Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Best 6.5 options for .532" Bolt Face

Running a T3x 270 WSM currently and following my next Moose hunt, I may want to rebarrel to a .264" bore for Deer.

What is my best option, 264WM, 6.5 RM, or some wildcat..?

6.5 PRC

6.5 WSM or PRC seem like great options.

I've been in SoCal, small living off the grid for the last couple of years with only occasional internet access once and awhile if going to the Library in
town..........

So, I had to Google this new 6.5 PRC in order to understand your suggestion....now I understand.




THAT is a Very interesting development.
I'm sure it's not for everbody. The other existing 6.5's are getting it done both in the field and on the range.

But......., for a guy wanting a legit SAAMI'd 6.5 cartridge short action solution on a .532" bolt it ain't got many competitors.

It's early days on the various PRC's being talked about on the INet IMO....but if you are in a hurry there is a guy in Dayton Texas named Sisk, a friend of Mule Deer's, that has been doing 6.5 WSM's for several years and is who I would look at1st....but then he is less than 3 hours from me too.
Although the PRC does have it's definitive upsides though ....IF everything comes together on a "Creedmore" scale as is being trumpeted around the 'net as the latest greatest better than sliced bread shooter. I grew up reading the same thing about the 243 in the early/mid 1950's too BTDT.
Ron

Charlie lives in Kentucky now....

I read your post 3 times and still don't understand it? You recommend a 6.5 wsm it seems. Don't know where Charlie Sisk lives. Can't tell what your point is on the PRC. Cant spell creedmoor. Have no idea how the 243 from the 50's has anything to do with.....well anything?

Seems to be a personal preference for sure. 270 WSM is an awesome short mag that hits a sweet spot for small, medium and large game use. 6mm and 6.5mm chambers seems to be the rage these days with the creedmoor leading the way and now the PRC. Funny thing is the more things seem to progress, the more they really have not. The 6.5mm Rem Mag was ingenious in 1966, just promoted extremely bad. Had Remington utilized a 24-inch barrel and faster twist it may have been quite a success. The cartridge case dimensions are well thought out, however the Remington SA at 2.8" COL was not quite sufficient to get the most out of 120, 130 and 140 grain projectiles. Now the WSM is a whole different story with action being in the 3.0"+ length range. Here you can make the old 6.5 Rem Mag do things no one ever really has. It would be easy to throat properly to seat out another .05"- .10" or so and easily exceed 3,000 fps with a 140 grain load and come real close to 264 Win Mag ballistics on a SA. In fact if done right it will out perform the 6.5 PRC, if you can get past the belt thing (chuckle). In many ways perhaps the best 6.5mm wildcat chamber is the 6.5-06 with no fuss no muss. It can be built to light rifle specifications and stay close to the 6.5mm Rem Mag and 264 Win Mag for performance. Problem is the 270 Win does the same thing and is found everywhere in great abundance. Have fun with your project as all these cartridges can achieve great accuracy and all will perform roughly the same on game at 400 yards.

And what of the, now headstamped brass, 6.5 SAUM..?

Pros/cons: 6.5 PRC vs. 6.5 SAUM .?

If these are viable, I'd prefer to have SAAMI'd and stamped Brass.

I have always liked the SAUM design over the WSM design. But because it holds a few grains less powder than the WSM and again not supported worth a darn by big green it suffered greatly. 6.5mm SAUM or 6.5mm WSM are for the most part going to duplicate the 6.5 Win Mag on a SA given equal barrel lengths. None will perform any better than the other in the field and none will give much advantage over the 6.5mm PRC or 6.5mm Rem Mag. I have to be honest one could not hit a better sweet spot than the 7mm RSAUM, set up right that is about as fine a mountain rifle chamber as you can tote. Only one man's opinion.

.264 Win mag.

Perhaps you might share your thoughts on that right there..?

Figured since I was here I'd bump these questions back up.

Factory cartridge,stamped brass,plenty of loading info for it and there's not a deer in Maui that's going to notice the difference between it and the other cartridges that the others have mentioned.

6.5 Allen Magnum
Or
6.5 Prometheus

What are you wanting to accomplish that you can't make happen with the 270, and that you believe stepping down to a 6.5 will be such a big improvement?

Thank you Ken...always have had a thing for the 264 WM, but have never owned one. I'm working here for a bit, then returning back to the mainland...wouldn't mind helping with the Axis Deer issue before I leave.


Boogaloo, I wanna fling light .264" bullets of the TTSX, NPT, NAB, SSII, and SAF design at enough poop to make it a legit step up from my 6.5x55.
The B.C.'s are there, and if I can utilize that .532" bolt face for flinging those lighter than comparable B.C. 270 bullets then I concider it a plus. and the slightly reduced recoil may lend itself also.

Years ago I figured "...if I ever have to start over I would build 2 rifles, a 264 SAUM and a 338 SAUM..."
Always thought that case was the best fit out of the short fats.

Kaleb
Re:.Charley Sisk's shop is in Dayton Texas. He was the 1st guy I heard of, and again later in conjuction with Mule Deer, to make a regular business of building 6.5 WSM rifles & some other fun toys based on the WSM case. I'm sure he can build you a 6.5WSM lots faster than you can get a 6.5 PRC is all I was trying to say.

Re: 243's...I grew up reading all the so called Outdoor rags in the 50's and Warren Page, a noted outdoor & hunting writer of the day on the order of the sainted Jack O'Connor who I still read, shilled the "new" 243 as the best thing for a One Gun Hunter ever made, or "the perfect Woodchuck to White Tail rifle" & ya'll gotta have a 243 or you'll get laughed out of deer camp yadda yadda...and I BELIEVED all that crap since I did not know any better...so my grand pop gave me a SAKO 243 when I wanted to go deer hunting with him for the 1st time and was put off with his pre & post war Savage Lever actions and and pre war M70's ....and I later learned what the 243 WOULD Do and Not Do and had my teenaged Great White Hunter bubble busted by reality, losing more unrecovered deer with a 243 and the factory ammo of the day back then I than I have the rest of my life, now that I am in my mid '70's ...BUT it caused me to learn how to reload, and later spend 13 years in the Firearms Industry as a Rgl Distributor's Rep and later a Gun Importer Factory Rep.

IMO the PRC's are going to have that same kind of "Creedmore" level of publicity "IT"S got 300fps more SPEED" in the coming 12-18 months as the gun mfg'ers NEED to have a shiny new toy to sell about every 2 years or so to stay in business.... witness all the ya'll gotta have winners left over from years gone by like mebbe the Rem 5mm and others you can't buy or reload ammo for anymore yadda yadda. PT Barnum's lines to come to mind here.
Hope this helps you grasp my thoughts with a little more clarity.
Ron

This is Neal Emerys response about the 6.5 PRC to an article on AccurateShooter.com.


Neal Emery says:
October 23, 2017 at 11:38 am

Many of these comments sound just like when the 6.5 Creedmoor was launched. Time will certainly tell. Consider commercial viability in this cartridge launch. We’ve received requests for a faster 6.5 for ELR matches (yes, standard PRS matches are trending to 6mm’s – we’re not arguing that) and for hunting at ranges where the 6.5 CM/260/6.5×55 class cartridges loose steam. Parameters are that it is a short action cartridge and feeds well in a wide variety of rifles. There are new long-action 6.5’s with extreme velocity and the issues that come with them. We’re not trying to be fastest and flattest. This cartridge needs to be reasonably low-recoil & muzzle blast and still have good barrel life. Obviously it is faster than the CM, so it will have somewhat less barrel life than that but can’t be in the 26 Nosler/6.5-300 class. We’re not going to bring back the 6.5 Rem Mag that was spec’d with a 1:9″ twist and nobody wants a belted mag. 264 Win is long action and also 1:9″. The 6.5×284 is a well liked cartridge for hand loaders but with the long 143-147 class bullets is a long-action and there are various chamberings out there from years of wildcatting. Also, rebated rims are not ideal. The SAUM (4S)is a fine cartridge but not one that feeds well in top-loading rifles (we want it to work well in hunting rifles and precision, mag fed rifles), plus that rebated rim. Commercial viability means that not just hand loaders get to have fun – we want something the average Joe can purchase ammo for as well with those long, heavy bullets. For those complaining about velocity, remember that our published velocities are based on 24″ test barrels. Our 143 & 147gr Creedmoor published velocities are 2,700 & 2,695 fps respectively. Of course people with longer barrels and hand loaders are exceeding 2,800 fps. The PRC factory 24″ velocities are 2,960 & 2,910 – Longer barrels and or hand loading to well over 3,000 fps is already happening. In short, it was far better to build a cartridge from the ground up, that’s made from the start to seat-out and stabilize long, heavy bullets, than to put out ammo in an existing cartridge that either didn’t function and feed in a wide variety of rifles, or won’t work well because existing rifles don’t have a fast enough twist barrel.


There's not one in my future I don't shoot long range matches so my 6.5-06 fills my needs. But if I was going to take a chance on a new cartridge I'd have a lot more faith in future component availability if it came from Hornady or Nosler compared to Remington or Winchester.

I probably would have said it nicer but I am thinking this too...

but if you must go 6.5.... 26Nosler is the way!!!

Everything good about the Win Mag but no belt, and 100-200 more fps.

true barrel life is short, but it seems you are good with getting them rebarrelled...