IA Born Report post Posted June 27, 2018 Lance Kenyon deserves a huge shout out. I've tried to be serious about my reloading and I have a handful of rifles that I've been able to work up great loads for, but Lance's knowledge is off the charts. More impressive is his willingness to share that knowledge with strangers. I've picked his brain off and on over the last couple of years, but it got more regular about a year ago. Not long after my mom passed, my wife let me get a custom rifle, which I've always wanted. I was going back and forth with another friend (before I really got to know Lance), looking something in the 6.5s, so my wife and kids could enjoy it. I was debating on joining the Creedmore bandwagon, but the 6.5-284 really caught my eye. As I was talking to my friend about this, he says "I'm cleaning out my safe and I have something you'll love. Its a 6.5 WSM." I knew nothing about them, so I researched them a little bit. I expressed my concern about having a wildcat, especially if I have to fire form brass. He had all the dies to custom make brass without fire forming. My other hesitation was that the rifle has a 1:10" twist that he had built specifically for 142gr SMKs. I questioned that, especially since I'm a Barnes guy and none of Barnes' heavier 6.5 bullets would work well in a 1:10" twist. I am our office's lead biologist for the California Condor program, so me hunting with lead bullets is absolutely not an option. Beyond my professional stance, I've been a personal believer in Barnes for many years before taking over the condor program (its part of why I was asked to take it over). Long story short, I ended up buying the rifle, hoping I could get Barnes 120gr TTSX bullets to work, which Barnes said should work great. I also bought some 143gr ELD-X to try and build target loads for. I used the load data that came with the rifle, but ended up having pressure issues. I won't even go into how much brass I ruined trying to figure out how to resize 300WSM or 7mmWSM brass down to 6.5WSM brass. I was getting discouraged and started talking to my wife about selling the rifle to start over or having it rebarreled to a 1:8.5" twist to be able to shoot the Barnes 127LRX or 130TSX bullets. Long story short, I reached out to Lance about a year ago to figure out which powders I could use for the 120TTSX and 143ELD-X and he sent me a list of powders to try and suggested charge ranges. We also brokered a deal on a bottle of powder I bought by mistake and part of that deal was "unlimited reloading questions". I've used that part of the deal for all of my trouble rifles (those that I can't get a load to work) so much that I'm sure Lance shakes his head when I text or message him! A couple of weeks ago, I finally put some test loads together for my 6.5WSM using H1000 and Barnes 120gr TTSX. I took it to the range last Friday, not with high hopes, but also not with a gloomy attitude. The scientist in me was just curious to get data to work with. It turns out that my rifle loves 60gr of H1000 with the 120s seated 0.050" off the lands, which is what Barnes recommends. I went home and promptly texted Lance the following picture with a huge thank you. In the last week, I've realized he deserves so much more than that text, especially with all of the texts I've sent him, including when I've asked how to fix something stupid, like grabbing the box of 30-06 brass and running it through your 25-06 resizing die. I told Lance I was going to name my new 6.5 WSM load the "Lancelot Load" in his honor, but it dawned on me later that Lancelot, being the great knight and warrior he was, also slept with his king's/best friend's wife, so I'm not sure I should honor Lance that way! At any rate, "Lancelot Load" or not, this one is for you, Lance. THANK YOU for being you! p.s. I tried to get the target picture to rotate, but it wouldn't do it. 11 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
briant_az Report post Posted June 27, 2018 Lance is a good dude! I don't talk to him a ton but he is always willing to help with reloading. The world would be a better place with more guys like him! 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Hunterdan Report post Posted June 27, 2018 Lance is a great guy with tons of knowledge on Guns/Ammo !! 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1denogean Report post Posted June 27, 2018 lance is my hero no doubt 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Big Browns Report post Posted June 27, 2018 I 100% agree! Lance is Always willing to assist. I love his posts about load development. His knowledge is absolutely astounding! Thank you Lance for always being willing to help and expand our understanding of load development. 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cjl2010 Report post Posted June 27, 2018 Lance is the worst!! All my money is gone! 8 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Zeke-BE Report post Posted June 28, 2018 ^^^^^Dirty Rotten guy!! Thanks to him I had to build wildcats and have mile long texts with him to get final groups!! All that wasted time for a sweet rig!!! Agreed Lance is a Good dude even though he wont shoot at a dove unless its 20 ft away so he can pat himself on the back and say "I shot my 12 doves with 14 rounds" 4 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
DCS Report post Posted June 28, 2018 I haven't talked reloading much with Lance,although I know he is the reloaders guru,he is also a great guy that I have bought a bunch of stuff from at great prices. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lancetkenyon Report post Posted June 28, 2018 Seriously, my pleasure in answering the questions I can help with. That "unlimited questions" deal was a good one. And I got some good laughs reading this right now too. Accuracy counts for shotguns as much as for rifles.... 6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
