Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 6.5 PRC, Brian Pierce article.

I bought a 6.5 Creedmoor about 2 years ago and before that I was one of the guys Brian Pierce refers to as never hearing about the Creedmoor.

Anyway, he goes over the attributes of the PRC and it certainly sounds like it could give the Creed a back seat in sales.

What do you think? Is it so close to a 7-08 that it won't shadow the Creed? What is the recoil like with the PRC? He compares velocity and drop with the Creed and it seems significant enough, but does it matter when dialing in? Shooting game at those ranges is not in most people's play book.

I bought the Creed to hunt with AND have a range toy with a long barrel life but I must admit that I would have looked closer at the PRC if it was available at the time.

US Army Special Operations Command (SOCOM) has adopted the 6.5 Creedmoor for carbines, precision rifles, and belt-fed machine guns, so roughly 70k SOCOM troopers will be packing some version of it. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has picked it up, the US Navy has ordered conversion kits to upgrade their M-110 sniper rifle, and DoD is replacing their 300 Winchester Magnum rifles with 6.5 Creedmoor rifles.

I'm sure not if the rest of the .mil and .gov world will get in line, or how long that might take, but that's one hell of a head start for the Creed.

Any shortcomings that the 6.5 Creedmoor might have as a big-game rifle disappear for military use. Those guys only have to shoot people.


Okie John

PRC and CM are 2 different animals. Apples to oranges comparison.

The 300 WSM didn't send the 308 into the back seat for sales. Same here with the 6.5 cals. The PRC shoots the same bullets faster. If you want that, good on you. It's a great cartridge, from what I've seen. If you don't, no problem. The CM is still going to kill any Whitetail walking, which is the most common "big" game animal hunted in the US, and with far less recoil and powder consumption than the PRC.

6.5 CM: 52-53 gr case capacity
6.5 SLR: 55-56 gr
6.5 PRC: 66-67 gr
6.5 SAUM: 70-71 gr

The PRC has 25% more capacity than a creedmoor, and 5-6% less than a SAUM. In quickload, holding pressure constant at 57k psi in a 26" barrel with 140 hybrids, a 6.5 SAUM (H1000) is about 30-40 fps faster than a 6.5 PRC (H1000), and the PRC is 220 fps faster than a 6.5 creedmoor (H4350).

So, WRT sales, how many factory ammo options in CM vs PRC are available to Joe Average?

There's your answer.

More ammo makers are stepping up to the plate with PRC loads - 6.5 and 300. And more will follow just as they did with the CM. Now, whether they're available at your LGS or even shipping, is a subject for another conversation.

If you have a particular application that requires the extra horse power of the PRC and there's factory ammo that suits your application, then it makes sense. If you need or want the horsepower and handload, then advantage SAUM (GAP4S).

If you don't need the extra horse power, and don't want the extra blast, concussion, and recoil the CM is a great choice. If you handload, RL26 and high bc bullets in the CM are a great option. I get a 156 EOL doing 2765 out of a 22" bbl.

This makes perfect sense. Thanks.

If you handload, a 6.5x47 Lapua is a viable option as well.

#Nomanbun needed......

I’d have no buyers remorse at all about the Creed.

If you can have both, the PRC is cool...

I bought my kids a 6.5 creed. I will own a 6.5 PRC soon.

As soon as Tikka offers the T3X in 6.5 PRC, my T3X 6.5 Creed will be shuffled to the back of the safe to make room for the PRC.

220 fps faster than a Creed but it takes a decent amount more powder to get it there. I am not opposed to the PRC and it has me interested, but I am pushing 135-140’s out of my Creed right below 3000 fps with RL26 with great accuracy so this makes it hard for me to convert. On top of that PRC components are insanely hard to come by and you’ll have to pay top dollar if you can find them.

For most hunters, the 6.5 PRC is a short case hiding a 270 Win inside.

That's not to say the PRC doesn't have attributes the 270 lacks, just to say inside 5 or 600 yards any differences won't be realized except between the ears... but it will hold one or two less in the magazine and probably have a shorter barrel life.

Still, if I weren't winding all this stuff down I'd likely build one

A couple notes:

What Brad said is correct. Another way to put it is that the 6.5 PRC is essentially a short-action 6.5-06.

Will also note that a couple years ago, when I was working with both the 6.5 PRC and 6.5 GAP for various articles, when I measured water capacity of the two cases I did so with the same bullets (140-grain range) inserted to the standard overall cartridge length, which is a more accurate method than simply filling an empty the case to the mouth.

Of course, the 6.5 GAP doesn't have a SAAMI standard OAL, but it's parent cartridge is the 7mm SAUM, which has a SAAMI OAL of just over 2.8 inches, so it will fit in the standard short-action magazine of about 2.85 inches--though many are built with somewhat longer magazines. The 6.5 PRC's SAAMI OAL is 2.955 inches, so it's already at "longer magazine" length.

The brass used for my measurements was fired Hornady in both cases. Water capacity with the same bullet "seated" (I believe it was the Hornady 143 ELD-M) was within less than half a grain, for all practical purposes identical.

The 6.5 PRC used in the test was my custom rifle, built on a stainless 700 short action, from a factory rifle originally chambered in 7mm SAUM, with a 24" stainless #4 Lilja fitted by Charlie Sisk, using a Pacific Tool & Gauge reamer.

Any clues as to when & where this Brian Pierce (so) article appeared ? TIA

March 2021 RIFLE magazine.

Latest “Rifle Magazine”

Thanks for locating that Brian Pearce article for me On the 6.5 PRC. I was busily looking in Handloader. Didn’t realize that the new Rifle was up on their site.

Makes me wonder if the new “standard” SA magazine length is going to be 2.955”
I believe that’s the OAL of the 6.8 Western as well.

Might be time for MuleDeer to re-rebarrel that 7 Saum 700 again ?