6.5 Creedmoor

ShadeTree · Jun 20, 2019

Amazing sometimes what a little finessing and feeding it the right diet will do for a rifle. Had a guy drop off a 6.5 because it wouldn't shoot, and boy it wouldn't. Made me mad every time I worked with it initially. Better than hurling a 2x4 at a 100 yd target, but beyond that there wasn't much to say about it other than it would make a good garden stake. Absolutely hated any of the heavy ammo he gave me... 140's etc. Even tried a factory box of Hornady 140 eld match, and I think that was even worse.

Went lighter. 129 interlocks were at least getting in the ballpark of minute of deer. 129 SST Superformance brought it down to 1.5" range......now we're getting somewhere. Addressed an issue I noticed in the recoil lug area and it shrunk it to just under an inch with that ammo. Onto reloads.

Buddy had some 120 Sierra MK's he gave me just to try. I have no H4350 on hand so loaded with Varget. A load near the top shot 3/4" and a 1/2 grain higher shot a touch better around 5/8". Just under max it started opening back up. Gonna tweek powder charge and seating depth and see if it will pull into 1/2".

Anonymous · Jun 20, 2019

Oddly enough. That might be the first 6.5 I've heard of that wouldn't shoot lights out! Glad you got it going finally!

While I really like the 143ELDX, my hunting buddy has been shooting the 100gr PT and it shoots really well with RL15.

ShadeTree · Jun 21, 2019

hodgeman":9lmhrrvd said:
Oddly enough. That might be the first 6.5 I've heard of that wouldn't shoot lights out! Glad you got it going finally!

While I really like the 143ELDX, my hunting buddy has been shooting the 100gr PT and it shoots really well with RL15.

If this would've been a run of the mill gun I'd of advised to move on from it initially. But it is a Limited Edition Rem 700 stainless. Worth some money if it will shoot.

Got back in time yesterday afternoon to try some quick changes based on what I thought might work. If they didn't result in improvement I was gonna live with 5/8 -3/4" groups and call it a vast improvement over how it started out. The first change brought it down to a tight 1/2", GOOD. The next change hit all the sweet spots and I'm not even gonna post a picture of the target because it will look like I made it up, but it measures .435 to the outside edges making it a .171 group. I'm a little baffled frankly that a gun can simultaneously be a garden stake or a real shooter with 20 gr's difference in bullet weight. I strongly suspect Rem pulled a slower twist 260 rem barrel off the shelf and chambered it for 6.5 C.M.

frankm · Jun 21, 2019

I think your 'hunch' could very well be the case. Have you thought about running a tight patch down the bore and measuring twist? Would be interesting for grins and giggles!

Anonymous · Jun 21, 2019

frankm":k4wxjjnk said:
I think your 'hunch' could very well be the case. Have you thought about running a tight patch down the bore and measuring twist? Would be interesting for grins and giggles!

I'd concur...that'd be really interesting to know. It's odd that bullet weight would make that much difference. Some guns just need some coaxing, but that was like raising one from the dead.

ShadeTree · Jun 21, 2019

frankm":3ciwu1ge said:
I think your 'hunch' could very well be the case. Have you thought about running a tight patch down the bore and measuring twist? Would be interesting for grins and giggles!

That's what got me headed towards lighter bullets to start with. Was driving down the road 1 day and it all of a sudden hit me what might be the problem. My results only confused me more. I carefully measured 3 times.....twice from the muzzle end, once from the chamber end. All 3 measurements were within 1/8" of each other, but an oddball in between result. So not sure how that's right, but I certainly wasn't coming up with 1 in 8.

I had called the technical department at Remington and told them what was going on and what I found when I checked twist and was wondering if they used 260 Rem barrels. Gentleman seemed to know what he was doing when he talked to me. He asked me the serial number so he could run it and check. Came back and said that should be a 1 in 8 twist. I have no proof of anything, but the fact that he had to check and the immediate answer wasn't NO, all of our 6.5 C.M barrels are 1 in 8 twist, just added to what I suspected happened. There's no law that says a barrel has to be a certain twist, but if it's not it would be nice to know ahead of time.

Regardless, it is what it is and I have my thoughts on it based on results and all factors mentioned above. It absolutely detests anything with extra length. It would just as soon vomit than to pretend to tolerate them. But turned out to be a real shooter with lighter stuff which proves even more how bad it dislikes the long heavy bullets. It's not the gun when it shoots lighter stuff that well.

ShadeTree · Jun 23, 2019

Gave this load 1 more test last evening. Didn't shoot the really tight group that it and I pulled off before, but not likely it or I are capable of duplicating that. It did shoot a 3 shot group just over .400. So that's 3 groups in a row 1/2" and under, it for sure likes that setup. Gonna load 40 up for him and he can go start having fun.

Good stuff. You hate to hand something back with no improvements and love to hand stuff back that's a big change. Before I got away from the 140-143's I didn't know what the heck to do with it.