I am considering building a 6.5 to hunt with and shoot run and gun tactical matches. I want the barrel 20 or 22 inches. I will be using a savage 12 action more than likely and a premium cut rifled barrel. What contour should I be looking for if I want to keep the weight with scope to 9lbs? I saw a few in Remington Varmint but didn't know if it would be too heavy. Which caliber would be best to utilize the shorter barrel with the 130's or 140 grain pills, 6.5x47, .260 etc???
Recommend me a 6.5
- Thread starter jsthntn247
- Start date
.260 all the way. It is the only 6.5 we recommend. No forming, no availablity trouble. No nothing. Load with RL17 and a 130gr Berger and forget all the nay-sayers.
You want a "lighter" rifle, thus stating a 20-22" barrel. I would still go with as long of a barrel as you can stand, maybe a lighter contour.
You want a "lighter" rifle, thus stating a 20-22" barrel. I would still go with as long of a barrel as you can stand, maybe a lighter contour.
The 6.5 X 55 Ackley , Bob Jourdan designed cartride is what I am putting together now.
Really impressive and you can fire form brass for it. There are other 6.5 X55 Ackleys but the BJ developed in 1992 is the easiest on the brass and with great accuracy and versitility.
Still looking for the BJ reamer for my build.
Ron
Really impressive and you can fire form brass for it. There are other 6.5 X55 Ackleys but the BJ developed in 1992 is the easiest on the brass and with great accuracy and versitility.
Still looking for the BJ reamer for my build.
Ron
Ron-
since an Ackley Swede is 95% a 6.5-284 in performance and (lack of) barrel life, why not go right to a 6.5-284 with good quality commercial brass avaiable?
Not that I would choose either in this case - a 6.5x47L would do the biz and have more than twice the barrel life. I'm guessing he's not planning to routinely shoot over 800yds in heavy conditions.
Chris-NZ
since an Ackley Swede is 95% a 6.5-284 in performance and (lack of) barrel life, why not go right to a 6.5-284 with good quality commercial brass avaiable?
Not that I would choose either in this case - a 6.5x47L would do the biz and have more than twice the barrel life. I'm guessing he's not planning to routinely shoot over 800yds in heavy conditions.
Chris-NZ
I just got a 6.5 Creedmoor within the last year and I am loving it. I have a 24" barrel on it with a 1 in 8" twist and I can load 42 grains of H4350 behind a 140 Amax or Berger VLD and get 2850 fps with it loaded at 2.810" overall length which fits in my detachable Mag out of a Savage Model 10. Shoots around 1/4" consistently and has a SD of 3 fps and a ES of 7 fps. Doesn't get much better then that. Barrel life is 3 to 4 times that of the 6.5X284. My rifle weighs in right around 10 lbs with the scope which I find very manageable. I have shot the 260 Remington before and like the cartridge, but if using a magazine, 6.5 Creedmoor is the way to go. People said brass life wasn't very good at the beginning but i haven't had that problem and I am on my tenth reloading of certain cases and the primer pockets are still holding up well and are still plenty tight.
Possibly shooting out to 1000 in tactical matches. Hunting deer sized game usually withing 300 yards. My first choices were 6.5x47, Creedmore, or 260. Just wasn't sure which one of those would maximize velocity in the shorter barrel.
This link has good info on the 6.5 Creedmoor. http://www.gunblast.com/Savage-11-65Creedmoor.htm
Think of magazine length in your action too. All good recommendations above (I love all these 6.5's) but if you are going to use a short action then stick with the shorter cases such as 6.5*47 or Creedmoor. You will get the longer high BC bullets in your magazine length. The 6.5*47 is perfect length and a lovely feeding round in a short magazine. One of the 2 cartridges above running slightly faster powders like VARGET and slightly lighter bullets like the 130gr Berger VLD will be a nice outfit.
In short barrels you lose a lot of the advantage of a big case, heavy bullets and slower powders but I would backup the comment above with putting in as long a barrel as you can handle. A 24 inch light profile is not too ungainly.
In short barrels you lose a lot of the advantage of a big case, heavy bullets and slower powders but I would backup the comment above with putting in as long a barrel as you can handle. A 24 inch light profile is not too ungainly.
This article by Zak Smith seems to be very popular when choosing among the various 6.5mm rounds for tactical matches. I found it very informative and useful (I have both a gun chambered in 260 Rem. and two in 6.5x47 Lapua). Note that you can now get Lapua 260 Rem. brass if that's your thing.
One thing to note is that if you intend to shoot tactical matches, you will lose brass. Thus I don't know if I would want to shoot a caliber that required extensive forming or brass prep. For the same reason, I would go with a caliber where brass is plentiful and cheap, like 260 or 6.5 Creedmore.
Some of the suggestions don't take into account the fact that you will want to magazine feed these rounds. In this respect, the shorter the case the better so that you can load your bullets long and still fit them into a short action AICS magazine. 6.5x47 Lapua and 6.5 Creedmore shine here, you can load then very long and yet still fit into a stock AICS magazine. 260 Rem. you have to take a little more care, and you might end up loading them short enough to negate any case capacity advantage over the 6.5x47 or 6.5 Creedmore. Just about every other cartridge mentioned above will require a long action.
Also, unless you have enough money to have a pre-chambered barrel ready to go, I would not shoot a caliber like 6.5x284 because of the short barrel life.
Finally, if factory ammo is important to you, the Creedmore has good quality ammo for about $1.25 a round. That's not much more than the price of Lapua brass (even if it doesn't last as long as Lapua). It's not that hard to find factory loaded 260 Rem. ammo, though it's a little more "specialty" than Hornady's 6.5 Creedmore. Loaded 6.5x47 Lapua ammo is available but falls into the category of "ruinously expensive".
One thing to note is that if you intend to shoot tactical matches, you will lose brass. Thus I don't know if I would want to shoot a caliber that required extensive forming or brass prep. For the same reason, I would go with a caliber where brass is plentiful and cheap, like 260 or 6.5 Creedmore.
Some of the suggestions don't take into account the fact that you will want to magazine feed these rounds. In this respect, the shorter the case the better so that you can load your bullets long and still fit them into a short action AICS magazine. 6.5x47 Lapua and 6.5 Creedmore shine here, you can load then very long and yet still fit into a stock AICS magazine. 260 Rem. you have to take a little more care, and you might end up loading them short enough to negate any case capacity advantage over the 6.5x47 or 6.5 Creedmore. Just about every other cartridge mentioned above will require a long action.
Also, unless you have enough money to have a pre-chambered barrel ready to go, I would not shoot a caliber like 6.5x284 because of the short barrel life.
Finally, if factory ammo is important to you, the Creedmore has good quality ammo for about $1.25 a round. That's not much more than the price of Lapua brass (even if it doesn't last as long as Lapua). It's not that hard to find factory loaded 260 Rem. ammo, though it's a little more "specialty" than Hornady's 6.5 Creedmore. Loaded 6.5x47 Lapua ammo is available but falls into the category of "ruinously expensive".
I've put about 2yrs of thought into this. I've come to a conclusion I want a switch barrel rifle in 6.5x47L. I want a 20-22 medium contour for hunting, and a 28-30 heavy barrel for groundhog and target shooting. I want to use 123-130 for hunting and 140-142 for target and ground hog. Just a thought.
Tank
Tank
Just one look at my name should tell you what caliber I vote as best most useful, and friendly to use 6.5...................... 
Dan Hall
Gold $$ Contributor
Plus 1 for the Creedmoor. The Creedmoor and the Lapua rounds were designed from day one as efficient, accurate target cartridges made to work at optimum levels in a short action. The 260 is another reiteration of the necked down 308. That doesn't make the 260 a bad cartridge. We all know how good this family of cartridges work. But the bottom line is the first two were designed to be as perfect as todays technology would allow, the 260 was not. Also with the first two you can seat your bullets out to the proper length and still fit them in your unmodified magazines, not true with the 260. Now all of this is just my opinion so have a quality gunsmith build any one of these with quality components and it will probably shoot better than you. Enjoy
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