rifle turned out to balance very well. I was worried about weight, so I steered clear of the Sendero profile. The light palma worked out really well (especially with the fluting). I don't have an exact weight yet, but it definitely feels much lighter than my Sendero 7RM.

If all works out, I'll try to take a Virginia whitetail with it around Thanksgiving. I'm still waiting on scope rings and a rail to arrive, but I'll mount my Vortex HS 2.5-10 x44 within the week. Should be plenty of power here in VA (and it's one I have on hand at the moment). Once I get back out West in a couple years, I'll replace it with something with a little more magnification to take advantage of it's full potential.

I'm planning on running the 140 Amax over Retumbo, RL-22, or IMR 7828SSC (It's what I have on hand). I also have some 140 Accubonds to test out as well. Like I mentioned in my original post a year back, I'm expecting to see around 3200 FPS with a 140 grain pill. Should be fun! I plan on updating the thread when I see how it performs on the range.

Anyways, here are a few pics of the rifle:







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Brass is easily made from 270 Win or 280 Rem brass. 6.5 Sherman on the L, 280 Rem on the R:


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## longbow

>Remington 700 actions - One of my favorites.
>Bartlien barrels - Some of my best shooting barrels.
>Flutes - I love the way they look.
>Two-port mini brake - Don't own one. I like it. Look at that part line (What part line?):O||:
>Greybull stock - I've fondled a few. I like 'em.
>Jewel trigger - One of the best.
>PTG bottom metal. Pacific Tool & Gauge makes awesome hardware.
>Harris S bipod - Love them!
>Vortex HS scope - Love mine.

Wait a second....there isn't one **** thing I don't love about that rifle. That gun ROCKS!!! I bet it's a boring rifle to shoot. One...bullet...on...top...of...another...all...day...long. Be sure to keep us updated on your load development.
Congrats on a fine build. Chuck.


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## Bax*

That rifle is too cool ... Way too cool.


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## Nambaster

If you have a gun that even makes longbow jealous... then you really have a nice gun. I love the angle on the neck of that brass... I can't wait to see how it shoots. Let's get some reports.


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## swbuckmaster

Love to shoot a gun that nice


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## CPAjeff

Beautiful!


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## waspocrew

Thanks gents! I appreciate the positive feedback - to say I'm excited to get in the driver's seat is an understatement haha. I'll be sure to post range results when I get the chance!

I forgot to add - Dallas came up with a new way to put his logo on his builds... I think it's a great finishing touch. Mine wasn't ready at the time of shipping, but it he just finished it up. Will be swapping it out soon!








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## Bax*

Im not familiar with LPR - care to elaborate on the builder?


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## waspocrew

Bax* said:


> Im not familiar with LPR - care to elaborate on the builder?


Whoops - forgot that in my original post: Lane Precision Rifles out of Pocatello, ID.


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## Fez

:shock::grin: what a sweet looking rifle. Im sure it will be a shooter for sure. I may be a tad jelous


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## Bob L.

Nice setup. I like how Longbow thinks and agree.
I think a 140 going 3200 is awesome in any 6.5 and competing with the hottest 6.5's on the market.
I don't know case capacity but I would think Retumbo, H1000, RL33 would be great powders.
I use Retumbo in my 264 winmag and really like it. 
Congrats


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## waspocrew

Bob L. said:


> Nice setup. I like how Longbow thinks and agree.
> I think a 140 going 3200 is awesome in any 6.5 and competing with the hottest 6.5's on the market.
> I don't know case capacity but I would think Retumbo, H1000, RL33 would be great powders.
> I use Retumbo in my 264 winmag and really like it.
> Congrats


Thanks Bob!
I can't recall the case capacity of the top of my head, but you're right - Retumbo, H1000 and others should be perfect for this round. I've got 2 lbs of Retumbo, some RL-22, and have heard RL-26 is pretty snazzy as well.


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## waspocrew

Well my 6.5 Sherman got a bit of a facelift recently - Dallas did an excellent job cerakoting the barrel and action. I think it turned out awesome. The close up photos make it seem a little lighter than what it really is. The semester was pretty busy, so I still have not had the chance to take it out to the range - I was back and forth on different scopes, but finally came across a great deal on a Vortex Viper HST 6-24x50 that I couldn't pass up. Next step is a set of Talley rings and I'll be set. I'll hopefully have some progress to show after the New Year.








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## Bax*

You gonna shoot this thing or what?!


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## bowgy

Bax* said:


> You gonna shoot this thing or what?!


_O\\

Looks great, pretty awesome.


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## LostLouisianian

I'm certain you're going to be too busy for the next few months, just ship it over to me and I'll break it in very carefully for you. :grin:


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## swbuckmaster

Shoot it all ready

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk


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## waspocrew

Thanks fellas! I may need to have someone else shoot it for me for a while haha - luckily January should be somewhat less busy, so I'll definitely get behind the trigger and see how she does. 

I plan on forming brass with 52 grains of IMR 7828 with a cheap 140 grain soft point (picked up a box of 100 from a guy for $5). Once I get formed cases, I'll either try out Retumbo or RL-22 with the 140 Amax. Should be a good combo - I just wish there were some longer ranges out in the Richmond, Virginia area. The one nearest me is only 100 yards.


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## bekins24

Wow that is one helluva rifle. I'm jealous!


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## Springville Shooter

That rifle is done right! I have no doubt about how it will perform. ------SS


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## Huge29

Pretty sweet looking, any results yet?


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## waspocrew

Huge29 said:


> Pretty sweet looking, any results yet?


Unfortunately, no - We are still in Utah visiting for the holidays. We are heading back to Virginia on Sunday, and I plan to mount the scope and load rounds as soon as I get back. I plan to hit the range a week from this Saturday.


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## Huge29

Do you work in media? Like one of those cliffhangers before they start a break on the news so you just have to keep watching...:mrgreen:Fine, Ill keep waiting.


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## 35whelen

awesome! very nice rifle. cool cartridge too. like a 6.5-06 brown improved. or 6.5 gibbs or something.


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## waspocrew

35whelen said:


> awesome! very nice rifle. cool cartridge too. like a 6.5-06 brown improved. or 6.5 gibbs or something.


Thanks! Yep, you're spot on- it's basically a 6.5 Gibbs, but with a bit less taper and a longer neck. Should be a laser!


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## APD

waspocrew said:


> Unfortunately, no - We are still in Utah visiting for the holidays. We are heading back to Virginia on Sunday, and I plan to mount the scope and load rounds as soon as I get back. I plan to hit the range a week from this Saturday.


well, how'd she shoot?


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## waspocrew

Well I finally had the opportunity to sneak out to the range this morning.. It's been a long wait with school, chasing my 2 year old around, and getting more than a foot of snow last week.

I prepped brass by using some new Hornady 270 brass that I got for Christmas. I necked it up to 284, then down to 264 to leave a better false shoulder to headspace off. I made sure to really get a nice crush fit to hold it in place.

Not gonna lie, I was a little afraid to pull the trigger haha. I even brought string to put on the trigger for the first time 

Anyways, I was impressed by how it shot! Recoil is very minimal with the brake. I'm sure it'll do better with the 140 Amax.

My forming load is a cheap 140 power point (probably from the 80's - got a box of 100 for $5) over IMR 7828 SSC. The shoulders seem slightly rounded, so I may bump the charge up by about 1 grain.

I'm excited to get back out again and see how she does once the barrel gets broken in a bit more!








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3 shots 100 yards







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Shiny new Sherman brass :grin:







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## Bob L.

If your comfortable with no pressure signs I agree. I never had any luck with false shoulders and got donuts because of them. Sweet rig and setup.


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## waspocrew

Bob L. said:


> If your comfortable with no pressure signs I agree. I never had any luck with false shoulders and got donuts because of them. Sweet rig and setup.


Thanks, it was my first time forming brass for this round, it's a bit more brass movement than an Ackley Improved, so the false shoulder is a must. There are hydro forming dies than can be made as well, but I'll probably stick with plain fire forming.

Max charge is 59 grains with 7828, so I was being a little conservative at 52 grains for fireforming. Rich Sherman, who developed the round, said to start 8-10% below max for forming loads. 53 should be the ticket. Primers were fine and bolt lift was totally normal.


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## waspocrew

Took the 6.5 Sherman out for another spin the other day. Again, just forming brass with cheap 140 Soft Points. I decided to try some 140 Accubonds for fun and they shot pretty well. I always seem to screw up a great group with the last shot haha. Anyways, they show promise. Next time out, I'll give the 140 Amax and 140 Accubond with fully formed brass to see what ends up happening.


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## Bax*

waspocrew said:


> I prepped brass by using some new Hornady 270 brass that I got for Christmas. I necked it up to 284, then down to 264 to leave a better false shoulder to headspace off. I made sure to really get a nice crush fit to hold it in place.


I am not very well versed in neckung up/down cases so please forgive the uninformed question:

Why would you neck up the case only to neck it down to a smaller size? I am not familiar with the term "false shoulder" so I don't know what advantage this provides?


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## Springville Shooter

The false shoulder is used to ensure that the case is held firmly in place between the bolt face and chamber while fire forming. Anytime you start messing with case forming you run the chance of creating headspace which will screw up your brass and can be dangerous. 

When I do Improved cartridges, I have the gunsmith chamber the rifle so that SAMMI spec brass headspaces very tightly and has the slight crush fit that Waspo referenced.

Looks like your gun is showing some serious potential. If this is your first improved case project, remember that improved cases often do not show pressure signs as reliably as standard cartridges. The chronograph is often the best way to gauge pressure. 

Have fun and good luck with the A-Max's.-----SS


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## longbow

SS beat me to it. To help illustrate a false shoulder, I took a 7x57 case and necked it up to .30 caliber. I then necked it down to 6.5. except for the last little bit. This created a false shoulder so when the false shoulder hits the front of your chamber, it forces the case to seat firmly against your bolt.









Here's a picture of a false shoulder ready to fireform in a 6.5 barrel/chamber. I only necked it down half way for clairity. Normally I would neck it down closer to the existing shoulder.


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## waspocrew

SS and Longbow did an excellent job explaining and demonstrating the false shoulder! It's something I hadn't heard of before as well. 

What I'll add is very minor- when determining the proper place for a false shoulder, I carefully set the die depth lower and lower until I can finally close the bolt with pretty good resistance. 

Some improved cases have much more brass movement than the Ackleys. As SS mentioned, without a false shoulder, it'll lead to some major head space issues and subsequent case head separations. 

The 6.5 Sherman has been a learning experience for me, but it's made reloading even more fun- if that's even possible!


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## longbow

waspocrew said:


> SS and Longbow did an excellent job explaining and demonstrating the false shoulder! It's something I hadn't heard of before as well.
> 
> What I'll add is very minor- when determining the proper place for a false shoulder, I carefully set the die depth lower and lower until I can finally close the bolt with pretty good resistance.
> 
> Some improved cases have much more brass movement than the Ackleys. As SS mentioned, without a false shoulder, it'll lead to some major head space issues and subsequent case head separations.
> 
> The 6.5 Sherman has been a learning experience for me, but it's made reloading even more fun- if that's even possible!


Excellent explanation of how to set up your die. :O||:


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## longbow

Waspocrew, in your initial post and in #27 you show a 280 and a 6.5 Sherman side by side. The extractor grove looks like it's been turned on one but not the other. What's up with that? Am I missing something?


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## waspocrew

longbow said:


> Waspocrew, in your initial post and in #27 you show a 280 and a 6.5 Sherman side by side. The extractor grove looks like it's been turned on one but not the other. What's up with that? Am I missing something?


I see what you mean in the photo - the formed brass is actually a 270 Win case. I'm not sure if there is a difference between the 280 and 270 near the extraction groove or if it's just a difference in brass manufacturers.


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## waspocrew

My plan for the week was to hit the range with formed brass to see if I could get a load worked up with the 140 Amax. I was preparing some brass to form before moving on to the fire formed brass and in my haste, must not have lubed the case well enough. I ended up getting a case stuck in the sizing die - tried tapping it out and it wouldn't budge. Picked up a stuck case removal kit the next day and while tapping the threads, the tap must have bottomed out on the expanding rod that was in the case. Snapped the tap flush with the case. I was literally stuck at that point and sent the die off to Whidden - they got it out for me and I'm anxiously awaiting its return!

Luckily, I had 20 cases I could form, so I loaded up the 140 Accubond over 53 grains of IMR 7828 SSC. I think I may need to pick up more of the 140 AB - I think my rifle likes them. I'm not sure what happened on the shot away from the group - it was #2 of 4. I may not have had the stock tucked against my shoulder well enough.

Hopefully I'll have a report with the 140 Amax this coming week. Sorry for the side ways photos - not sure why they're rotating that way.


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## Al Hansen

waspocrew said:


> My plan for the week was to hit the range with formed brass to see if I could get a load worked up with the 140 Amax. I was preparing some brass to form before moving on to the fire formed brass and in my haste, must not have lubed the case well enough. I ended up getting a case stuck in the sizing die - tried tapping it out and it wouldn't budge. Picked up a stuck case removal kit the next day and while tapping the threads, the tap must have bottomed out on the expanding rod that was in the case. Snapped the tap flush with the case. I was literally stuck at that point and sent the die off to Whidden - they got it out for me and I'm anxiously awaiting its return!
> 
> Luckily, I had 20 cases I could form, so I loaded up the 140 Accubond over 53 grains of IMR 7828 SSC. I think I may need to pick up more of the 140 AB - I think my rifle likes them. I'm not sure what happened on the shot away from the group - it was #2 of 4. I may not have had the stock tucked against my shoulder well enough.
> 
> Hopefully I'll have a report with the 140 Amax this coming week. Sorry for the side ways photos - not sure why they're rotating that way.


It's not a matter of when you stick a case. It's going to happen. Loading since I was 7 with my pops. Didn't stick a case until this last winter. Stuck 2 of the 20 Practicals. That's 58 years of loading. The stuck case remover is a must. Love the Redding S Bushing Dies.


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## waspocrew

It's been a while since I've updated this thread - my third year of medical school kept me busier than I was hoping for. It also doesn't help to live in an area that lacks a decent shooting range. The one I tend to frequent closes from April to September each year. Now that I'm applying to residency, I've got a little more free time this fall. :grin:

I sold a rifle and picked up PST Gen II 5-25x50 for my 6.5. With my upcoming WY hunts, I wanted to give the 142 gr Accubond LR a whirl - turns out my rifle didn't care for them. At least with Retumbo anyway. Best accuracy I could achieve was about 1" at 100 yards (furthest range I could test). I tried multiple seating depths and none seemed to make a difference. I found that 62.5 grains was about max in my rifle. 63 gr had a noticeably stiffer bolt lift. I ran the 62.5 gr charge over my magnetospeed and got an average of 3061, which was a bit slower than I was hoping. 

Up next was the 140 VLD and RL-26. I had heard that RL-26 was the cat's meow in the 6.5 Sherman, and it definitely didn't disappoint! All groups were 3/4" or less with two charges standing out. Granted, these are only 3 shot groups, but I think they show promise. I'll load these up again and run them over the chrono to see how fast they are cooking. 

From the looks of it, I'll be using the 140 VLD for my hunt in a few weeks!

On that note, is anyone interested in buying 3.5 boxes of 6.5 ABLR? :grin:


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## waspocrew

Headed out the range again to test a couple of charges and run them over a chronograph. 60.5 grains of RL-26 shot well again and clocked an average of 3167 FPS with the 140 gr VLD! I would have had a solid 5 shot group, but flinched with a short barreled AR blazing next to me. :grin:

Looks like 60.5 gr will be the ticket for my upcoming hunt.


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## LostLouisianian

I wish I could shoot like that ^


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## wyogoob

That's the second damnest thing I ever seen. Nice shooting.


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## waspocrew

Just loaded up all the formed brass I have - 70 rounds are heading out with me. I'm looking forward to stretching the rifle's legs a bit. The local 100 yard ranges in VA don't offer much. 

Leaving Friday and will hopefully have some elk found before the opener on 10/9!


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## LostLouisianian

Good grief that's some serious length on those cartridges!


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## waspocrew

LostLouisianian said:


> Good grief that's some serious length on those cartridges!


I don't remember the OAL off the top of my head.. I'll get the calipers out when I get the chance!


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## waspocrew

I recently returned from my Wyoming hunting trip and had a blast - I wrote up the report here for anyone who's interested:

http://utahwildlife.net/forum/41-hunting-outside-utah/184857-waspocrew-s-wyoming-extravaganza.html

I was hoping to fill all my tags with my 6.5 Sherman, but I didn't have the chance to zero in WY before seeing an awesome antelope, and then realized I had a loose base the day before the elk opener.

My rifle performed just like I was hoping it would on 3 animals - 2 muley bucks and a nice cow elk. We didn't recover the bullet from my brother in law's buck, but I did find the 140 VLD balled up on the off side of my buck and cow.

I thought it was interesting to see both bullets had fairly similar weight retention. 60.0 gr in the buck, and 57.8 gr in the cow.

I just might be sold on the VLDs now after witnessing their performance on game.


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## bugchuker

Im using 60.5 grains of Retumbo in my 6.5X280ai with 143 ELD-Xs. Im getting about 3080fps avg. I might give the RL26 a try.


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## waspocrew

bugchuker said:


> Im using 60.5 grains of Retumbo in my 6.5X280ai with 143 ELD-Xs. Im getting about 3080fps avg. I might give the RL26 a try.


I'm sure our cartridges have fairly similar case capacity - I think you'll like RL-26! I wouldn't be surprised if you see a velocity increase of about 80-100 FPS over your Retumbo load.

On longrangehunting.com, there were so many great reports with RL-26 in 6.5 Sherman, 6.5-284, etc. that I had to find out for myself. I think it's definitely a winner!


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