6.5x47 - Lighter bullets

[ovenpaa]

I shoot a 6,5x47 and only ever shoot 123 Scenar, usually pointed. I am thinking of using it with lighter bullets for a specific application, does anyone have any experience of fast light bullets in the x47?

[The Gun Pimp]

Yup - used the 108gn Scenars for short range (McQueen at 200 & 300yds) but I still feel that the 123gn is the 'natural' weight for this cartridge. Having said that, I'm currently using the Scenar L - which is 120gn.

[mullen7]

What range are you using the 120/123s out to? Out of interest?

[ovenpaa]

I shoot 123 Scenar's to 1200 yards on a still day with good accuracy. Shooting on a windy day makes things a lot harder.

[mullen7]

Luckily I don't have access to a 1200 yrd range yet. How do they shoot at roughly 500 with a bit of wind? Where I shoot fullbore, there seems to be a swirl, I usually read it quite well on the 223, but have yet to have a shot on the 6.5. Presume, if I can read it fairly well with the 223, I will be fine with the 6.5?

[The Gun Pimp]

Luckily I don't have access to a 1200 yrd range yet. How do they shoot at roughly 500 with a bit of wind? Where I shoot fullbore, there seems to be a swirl, I usually read it quite well on the 223, but have yet to have a shot on the 6.5. Presume, if I can read it fairly well with the 223, I will be fine with the 6.5?

No problem out to 500/600 yds.

[Laurie]

The 123gn Scenar is capable of hits at even longer ranges than 1,200 yards. Have a look at this pair of You Tube videos of two guys taking three shots at silhouettes at every hundred yards distance from 500 to 1,700. Both have semi-custom tactical type rifles with what looks like 26-inch barrels. One uses the 6XC with 115s, the other 6.5mm Creedmoor with 123s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNCl28ZS1Us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8-I19XD9y4

[ovenpaa]

One memorable and very still afternoon I put four consecutive shots into an F Class V at 1200 yards. The last fell in the 5 Ring low right much to the delight of the person who with who told me he had always known I was a crap shot

That was my trusty old AI with 26" Border, my own sound moderator and pointed 123 Scenar's off a rear squeeze bag (Fiver off eB*y) and a Versapod with a home made friction lock. The following month I shot from exactly the same point and got a good kicking from a .284 F Open Shooter, the only difference was a stronger and variable wind which he for most dealt with shooting 180 grain VLD's.

On reasonable days the 123 Scenar shoots well at distance and is the only bullet I have used in the 6,5x47

[mullen7]

On the otherside of things, what heavier weights are people getting success with?

[Laurie]

A number of people do well with the 130gn Norma (VERY high BC design), JLK, or Berger VLDs. That assumes your rifle's barrel likes VLDs and not all do. In a suitably throated-out chamber, the cartridge handles 140s and the new 136gn Lapua Scenar (a VLD or near VLD design). Unless you specify this, a new 6.5X47L or existing rifle rebarrelled as such usually has far too short freebore to suit these longer bullets.

Some people have good results with this class of bullet, notably one of the USA's top long-range F-Class shooters, Erik Kortina. Most people (self and The Gun Pimp included) reckon 130gn and under suits the size of the cartridge (ie its internal ballistics characteristics) better. I know one user who took his original build back to the gunsmith and demanded chamber throat extension to handles 140s, but who went back to the more common short throat when the need to rebarrel arose. He now shoots the new 120gn Lapua Scenar which several users tell me gives fantastic precision at short / mid ranges.

The next size(s) up are better suited to 140gn class bullets than the little '47L: 6.5mm Hornady Creedmoor; 260 Rem; 6.5-284 Norma.