A trendy little project

nhenry

Handloader
Feb 7, 2022
573
974
I'm doing a 6.5 on a Tikka. I have a 24" 6.5 creed barrel I got off ebay a while back for this and forgot about it until I went looking through my stash of tikka barrels.

I'd like to rechamber that barrel to one of these:
264 win mag*
6.5 PRC
6.5 WBY RPM
6.5-06AI**

The receiver I have has a standard bolt face, but I'm up for opening it up to accept the magnums. Done it before and it was fine.

*Several things about the win mag:
- 6.5 creed barrels are cheap and easy to come by if I ever burnt it out, so don't tell me about the barrel burning capabilities of the 264. Plus, with proper cleaning and making sure the barrel doesn't get too hot, it'll last a surprising amount of time.
- Tikkas use the same contour for all of their lites (which this barrel is) and they chamber 300 win mags in them, so I'm not worried about that either if I were to go with a 264
- I'm not too worried about mag length. I shoot monos and they always like jump, in my experience. I just seat them to SAAMI COAL in all my rifles.
- 7mm Rem Mag brass is fairly easy to come by, and all it takes is a full length size and trim to make a 264 case. Not too worried about that.

**About the 6.5-06AI:
- I kind of just included this one for gits and shiggles. Ballistically, yeah it makes sense. I am rather fresh father who has no time to do a ton of fireforming and case work. I load what I can and that typically means pretty standard stuff.
- I have a friggin ton of 06, from 25 to 35 caliber.

This is just for a nice, flat-shooting hunting rifle. Any good advice?
 
All could be decent options and just depends on how fast you want to shoot, what you are hunting and distance, and how much work you put into it.
With the options you gave I would go with the Wby RPM, no bolt face work, wby brass is available, same velocitys and more as the 264 and prc I believe. Dont know much on the 06 AI is the case diameter bigger then the creed?
A slightly slower option would be a 6.5-284 and there is Lapua and Norma brass available for that and likely others, and you are able to rechamber a creed to 284.
 
While I like the 264 Wm a lot, seems like you would have more options down the road if you didn’t open up the bolt face, but I’m only working on my first cup of coffee.
I’ve looked at a few Tikka’s, what is it about them that make them so popular. I understand they shoot well but what is it they’re doing the others are not?
 
I am intrigued with the 6.5 Weatherby RPM. A lot of performance from a standard length and bolt face. For a flat shooting hunting rifle, the RPM would fit the bill nicely.

JD338
 
Love my 6.5 WBY RPM.
127 LRX at 3165 fps right around 1/2" at 100
ready to hunt!

ETKmQDa.jpg
 
I’ve looked at a few Tikka’s, what is it about them that make them so popular. I understand they shoot well but what is it they’re doing the others are not?
tight enough tolerances for a shouldered prefit barrel
 
With the options you gave I would go with the Wby RPM, no bolt face work, wby brass is available, same velocitys and more as the 264 and prc I believe. Dont know much on the 06 AI is the case diameter bigger then the creed?
.001 bigger than the creed's. The RPM seems like a solid option, but I don't like lack of loading data out there. I'll do more digging.
 
6.5/06 AI!
to form brass
Take 25/06 brass and prime, no resizing needed, charge with a max charge of 6.5/06 powder of choice, seat your choice of anny 6.5 boattail bullet, fire, out pops a fully formed 6.5/06 AI case, will run a 140 around 3200 fps. wish I would have known this when I had my 6.5 Gibbs built!
 
Back
Top