quote:
120 grain 6.5mm Creedmoor
The vertical adjustment required at 1,000 yards is comparable with the 6.5-284, but the required windage adjustment in a 10 mph crosswind is 30% greater, which is not good. The velocity is very high which translates into a very short barrel life. Hornady was probably required to go with the 3,000+ fps velocity to compensate for the poor ballistic coefficient of the 120 grain A-Max bullet
As an experiment, I substituted a muzzle velocity of 2,900 fps into the Exbal program. The objective was to determine if a lower velocity (which would add to barrel life) would produce reasonable results. The calculated vertical adjustment at 1,000 yards was 30 MOA and the windage adjustment was 9.00 MOA. Both are totally unacceptable. The B.C. of 0.465 of the 120 grain A-Max bullet is a real problem at lower velocities. As such, if a shooter decides to use this factory load, he’d best have an extra barrel on order.
140 grain 6.5mm Creedmoor
This load holds promise, but with its 2,820 fps muzzle velocity, it is not as good as any of the “standard” the 6.5mm-284 Norma loads. For the 6.5mm Creedmoor to be considered by F-Class shooters it must be as good as or better than the 6.5mm-284 Norma at 1,000 yards, where virtually all F-Class competitions are won or lost. Unfortunately, it is not. Given the lower case capacity of the 6.5mm Creedmoor (~53 grains), compared to the 6.5mm x 284 Norma (~58 grains), it may not be possible to increase the muzzle velocity to a competitive level.
Conclusion
My conclusion is that the 6.5mm Creedmoor is a satisfactory cartridge for mid-range shooters who do not want to reload. However, it probably will not be competitive with the 6mm BR that most reloaders use in mid-range F-Class competitions.
The 6.5 Creedmoor has potential, but Hornady a lot of work to do before it will be seriously considered by the top F-Class shooters
