Incorrect. It was developed to overcome the perceived failings of the 6XC in certain competition disciplines.
Lyman's paperback book Long range Precision Rifle Reloading Handbook has a five-page essay on the genesis and features of the cartridge and its 6mm stablemate by David Emary, Hornady's retired chief development engineer. Quote:
"Most competition shooters know of or have heard of Dennis Demille, a retired USMC warrant officer and NRA Match Rifle and Service Rifle national champion. Dennis is an extraordinarily good shooter! I am very privileged to know Dennis personally and to have had the opportunity to shoot with him numerous times. At the conclusion of the 2006 CMP Service Rifle matches Dennis, myself and Joe Thielen, the head engineer for cartridge case development at Hornady, were sitting around discussing the things shooters discuss. Dennis said he was getting really frustrated with his Tubb 2000 match rifle and the 6XC cartridge it was chambered in. I asked him what problems he was having and got an earful. To boil down a lot of conversation, there was no standardized loading data for the 6XC. Most of the loads being used were quite warm in order to get the performance needed to be competitive at longer ranges. He reported frequent hard bolt lift and pierced primers, both of which could be problematic in the rapid fire matches. Dennis stated he wanted a cartridge that was very accurate, was not loaded to problematic pressures, would have a load that would produce moderate recoil at 300 yards for rapid fire, would be as good as anything to 1,000 yards and had to go in a short action receiver. He also wanted this ammunition to be factory loaded, accurate enough to be competitive and have the loads written on the label so anyone could reproduce them. .................. "
and the eventual cartridge spec came from there (and is described in subsequent paragraphs) starting with the decision that 6.5mm calibre was needed to attain the required BCs for long range competitiveness.
Bearing in mind that the 6.5X47L is a smaller cased cartridge than the XC and the spec was for improved external ballistics with moderate pressures, it seems unlikely it ever came into any of these discussions.
People continually (and conveniently) forget that Lapua designed the 6.5X47L as a 300-metre cartridge in order to knock the 6mm BR Norma off its position as the go-to cartridge in northern European and Scandinavian ISSF competition which is very big in those parts of the world attracting much publicity, sponsorship etc. It failed totally in this role, 99% of competitors sticking with the BR. It can (and does) perform well as a longer range cartridge, but only at the cost of very high-pressure handloading, ie what Mr Demille complained about with the XC.
