Howa 6mm Creedmoor

[TX_Punisher]

Several Companies are offering prefit barrels now for the Howa 1500 action. So that’s good news when we shoot these out.

 

[TripleS]

I have shot my 6mm Creedmoor Howa barreled action out to 1300 yards here in Georgia at 1200' elevation with the 108 ELD-M's with excellent results on steel. Speed is still in the 3117-3130 range depending on temperature and groups in the .5-.6 MOA-range at 100 and 200 yards. I did install aluminum pillars in the stock and glass bedded (is that a word?) the front of the action and integral recoil lug using the Miles Gilbert bedrock kit. I talked to the OP and don't believe he got the results he was looking for. Also, Gavin, from Ultimatereloader.com was unable to get his to group consistently. I don't know if I was just lucky or if persistence paid off. I will say that the rifle shot factory 147 ELD-Match ammo very well from the very beginning. That is what gave me the hope that the barrel would shoot. If it means anything, I would buy another one as I really like the action and you can purchase a Remage or, I guess, Howage barrel for the action and keep the party going pretty easily.

Good luck with yours!

Hank

Hank, How about an update!

Also could you clarify your copied post. You are referencing the 6mm Creedmoor but said your rifle shot the factory 147 ELD Match well! ????

Are you shooting the 6mm Creedmoor or the 6.5 Creedmoor or both?

I'm working with a 26" Howa 1500 6mm Creedmoor in a MDT chassis. I'm approaching the 200 round mark and haven't found a load that I'm impressed with yet. I've shot H4350 exclusively in this rifle so far. (H4350 works great in my other 6 C/M and 6.5 C/M) I've also been using mainly Nosler RDF 105's due to a short throat.
Today for the first time I shot some Hornady 108gr. ELD-M pushed by 42.0 grains of H4350and the best I saw was just shy of 1" @ 200 yards with a COAL of 2.290 touching the lands. I was getting an Avg. Velocity of 3093, HV 3101, LV 3082, ES-20, SD-8.2 across 5 rounds.

Any others finding a sweet spot with the 26" Howa 1500 in 6mm Creedmoor?

 

[Henryrifle]

Good catch, Triples. I meant 108 ELD-M. As another poster said, I believe my barrel is near the end. My same load has lost 100 fps and I have .07 of throat erosion after 850 rounds. I wasted a lot of barrel life load testing. I have a new criterion barrel to put on the action and will restart load testing soon. At 3130 fps, the Hornady 108s really shine at distance.

 

[Laurie]

Out of desperation, I tried some of the 108 ELD-Match projectiles and since I had gotten the best results using H4350, I stopped experimenting with other powders.

The first rule of getting a factory rifle to shoot well is to try a selection of bullets that meet your weight and performance criteria and see what the barrel likes. This applies to all barrels, but more especially factory numbers. The second rule is to, initially at any rate, test them with the powders other people report as giving good results. This latter rule is especially important for cartridges like the 6mm Creedmoor that have a reputation for being rather 'fussy' over powders.

(If you seek out the over bore cartridges chart on the Bulletin:

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/?s=over+bore+cartridge+chart&submit=Search

6mm Creedmoor's value is around 1,152, ie getting into over-bore territory)

 

[Laurie]

Good catch, Triples. I meant 108 ELD-M. As another poster said, I believe my barrel is near the end. My same load has lost 100 fps and I have .07 of throat erosion after 850 rounds. I wasted a lot of barrel life load testing. I have a new criterion barrel to put on the action and will restart load testing soon. At 3130 fps, the Hornady 108s really shine at distance.

Assuming that Criterion barrels are stainless, you'll get considerably less life than from the Howa's chrome-moly hammer-forged OEM tube. Maybe your load is just a wee bit 'hot' ?!!

Great results with your enhanced factory set-up though. It warms my heart to see a factory rifle perform so well. I'm sure that Howa produces some 'dogs' like any mass manufacturer, but one keeps seeing reports of excellent performance from its rifles as long as they're in a half-decent stock. I've two right now that I can't use because of lockdown, a 'Mini' Oryx in 6.5 Grendel that showed promise before lockdown and an older secondhand 243 Win 1500 'Varmint' in the original all-metal Knoxx Axiom recoil-reducing stock if you can remember this shooting oddity. I've yet to do anything with the 243, so it's a case of fingers crossed.

 

[std7mag]

With the 6mm and those case volumes, you may want to go to a slower burning powder.

Wifes 243 with an advertized 1:10 stabalized a 105gr Hornady Match with no problems. Something the Hornady customer service said it "absolutely wouldn't".

My 2 powders of choice for that was RL23, and RL26.
She could keep them inside of 2" at 500 yards.

Me, not so much....