1000yd caliber

[Rifletuner]

I used to shoot a 6.5/284 at 500 meter matches, and for a number of years I held the national 500 meter Fly score record with that rifle. Its a fun round to shoot and fairly accurate out to 1000 yards. But then the 6mm BR based rounds came onto the scene and they have been hard to beat since the mid 2000s.

In 2016 I built a new rifle for precision rifle matches. I wanted to build a 6Dasher for those matches, but I was not convinced I could get it to mag feed 10 rounds reliably, and that is an essential requirement for those matches. So instead of investing a lot of money in a build that wouldnt do what I needed, I built a 6XC as its extra case length ensure it would feed like I needed. It has shot very well for me and pretty much has met all my criteria. I use Norma cases and accuracy has been excellent. In 2018, my son shot a PRS match with me (doubled up on my rifle) and decided he liked it a lot. So we built him his own rifle & he chose 6Creedmoor. By then Lapua had announced they would be offering brass, and the support for the 6.5CM was so prevalent by then, the 6CM became the obvious choice. The performance of the two rounds is almost interchangeable. I am running 1 grain under my sons load, and his ballistics are just slightly better than mine. But really nothing to decide between the two other than personal preference. If I was to do that again, I would go the 6CM for sure.

A big issue with getting hits in PRS is to be able to see your impacts and make your own corrections if you miss the target. You only get told when you hit the target in comps. So if you are missing and dont know why, you can zero a stage. So at the end of 2019 I decided it was worth revisiting the smaller 6mm just to try to improve my ability to spot my shots. I was going down the path of a 6BRX build, but right around that time the 6GT started to get a lot of attention, and I ended up going that route. With the 6GT, I will get around 6Dasher ballistics, seems like good accuracy & I can still use all my unmodified 10 round AI magazines since the 6GT is a little longer than the 6BR based cases. It took me months to get everything together, reamer in hand, dies, etc. Since there has not been any 6GT cases in Australia as yet, I was forming brass from Lapua 6.5x47 brass. I just got in my first range session to fire form a couple of cases and verify everything I had done in my brass prep was correct, when we got shut down and the range closed. So initial impressions only on the 6 Gay Tiger - it seems to be delivering, but too early to tell for sure if it lives up to all the claims.

But short answer - if you want to be able to spot your own shots at long range, and especially see impacts on steal - then a braked 6MM is hard to beat.

[Noswal]

To update this, thread while I was looking to adapt my R93 to perform as both a hunting and Range rifle I decided to buy a more purpose built setup. I bought a Kelbly Panda action rifle in both 6.5x47 and 6.5x284. It should arrive by weeks end so I’m very excited to get my hands on it, develop some loads and get it to the range.

[secondtry]

To update this, thread while I was looking to adapt my R93 to perform as both a hunting and Range rifle I decided to buy a more purpose built setup. I bought a Kelbly Panda action rifle in both 6.5x47 and 6.5x284. It should arrive by weeks end so I’m very excited to get my hands on it, develop some loads and get it to the range.

Nice cartridge choices, particularly the 6.5x47.

[stokesrj]

I have a Panda, one of my most favorite conventional bolt guns. Hope you enjoy it.

[deerhunter338mag]

My 2 cents worth, I would look at the 6.5x47 Lapua or the 6.5 creed. Massive amount of projectile's for them with hi BC and it's a true 1000 + meter designed rifles for plinking. However if you are going to hunt with it on Reds and Tahr then you might need a bit more knock down energy. I've seen a few videos where guys use the 6.5 on bigger animals at 600 odd yards and it's truly not fair on the animal. Sure it killed them, and was in the right spots, but was like stabbing them with a knitting needle. Most of the comments on these videos was about been a small cal on big animals.

Reds you point a stick at them and they fall over. The 243 was the go to rifle for many years in NZ on Reds as it didn't take much to kill them so the 6.5 would be fine. But them Tahr can sure absorb the energy, and the country they live in, you really need to drop them on the spot or its straight down the side of the maintain into the abyss. I guess that's why the 7mm's, 300wsm and 300wm are so very popular in NZ. And always keep in mind that there's a hell of a lot of windy and wet days in them hills or should I say mountain. The lighter cals will get pushed around with the wind a hell of a lot more. I myself would go the 7mm08 every day of the week if I intended to hunt with it up the tops.

[slugslinger]

I picked the 6.5 PRC over the 6.5-284, but I must admit that the discriminators are not strong - they are ballistically (fairly) similar. Time will tell if the 6.5 PRC will develop the following necessary to make it mainstream, but I suspect it will. Already numerous companies build rifles and barrels, and I'm looking forward to some additional brass options soon (6.5-284 brass isn't common or cheap either). But then again, I recall the 6.5 WSM which never really caught on either, and it remained a wildcat while the 6.5 PRC has a SAAMI specification. Lastly, the recoil on the 6.5 PRC I would consider quite reasonable - certainly not like the 7mm, and other magnums.

My friend has a 6.5-284 and comparing it with my 6.5 PRC, doing load development with different bullets and powders, I slightly favor my 6.5 PRC for combined accuracy and MV - this of course is highly dependent on the specific rifle. Generally speaking, the 6.5 PRC has a slight advantage in MV, which becomes more noteworthy at longer distances. I have little trouble developing accuracy loads at over 3000 fps with 140 grain bullets.

In addition to the very knowledgeable contributors to this forum, there is much written lately comparing 6.5 cartridges . . .

Regards,

https://www.rifleshootermag.com/editori ... prc/307816

https://www.longrangehunting.com/thread ... 84.209139/

[Noswal]

All of my hunting to date has been with the Blaser R93 in 7-08, I can’t see that changing. I’ll use the 6.5x47 lapua as a range rifle, maybe long range pest control for the fun of it. The 6.5x284 I may hunt with but with a 28in barrel in won’t be very practical, I’ll see how it performs at the range as well, it will push a 140gr out to over 900yds at 1000ft/lbs so as a deer rifle it’s got the juice.
This delay in delivery of items is hard to take Still waiting on the rifle and the guy supplying the dies sent me 6x47s grrrrr those have been sent back and he now has no 6.5s in stock

[Noswal]

Hey guys, I recently purchased a 6.5x284 R93 barrel that hopefully will arrive next week so I'm really looking forward to playing with that
Just for the fun of it I shot the 7-08 at 1000yds today. I really wasn't sure what success I'd have with my back yard setup lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5YeL0-Z9TU

[secondtry]

No deflection from the branches ????

[Joe338ST]

Nice shooting there Noswal. The height difference between the 2 shots more than likely reflects the difference in forward pressure applied / loading up of the bipod....

[Noswal]

No deflection from the branches ????

I'm sure thats just the angle difference from the camera. I didnt feel at the time that the branches were a factor I will check next time im down there though

[Noswal]

Nice shooting there Noswal. The height difference between the 2 shots more than likely reflects the difference in forward pressure applied / loading up of the bipod....

I should have shot a few more. I'm a bit low on ammo, need to get back behind the press
I need a decent rear bag as well. The Spartan bipod is a great hunting tool but probably outside its application as a range bipod so the setup probably performed as well as could be expected. Despite knowing the rifle shoots sub 1/2moa i certainly wasn't confident i could even hit the steel

[Noswal]

Finally got time to get serious with the 6.5x284
I played with two projectiles, the Hornady eld-x 143gr and the Lapua Scenar 139gr, both using VV N560. I also tried the VV N165 and the Reloader 26. Both showed promise especially the Re 26
I've not yet tested the Scenars at distance but they performed extremely well during development.
The Eld's I'm likely to use as along range hunting round so tested those at 500yds today successfully.

https://youtu.be/FuW6plKbAEI

[Joe338ST]

Very good shooting there. I like the vapour trail seen in the video....

[Noswal]

Very good shooting there. I like the vapour trail seen in the video....

Cheers mate, if I was a clever bloke I'd have charged the camera battery before I left home and got 3 of them on film