6.5 Creedmoor surprise

[Mnt monkey]

I have been staying in North Carolina helping a military son and his family, finally got to sneak away with my son,actually two sons, and oldest grandson to a shooting range this weekend. I had put together a custom Creedmoor for my youngest military son about 10 years ago and it's just been setting in the closet it has a hand-picked obermeyer cut rifle 8 twist, I already knew how accurate the rifle was, I had shot a 15 shot group with four different boxed ammos before I left Arkansas that group was 3/4 of an inch again, I was very impressed by a barrel that put four different loads from 120 to 140 grain and a 3/4 in group actually I've never seen that before ,I had pulled the scope off and packed it for the trip before we went to shoot Saturday morning ,we mounted an arkan scope on the rifle ,I bore-sighted it setting at the bench after two shots on 100 we were ready to go ,as my son settled into the rifle his groups went from around an inch to around a half inch real quick, he has become an expert shooter through experience in the military attending several long distance sniper schools even though he's not a sniper himself ,the range master was a nice young man and he was standing hovering watching the shoot we began a friendly conversation with him and of course he was a Creedmoor fanatic and had just gotten back from a long distance competition shoot with creedmoors, he began to rave about a seller's and belloit ammo that he and his group were shooting, my initial reaction was doubt and almost laughing because I'd never considered that ammo anything but plinking ammo, he could tell I didn't quite believe him so he went and got some of it as well as his $10,000 fancy Creed more rifle with everything but the kitchen sink on it, he handed my son some rounds and he fired a group with his fancy rifle it was about 3/4 of an inch my son sent one foul shot with the new powder load downrange and then proceeded to shoot a one whole group that group was better than any of the factory ELD 120 or 140, it was 140 grain Spitzer Full Metal Jacket again had I not been sitting there witnessing it I would never have believe it ,to those of you who shoot the Creedmoor I recommend you give that ammo a trial of course I'll probably wouldn't hunt with it but for accuracy planking and paperwork it was unbelievable!

 

[Ron Huff]

I shoot a lot of Sellier and Bellot ammo in my 6.5. Was given several boxes by a friend who deemed it junk but it shoots sub minute in my gun.

 

[Fishbc]

I don’t shoot factory ammo.
But that caliber is the most accurate of any I’ve ever shot. Groups with multiple different reloads all group a 1/4” or less.

 

[Mnt monkey]

I put together a bunch of creedmoors ,but actually I'm a 6.5x55 fan myself,, I'm a big fan of the bore, the only one I've ever had a little bit of finickyness has been the Grendel ,that particular rifle we were shooting had a barrel that boots obermeyer handpicked for me, it's an absolutely phenomenal barrel.

 

[Mnt monkey]

A friend and I started building 6.5 by 06 a 9 twists about 20 years ago we had some rich prairie dog shooters that kept buying them off of us, little by little we switched over to the 260 and the 55 as well as AI chambers in all the above.

 

[DavidAR10T]

There's not much like 6.5CM in a gasser. It's still in the weight class of a battle rifle and I say it's perfect for Scout/Snipers. Yeah, thozgyz that pack 1/2 an MRE per day and allowed to have all the water they can find. Frank Galli, owner of Snipers Hide proved it with an 18" suppressed AR at @ 1200yds and brutal crosswind. 18 dagnabit inches in a short action cartridge bangin' steel at @ 1.2K like most can't do at 600yds.
18" .308 WIN need not apply.

Galli walked on to 2nd MarDiv, 2nd MarDiv Division Schools, S/S School {Stone Bay, now home of MARSOC} as a student in September 1986. Hell of a man.

I have four gassers in 6.5CM. Three are built on Aero Precision M5E1 Builder Kits. The three barrels are 22" Ballistics Advantage, 24" Proof Research Carbon Fiber and 22" DRACOS. All three AP bolt carriers have the bolts replaced with JP Enterprise HP Bolt Kits. My favorite is the ARMALITE AR-10T B-Series 24" Krieger w/matched bolt kit. ARMALITE knew how to build a proper diameter firing pin channel in the bolt back in 1996.

 

[Mnt monkey]

Many bolt action fanatics have no idea what a really accurate gas gun can do ,I have a friend that has several custom 6.5x47s that on a good day it's all I can do to hang with him.

 

[Mnt monkey]

Those Swedish folks and other Europeans have been shooting that 6.5 bore for a long time, good reasons for that, I was glad to see it really catch hold in America years ago even though it's been here a long time, oh and I'm still a fan of the 30 bore also,,, we're fortunate today to have such great factory ammo it almost makes hand loading to me a thing of the past. There were calibers that I experimented with years ago for instance the 25-06 20 years ago with Factory ammo I was good to get two or three inch groups I had a pet load with 100 grain Sierra spire that would take my 25-06 from a 4-in factory group to a quarter minute Moa I haven't shot the 25 in years and I'm sure ammo has come a long way but for me back during that time it was a cartridge if you didn't hand load for it was a waste of time ,and again I'm speaking in a general sense if someone had a 25-06 20 years ago that stacked bullets I mean no disrespect , I never could find any factory ammo that was satisfactory back then, Creedmoor ammo today is phenomenal.

 

[Ninering62]

I put together a bunch of creedmoors ,but actually I'm a 6.5x55 fan myself,, I'm a big fan of the bore, the only one I've ever had a little bit of finickyness has been the Grendel ,that particular rifle we were shooting had a barrel that boots obermeyer handpicked for me, it's an absolutely phenomenal barrel.

We've had the 6.5x55 convo numerous times haven't we.
My father had a Krag that had not been sporterized. The " cool factor " alone, was off the hook & it was really cool to shoot. I only wished I'd have had the shooting ability back then, to do that gun any real justice.

 

[Mnt monkey]

The 6.5x55 was my favorite caliber for model 98 military barrels and builds, I fell in love with Mauser 98 actions and 6.5 barrels, Adams and Bennett barrels back then were about 80 or 90 dollars from Brownells we could get four or five actions for relatively nothing, learn to bend the bore handle and take files and shape the handle as well as the knob and a lot of other little tricks to make a Mauser shoot ,for me there's nothing like the slap of a Mauser Bolt ,I was also very impressed with the 7x57 in those days the five or six of those I put together were all half inch rifles too I'm not much of a historian but there are just some great firearms from the past that I can't get over.

 

[brad502a]

The 6.5x55 was my favorite caliber for model 98 military barrels and builds, I fell in love with Mauser 98 actions and 6.5 barrels, Adams and Bennett barrels back then were about 80 or 90 dollars from Brownells we could get four or five actions for relatively nothing, learn to bend the bore handle and take files and shape the handle as well as the knob and a lot of other little tricks to make a Mauser shoot ,for me there's nothing like the slap of a Mauser Bolt ,I was also very impressed with the 7x57 in those days the five or six of those I put together were all half inch rifles too I'm not much of a historian but there are just some great firearms from the past that I can't get over.

adams and bennet came from Midway. I bought my fair share and almost all were excellent shooters.

 

[Wilyote1]

I have an FN Mauser that wears a 257 barrel and was told it was an Adams & Bennet barrel. A machinist from our arsenal put it together and I got it through his estate auction for $180. Some of the attendees at the auction told me it might be a 257AI. It wasn't, but it shoots good groups at 100 yds.

I went out coyote hunting with a friend who shoots gassers. I assumed his MO was to let the lead fly and hope one hits. Boy was I wrong. His gasser was as every bit as accurate as my Tikka 223. I was surprised at the weight of his gasser with a 20" barrel. Not a walking rifle weight for me.

 

[Mnt monkey]

Several vendors sold Adams and Bennett barrels we did not do business with Midway back then but that's no big deal, one of the most accurate barrels I ever got from them was a 6.5 that I build a 55 out of if you looked at the rifling in it the machine marks were awful and I couldn't get that Barrel clean no matter what I did it shot a quarter inch all day long.

 

[Mnt monkey]

There were a lot of great barrels back in that era I remember some of the old two Groove 06 barrels it looked funny looking down the barrel I haven't seen one in a long time and we did have a lot of other obermyer barrels too which I really wish I had put some of those in the closet

 

[Mnt monkey]

We had a friend that traveled the world he tried to get a business going he was going to sell Hammer forged barrels here in America that were made in the Steyr plant over there in Europe they were some of the most beautiful barrels I have ever had my hands on some of them were polygonal some were cut rifle and of course they had that really cool hammered finish on them I so wish I had put some of them in the closet the gentleman's business plan never made it I still have a gunsmith friend that has a few stuck up on a Shelf I'm going to try to talk him out of one of the 30 cals

 

[brad502a]

yes the rifling was not lapped, but they shot!

 

[Mnt monkey]

That one I mentioned had such bad tool marks it was as if somebody had cut it with a dull screwdriver and no matter how much I cleaned on the barrel I could always get a dirty patch but I never built a rifle out of them that did not shoot maybe more Testament to that 6.5 bore but I sure miss those days where for under $500 you could build a semi custom gun

 

[Mnt monkey]

I miss bending bolts and shaping with files and there were a lot of little tricks to get that Mauser to work shoot better in a stock I was blessed to be around some old gunsmiths that knew a lot of tricks

 

[Mnt monkey]

During that era you could go into pawn shops around the Houston and East Texas area and buy those sporterized Mausers and even some really nice FN commercial type Mausers for really good prices most of the pawn shops especially in the metro area is did not know what they had if you knew what you were looking for you could really buy a great firearm I miss those 257 Roberts AI guns and other calibers such as

 

[Ga.Smokey]

It may not be well known on here but I'm a 6.5 junkie myself.
I believe I have 5 at the moment. Most built on savage actions.
My first exposure was with a full custom model 10 shoulder shank build.
I have an engineering contact at magnum reaserch that agreed to graphite wrap a barrel for me. So I ordered a lilja blank and sent it over. They contoured and wrapped the barrel sent it back to lilja for final lapping.
I threaded chambered installed and headspaced the action. Installed my muzzle brake . Dropped into a H.S. precision stock
Topped with a NF nxs 8-32×56 scope.
Testing reveled it to be a sure enough one hole gun.
Precise hits at 600 yards are as easy as putting on your shoes it's just second nature.
Shoots the 127 lrx from barnes into tiny little holes. It gets boring because there's nothing left to do..
Shot one of my best deer to date with it.
A 5 year old 9 point with a nice drop time.
The big boy strutted out doging a doe at 170 yards.
One shot dropped him in his tracks
I've been a fan of that load ever since.
Has shot sub MOA in all 5 of my rifles..
One a gas gun with a lilja tube. It shoots a 1/4 moa all day long.
My latest 6.5 is a 55 AI that Mt monkey had laying around a beautiful rem 700 I'm looking forward to working up a load for that gun it will shoot a hole I'm sure.