Modern rifles

I began the year with three beautiful bolt action rifles: two rebarreled Remington 700s in 270 Winchester and 30-06 Springfield, and a Tikka T3X in 6.5 Creedmoor.

They each shoot factory ammunition well and excel with handloads, and all three fit me like a glove. Between them, they could handle almost any reasonable shooting application.

My 6.5 Creedmoor and 270 Win (the latter rebarreled with a faster-twist offering) sufficed for light-to-medium hunting and target duty.

The 270 (with the 170 grain bullets made possible by the faster barrel twist) and 30-06 between them covered heavier projectile requirements.

However, there comes a time when one must abandon old ways and embrace the new.

I’d been watching new cartridges sprout like dandelions over the last decade or two. Some were flashes in the pan, while others showed staying power, representing real advances in ballistics.

While the 6.5 Creedmoor is a fairly modern round (2007), the other two hail from antiquity. However, all three–like my beloved F-16–have been overcome by technology in recent years.

Looking into my gun safe, it occurred to me that the same shooting chores could be better handled by just two modern cartridges: the 6.5 and 300 PRC.

PRC stands for “Precision Rifle Cartridge”: both were introduced, like the 6.5 Creedmoor, by Hornady.

In short, the 6.5 PRC is a slightly faster, harder-hitting version of the 6.5 Creedmoor, while the 300 PRC does everything the 270 and 30-06 can do, but at greater distances. You could argue that it also replaces the venerable 300 Win Mag of army sniper fame, while also crowding out other recent offerings.

Replacing old standbys with modern tech made cold, objective sense, even if I had to basically start over when it came to reloading equipment, etc.

But abandoning those old friends felt cruel–like beating kittens.

Fortunately, my family rallied round and I found forever homes for each rifle. The recipients also graciously accepted the reloading supplies, spare ammo, and copious notes that I’d collected for each over the years.

In with the new

My original plan was to assemble a single semi-custom rifle using a premium action, prefit barrel, upgraded trigger, stock, etc.

To keep costs down I intended to use the same base gun for both calibers, buying only separate barrels (and magazines) for each. I’d have to run the 6.5 PRC in a long-, rather than the usual short action, but that was a fairly simple proposition–a feature, rather than a bug.

Years of upgrading my other bolt guns left me with a clear idea of the components I wanted.

What I didn’t appreciate, however, was the overwhelming demand for those components: 22-week waits were par for the course for actions, and prefit barrels were running about 12. Having made the decision (and having already given away all my guns), I wanted to make it happen NOW.

Furthermore, when I put together a spreadsheet I discovered that–unlike assembling a gaming PC–doing it myself wouldn’t save enough money to allow me to go with the high end components I wanted.

It would still be cheaper to just buy two factory rifles, even nice ones.

So–after emptying my savings and searching under couch cushions for spare change–I started shopping.

I already have a couple of nice rimfires for plinking, and a gas gun in 6mm ARC for light shooting chores. A 6.5 PRC and a 300 PRC would definitely complete the lineup: the question was, which ones?

Choosing a 6.5 PRC

My Tikka T3X in 6.5 Creedmoor shot exceptionally well right out of the box. As much as I enjoy tinkering with firearms, I was always hesitant to change anything on that rifle.

Even the synthetic factory stock, which had a plastic, Tupperware-ish look, worked so amazingly well that I left it alone (well, other than an ill-advised attempt to paint it. The less we speak of that, the better–anyway, it was nothing that a Mossy Oak vinyl gun skin couldn’t cover).

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I hoped to repeat that good experience with another Tikka, so I picked out a T3X Super Varmint in 6.5 PRC. This upgraded version even had a good-looking stock! I wish they’d include more than one magazine, but few companies do that. I’ll order a spare one of these days…

I double-checked the torque on the action screws and the included picatinny scope base, then adjusted the trigger pull to 3 lbs. I took a Vortex Viper PST Gen II 3-15×44 scope and a pair of Seekins rings off of the 270 and bought a box of Hornady Precision Hunter factory ammunition to sight it in.

Tikkas have no particular barrel break-in regimen.

I noticed right away that the 6.5 PRC has a much sharper recoil than the 6.5 CM. It wasn’t as bad as a 30-30, but small-framed shooters will probably prefer the Creedmoor to the more capable PRC.

The first box of Precision Hunter shot right at 1 MOA, with an average muzzle velocity of 2887 fps–a little slow for this caliber. The standard deviation between shots was high-ish–around 15 fps.

I expect the average muzzle velocity to increase and the standard deviation to settle down after I shoot another box or two of ammo through this rifle.

Overall, the Tikka felt good: a serious rifle.

While the Hornady factory ammo was acceptable, I think I can do better. I bought the usual reloading gear and decided to give those Hornady 143 grain ELD-X bullets another try, this time with H1000 and H4831SC powders.

I had a bunch of the H4831SC already (I use it in my .270 loads), but ordered the H1000 because the usual internet suspects recommended it for use in both the 6.5 and 300 PRC.

I also decided to try an all-copper, lead free bullet: the Barnes 127 grain LRX. Barnes reloading data, along with the internet chorus, led me to try those same two powders with the LRX.

I’ll let you know how the reloads work out.

The big artillery

When choosing a 300 PRC I agonized between the Christensen Arms Mesa Long Range and the Bergara Premier HMR Pro.

I’d just about decided on the latter when I noticed it has a slower twist barrel (1:9″ vs. 1:8″), so I went with the Mesa LR after all.

The faster twist rate will allow me to shoot heavier bullets.

I checked the action screws at 65 in-lbs per the owner’s manual. The Trigger Tech trigger was maxed out at 4 lbs so I adjusted it back to 3.25 lbs.

Since this is supposed to be a long distance shooter, I decided it needed a more powerful scope than my usual 3-15×44.

Vortex is upgrading their scope line but I was still able to find my fave Viper PST Gen IIs on sale at Midway USA. I picked up a 5-25×50 at an excellent price, and ordered a Seekins rail and a set of matched Vortex scope rings to go with it.

I bought a couple of extra cheek rest spacers from Christensen Arms and before my credit card spontaneously combusted, ordered reloading gear and components (212 and 208 grain versions of the same ELD-X and LRX bullets as before), along with a box of Hornady Precision Hunter factory ammo to sight in the scope.

I was worried about excessive recoil from the 300 PRC, but the included muzzle brake did its job well. The back blast was LOUD, as expected, but the recoil was more of a solid “push.” It was like shooting a well-balanced 30-06.

The vertical grip was a great help: I really felt like I was in control, even though the 13-pound rifle was definitely nose-heavy.

Unlike Tikka, Christensen Arms has a fairly laborious barrel break-in procedure: shoot two three-shot groups, clean the barrel, then repeat until you’ve fired 50 rounds.

I panicked slightly when I realized that 50 wasn’t divisible by 3, but decided to shoot three-shot groups as instructed until I was down to the remaining two cartridges, then just shoot those.

Call me a wild-eyed rebel if you will, but I suspect it’ll be OK.

In fact, there are those who say the whole shoot/clean/shoot/clean/etc. break-in business is overrated, including the gunsmith who trued and rebarreled my Model 700s (and who is also a competitive shooter): “just shoot a box of ammo, then clean it.”

Which is not to say that barrels don’t “settle in” after a given number of rounds (when initial muzzle velocities stop increasing).

But I digress.

Speaking of cleaning, the extra comb height I’d gained by adding those two spacers meant that I could no longer get the bolt out.

Unless I wanted to remove the cheek rest every time I clean the rifle, I needed to make an adjustment. Some stock makers add notches or cutouts to the comb to address this: eventually, it dawned on me to make my own “notch” by reversing the factory cheek pad.

With its longer barrel (26″ vs 24″ on the Tikka), the Mesa Long Range nearly matched my initial 6.5 PRC velocities, averaging 2860 fps. Again, muzzle velocities varied, with a standard deviation around 20 fps.

It also shot 1 MOA and, like the Tikka, will doubtless settle down after another box of ammunition.

Either way, I’m hoping my reloads–tailored to this specific rifle–will do even better. Words to follow…

Happily Ever After

I’m looking forward to the process of load development and checking my dope as I put these state-of-the-art cartridges through their paces at increasingly longer ranges.

In the meantime, I recommend both of these rifles to anyone who wants to try their hand at new age firearms tech.