Rifle Shooter Looks at the 6mm Creedmoor Inch by Barrel Inch

by Nathan S

Published: February 9th, 2017

rifle shooter looks at the 6mm creedmoor inch by barrel inch

While 6.5 Creedmoor is all the rage in the OEM world, quite a few in the reloading world have been looking at .260 Remington and its slightly hotter, smaller cousin, the 6mm Creedmoor for their precision long-range builds. Like the 6.5, the 6mm Creedmoor eeks out just a hair more case capacity (though some would argue this depending on the brass manufacturer).

6mm Creedmoor is pending SAAMI publication, but quite a few are looking to the caliber for their PRS and 1000+ yard guns while keeping to short-action lengths. Looking to it in a similar, albeit more scientific vein, RifleShooter.com purchased a 31″ blank and proceeded to test the caliber inch by inch.

The results? Its a barrel-burning caliber, but produces 3000+ FPS out of barrels 20″+ repeatedly. Considering 6mm’s ballistic coefficient, its a fantastically fast round capable of reaching out and touching targets. Putting pure speed aside for a second, Rifleshooter also looked to interpret the data.

In short, it seems that 25″ is the point of diminishing return for the caliber. Past that barrel length, gains in velocity drop relative to the barrel length.

For the full article, head on over to RifleShooter.com. The data, including details on the barrel, loads tested (all factory) and full results are live and ready for the long-range aficionado’s consumption.

#6mm #Ballistics #Wildcat #SAAMI #Testing #Creedmoor

Nathan S

One of TFB's resident Jarheads, Nathan now works within the firearms industry. A consecutive Marine rifle and pistol expert, he enjoys local 3-gun, NFA, gunsmithing, MSR's, & high-speed gear. Nathan has traveled to over 30 countries working with US DoD & foreign MoDs.The above post is my opinion and does not reflect the views of any company or organization.

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15 of 35 comments

Noob on Feb 09, 2017

Should .260 be worried that everyone is ogling its "slightly hotter, smaller cousin"?

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- JNZ on Feb 09, 2017
  
  @noob First of all, +1 for slightly hotter cousins everywhere...
  But yea, 260 is done. When mfgs started switching guns from 260 to 6.5... They're practically identical, so to see mfgs switch from one to the other, that's market driven right there.
  260 is great that it's the same case as a 308, but in typical Remington fashion, they just didn't support it like they should have. Contrast that with the 6.5cm where you can go buy excellently consistent rounds from Hornady anywhere in the country off the shelf, lapua is making brass for 6.5, etc. It's just over with.
  
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- Nate_naah on Feb 09, 2017
  
  @JNZ word to that. If remington actually supported 260 I would have just bought a 700 instead of going to get a 6.5.
  
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- Iksnilol on Feb 09, 2017
  
  @JNZ 6.5 cm? Duuude, you've got a better shoulder than me.
  in all seriousness, .260 might have an advantage since you cna use the same bolt as 308. So a switch barrel going from from .308 to .260 might be nice since you'd avoid messing/packing with another bolt.
  
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- V on Feb 09, 2017
  
  @iksnilol Now tell me what practical use it has to switch between .308 and .260 and hunking around another large long heavy barrel.
  
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- Iksnilol on Feb 09, 2017
  
  @V I dunno, l like switch barrels. Prefer over having two guns.
  
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- Anonymoose on Feb 09, 2017
  
  @iksnilol I'd rather just have an 8.8 cm, even if it doesn't have that same "flat trajectory" as the 6.5 cm.
  
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- Sunshine_Shooter on Feb 09, 2017
  
  @iksnilol I really like the idea of switch barrel designs, but they tend to be inefficient money-wise in most platforms.
  
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- Quest on Feb 09, 2017
  
  @Anonymoose Do you play in the kid-sandpit with that 8.8cm? 80cm Schwerer Gustav much more adequate, both for paper target shooting at range, and home defence when you dont want overpenetration against drywalls.
  
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- Iksnilol on Feb 09, 2017
  
  @Sunshine_Shooter I dunno, I kinda disagree. Cheaper and easier for me to buy a new barrel and having it fitted than it is to buy an entire new gun, then setting it up with optics and slings, suppressors etc.
  
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- G on Feb 09, 2017
  
  @iksnilol 6.5 Creedmoor and 6.5x47 Lapua use the same bolt as 260 Remington.
  
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- Iksnilol on Feb 09, 2017
  
  @G Oh, then anything with the Remington is getting screwed.
  
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- Anonymoose on Feb 09, 2017
  
  @Quest That too, but I'm not usually in the city-penetration business.
  
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- Tassiebush on Feb 10, 2017
  
  @Anonymoose You pick up in the country?
  
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Underoverlay on Feb 09, 2017

Very cool stuff.
Given that good old .243 Win will kick out 105-110ish grain match bullets at around 3kfps (especially from our 28"bbl Ruger M77mkII varmint rifle), what's the advantage of 6mm Creedmoor vs. this venerable cartridge that you can buy ammo for in virtually every shop that sells ammo in North America (Chuck Hawks calls it "the most popular CXP2-class game cartridge in the world")?
I'd be really interested to see a head-to-head test between the two cartridges. For bonus points, add .243 Ackley & 6mm Remington to the test. All using the same brass (e.g. Hornady), primers, bullets, powder, etc.

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Rifle Shooter Looks at the 6mm Creedmoor Inch by Barrel Inch

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