Sauer 100 6.5 Creedmoor: evaluating bullet stability

[1000yards]

These rifles come with a 220mm twist barrel which is equal to 8.66". This is one of the standard 6.5 twist rates in Europe, the other being 200mm. I've seen issues before with a 6.5x55 in 220mm twist that would shoot the 127 LRX great at 100 yards but completely sideways at 200 yards.

So I decided to see for myself which bullets would work. My goal was to evaluate stability, nothing else. Using factory ammunition, five shots at 100 yards, 5 shots at 200 yards. Muzzle velocity is the average of ten shots.

The rifle:
Sauer 100 6.5 creedmoor
220mm twist
20.5" barrel
SWFA 3-9
Omega 300 direct thread

Shooting conditions:
45° fahrenheit
Elevation: sea level (give or take a couple feet but the property is on the ocean)


Hornady EldM 120 (control)
2771 FPS


100 yards:


200 yards (Forgot to dial):



Barnes LRX 127
2796 FPS


100 yards:


200 yards (forgot to dial again):


Hornady 143 EldX
2575


100 yards:


200 yards:


continued...

 

[1000yards]

Hornady 147 Eldm
2586


100 yards:


200 yards:

 

[Hnthrdr]

This is great, I helped my buddy get his 6.5 sauer set up, I’ll show this to him! Thanks for doing this

 

[1000yards]

None of the bullets were sideways. The 147 may be having issues or it may just be the wrong bullet for this barrel. It rarely gets much colder than this where I hunt. It's possible some people may start to see issues at sea level if it is colder. But if you're above 3000 feet then you should be good to go.

I probably won't be doing any more tests on these bullets. My plan is to handload the 130 tmk, check for accuracy and verify the bc, then shoot the hell out of it. The 130 tmk is shorter than the 127 lrx and 143 eldx.

Two things to note:

-Three of the 143 cases got stuck in the chamber after firing. One of them took several minutes before I could get it out. Maybe I need to clean the chamber? Here's the offender:


-After all that shooting. I let my barrel cool off, then put all my effort into a ten shot group with the 120 eldm:


So does anybody have experience with that 120 on big hogs or elk?

 

[vonb]

The 127 Barnes looked decent. There’s your elk bullet.

 

[Fabel.52]

Mine seems to really like the 140 grain AAC Sabre black tips (sst) . Which is great because its so cheap l. I do plan to reload and setup 130 tmks for it.

 

[ETtikka]

Thank you for testing and posting

 

[Hnthrdr]

Mine seems to really like the 140 grain AAC Sabre black tips (sst) . Which is great because its so cheap l. I do plan to reload and setup 130 tmks for it.

Good to know as well, I really need to buy some black tips and run them they are sooo dang cheap! Just need to shoot up a bunch of 140 eld m and 143 eld x

 

[1000yards]

The 127 Barnes looked decent. There’s your elk bullet.

No interest. The only reason I tested that one was because I've seen it do this in another 220mm twist barrel:

 

[1000yards]

I sent Sierra an email asking about stability of the 130 TMK in an 8.66 twist barrel. Their reply was:

"The 1-8.66 twist will be marginal at best, it may stabilize but you would have to shoot them at distance 300+ yards to verify"

So that's too bad, I was really hoping to use that bullet but if it's going to be marginal at best then...

Anyways, here's ten shots at 370 yards:


Sauer 100 6.5 Creedmoor
20.5" 8.66 twist barrel
Omega 300
SWFA 3-9
130 TMK, 2715fps ave
Sea level, 50f

 

[1000yards]

Just to beat this dead horse one more time in case anyone out there had any lingering doubts. It was 26f yesterday morning, coldest day of the year.


Sauer 100 6.5 Creedmoor
20.5" 8.66 twist barrel
Omega 300
SWFA 3-9
130 TMK
2712 fps average
Sea level, 26 degrees fahrenheit

 

[Igloo]

Sorry to bring this one back up guys but just wanted to ask, is there any more info or can anyone provide any real results using the 127gr LRX with the Sauer 100?

The way I have calculated it I am thinking stability is around 1.35...which isn't great but should work...but I don't want to work up a load and find out its falling apart at 300 meters later on

I was told the 100 meter accuracy was excellent (in this rifle)

 

[hibernation]

Sorry to bring this one back up guys but just wanted to ask, is there any more info or can anyone provide any real results using the 127gr LRX with the Sauer 100?

The way I have calculated it I am thinking stability is around 1.35...which isn't great but should work...but I don't want to work up a load and find out its falling apart at 300 meters later on

I was told the 100 meter accuracy was excellent (in this rifle)

I can't find any targets/pics around, but I remember mine shooting the factory Barnes 127 ammo well but nothing impressive. 1.5-2ish 10 round groups. I'm a pretty mediocre shot though, I'm sure someone better could've squeezed a little more out of it.

This was at 500-2000' elevation and 30-60F, so the stability didn't seem to be a problem.

 

[1000yards]

Sorry to bring this one back up guys but just wanted to ask, is there any more info or can anyone provide any real results using the 127gr LRX with the Sauer 100?

The way I have calculated it I am thinking stability is around 1.35...which isn't great but should work...but I don't want to work up a load and find out its falling apart at 300 meters later on

I was told the 100 meter accuracy was excellent (in this rifle)

It won't fall apart at 300. But it might not be the right bullet for that barrel so you'll to need to test it out either way, right? If you're trying to save time with load development, then just simplify the process. Either buy the barnes factory ammo or load 10 rounds to book specs and see what happens. Let us know how it goes.

 

[Igloo]

Thanks guys! Appreciate it!

The previous owner said it shot them under MOA for him, so we'll see. If I don't have to worry about stability, I'll pick some up and get some groups going. Was concerned they wouldn't be as stabilized as they look, if that makes any sense at all

Hearing Sierra say that the 130 TMK was only marginally stable was not nice either....but they seem to be working.

Also have a Bergara B14 Hunter on the way so, that would open up more options but the Sauer seems very nice!

 

[1000yards]

Thanks to Rokslide I have learned alot since I first posted this little bullet evaluation. Here's two things pertinent to the subject:

1. The twist rate of this rifle is not 8.66 in / 220 mm! It is actually 7.87 in / 200 mm. Like an idiot, I trusted Europtics website and never measured my barrel. No wonder it stabilizes everything.

2. The 143 eldx and 147 eldm groups opened up mostly due to mirage. I have shot many boxes of these since, and if I pay attention to the mirage, they'll shoot about as good as everything else.

Apologies that I misled you guys. Learn from my mistakes!

 

[Sponge]

Thanks for the update! I gotta say, the advertised 1:8.7" for 6.5cm is a reason I didn't get one in a moment of weakness a while back. Cooler heads have prevailed since, but the temptation is still there.

Twist rates from the horses mouth https://www.sauer.de/en/twist-rates/
above page is what opens when you click "see twist rates" in the specs for any of their rifles. (i tried 100, 101, 505 same page for all)

 

[1000yards]

Thanks for the update! I gotta say, the advertised 1:8.7" for 6.5cm is a reason I didn't get one in a moment of weakness a while back. Cooler heads have prevailed since, but the temptation is still there.

Read up on the extraction issues before buying one. I'm still happy with my purchase but it's worth knowing about.

Twist rates from the horses mouth https://www.sauer.de/en/twist-rates/
above page is what opens when you click "see twist rates" in the specs for any of their rifles. (i tried 100, 101, 505 same page for all)

Yes sir I saw that as well, I just don't feel like trusting that either right now. My measurement is just the average of ten pushes of the cleaning rod -definitely not perfect but I know for sure it's not 8.7".

 

[Q_Sertorius]

It seems pretty obvious that someone entered the value for the 6.5x55 into the field on the EuroOptic site. I never worried about what it said on the website, because Fork said it wasn’t an issue. I just took it out shooting and found that he was, as usual, correct. Mine stabilized everything from 120 to 156 grain bullets, but I get the best results from 140 ELDMs, 140 Ballistic Tips, and 142 MatchKingX.

 

[Sponge]

Read up on the extraction issues before buying one. I'm still happy with my purchase but it's worth knowing about.

oh, I'm already in with a wood stock 308 and am quite fond of it.
But I have seen others' reports of rough chambers and extraction woes. That, murky twist rate info, and a need to finish not start projects is why I held off.
Its a shame these didn't catch on and were discontinued. Maybe if they sold well some of those issues would've been addressed and we'd have a decent long term tikka competitor/alternative. I absolutely love the magazine, safety, trigger, and stock. the action is great too, but looking at that extractor and its spring makes me wish I had spare parts. The recoil lug/bedding block is unnecessarily German in my opinion.