On my drive home from the Mammoth Sniper Challenge I picked up my 6.5 Creed barreled action. It's a Rem 700 that was fluted and knob installed by Adams Custom Rifles. The barrel is a Krieger Med Palma crowned at 26" plus Harrell's break. I used a Manson reamer, at the recommendation of Dave Tooley, with a .170 freebore. When I got it home I cleaned the barrel, installed the Seekins base, then installed and adjusted the Calvin Elite before pulling the gun that shot Mammoth out of the T6A and dropping this sucker in:

Nice

Very nice!

How'd you do at the shoot?

Mike

looks great, KP.

Finished 9th in Extreme Tough Man division.

Badass! What bullet are you planning on using?

Right now I have a bunch of 123gn SMK I bought 50% off with a certificate won at a match and I have a few hundred 123gn A-MAX also.

123's are going to cruise out of that long tube. Good pick.

Good job KP!

Mike

Nice finish, and new rifle! What rifle setup did you shoot the comp with?

Thanks, the comp was a blast.

I shot the match with the same Manners T6A and Bushnell HDMR. The only difference was I had a Rem700 action and factory trigger set to 2.5# with a Benchmark HV contour, 1-10" 5R, crowned at 23" and chambered for .308 Win. I shot a 175gn SMK at 2666fps.

We finally had a dry week here so a buddy and I headed to the range to work pistols for a gunfighter league match in a couple weeks. I dragged the Creed along in case the LGS had ammo since I haven't had time to load any. I bought one box of Hornady 120gn A-MAX and one box of Winchester Match 140gn. Hornady shot like garbage (1.5 MoA every group, 5 shots, 3 groups) but allowed me to get a rough zero since I swapped the scope over from my .308 Win. I shot one group at 300yds to get a feel for wind and it was the best group (fluke?) for the 120gn at .8MoA :


Had a bit of breeze: avg of 11.8mph, gusts to 17.2mph, .5 value


Worked left to right when I swapped to Winchester and after the first group it settled down pretty good. My buddy wanted to shoot it and called the round out of group on the far right when he broke his 3rd shot:


I'm liking it so far. Recoil is like a .223

My folks or my wife got me a set of Whidden 6.5 Creed dies when I was putting this gun together. Those dies were absolutely terrible and deformed every bullet ogive they touched. They went back three or four times for new seater stems and expander balls plus they sent me a new seater sleeve. Finally, after about 6 months of mailing dies back and forth I said I needed my money back. They complied without a fight and I will say they were helpful as could be throughout, they just couldn't make the dies work. I ordered a set of Redding dies (my go to along with Forster)while I waited on my refund check. They showed up yesterday, got cleaned and set up. I loaded up a test ladder today and hit the range this evening.

First three shots loaded at 40gn to get the scope zeroed hit 1 MRAD left and .5 MRAD high with a clean .5MoA group. I dialed on the wind but left the elevation where it was and moved to 300yds for the ladder. 3-shots each at 41.5gn, 42gn, 42.5gn, and 43gn of H4350 under a 140gn Hornady ELD. Total group is right at 1MoA but the 42gn node is about 1" or .3MoA. I will do the seating depth test with it tomorrow and bet it cleans up real nice. I will shoot it in its first match on the 30th.

Very nice all around. 6.5 Creed will be my next rifle.

I got out at lunch today to test seating depth. It was 96°F outside and 65% humidity with winds at 12mph gusting to 16mph, 3/4 value. Looks like .020" off the lands is the ticket at .6MoA for five shots (.35MoA if it weren't for that Democrat that wandered right) but the vertical is almost non-existent. Muzzle velocity is 2695fps averaged with an ES of 11fps and an SD of 5fps. Just need to shoot it out on the powerline to confirm data to 800yds and shoot the match on Saturday.

First I've heard of anyone having a problem with a Whidden die. My Dasher seater is leaving a huge ring around the 105 Hornady hpbt. They just sent me a new seating stem with delrin that I still need to try. Hope that solves it.

That new 6.5 sure shoots!

I'm the first person I know who's had an issue but I've read reviews that mention this problem. When I called Whidden she finished my sentence when I told her what was wrong so they know it's a problem. Their short answer was stop shooting Hornady bullets but sent a new seater stem and a larger expander ball. That still didn't work so I sent them several of each of the 140gn ELD and 142gn SMK along with my dies. By the time it was all said and done I had six seater stems and 4 expander balls. None worked. Two weeks ago they offered me the new polymer stem but I said no thanks. They were awesome to work with through out but couldn't resolve the issue. I measured case necks against what my Redding dies are producing and the Whidden has .003" more neck tension and the stem didn't fit quite right which combined to deform ogives.

Went ahead and threw the HDMR and muzzle break on and went to zero. Shot one at 100yds, adjusted and put 2 in same hole .1mil low. Dialed on 1.2mil and shot 303yds. Gun and load are solid so let's how I don't bolo the match since I haven't been doing much shooting.

Man, that rifle is very impressive.

I've bought 2 sets of Whidden dies in the past and had to send both back. They suck in my opinion.

I ran the Creed out to 915yds on Tuesday where it turned in a group of about 4" but either the phone or I failed to take the picture of the steel. Now i have to reshoot since it didn't happen without a picture. A thunderstorm drove me off the range so I couldn't dial back down to 100yds to check zero since I was .1mil lower than I expected at 915yds. Got out today to shoot some alts before the match tomorrow and before I pulled the 6.5 out of the T6A and swapped in the .308 I shot a group at 100yds to make sure my zero from the other day was good. Another reason I believe in "cold shooter" over " cold bore":

Great post and nice shooting. Thanks for sharing and good luck at your match.

Got out to shoot today and took a pic of my longest target since I didn't get a pic of the 4" group at 915yds a week or two back. This one wasn't quite as far but still pretty decent.