130 ELD-M in Creedmoor

Tried a load of Reloder 16 with the new 130 ELD-M bullets from Hornady.
Only fired a few rounds but sure looks promising although velocity was higher than expected. No signs of excessive pressure except the chronograph saying that's fast for a 130 from a 6.5 Creedmoor.

So you like supporting barrel manufacturers. That's cool.

If I wanted to go slow I would have got a 45-70

Man, that's fast, David! That's a Ricky Bobby load- "I wanna go fast!!"

?

That is a fast load, and will eat up a barrel pretty quick. I ran the 130 VLD's in a 260 Rem for a bit at 2950, which was a hammer, flat shooting, and little wind drift. But it ate up my throat very quickly.

But, barrels are like tires on a car. Change em when they are used up!

I was using data from Sierra but did have the bullet kissing lands so that maybe why it running on the fast side?

While I personally think there are too many variables to say in all instances but I have asked the question about heavier vs lighter to other folks and I get more folks saying the heavies definitely wear out barrels faster than the opposite... here is another example and I have other similar findings. I just use what works best for the situation and hope I get to shoot enough to wear out the barrel.
This was from Accurate Shooter:
"The answer here is yes, heavy bullets do wash out barrels faster than lighter ones, all else being equal. A complex equation going on here, but having shot out scores of barrels over the years, its been my observation that in any caliber, in any chambering, the use of heavy bullets is harder on barrels and gives shorter accuracy life than does a lighter bullet. In the example you're talking about here, a 55 vs a 45 grain bullet, I think the difference would be hard to discern. A comparison between the 50-55 against the 77 to 80 grain bullets is the sort of difference I'm referring to here.

Frank mentioned our conversation from a time back, but he's a bit off on what I said about friction. I think that has little (if anything) to do with this phenomenon. I suspect it has everything to do with dwell time, i.e., how long the bullet spends getting off the throat/leade upon firing. Basically, the longer, heavier bullets have more inertia, and it takes more to get them moving down the bore. This translates to a slightly longer time that all that hot gas is in the throat area, all the while doing its inevitable damage to the throat. Sectioning a shot out barrel, or even looking at one through a borsecope shows this quite plainly. The area ahead of the throat is very badly cracked and eroded, while from this point forward the barrel will look virtually untouched.

The flip side to this is that the heavier bullets offer better performance at distance, and hence are the logical choice for such applications. No such thing as a free lunch, and when you need the performance, you have to match the bullet/load to that application. Don't get attached to your barrel; they're strictly a replacement part, temporarily attached to your action. They're expendable, and the only way to not wear them out is to not use them."

Kevin Thomas
Lapua USA

that was very well put and very true.

how long is your Barrel

Thank you.

24 inches