Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Field report on new 6.5 PRC from Montana Rifle Co.. Targets and first kill.

Local dealer has three of MRC's rifles. I've been curious as to what they weigh, so I took my digital scale down and weighed them the other day. Weighed the X3's twice in pounds and ounces.

X3 in 6.5 Creedmoor; 110.7 ounces and 6.92 pounds

X3 in 300 Win Mag. w/ a large muzzle brake; 113.45 ounces and 7.09 pounds.

An 'ASR' (blue & walnut) in 6.5 Creed; 7.5 pounds

Jerry

They aren't fly weight but I haven't found a M70 action that is, except for the Kimber clone. Tbe MRC is a solid rifle build. I still haven't shot mine - trying to decide if I want a 338-06 or another 30-06. A 30-06 shooting 200 gr Partitions or Accubonds is a pretty close surrogate. I should shoot it and see how it does......

It's an 8400 WSM Montana so short magnum. The barrel is 24" and has the standard WSM contour that ships with the factory rifle. Groups using the 143gr ELD-X and 147gr ELD Match are not great.

Here are the best groups groups at 100 yards with velocity data for the 147gr ELD Match factory load.





Here's a 5-shot group at 700 yards on an 18" gong using the factory 147gr stuff.



Here are some results using the 147gr ELD Match bullet in a handload working up in 0.3gr increments with no scope correction. Powder is H1000, primers are GM210M, cases are new Hornady and COL is 3.000". Velocity data for the four groups is shown below.

Looks to me that the same rifle in 270WSM would have provided you the same or beter results with less hassle.

Also, why H1000? RL17 works great in my Kimber Montana in 300WSM.

You're probably right about that. I bought the rifle six years ago as a 300 WSM, but a couple of years ago I screwed on a .308 Win barrel and played with that for a while and then decided to try a 6.5 PRC barrel. I can put either of the other two barrels back on and at this point I'm leaning towards the 300 WSM. I have Reloder 17 and use it for my 6.5 Creedmoor but figured I'd try H1000 based on the load data from Hornady for the 6.5 PRC.

I finally got back to the range with good weather. 87 F and 70% humidity. The 143 grain Hornady ELDx factory load averaged right at 3000 fps for three shots.

I had been concerned that it might have been slower based on one shot fired in the rain,not so. This cartridge really does produce the claimed ballistics. This means it has the recoil of a 270 with better long range ballistics than just about every thing in its class without going to a 3000 Ultra or 338 Lapua.