Vihtavuori powders.

[CINDERS]

The last 3 powders is what you really want 100% burn as anything less than that your wasting money and throwing unburnt powder out the muzzle I have dabbled around with a few loads in my 6.5 x 284 over the last 6 years or so and had some interesting experiences to say the least including a S.E which I never want to experience again the result is in the picture (#1) only discovered later by the bolt knocking the safety on each time I opened the bolt on my Savage 110 LLRE.
So I have come pretty close to taking my head off by trying a load of WIN760 ball powder with a 215Mag primer which resulted in the whole charge pretty much detonating the over pressure was so great apart from a pretty much stuck bolt that required a nylon mallet to open the primer just fell out of the case thankfully it came out alright I was trying to use a light load to get full burn for a reasonable velocity.

I've played with lots of stuff and have after all this time settled on 4 powders & loads that work in the rifle due to shortages of powders that happen in this state from time to time also I cannot get anywhere near what Shehanne does out of his 6.5x284 without pressure signs and believe me I have all the bells and whistle but allot of whistles have been put away as in reality it was just wasting my time because I have a PWF & Flinch that I cannot cure.
Due to a burst blood vessel I suffered in my Rt shoulder shooting clays but I kept going making it worse, owning a 444 Marlin for a number of years and just by shooting heavy kicking rifles even firing a 460WM from the benchrest position with a good max load I know when its gunna happen but release the shot anyway so I drop points big deal I am having fun but boy the cartridge loves barrels as I am just about to screw in my 4th one.

I have done all that could be done in trying to get the best reloaded round possible each time like doing the following the meplats, runout to .0000 - .0000.5, ogive each projectile & batch them, weigh every projectile & batch them, weigh every case & batch them, TTL all cases to 2.161 exactly, uniform the pockets, AMP anneal them after every firing, de burr in & outside, precisely seat each bullet winding up the seater 5 thou each time then measuring it till it reads exactly the same for each one, plus the usual tumbling, I also sonic clean the cases after 3 firings also using same Lot cases batched any more you say nah stuff that.........(I forgot I neck turned as well for a while.)
The upshot of it was whilst I finish near the top usually in the top 15 in Open F class I now after cutting the process to the barest of my standards have more time to spend with my wife with pretty much the same results.

My APRS .308 I use at times shoots really well the Fig 12 (#2) was 100 yds off bi-pod, prone on the grass with no rear bag 5 rounds, its a very accurate rifle and I have not changed the load given to me by Lightforce since I brought the gun from them 10 years ago its just that good infact I won the Billy Singh sniper match shoot at Swanbourne 2 years ago with it dropping 1 point 49/50 at 600yds at a fig 11 in a field of 40 shooters.