6mm BR vs 6.5x47?

[mattri]

Have read a few threads/articles about the merits of either case for certain applications and would like to broaden the spectrum.

What are the various strengths/weaknesses of either round?

If you had to make an argument for the 6BR over the 6.5x47 it would be that the the 6BR does X, Y and Z better without giving up A, B and C- what are those points?

Same argument in reverse. If you were to go with a 6.5x47 it would because you were shooting M instead of N at range D, but not Q.

Thoughts?

 

[jonbearman]

at what distance?

 

[DennisH]

@600 yards, I shoot a 6brx & a 6.5x47 .

6brx, I shoot 107 smk's

6.5x47 I shoot 123 Lapua Scenars

On any give day, It wouldn't matter to me which rifle I took shooting that day, windy, cold, hot etc., both of them are .5moa rifles @ 600 yards.

I also have a Dasher which is also a .5 moa gun. Dasher loves 107 smks and 108 BIB's, but their hard to find.

I practice with my 6br @ 100 yards, my choice, but believe it or not, I have never tried it at 600. But I bet it will be very close to the ones I mentioned above. I shoot with several people who use a 6br and are happy

Dennis

Dennis

 

[mattri]

Jon, good question and a lot of the point of the post, I didn't specify a distance so that the ones using either cartridge could dictate which was better for what.

Dennis, thanks for the reply, good information to have.

 

[John from MN]

I haven't had the chance to try the 6.5 x 47 yet. That having been said, I'm under the impression that it feeds and ejects well if a repeater is desired. The br case can be problematic in some platforms in that respect.

As a single shot bench or fclass gun, I can't offer an opinion one way or another.

 

[Liven The Dream]

I can tell you this.
I shoot a 6BR Krieger 1-7.5 32 " Med Palma .237 No Turn neck. Lapua brass ,WSRM , 107 Match Kings. N-150

This is Prone shooting with iron sights. Normal Match 300 yards , 500 yards and 600 yards.
If I do my job ? I can clean the target ( perfect score) at each yard line.
The BR has good barrel life , low recoil fun to shoot and out to 600 yards its a winner.
Don

 

[rpierce]

Ive had multiple 6br, 6brx, and 6.5x47 barrels. I shoot quite a bit of fclass. The brx was my favorite until I tried the 6.5x47. The 6.5 is a great all around cartridge. Its got great brass and barrel life. 20+ reloads with 3000 rounds of barrel life. It shoots under 1/4 off the bipod at 100 in my tactical rig and in the .1's at 100 in my fclass rig. Shot a 3.8" at 1170 a few weeks ago with it. Its great on deer sized game and can be fed through a mag easily. I had used my brx and br at 1000 with success but it depended on the conditions. My 6.5 bridges the gap between the 6mm and 7mm at 1000. Recoil is between a 22lr and 223 with my TBAC 30P-1 suppressor attached on my tactical rig. Cant think of any negatives on it.

 

[cat64]

I shot them both as a switch barrel on a Savage target action single shot and for me there is no observable difference (including wind, drift, accuracy....etc) to 800 yards. However, when I shoot 1000 yards the 6 BR shoots consistently tighter groups. I tried the proverbial load development for both barrels and found that for the 6 BR the best result are yielded by 105 Berger (hunting) with 29.4g of RL15 and the 6.5 x47 Lapua likes 130 Berger (target) with 36.4 RL 15. Either way you would great accuracy and fun shooting. Either, no doubt, does much better than a .308 for example at longer distances.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the readers.

 

[FatBoy]

My 6.5x47L isn't complete yet but I have been shooting 6br mid-range for about 10 years and had one built for my daughter to start her out prone.

Based on both real world living with a 6br and researching the 47L I have come to the following conclusions:

6br is less expensive to shoot due to brass and bullet cost as well as powder weight per round.
It gives up a little to the larger 47L in the wind and doesn't have the boiler room to really get a 105/107 class bullet over 2850, generally.
Recoil will be less, simple physics.
Barrel life is about the same.

The 47L has the ability to move the higher BC bullets up to lower 260Rem velocity, gaining an advantage in wind. This is especially true beyond 600y.
There are more choices for match target as well as match hunting bullets.
The bullets and powder are going to add about 10% to the cost per shot, but it is still under 6.5x284 costs and this round falls right between the two for wind drift.

I have taken my 6br to 1k several times. It's was my go-to for my daughter when she was little and my wife fired it there a couple times until she saw the advantage of the 6.5x284. It is a great all around cartridge, but it looks like the 47L is a slightly better mousetrap at the expense of about 10% greater cost per shot and a bit more recoil.

 

[rkittine]

I have been struggling to decide on the Caliber of my first build, that I want to shoot out to at least 600 yards and think due to recoil etc. that I am going to go with the 6mmBR Norma. If I like shooting Bench Rest, then my plan is for a 6.5x47 as my second build. Not sure yet if the first one will be 13.5 pound HV for the short game or 17Pound LBR for the long game. Fortunately I have snagged a great Mentor from this site, who is helping me and keeping me out of trouble.

Bob

 

[Laurie]

I shot them both as a switch barrel on a Savage target action single shot and for me there is no observable difference (including wind, drift, accuracy....etc) to 800 yards. However, when I shoot 1000 yards the 6 BR shoots consistently tighter groups. I tried the proverbial load development for both barrels and found that for the 6 BR the best result are yielded by 105 Berger (hunting) with 29.4g of RL15 and the 6.5 x47 Lapua likes 130 Berger (target) with 36.4 RL 15. Either way you would great accuracy and fun shooting. Either, no doubt, does much better than a .308 for example at longer distances.

Happy Thanksgiving to all the readers.

To my surprise, I've found the same thing (about their merits for targets beyond 800), but in F-Class. With 123s at any rate, elevations start to suffer a little at 800 affecting the V (X to US shooters) count, at 900 risking the odd dropped point, and at 1,000 very badly affected by some elevation inducing conditions. The BR somehow continues to provide superb elevations throughout. It may be that throating the 6.5 for 140s and switching to those may cure the L-R problems. (The cartridge is widely used in Australia and New Zealand F-Class with the heavier bullets.) I still think the '47 is best suited to 120-130gn bullets ballistically.

As others have said, when everything else is equal, it's difficult to choose between the pair. The '47 should give a longer barrel life, one reason why Lapua developed the cartridge in the first place specifically targeted at European ISSF discipline 3-P shooters whose round counts can rival those of pistol shooters with constant practice needed. The objective was to have a Lapua named cartridge take over from 6mm BR Norma in this high-profile (in parts of Scandinavia / continental Europe) by doing everything the BR does well to 300M, provide acceptably low recoil, but offer appreciably longer barrel accuracy life. As it turns out, the ISSF people stuck to the BR, but the '47 created its own niches in other disciplines or as a multi-role cartridge. (It's VERY popular here in the UK for foxes, small to medium deer, and targets on top.)

 

[Albany Mountain]

I haven't had the chance to try the 6.5 x 47 yet. That having been said, I'm under the impression that it feeds and ejects well if a repeater is desired. The br case can be problematic in some platforms in that respect.

As a single shot bench or fclass gun, I can't offer an opinion one way or another.

I have a 6BR but under the same impression that if a repeater is desired, the 6.5 x 47 would be better.

 

[mattri]

Very interesting replies, thanks to all for posting.

I must say I'm a little surprised that the two seem to be so close in comparison.

 

[Erik Cortina]

Very interesting replies, thanks to all for posting.

I must say I'm a little surprised that the two seem to be so close in comparison.

Run the ballistics and you will realize they are not close at all.

 

[Laurie]

Very interesting replies, thanks to all for posting.

I must say I'm a little surprised that the two seem to be so close in comparison.

Run the ballistics and you will realize they are not close at all.

That takes us (as always) back to application, discipline and distance. For F-Class and similar with long shot strings and marked shots, the '47 should be far superior unless the conditions are nearly constant due to 6.5mm bullets' higher BCs. (And I can get 123s to higher MVs in the '47 than I can get 105s to in equivalent 6BR rifles too.) However, here in the UK, we're seeing remarkable 6BR 'Light Gun' and 'Factory Sporter' 5-shot Bench Rest groups at 600 and 1,000 this year, and some previous 6.5X47L set records have tumbled.

For short to mid-range, I'm not at all sure about great differences. Having to make a choice, I'd still go for the '47 for F-Class due to the external ballistics and wind change effects, but probably a BR or a derivative for Bench Rest.

 

[Judd]

I've about had it with my 6.5x47. It has been the most frustrating gun I've ever owned. I've got over 500 rounds in it and it doesn't shoot anywhere close to the brx or dashers I've owned.

It will throw 1 of 5 shots 1/4 to 1/2 inches off the group with no pattern of which one it would be. I've shot every primer you can think of and 136's and 130 vlds. I've only shot H4350 and my next step is switching powders.

I'm not 100% sure but I also believe the .123 freebore is part of my problem and should you go with a x47 do at least a 150 freebore.

To answer your question, an improved 6br does everything a x47 will do less than 700 yards with no downside (and cheaper) except feed reliable through a mag.

 

[Erik Cortina]

My "47" reamer has a .175" freebore. .123" is too short in my opinion.

 

[swed6.5]

I have had my pants shot off at 600yd by a 6.5x47 at our club lately over the past few months, but never owning one, but have had many 6s br,s and dashers, to my cunclusion if shooting for score the higher bc 47 will outperform the 6 in a wind switch but if given a chance to run a condition and lay out a group that will leave the others in AWE the 6mm will stack em up.
I have also had and seen others go crazy over the 6.5s kicken 1 out of a good group for no reason, best bet is to try em both and enjoy!

 

[DennisH]

I've about had it with my 6.5x47. It has been the most frustrating gun I've ever owned. I've got over 500 rounds in it and it doesn't shoot anywhere close to the brx or dashers I've owned.

It will throw 1 of 5 shots 1/4 to 1/2 inches off the group with no pattern of which one it would be. I've shot every primer you can think of and 136's and 130 vlds. I've only shot H4350 and my next step is switching powders.

I'm not 100% sure but I also believe the .123 freebore is part of my problem and should you go with a x47 do at least a 150 freebore.

To answer your question, an improved 6br does everything a x47 will do less than 700 yards with no downside (and cheaper) except feed reliable through a mag.

Judd, FWIW my 6.5x47 will bughole shooting 120 smk's & 123 Scenars. I gave up on 130's and larger bullets in mine. Maybe the freebore is the answer.

Using H4350 and Berger 130's gave me the best groups, large cloverleafs at best, 5 shots barely touching each other @ 100 yards. The hole ended up being the size of a dime. Anything else wasn't close. I too tried everything else and gave up.

 

[KWeigel]

My 6.5x47L isn't complete yet but I have been shooting 6br mid-range for about 10 years and had one built for my daughter to start her out prone.

Based on both real world living with a 6br and researching the 47L I have come to the following conclusions:

6br is less expensive to shoot due to brass and bullet cost as well as powder weight per round.
It gives up a little to the larger 47L in the wind and doesn't have the boiler room to really get a 105/107 class bullet over 2850, generally.
Recoil will be less, simple physics.
Barrel life is about the same.

The 47L has the ability to move the higher BC bullets up to lower 260Rem velocity, gaining an advantage in wind. This is especially true beyond 600y.
There are more choices for match target as well as match hunting bullets.
The bullets and powder are going to add about 10% to the cost per shot, but it is still under 6.5x284 costs and this round falls right between the two for wind drift.

I have taken my 6br to 1k several times. It's was my go-to for my daughter when she was little and my wife fired it there a couple times until she saw the advantage of the 6.5x284. It is a great all around cartridge, but it looks like the 47L is a slightly better mousetrap at the expense of about 10% greater cost per shot and a bit more recoil.

Great post. This is what I have come to as well. I pick the 47 for f class. Let's me be a little more off on wind without paying the price on target. In return I pay a little more for components.