6.5 Creedmoor

Am Shooting Journal ^ | 2/11/2019 | M Collins

[w1n1]

Between the hunting woods, long-range target competitions and even the U.S. military, the Creedmoor round is making inroads among shooters.
6.5 Creedmoor is one of the new calibers that’s quickly received a pretty intense following, and it's easy to see why. It offers better ballistics than most rounds in its class, has taken numerous precision rifle match medals, and is even being adopted by the U.S. military for some of their sniper weapons. I personally have used the 6.5 Creedmoor for a few years now, and I have two rifles chambered in the caliber. I've taken several large deer with it, and placed well with it in local and state competitions.

I've brought home ribbons, and any shortcomings in my shooting were squarely my fault, and not the fault of the round. Yes, indeed, the 6.5 Creedmoor has taken the rifle shooting world by storm, and people have certainly had success with it, but does the round live up to the hype? Is it worth investing in instead of something like a .308? Is it worth the extra cost over similar rounds? In a word: yes. Let’s talk about why.

CARTRIDGE DEVELOPMENT
The 6.5 Creedmoor, or 6.5 CM, is a distant relative of the .308 Winchester cartridge, developed by Hornady in 2006, and first released in 2007. It was born in the bowels of Hornady's research and development department, and was brought into the world chiefly by Dave Emary and Dennis DeMille, then Hornady’s senior ballistic scientist and the VP of product development, respectively.
They set out to develop a round that would excel in a competition environment, out shooting similar .308 loads, and with less recoil to boot.

They decided to start with a 6.5mm projectile, which is tough to beat for a low-drag, high-velocity cartridge. From there, they settled on the then-new .30 TC cartridge as a parent case (itself a derivative of the .308), which gave them the ability to have the longer 6.5mm bullets load reliably in a short-action rifle such as the AR-10. The .30 TC case was also great for overall barrel life, even in a competition scenario where a competitor may fire hundreds of rounds in relatively short periods of time. Read the rest of 6.5 Creedmoor.

[Who is John Galt?]

A good example would be the Winchester 30-30 vs the 32 Special. Ballistic-wise they are close. But, the old 32 Special would burn up a barrel in as few as 500 rounds.

Any idea what barrel life was with the .25-35? I've been kind of intetested in finding one, off and on, for years...

;^)

[griffin]

Very nice.

[eastexsteve]

Any idea what barrel life was with the .25-35? I've been kind of intetested in finding one, off and on, for years...

What shortened barrel life in the older guns like this was they were made from older softer steels.

[Who is John Galt?]

What shortened barrel life in the older guns like this was they were made from older softer steels.

Good point! My experience is pretty limited, but even so, I have noticed that barrel steel does vary. The 'softest' barrel I ever worked on was an early 1940s British Lee-Enfield; the 'hardest' was a Russian Saiga 5.56...

[Celtic Conservative]

Did you notice it’s on WINCHESTER blvd?

CC