On second thought, selling 6.5 CM rifle, buying 6.5 PRC

For all the hype of the 6.5PRC for your purposes I'd just stick with the .264wm and keep the 6.5cm for competition and playing just because of the wide availability of reasonably priced ammo.

Five years from now the PRC might be a better choice but right now it's not exactly easy to find over the counter factory ammo should you get off somewhere and need to buy some in a hurry.

Even small mom and pop shops in small towns will generally still have some .264wm ammo laying around.

yorke-1 said:

...The 6.5 PRC is a great round and so are all the other moderate capacity 6.5s (6.5x284, 6.5-06AI, 6.5 SAUM, 6.5 WSM, 6.5 SS, 6.5 SST, 264 WM, etc.) which will all be within 100-150 fps of each other. Pick the stamp you want on the side of your barrel and no critter will ever know the difference. Looking for a factory gun with good quality factory ammo makes that list pretty short and leaves you with the 6.5 PRC, and that's not a bad thing at all!

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You forgot the first commercial available 6.5 caliber short magnum the 6.5 Remington Magnum from the mid 1960's.

WildRose said:

Even small mom and pop shops in small towns will generally still have some .264wm ammo laying around.

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Thought about suggesting this as well, but how many factory loads are out there and commonly available that'll preform well at 500 yards. I don't know the answer but i think it's a question worth asking.

Part of the availability of 6.5 PRC ammo will be the number of brands making their rifles in that cartridge.
For example: I seriously "need" that Browning X-Bolt Pro in 6.5 PRC but they will not be available until mid to late summer. It is Browning's top line model with stainless barreled action, fluting everywhere, factory barrel lapping and bronze Cerakote finish. Takes time to do all that. And at $1,800. per copy the market is limited. Maybe that's why Sportsman's Warehouse is only getting 40 this summer.
*But for sure they will be selling less expensive models in 6.5 PRC for quite a while.

Most new cartridges, like many new items, sell fast at first but when the initial rush is over sales drop off. (Well, not with the 6.5 CM evidentially). Will the 6.5 PRC follow to a lesser extent the 6.5 CM's story? I kinda think so, especially from those like me, who have experienced the 6.5 CM's inherent accuracy and wind cheating ability.

Interestingly the US military has boosted the sales of 6.5 CM ammo with SOCOM buying rifles and soon medium machine guns in that cartridge. Hopefully it will replace the 7.62 x 51 NATO round with NATO nations. All that is needed is a barrel change!

And the Army recently blew $5M on Barrett MRAD sniper rifles chambered in - yep - .300 PRC. Hornady is really making money these days.

Eric B.

Jerry M said:

You forgot the first commercial available 6.5 caliber short magnum the 6.5 Remington Magnum from the mid 1960's.

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Another brilliantly designed cartridge doomed to obscurity due to Remington's **** poor advertising, marketing, and slow twist barrels.

If Remington had invented the gold bar, they'd have made it in a size nobody wanted and marketed it as "soft yellow metal with no real commercial value".

Here's a mind bender for you. I have a 26" 6.5 CM and a 24" 6.5 PRC. Both using Reloder 26, both hucking 147 ELD-M's. Creedmoor shoots them at 2870, PRC shoots them at 3k but not accurately until you get down into the 2950 range.

Less powder and less recoil with the Creed... its a real pleasure to shoot.

Hiwayman92 said:

Here's a mind bender for you. I have a 26" 6.5 CM and a 24" 6.5 PRC. Both using Reloder 26, both hucking 147 ELD-M's. Creedmoor shoots them at 2870, PRC shoots them at 3k but not accurately until you get down into the 2950 range.

Less powder and less recoil with the Creed... its a real pleasure to shoot.

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I don't know how you can possibly do that without going way over pressure with the CM.

Have you, or have you had anyone run that load through QL?

Not even close to pressure. I've run up to 48.1 grains with no pressure signs. 2870 is 47 grains. You run out of Case capacity before hitting pressure. I ran 143's at 2725 in my 20 barrel, but the same loaded rounds run 2870 in the 26" barrel. I run it through a drop tube to help settle it before bullet seating. Check out the RL-26 in the 6.5 CM thread. Lots of guys are pushing 2900 plus with 140+ grain bullets. It's a near perfect combination.

Hiwayman,.
Very interesting. Here's hoping I can use H1000 to get my 6.5 PRCs to go close to 3,000 fps in tiny little groups.

Eric B.

I'm still working on my Havak PRC. Velocity flat spot is in the 2950 range with RL-26, but I shot a Satterlee test with H1000 the other day and every shot landed within .7" at 100 yards. Flat spot at 57.5, but only 2909 fps. I just loaded some at 57.5, 58, and 58.5 to see if the upper end looks any better.

I haven't seen any data yet on RL23 and 26 for the PRC but they might be worth a look. A lot of folks have gotten amazing results in other 6.5's with both.

What brand brass in each? That's wicked fast in a creed for 147s and that's 100fps below Hornady max load data in the PRC

Hornady is the only data I have found so far. They are showing 100fps more with RL26 than RL23 with both the 140 and 147 ELD and 50fps more with RL26 than H1000 with the 147. Lately RL26 evaporated...…..
When the cartridge first hit the market I was reading threads on Snipers Hide where both Mr Seekins and Mr Gardner were both shooting Hornady ELD heavy weight bullets (cant remember the weight) at over 3k fps. Form those accounts, there seems to be a node up there somewhere, although I cant find it without bumping into pressure signs with the components I am using in my rifle.

here is the Hornady 6.5 PRC Load Data link in case anyone needs it.
https://www.hornady.com/assets/site/hornady/files/load-data/6.5-prc-v4.pdf

The Hornady book references a 26" barrel in PRC. I can get nowhere near those speeds in the 24". Additionally, lots of reports that the factory ammo speeds with 147 are way under advertised speeds. I'm hoping to find a 3k load with my 24"... but no luck with accuracy that fast so far.