6.5 creedmoor

mtnwrunner

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Howdy all. Anyone out there have any great loads for a 6.5 creedmoor? Rifle is a ruger number 1 and i will be primarily using it for long range varminting but maybe will take it for a mule deer foray or two. Thanks!

Randy
 
Sorry to see no one took up your question before now.

At the moment I can't see much advantage over Hornady factory loads for your pursuits. Though you may be a dyed in the wool handloader let me explain before you draw and quarter me for heresy against the gods of accuracy.

Bought my Savage M11 LRH as a pig in a poke, knowing only that the cartridge cases looked good standing next to a 6.5x55, and I'd fired my 2 C.Gustav 6.5s back in the 90s hundreds of rounds. The first five 3-shot groups averaged 1.1 inches--WOW!

More and more reading about this unknown swine of a rifle and round taught me it was a purebred and my experience with this 6.5 family member was no fluke.

All that said, a man told me back in the mid-90s that a 6.5mm 120gr pill is neither fish nor fowl. Took me weeks to fully understand that he meant that weight was a 'do it all' bullet. As this applies to the 6.5 CM, Hornady loads the 120 and 140 A-Max for targets (they say) @ ~2900/2750 respectively and are much touted by hunters for terminal performance (though Hdy doesn't recommend the A-Max design for game). Their hunting rounds in the Superformance line of 120, 129 and 140 weights have different bullets which are run 100 - 200 fps faster and reportedly are quite accurate.

Since I've only used the 120 A-Max with very good results I'm not in a hurry to try other loads. Spending more ammo and range $ to (maybe) trim average group size another 1/4" won't kill a coyote any deader than what I have in the 120s.

If you're a dyed in the wool handloader you might want to consider the Nosler ballistic tip 120/125(?)gr; sorry, it's been over 10 years since last reloading any 6.5 Swedes. Be careful though, the chamber specs of the 6.5 CM were worked up with long bullets (aka: high Sectional Density) in mind, thus it has a long throat. Stepping down to a true varmint weight pill may put your entire bullet into the freebore zone, neither supported at its base by the case mouth as it slides forward nor gripped by the rifling--thus leaving it to wobble a fraction out of axis alignment with the bore. That would not be a good accuracy plan.

Hope this helps a little though much delayed since your original posting.
 
I have a DPMS AR10 in 6.5CM. Shoots into less than a fingernail @ 100 with 120 SMK over 44.5gr of H4350. COAL near maximum mag length. Haven't chronoed. 20190101_162451.jpg
 
I have a bunch of loads that work great in the 6.5 CM, but my new favorite is the 140 Elite Hybrid seated .050" off the lands with 42.1 grains of RL16 primed with a Fed 210M in Hornady brass. One hole precision at 2830 fps.
 
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