Intrigued by the advantages of the 6.5 cartridges, I broke down and purchased a 6.5 PRC. The PRC ballistics filling a gap perfectly between 2 other rifles / cartridges I use often.

Hoping this rifle will be accurate.

The more I read, it seems folks are enjoying this cartridge. If you own / use a 6.5 PRC - your + or - comments would be greatly appreciated. Performance / favorite bullet / powder/ etc.

THANKS!!!

I don’t own a 6.5 PRC and so perhaps shouldn’t respond, but given the absence of responses so far, let me just throw a couple of things out there.

You should expect performance that will be about equal to that of the .270 Win. Case capacity for the various bullet weights is just about identical between the two. Perhaps a closer comparison would be to the 6.5-06. What is gained by the 6.5 PRC is a shorter cartridge case and COAL, shorter action length (and so maybe a lighter rifle), but no performance gain. What will be lost is probably magazine capacity—3+1 for the PRC vs 4+1 for the ’06-family cartridges. Perhaps being a 6.5 mm. cartridge, the current interest in this bore size will account for a better selection of bullets than is available in .277”, but there are lots of top-end bullets now in that bore size too.

If you look at loading data for the 6.5 PRC and the .270 Win., you’ll see that a number of newer high energy powders are listed for the PRC as opposed to the older well-established powders generally listed for the .270 Win. This would seem to argue for higher velocities from the PRC, but if the same powders are used in the two cases (and barrel lengths are held constant), there will be no velocity advantage for the PRC.

Please pardon my cynicism here, but it’s hard not to conclude that a number of the newer cartridges have been developed to bump up firearm and ammunition sales and not much more. Hornady provides glowing praise (and gets some gun writer friends to chime in) for the new 6.5 PRC, but is it really any better than the 100-year old .270 Win. or the 6.5-06 wildcat? Keeping sales high requires new products—whether superior to older ones or not—along with glossy new advertising claims. The .270 Win. has been with us for 100 years and now provides even better performance with some of the new powders. Will the 6.5 PRC (or the 6.5 Creedmoor for that matter) still be seen as a top seller in 10 years?

I know all of this seems like a pretty negative view of the cartridge, but I’m not really criticizing it—just pointing out that it doesn’t really represent much of an improvement (except perhaps for cartridge length) over existing cartridges. Just as the .270 Win. is a very effective cartridge, so too will the 6.5 PRC provide the same excellent performance. If you can get your hands on some of the newer high-energy powders like Alliant Re26, Vihtavuori N560, or even the older Norma MRP, you’ll achieve the best velocities with it. Accuracy will, to some extent, depend on whether you can seat the bullets close to the lands with whatever magazine length you have.

Task1, what rifle did you purchase? I have a Fierce and a Sako S20 in 6.5 PRC. The Sako is heavier and used for long range shooting and the Fierce has been on quite a few hunts as it is fairly light. The comparison to the .270 was made by Ron Spomer as well, on youtube if you are interested. Lots of cartridges out there that don't do much other than duplicate another existing cartridge. The 6.5 will slightly outperform the 270 at the longer ranges. At 1000 yards, comparing factory Hornady ammo (145 gr for the 270 and 143 gr for the 6.5) the PRC retains about 162 ft lbs more energy, drops 22 inches less, and drifts 14 inches less in a 10mph wind. Not a huge difference but there it is. I really like my 270 so no surprise that I really like the 6.5 PRC as well.

I shoot two 6.5 PRC's, one a Sauer 100 and the other a Ruger AR-15 style. Both are very accurate with that .264 bullet that had always impressed me prior to shooting it. I have shot many bullets and settled on the 130 grain Barnes TSX as my most accurate and fastest, as I like speed in anything I shoot. My fastest load with accuracy is 63 grains of Magpro at 3267 fps, I get half inch groups with a few at .3 inch. My consistently accurate load is 57 grains of VVN-565 at 2987 fps and one hole accuracy, meaning three shots touching at 100 yards. The Ruger has a 26 inch barrel the Sauer a 24 inch barrel. I hope this helps your quest for the shooting and loading for your rifle. Good Shooting.

Gentlemen, thank you for your educational responses, much appreciated. Sorry about the late reply, blame Life and work.

The rifle is a 2020 Waypoint - not carbon. Long story short, heavily reducing my rifle inventory, I want 1 rifle to effectively handle Coyote, Deer and Black Bear. Tried to do that with my .270 Win. NO go on the Wiley bullets and I tried. After some very hard, serious thinking, chose the 6.5 PRC. At least for this fussy s.o.b., the PRC is meeting all the accuracy expectations. Generally speaking now, I have the benefits of the .270 coupled with a good list of latest and greatest bullets. What's not to like?

Bullets:
Wiley - 130 TMK.
BG - 140 Accubond.
Performance on game? TBD

Sincerely wish I could get past my mistrust of all copper, i.e. your 130 TTSX. Good on you!

My 1 other rifle is a Tikka Laminated SS 30-06 w/200 gr Partitions for the heavy chores. Surprisingly a one-holer with 165 gr BT's @ 100.

Very much enjoyed reading your responses.

Cheers.