Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Tell us about your 6.5-06

Tried the Bergers?

I'm a fan of the amax but different bullets might help ya.

Not sure what powders you've tried.

I was getting 13/14 with bergers in this 6.5 then changed to scenars and got the consistent and sometimes lower than 12.

I've been inching closer to "10" as I wear in the barrel a bit more.

I'm right on the edge of stabilization with this factory tube. I'll likely just toast it with the AMAXes and do a rebarrel this summer/fall... Either 243A.I. or 260. But I digress...
Retumbo has given the best accuracy, spreads, and velocity oddly enough. Been nice not having to compromise one for another.

QL tells me that you might wanna look at

IMR 7828
VVN 560
RL 22 ( always an accurate one)

This is the first year I ever tried 7828. (I've always been an "H" kinda guy )

I changed to this 7828 and it was like my rifle "was awakened"

good stuff...

I'd go 260.. alleviates the FF stuff.

Kinda my thoughts on the 260 vs. 243 A.I. as well. I've shot 7828, H4350& 4831sc, H100v and Retumbo in the 243. 7828 does well for me outta the 280/162amax load, and 300Ackley/180 TTSX. Good stuff. Saw your post about it with your 6.5.... what a screamer.

Well, if you wanna be cool you're going to have to AI it either way, whether you go .243 or .260...

Aww c'mon man! I'm already gonna have 280a.I. fireform duties! 260A.I. is skookum, but so is straight 260

I guess fireforming ain't nothin but letting little sis shoot a few boxes, but those dies are expensive!

Hmmm...

Punchin the 280 to a 280Ai might be worth the effort...

jus' sayin' ;-)

yeah the 6.5-06 Tactical is a screamer. With the suppressor attached nominal recoil.

Interested to see how your hunting rig shoots.

The 280 will be punched during the summer, and an M1 will adorn it.... Should hunt

Me too!.. weather is not in my favor for break in an load development.

Today was the first day it wasnt blowing 40+, got out and shot a little bit. What glass will be used on that one? Loads?

Cocadori,it was never my intention to try to establish clear superiority of one of these calibers over the other(6.5,270,7mm)....only to establish that the 270 caliber is not as "bad" as some have believed it is;this no doubt coming from a lack of projectiles and suitably faster twist tubes.If I was going to have this discussion with anyone, it had to be someone who knew their stuff,and would be honest about it,which you clearly do...

This is the reason I have generally gone 7mm with a lot of my builds.

That said, friends and I built quite a few cut rifle barrels for 270 back in the 80's that were twisted 8.5-9,but for completely different reasons.

There really were no LR bullets available back then (by todays standards)....so I never saw a reason other than that,for the cartridge and bore size to lag behind the others,and it was always said to be bullets and twistt rate that caused it.

I know it will not likely catch up to the 6.5's and 7mm's in the target arena, because most (all) factory tubes are twisted 10,because that's what the cartridge started out with and factories don't often catch up with hard core shooters for quite a long time.

But anyone contemplating a new 270 barrel might want to consider a faster twist.....I wish I knew about the Matrix bullets before ordering my new Brux, which is twisted 9,shoulda gone 8.5....but I will live with it...

I suspect the bullet situation could continue to improve as folks become more aware that with the improved bullets, the bore size can acquit itself pretty well.

Another bore size similarly challenged is 25 caliber....bumped into an old article by Ken Waters on the 257 Roberts and he mentions that Ned Roberts did a lot of experimenting with all twists for the Roberts (and other 25's) way back when....he noticed it took an 8 or 9 twist to keep a 117 gr 25 bullet "point on" at 800 yards,and a 10 twist did not cut it at Roberts velocities....I have noriced that it can be tough to get some 117-120 to shoot well in a 10 twist at Roberts velocity and have long felt the old standard 10 twist in many 25's was too slow.

But old standards die hard and manufacturers keep feeding the same stuff....it takes the LR shooters and better bullets to flush this stuff out.

The jury is out on glass. I'll break it in and develop loads using a NF. I'd like to find a "hunting style" scope that is metric/mil based with a reticle that is "Christmas Tree" like. I havn't seen anything out there like that yet. I've switched to being a meter reader and mils a few years back. Amazingly simpler than yards and MOA. Took a while to totally convert though.

I'm gonna try Bergers and Scenars with 7828. If that doesn't work I'll go with the same bullets and H4831sc.

Those 3.5-10 NFs look pretty ideal.... Thought you might look at that one.

Yup thought about it...but I have myself wonderin' if I should just jump at the 3.5-15 for just a few bucks more.

I shoot the MLR ret. in all my other scopes and the 3-10 doesn't have that option.

Those are pretty cool reticles for sure. Nice and quick for those shots where turret spinning ain't an option, but it usually is

I'm lookin forward to a range report!

Tag for reference

Old thread

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Living in Alaska makes caliber selection easy. Get some thing from a .270 Winny up to a .338 Winny as your "all around critter gitter" and shoot a good bullet into the right place and eat up. With the great bullets we now have I guess a .308 or 7mm-08 would also work and many Alaskans have gone that route.

My dear old Dad was the only Alaskan I am aware of that thought a 6.5 bullet was and "all around" good choice. His choice of caliber was the .264 Winny in his old Mod. 70 with the slender 26" barrel, a case full of surplus H4831 and a 140 grain Nosler Partition. His friend Ken had been in Alaska since the 50's and he favored the Mod. 99 Savage in .300 Savage. For the most part, If one had and old Mod. 70 in 30-06 stoked with 180 grain Partitions or a .270 Winny with 150 grain Partitions one was well armed and knew they had a good "all around critter gitter", many used a reworked 03-A3 in ought six and several had them altered to the .308 Norma.

I started out with and old 03A3 ought six Springfield and it worked great. But, knowing what I know now, if I lived in the "states", most of my hunting would done with a .270 Winny or a 6.5 Creed. Deer and antelope don't look big to me and I have never shot over 500 yards. That would also give me a reason to hope Tikka would make their T3X Superlite stainless gun in 6.5 PRC. If elk were on the menu for me I would want the heaviest Barnes LRX bullet for either caliber with H4350 and not worry about looking for faster velocity.

Either bullet from either caliber would work and no critter would complain about your choice, but the paper ballistics favor the .270 for most hunting shots out to 500 yards. I have an urge to have some flavor of a 6.5-06 made up on the small ring Mauser Husky ought six I have, but don't see it being my main "critter gitter" or range gun, as the Tikka Creed I got a few months ago works for that. But, like I said, if Tikka ever comes out with a 6.5 PRC Superlite, sign me up if I ever hunt state side.

Back to the 6.5-06 of some flavor and the .270 Winny. With equal bullet structure, shot placement and max velocities either cartridge is capable of. Nothing any one ever shoots will be able to tell the difference between the two. Only the Rifle Loonies will be able to tell a difference, because they are internet "Rifle Loonies" only they know which choice is the right choice! I am ok with that.

Did I ever tell any of ya the influence Elmer had on me when was a young boy in Iowa and at age 13 and had only seen 7 deer and never hunted them? Did I ever tell ya bout coming to Alaska in 1965 and all the critters that were available prior to the wretched pipe line and Native land claims? I could puke.