Finally broke down, 6.5 Creedmoor

[30338]

Years ago I built my daughter a 260 Remington using a nice McMillan Edge classic style adl stock and a lefthanded Rem 700 action. It shot 140 accubonds quite well from the 8 twisted Hart #2. It always bothered me that I couldn't load 140 vlds and 147 eld in it though due to magazine constraints. And knowing my daughter won't be a reloader, I wanted a factory round option that would be easy for her to find. Okay well that is how I justified it to my wife.

So I bought a Hawk Hill #2 from their site in 6.5 8 twist and shipped it to shaenrifles.com. Shaen got it and we discussed a shorter than factory throat for the 6.5 Creedmoor. Ended up doing with a throat that let me kiss lands at 2.81" with a 147 eld. I figured factory ammo would still chamber well.

Shaen turned the simple barrel job in 7 days and cost was very reasonable. I'll be using him more.

So bought a box of factory Berger 135 classic hunters and loaded up some 140 vld and 147 eld rounds(funny story, used my 6.5x47 neck sizer and bullet seater, seemed to work fine). Ran a few dry patches through the new barrel and off to the range with high hopes.

First 3 rounds of factory ammo went well under .5". They were going 2750 fps or so through the 22" barrel and it was a simple deal to plug into software, dial the SWFA 6x up and start banging steel at 300, 400 and 500 yards. The box of 20 went fast.

Then shot the 147 ELD and 140 VLD loads. It all shoots sub .5 moa. So here is to the 6.5 Creedmoor, good gunsmiths and good barrels. I wish it had always been this easy.

 

[Newtosavage]

Funny timing. This is what I was doing today. Picked up a factory sporter 6.5 CM barrel for one of my Savage rifles, just to satisfy my curiosity. Chopped it to 20" and the results were much the same as yours.

 

[30338]

What is the internal mag dimension on a Savage? Does the 2.85 oal fit the magazine? Looking forward to more longer range work in the near future.

 

[Newtosavage]

One of the neat things about Short action Savages, aside from being super easy to work on, is they have a 3" magazine box. So I've always been able to seat bullets close to the lands in every Savage I've owned. Can't say the same for Remingtons or some others.

In my Tikka, a simple magazine and bolt stop mod. achieved the same result, allowing for 2.96" OAL in the "short action" 7mm-08 caliber.

 

[30338]

Those are handy mag dimensions for these rounds. I like my Rem 700s too much to change, but that oal is quite handy with the saami Creedmoor throat. Short throated custom fixed it for me though.

 

[Newtosavage]

If you're a Rem 700 guy, then more power to ya! They are nice rifles.