Ruger makes fine products, my only recommendation would be that you look carefully at the 260 Creedmoor. There is an excellent article on the web comparing the 6.5 Creedmoor, 260 Remington, and the 6.5x47 Lapua.
The writers conclusion was that they are all ballistically pretty much the same. His choice of which cartridge to select would be based on which one he could more easily get components for. I read the article after I had ordered a DPMS panther in 6.5 Creedmoor.
Then I started to look for components. Most 308 brass is about $35 per hundred, with Lapua being around $55. Hornady's Creedmoor brass was $33 per 50 or $66 per hundred. Lapua brass speaks for itself and doesn't need my opinion.
Hornady is the ONLY company stocking dies for the round, and the only company making brass. I was told that the reason for this is that neither Hornady or DPMS has sent the round to SAAMI for standardization (or whatever it is that SAAMI does to turn a round from wildcat to standard).
Top quality Hornady dies are $178. Redding competition seating die costs about $87, and a standard (non bench rest) sizer die is about $20. So someone should be able to purchase dies for around $107 if the round was standardized and had competition for components in the marketplace.
I didn't want to pay a "premium" for components or dies, so I changed my order to a 260 Remington rifle from DPMS. Dies, brass, and everything else is standardized and much cheaper. I can make brass by necking down the Lapua brass for about $55/100. And the die setup will run me alot less than $178.
I really like Hornady AMAX bullets, and putting the recipe for reloading the rounds on the box is brilliant, but until the 6.5 Creedmoor has been standardized and dies and other components are priced more competitively, I think the round will have difficulty surviving. Especially because the 260 Remington and the 6.5x47 Lapua are standardized already.
