Christensen Arms 300 Win Mag With Factory Ammo Review

The new 6.v Cathay is turning heads and getting a lot of skilful publicity these days, merely do you lot actually need 1?

Though information technology's only been around for a couple of years, the new vi.5 Precision Rifle Cartridge (6.5 PRC) made a big splash when it first came on the scene in 2018.

The vi.5 Creedmoor cartridge has taken the hunting and shooting worlds by tempest in recent years and this has helped ignite a surge in the popularity of 6.5mm/.264 caliber cartridges in general. Well, with the dizzying array of half-dozen.5mm cartridges out in that location like the half-dozen.5 Grendel, the vi.v Swede, the .260 Remington, the 6.five-284 Norma, and the .264 Winchester Magnum, many people are wondering exactly what the 6.5 Red china brings to the table that those older cartridges don't already practice.

That's perfectly reasonable. After all, many people said the same sort of things about the six.5 Creedmoor. Well, the 6.5 Prc is essentially a magnum version of the vi.five Creedmoor and it offers some definite advantages over the Creedmoor cartridge. Many hunters are still understandably skeptical about the new half dozen.five Precision Burglarize Cartridge though.

Is the vi.five People's republic of china just the latest fad that will get overshadowed by the next whiz bang cartridge that comes along? Are the benefits provided by the 6.5 People's republic of china to hunters and shooters big enough to justify making the switch over to the new cartridge?

In this article, I'm going to discuss the pros and cons of the 6.v Precision Rifle Cartridge in detail. I'll besides provide some data on how the 6.v PRC stacks up side by side to the 6.5 Creedmoor then y'all tin determine if it fits your needs as a hunter.

Before we get started, I have an authoritative note:

Some of the links below are affiliate links. This ways I will earn a small commission (at no actress toll to you) if you lot brand a buy. This helps support the blog and allows me to go along to create costless content that'south useful to hunters like yourself. Thanks for your back up.

Additionally, I recorded an entire podcast episode on this exact subject. If you'd rather listen than read, click the appropriate link beneath to listen to this episode on your preferred podcasting service.

Be sure to striking that "Subscribe" button in your podcast player!

6.v Prc Podcast

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6.5 Precision Rifle Cartridge History

The story of the six.v PRC began in 2013 when George Gardner, owner of GA Precision, decided to create a new cartridge specifically designed for competitive shooters and hunters. In particular, he was trying to make an ideal cartridge for use past Precision Rifle Series competition (PRS) shooters.

By this signal, the six.5mm Creedmoor cartridge had really started to have off in the shooting community. However, for all the strengths of the 6.5 Creedmoor, it was lacking in a few areas that were particularly of import to PRS shooters.

During PRS competitions, shooters must rapidly engage targets in diverse scenarios at a variety of ranges all the way out past ane,000 yards. The competition is timed, so first round hits are ideal, merely at that place'south more to these competitions than small shot groups. The power to make rapid follow upward shots and quickly correct for misses are besides extremely important.

Shooters cannot utilize bullets larger than .308″ or with a velocity higher than 3,200 feet per second. For those reasons, flat shooting, medium bore, loftier velocity (upward to a betoken), and mild recoiling cartridges with a long barrel life have a big reward in these competitions.

Well, not only did Gardner want to build a cartridge that met PRS specifications, only he likewise wanted a cartridge that would fit in a short-action receiver. The curt-action rifles have a couple of important advantages and are correspondingly very popular among long range competitive shooters.

Pictured in a higher place: half dozen.5 Creedmoor, six.5 PRC, 300 WSM, and .xxx-06 Springfield

What are the advantages of a curt-action rifle over a rifle with a longer activity length?

First, a brusk action burglarize has a shorter bolt throw (and a correspondingly faster cycling time) than a standard or a magnum length action.

At the same time, those shorter length actions practise too deliver a small advantage in accuracy due to their stiffer activity.

Finally, proponents of brusque-action cartridges too debate that a shorter and wider pulverization cavalcade is more quickly ignited past the primer and burns more evenly than a comparable amount of powder in a longer and more narrow cavalcade. In theory, this results in improved accuracy for the shorter example.

All of those parameters eventually led him to determine on a half dozen.5 mm/.264-quotient circular.

Garnder said to Outdoor Life:

I wanted the highest BC bullet you can push at iii,200 in a brusk action. The 6s can exist pushed that fast, but they have lower BCs. The 7 mils accept college BCs but can't be pushed at three,200 fps in a curt-action. The lack of bullet selection in the .25 and .270 ruled those out—so that'southward why I settled on the vi.5.

After deciding on an advisable caliber, he needed to select a case to serve as a parent to his new wildcat cartridge.

In addition to finding a case with just the right amount of ability capacity (not likewise little, not too much) to accomplish his desired performance levels, Gardner as well ideally wanted to use a case without a rebated rim and without a belt. This eliminated the .375 H&H and cartridges like the .264 Winchester Magnum and .300 Winchester Magnum descended from it.

The Winchester Short Magnum line of cartridges checked the beltless and non-rebated rim boxes, but had a little more case capacity than he was looking for.

Gardner initially wanted to use the Ruger Meaty Magnum case (itself based on the .375 Ruger) equally a parent case.

However, you might remember that we were in the middle of a massive ammo shortage in 2013.

For this reason, Hornady (which produced Ruger Meaty Magnum brass), declined to work with him at first because they were stretched to capacity making brass for more popular cartridges like the .223 Remington and .308 Winchester that were the object of so much panic buying at the time.

For that reason, Gardner settled on the Remington Short Activeness Ultra Magnum (SAUM) as a parent example. Based on the Remington Ultra Magnum (itself descended from the .404 Jeffrey), the new six.five SAUM worked pretty well for his purposes, only Gardner was not 100% satisfied by the rebated rim case.

Fortunately, things did eventually calm down with the ammo panic buying and Hornady was able to turn their attention to what would become the six.5 Cathay and redesign the cartridge using a .300 Ruger Compact Magnum (RCM) case similar Gardner originally wanted.

Hornady formally rolled out their new six.v Precision Rife Cartridge at the 2018 SHOT Bear witness. The cartridge, along with .300 PRC (also descended from the .375 Ruger), received formal SAAMI blessing later that yr.

half-dozen.5 PRC Ballistics

Typical vi.5 PRC ballistics are a 143gr bullet at 2,960fps (two,782 ft-lbs) or a 147gr bullet at 2,910fps (2,764 ft-lbs). Both of these loads are designed to minimize bullet drop and wind drift at extended range. half-dozen.5 Red china factory loads more often than not fire the same bullet approximately 200-250fps faster than the 6.5 Creedmoor.

With careful handloading, information technology's possible to come very close to that three,200fps goal Gardner had when he starting time designed the cartridge.

Specifically, maximum handloads published past Hornady evidence a velocity of 3,150fps with a 143 grain ELD-Ten bullet and a velocity of three,050fps with a 147 grain ELD Lucifer bullet. Both of those loads were obtained using a 26″ barrel, so your mileage may vary.

That is pretty impressive performance, especially from a cartridge that size!

6.5 PRC vs 6.5 Creedmoor

6.v PRC manufactory loads usually fire the same bullet 200-250fps faster than the 6.5 Creedmoor. Therefore, 6.5 PRC has a flatter trajectory, more than retained energy, and less wind drift than the 6.five Creedmoor at typical hunting ranges. Even so, the 6.5 PRC has slightly more than recoil than the six.five Creedmoor.

That's how the 6.5 Precision Rifle Cartridge compares to the half dozen.5mm Creedmoor in a nutshell. As we drill down into the details of their similarities and differences though, several specially important factors emerge.

Well, the 6.v Creedmoor and the 6.five PRC both fire the same .264″ bore bullets. In fact, Hornady frequently uses the verbal same bullets in manufactory loads for each cartridge.

Both cartridges were as well purpose congenital for long range shooting. For this reason, they were designed to use the longest and heaviest bullets available for their caliber without intruding into the powder column. For these reasons, long, heavy for caliber bullets will fit in the mag and sleeping accommodation in 6.5mm Creedmoor and six.v PRC rifles.

Both cartridges are known for their exceptional accuracy and both are well suited for using high BC and high SD, heavy for caliber match form hunting bullets.

Most six.v Creedmoor and 6.5 Mainland china rifles ordinarily have a relatively fast rifling twist rate (quite oftentimes ane:8″) in lodge to stabilize those long, heavy, high BC bullets. The 6.5 Creedmoor commonly uses 120gr, 140gr, 143gr, and 147gr bullets. While the half dozen.5 China can employ those lighter bullets, it'southward near usually available with either 143gr or 147gr bullets.

Both cartridges employ a minimally tapered case with a 30 caste shoulder.

However, the 6.five Precision Rifle Cartridge is slightly longer, both in terms of case length and overall length, than the half-dozen.v Creedmoor. The 6.5 Creedmoor has a .473″ rim diameter, while the 6.5 PRC has a larger .532″ rim bore.

For these reasons, the 6.5 PRC actually has considerably more case chapters than the 6.5 Creedmoor (62gr vs 52.5gr of H2o). It as well has a higher SAAMI maximum pressure of 65,000psi vs 62,000psi for the half-dozen.5 Creedmoor.

Most manufacturers draw the line between brusque-action and long-action rifles somewhere around the overall length the Winchester Short Magnum cartridges (2.86″). Well, the 6.5 Creedmoor has an overall length of 2.825″, and so it clearly fits the generally accepted parameters for short activeness cartridges.

All the same, with an overall length of ii.955″, the half-dozen.5 China exceeds those standards by a hair.

And then, while the 6.5 PRC is marketed as a short-action cartridge, that's not strictly true. Nonetheless, the cartridge still fits an impressive amount of performance into a compact package.

Note: while the powder capacity figures listed above do give a skilful indication of the differences betwixt the two cartridges, exact case capacities vary slightly co-ordinate to the brand of contumely used.

The table below compares a 143gr Hornady ELD-X (.625 BC) load in 6.5 Creedmoor to a load shooting an identical bullet in six.5 PRC. This data is for Hornady Precision Hunter mill ammo using a 200 yard aught and a 24 inch barrel.

Every bit you can see, the six.5 PRC has a flatter trajectory with about 8.2″ (18%) less bullet drop at 500 yards. The vi.5 PRC besides has about 20% more energy at the cage and about 23% more energy remaining at 500 yards than the 6.5 Creedmoor.

Since this commodity is focused on the performance of these cartridges for hunting, I didn't include any ballistic data past 500 yards in the tabular array in a higher place. Withal, only to requite yous an idea of the superiority of the half-dozen.5 People's republic of china over the 6.five Creedmoor at long range, consider this: the six.5 Creedmoor has over 58″ (~23%) more bullet drib at 1,000 yards with a 200 chiliad aught.

To further illustrate that aforementioned point, consider the supersonic ranges of the two cartridges. This particular 6.5 Creedmoor load drops below the speed of sound around one,475 yards, but the 6.5 PRC stays supersonic out until effectually 1,650 yards.

The chart beneath compares how much a 10 mile per hour crosswind impacts those same loads for each cartridge out to 500 yards.

At 500 yards, there'south just 1.8″ separating them.

At 1,000 yards, the 6.5 Creedmoor has about ix″ (~15%) more wind drift than the 6.5 PRC. That'due south non nothing, but it'due south not a gigantic difference either.

That's not really surprising though. After all, the ii cartridges are using the exact same bullet. So, the difference hither is entirely due to the 260fps reward in cage velocity the 6.5 PRC has.

At present allow'south talk nearly recoil.

The table beneath compares a couple of handloads that judge the performance of the factory loads given higher up when fired from identical Ruger Hawkeye Long Range rifles.

Felt recoil volition vary from shooter to shooter and rifle to burglarize, but free recoil free energy is nonetheless a useful style to compare cartridges.

The 6.5mm Creedmoor is known for having a relatively mild recoil. However, the 6.5 Red china achieves that velocity reward over the half dozen.5 Creedmoor at the expense of about 38% more than free recoil energy.

Every bit a betoken of comparison, the free recoil energy generated by the six.5 PRC load above is slightly less than the recoil energy produced past a run of the mill .270 Winchester hunting load in a rifle that weighs the same. Yes, that'south quite a flake more than the six.5 Creedmoor, only the vi.5 PRC is hardly a fire breathing, heavy recoiling magnum cartridge either.

Take all that for what yous will.

And so where do we stand up overall with the 6.five PRC vs vi.5mm Creedmoor?

Basically, the six.five PRC is capable of firing the same bullet somewhat faster than the 6.5 Creedmoor. That translates into a flatter trajectory, more than resistance to air current drift, and more than kinetic free energy at typical hunting ranges.

If you desire to use the half dozen.5 Mainland china for elk hunting, the additional couple hundred ft-lbs of kinetic free energy the cartridge provides will certainly come in handy. The flatter trajectory and more than resistance to wind drift of the vi.5 Precision Rifle Cartridge can as well help with shot placement.

This does make the cartridge a niggling bit more forgiving of range or wind estimation errors than the 6.five Creedmoor.

While this is probably not an consequence for almost hunters, typical 6.5 PRC barrel life is very likely shorter than typical six.5 Creedmoor barrel life.

Since the two cartridges use the same diameter barrel, throat erosion occurs faster with the half dozen.five PRC because it has substantially more than case capacity. Simply put, burning more than powder in an equally sized space will result in shorter barrel life.

This means that, in general, the 6.5 PRC will simply article of clothing out barrels faster than the vi.five Creedmoor volition. Exactly how fast that occurs depends on a number of factors like the quality of the barrel, the verbal armament used, etc.

For serious target shooters, this is a concern. Nonetheless, the adept news for hunters is that typical half-dozen.5 Prc barrel life of 1,000-2,000 rounds is more than enough to concluding for many years of hunting with no bug at all.

So, while in that location is a divergence in 6.5 Creedmoor vs 6.five PRC barrel life, information technology probably isn't going to be a big outcome for near hunters.

Unfortunately, the 6.5 Cathay does take quite a bit more recoil than the 6.5 Creedmoor though.

While many hunters should be able to handle the recoil of both cartridges without likewise much trouble, don't underestimate the touch on that recoil has on the power of a person to shoot accurately either. Regardless of how well a given person handles recoil, all other things being equal, they will absolutely shoot better with a milder recoil.

A mild recoil also facilitates with spotting misses and taking a rapid follow upwards shot both at the range and afield.

Here's one last thing to consider when comparison these cartridges: magazine capacity.

Since it uses a larger example diameter, nearly rifle magazines will agree more half dozen.5 Creedmoor cartridges than 6.five China cartridges. Typically, a rifle mag that can hold 4 (or sometimes v) six.5 Creedmoor cartridges will just be able to hold iii half dozen.5 PRC cartridges.

All things considered though, both cartridges are very accurate, flat shooting, and hit difficult enough for apply on a wide diversity of game at practical hunting ranges. Regardless of whether you're using a half-dozen.5mm Creedmoor or a 6.5 PRC, no pronghorn, mule deer, or elk will arrive if you put a well synthetic bullet into the vitals.

Of the ii cartridges though, the six.5 Creedmoor is still past far the most popular with hunters. This is reflected in the prices, availability, and variety of manufacturing plant ammunition and hunting rifles currently in production for each cartridge.

So, even though the 6.5 Communist china does have some advantages on paper, don't count out the 6.v Creedmoor even so. It's still a great hunting round and it's a whole lot easier to find 6.5 Creedmoor rifles and loaded armament.

If you already have a 6.5 Creedmoor, there's really not a big reason to upgrade to the 6.v People's republic of china unless you just desire to.

For most hunters, the 6.5 Creedmoor is probably the meliorate all around selection.

That said, the 6.5 PRC gives hunters the ability to wring a picayune bit more functioning out of a half-dozen.5mm cartridge without dealing with the more expensive armament, more recoil, and shorter barrel lives of more powerful six.5mm cartridges like the 6.5 Remington Magnum, .264 Winchester Magnum, 26 Nosler, or half-dozen.5-300 Weatherby.

For this reason, I can certainly understand why somebody would want to hunt with a six.5 Mainland china, especially if that person didn't already accept a 6.5 Creedmoor (or another 6.5mm cartridge like the .260 Remington).

half-dozen.five PRC Ammo

While the six.v Precision Rifle Cartridge does accept a relatively big and dedicated following considering the fact that it'southward still relatively new, the cartridge is not extremely popular in absolute terms and tin't hold a candle to cartridges similar the .270 Winchester or .30-06.

I do expect this to change in the about futurity, but Hornady is the simply major ammunition visitor currently producing 6.5 Communist china ammo. The cartridge is bachelor in both the Hornady Precision Hunter and Hornady Match lines with 143 grain ELD-10 and 147 grain ELD Lucifer bullets respectively.

Some people do chase with the Friction match loads, but the Precision Hunter line is purpose built for long range hunting and is by and large the better choice for nigh game.

Just as you'd probably expect, half dozen.5 Communist china ammo is generally more than expensive and not as piece of cake to find as more pop cartridges. Since the cartridge is used past a relatively small segment of the hunting world, not every sporting goods shop keeps six.v China ammo in stock.

Most of the big retailers in the USA volition commonly take a couple of boxes of each on paw, but information technology would be extremely unusual to find vi.5 Precision Rifle Cartridge armament in smaller gun store.

Availability of ammunition is ordinarily pretty good online though and the bigger retailers typically have a expert option of quality factory half dozen.five PRC ammo in stock.

Purchase six.5 PRECISION Rifle CARTRIDGE HUNTING AMMO Here

Fortunately, reloading components for the cartridge are widely available. The high toll of factory ammo and the difficulty involved with obtaining a reliable supply of ammo at times makes it a skilful selection for handloaders.

Indeed, both cartridges offering a fair bit of options for handloaders.

Since it uses the same .264″ bullet size that's also used by the vi.5 Grendel, vi.5 Swede, .260 Remington, and six.5 Creedmoor (among others), reloaders accept access to a Bunch of outstanding quality bullets suitable for use on a wide variety of game to choose from.

half-dozen.v PRC Rifles

Interestingly enough, the rise in popularity of long range precision shooting has resulted in a pretty skillful selection of high quality rifles available for the half-dozen.5 Precision Rifle Cartridge.

Among other companies, Bergara, Browning, Christensen Arms, Violent, GA Precision, Gunwerks, Howa, the Montana Rifle Company, Mossberg, Ruger, Sauer, Fell, and Seekins Precision all industry bolt action 6.v PRC rifles.

And then, while the selection of ammunition available for the cartridge is relatively small, hunters practise accept some very adept quality rifles to cull from. In item, and equally was the case with the vi.5 Creedmoor initially, Ruger really got behind the half-dozen.5 Prc from the start, so there are some particularly intriguing 6.5 China burglarize options from the company these days.

Purchase A RUGER six.5 PRC HUNTING RIFLE HERE

BUY A BROWNING 6.5 China HUNTING Burglarize HERE

Purchase A CHRISTENSEN Arms six.v PRC HUNTING Burglarize Here

Best 6.five Precision Rifle Cartridge Ammo For Hunting

Dissimilar its little brother the 6.5 Creedmoor, there aren't many options for factory 6.5 Prc hunting ammo right now.

If you don't meet something y'all like below, don't fret too much. I'm sure more companies volition starting time manufacturing six.v Communist china hunting ammo options in the well-nigh future and I'll update the list equally more than manufacturers commencement producing ammo for the cartridge.

Hornady Precision Hunter

Hornady's Precision Hunter line of ammunition is specifically designed for long range hunting. For that reason, it combines incredible accuracy with consistent operation across a wide range of touch velocities.

Loaded with a high BC 143 grain ELD-X bullet, 6.5 PRC Precision Hunter ammunition has a flatter trajectory and carries more free energy down range than otherwise identical half-dozen.5 Creedmoor ammo. It's also offers friction match grade accuracy. All in all, this is outstanding 6.5 Red china ammo for hunting medium and large game like mule and whitetail deer, pronghorn, and even elk.

This is the bullet Hornady Marketing Director Neil Davies used on his chamois hunt in the video below.

• Bullet Blazon: Hornady ELD-10
• Bullet Weight: 143 grains
• Ballistic Coefficient (BC): .625 (G1) .315 (G7)
• Muzzle Velocity: 2,960 feet per second (ii,782 ft-lbs of cage energy)

VIEW DETAILS

Likewise Available At: Brownells

Final Thoughts On The six.5 PRC

The 6.v PRC is a very well designed cartridge that offers some real advantages to hunters and fills a specific niche among the various 6.5mm cartridges. While a somewhat surprisingly large number of shooters and hunters accept been quick to adopt the new cartridge, the small benefits it offers over more than established calibers like the 6.5 Creedmoor probably aren't pregnant enough to justify making the switch for well-nigh hunters.

This is specially true considering the lack of 6.5 Precision Burglarize Cartridge ammo choices at this signal. Even so, the option of ammunition for the cartridge volition probable improve in the futurity if the cartridge continues to grow in popularity. So, if you're the type of person who wants to wring out all the performance you tin can from a certain quotient, past all ways get a vi.5 PRC.

Information technology'southward a fantastic cartridge and I'm sure information technology will serve you lot well afield.

Practice you lot have a rifle chambered in six.5 PRC that you're itching to take on a chase?

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John Snow and Dave Emary'south article for Outdoor Life and Phil Massaro's article for Burglarize Shooter Magazine were used as references for the history of the six.five PRC. TheHornady tenth Edition (p317-322) reloading manual (and their online supplement) provided data to compare their size and recoil of the 6.5 Creedmoor and six.v Prc. Chuck Hawks (here) provided the case capacity for the 6.5 Creedmoor and Rifle Shooter Magazine provided case capacity for the 6.5 PRC. The information used to compare the trajectory of the cartridges was obtained from Hornady (here, and here). Maximum pressure for the 6.5 Creedmoor and maximum pressure level and cartridge dimensions for the 6.5 Mainland china were obtained from SAAMI (p26 for the 6.5 Creed) and here for the half dozen.5 PRC. I used Shooters Calculator to compare trajectories, wind drift, and recoil for the cartridges.

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