I will get a box of the Barnes X bullets and give them a try. I quess your right, sometimes there is no answer and I know thats what makes guns each onto thier own. I sometimes run into a wall and hate to drive around it. The gun has killed deer like a bolt of lightning for years but it won,t behave like it should. I was getting rather low velocities from the new Roberts until I tried the 100 grain X bullets. However just adding one grain of powder and changing from a standard primer to a Mag primer brought the Nosler ballistic tip from an average of 2649 up to 2791. I am still half a grain below max in the book. Thats close enough for me. I am very reluctant to go above the listed Max loads. The Barnes 140 grain X bullet reached 2688 in the 6.5x55 with the Max load of IMR 4350 with a max variation of just 12 fps. I will stay with that load. Never could get past 2600 fps with the Hornady 140 which I have used it it all along. This is really the first of many rifles that I have had which will shoot heavy bullets faster than light ones. It don,t make sense but like you say STUFF HAPPENS. Thanks .