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

This Friday I unboxed my much anticipated 6.5 PRC. It's a Montana Rifle Company X3,which is their new lighter version of the X2 featuring light weight alloy bottom metal and a lighter synthetic stock. I was anxious to try both the X3 and the 6.5 PRC so I opened the box with a joy not unlike a little kid at Christmas.

I've been fan of the Montana Extreme series rifles having ordered one of their limited edition Campfire series rifles in 260 Remington from Whitaker's Firearms here on the fire. My 260 shoots MOA or a little better with Federal 120 grain Ballistic Tips and feeds and functions perfectly. But it is a heavy feeling rifle with a fairly beefy stock and steel bottom metal. The campfire special had factory barrel fluting and a 1 in 8 twist as opposed to the normal barrel contour and 1 in 9 twist of their regular offering in 260.

Fit and finish of the new X3 looked really good to me and it feels a lot lighter in the hands than my X2.MRC claims they are 14 ounces lighter and I believe them but did not weigh the bare rifle not having an appropriate scale.I placed the same scope on the new X3 that I have on the older rifle, a Ziess Conquest DL in 3--12x50 . Only their mounts differ,the X2 has Talley Light Weight medium ring mounts,while the new rifle has weaver bases and Nightforce lightweight medium rings.

My local dealer had bore sighted the rifle,and a single shot 35 yards showed that I was very close to being zeroed. I fired a 3 shot group at 100 yards with the Hornady 6.5PRC Match Load featuring their 147 grain ELDm bullet. I measured the group at 2.63 inches and I felt a little sick. Since the round count for this barrel was only 4 shots,I prayed this was just a break in fluke.Without waiting for the barrel to cool,I fired a quick three shot group with the Hornady Precision Hunter 6.5 PRC 143 grain ELDx load. Those three fortunately went into .864 inches.

Because it was begining to rain,I was only able to chronograph a single cartridge,one of the Hunter loads with the 143 grain bullet measued 2844 fps at 10 feet from the muzzle,after that the drizzle played tricks on my chorograph and no other velocity results could be recorded.

I have a steel deer target 267 yards from my bench,so I tweaked my zero and fired thee round groups with both loads again. This time the Match 147 grain loaded printed a group of just under three inches,really close to moa. The Hunting round shot into about two inches,well under moa.

Later the same evening,I was able to kill a 175 pound wild boar in one of my traps,I shot him from less than 10 yards and used the match load. Waiting for him to quarter sharply away to put maximum stress on the bullet,I hit him behind the last ribs so the bullet would have to penetrate to reach vitals. It did. I have never witnessed a more instaneous k ill. The bullet did not exit,but despite hitting neither brain nor spine,the animal did not breath again that I could tell. His heart did not beat much either as there was no blood coming out his nose,which is what I normally see with lung shot hogs in traps.

The rifle fed and functioned perfectly and it was reasonably accurate with factory ammo,it certainly feels lighter in my hands than the X2 in 260. I am looking forward to developing loads for this rifle,and chronographing the factory ammo as well. I had read of other people only getting 2800 fps with the 147 grain match load,so 2844 fps with the 143 grain hunting load is probably about right. Just for the record,my rifle has a 24 inch barrel with a 1 in 8 twist. Altogether it seems like a pretty nice accurate hunting rifle that was really pleasant to shoot. The modest velocity keeps recoil in the ball park of a 308.

Nice report. Thanks for taking the time. Love to see a weight if you ever find a scale!

Thanks.
I'll try to come up with something.

Not much different than Creed Speed.....

I have a couple of Creed rifles,with the same bullet in Hornady factory ammo,they run about 200 fps slower in sporter lenght barrels.
I did hope that the 6.5 PRC would be closer to factory specs,which is about 100 fps faster than I got.

According to Hornady Load data, the 143 grain bullet can be handloaded to 3100 fps in a 26 inch barrel,3000 plus should be reachable in a 24 inch tube. The Sauer 100 and the MRC both feature 24 inchers and they are the only factory rifles available that I know of. But yeah,2844 fps is leaving a lot on the table.

But it was only one cartridge,chronographed in the rain,maybe it was a bad reading. Hope to know more soon,going to shoot again as soon as I get a chance.

For that matter,my groups where shot in the rain too. Not sure if that really makes a difference or not. It wasn't raining when I shot the pig but it was dark.

Ruraldoc, did you order it from Montana Rifle,Co, find it an LGS or buy it on an auction site? My nephew had First Stop order a lefty X2 in October and it hasn't come in yet.

All the ELDX stuff I’ve shot over a chronic has been slow. No PRC yet, just every other cartridge I’ve tried.

Don’t fret, there is plenty of room to safely push it faster if you want.

Go figure...I chrono'd six shots of factory 147gr. ELDm's through my GAP 6.5 PRC yesterday and got 2957 fps. Weather here was 85 F with 68% humidity. Chronograph was my Labradar.

I got it from Northern Firearms an auction site on Gun Broker. I had a wait of about two months,I ordered it from them but they had already ordered it from MRC and knew it would be coming when I placed my order.

Wasn't able to chrony any of those,but did shoot the hog with one. How long is the barrel on your GAP?

doc, it's a 24" Bartlein 3B 8 twist. Brand new rifle/barrel.

Like shortactionsmoker, all the ELDX factory ammo I've ever chronographed in other calibers has run slow. Factoring in the weather this stuff would seem to run close to the 2910 fps Hornady lists on the box. At least in my rifle.

Doc,
Thanks for the report. Keep us posted on the happenings with that rifle.

Will do,hope to shoot again this Friday or Saturday.Good to hear from you.

I've shot a hundred or so of the 147gr ELD Match stuff through my 6.5 PRC Kimber 8400 and velocity is around 2,835 fps from a 24" barrel as measured by a LabRadar. The worst thing about the Hornady ammo is the extreme spread which is hovering around 98 fps!! I get single digit ES values for my handloads using 147gr ELD Match bullets, H1000 powder and GM210M primers. The 143gr ELD-X factory loads are a little more consistent with ES numbers in the 30 to 40 fps range. Overall I'm less than impressed with the 6.5 PRC and if I can't get the 142gr ABLR to shoot well I'm done with this experiment.

MC, have you handloaded for your PRC yet or just run the factory stuff?

I've worked up some handloads using 147gr ELD Match bullets, Hornady brass, H1000 (58.0gr) and GM210M primers but I'm not getting great results. Velocity is good at 3,000 fps, ES is good at under 10 fps but accuracy/precision is average. I don't have any experience with Nosler's ABLR bullets but hopefully I can get those to shoot. I bought a bunch so if they're junk I'll be disappointed.

MC
Is your rifle a Kimber short magnum or long Magnum action?
What kind of barrel do you have? How long is it? Contour?
What kind of groups are you getting with factory and hand loaded
Ammo?

I have a MRC X3 in 30-06. Bare rifle weighs 6lb 15oz.