Hey gents, looking for some advice in the path forward in preparation for a bull elk hunt for my son.
He has a Tikka 6.5 Creedmoor (20” barrel) with a suppressor. He shot a cow elk with it last winter. Even at 9 years old he is pretty dang proficient with firearms and he is not scared of recoil. We train and train and train just like My old man (former PD/long distance shooter/OG) had me do when I was younger before long distance shooting was cool. I don’t know if you’d actually call it long distance nowadays, but 25 years ago it certainly was.
My end goal: a projectile with a little more energy that he can shoot at 500-600 yards (he shoots off of a very heavy tripod that dad carries). In this unit sometimes you have no options but to shoot that far.
We are using off the shelf hornady eld x 143 grain with 2527 fps at the muzzle. I am very familiar with the area and bull elk in this particular unit are tough as nails. For some reason cow elk in this unit go down like A ton of bricks. At 500 yards my app shows 1274 ft lb energy. That makes me nervous for him to take a poke that far.
I am an experienced reloader and would like to build a load for the 6.5 creed and be done. The catch: I only have about 1/4 of my reloading equipment due to a recent move.
Option 1: buy the needed equipment/components. Press, tumbler, and components I might be in around 5-600$. The other catch - I don’t have a lot of time on my hands (Wildland fire season is upon us).
Option 2: send my rifle to unknown munitions or some other reputable loading company and have them build a load. Solves the time issue. It’s not cheap (UM is around $1,000, I think) and paying that much for some thing I could do (albeit not as good) leaves me hesitant.
The question: would say 2-300 fps more get me the energy needed for a 5-600 yard shot? My worry is that I go down either of these routes and I don’t get the results I was looking for. I also dont want to sacrifice accuracy for something that screams down range. His tikka is under .5 MOA.
Option 3: buy a clone of his tikka 6.5 Creedmoor in a tikka 6.5 PRC. Drop it into his compact stock, stick the can on it, get off the shelf ammunition and be done with it. I’m positive this option would get me the energy I’m looking for at 5-600 yards. Bonus: I turn the 6.5 creed into a 6 mm Creedmoor for a deer gun.
What say you? TIA.
He has a Tikka 6.5 Creedmoor (20” barrel) with a suppressor. He shot a cow elk with it last winter. Even at 9 years old he is pretty dang proficient with firearms and he is not scared of recoil. We train and train and train just like My old man (former PD/long distance shooter/OG) had me do when I was younger before long distance shooting was cool. I don’t know if you’d actually call it long distance nowadays, but 25 years ago it certainly was.
My end goal: a projectile with a little more energy that he can shoot at 500-600 yards (he shoots off of a very heavy tripod that dad carries). In this unit sometimes you have no options but to shoot that far.
We are using off the shelf hornady eld x 143 grain with 2527 fps at the muzzle. I am very familiar with the area and bull elk in this particular unit are tough as nails. For some reason cow elk in this unit go down like A ton of bricks. At 500 yards my app shows 1274 ft lb energy. That makes me nervous for him to take a poke that far.
I am an experienced reloader and would like to build a load for the 6.5 creed and be done. The catch: I only have about 1/4 of my reloading equipment due to a recent move.
Option 1: buy the needed equipment/components. Press, tumbler, and components I might be in around 5-600$. The other catch - I don’t have a lot of time on my hands (Wildland fire season is upon us).
Option 2: send my rifle to unknown munitions or some other reputable loading company and have them build a load. Solves the time issue. It’s not cheap (UM is around $1,000, I think) and paying that much for some thing I could do (albeit not as good) leaves me hesitant.
The question: would say 2-300 fps more get me the energy needed for a 5-600 yard shot? My worry is that I go down either of these routes and I don’t get the results I was looking for. I also dont want to sacrifice accuracy for something that screams down range. His tikka is under .5 MOA.
Option 3: buy a clone of his tikka 6.5 Creedmoor in a tikka 6.5 PRC. Drop it into his compact stock, stick the can on it, get off the shelf ammunition and be done with it. I’m positive this option would get me the energy I’m looking for at 5-600 yards. Bonus: I turn the 6.5 creed into a 6 mm Creedmoor for a deer gun.
What say you? TIA.
