6.5PRC, 6.8 Western, 7SAUM

[kgarrett]

I want to do a 6.5PRC just trying to get the action length correct.

Mostly affects you if you hand load. Make sure your action and magazine will accommodate 2.955 COL. 'Short actions' used to only need to accommodate 2.82 for 308 length cartridges. Hornady broke the short action mold with the 6.5 PRC which is why not every short action is great to build a 6.5 PRC upon. Some factory rounds may not fit in the magazine and feed well. With long bullets like Berger's 156 gr EOL I believe some hand loaders may even be loading longer than this.

I think these two issues are why some are building their customs on 'medium' or long actions. I am not a hand loader or a rifle builder so I might not have this quite right.

 

[Cajun LR Rookie]

Thanks for all the input!

 

[Rick Richard]

I want to do a 6.5PRC just trying to get the action length correct.

Medium.

 

[cajun]

I'm doing a 7 saum on zermatt medium action. I have seen tika magnum actions for sale. That is another option.

 

[liber]

Hornady broke the short action mold with the 6.5 PRC which is why not every short action is great to build a 6.5 PRC upon.

Wait a sec there, kgarrett, wasn't it really AICS that broke the short action? Hornady had nothing to do with that, AFAIK. But you are correct, the 2.990/3.005 (internal/external) for the AICS mags.

There is a lot of truth to the mag breaking builds. It is why I didn't buy a Remington walnut stock, I believe all of those were standard short action mags.

I'm switching over to BDL bottom metal on my next build, with AICS length mags.

 

[SoDakQuack]

Given the information you laid out in the orignal post, 6.5PRC is the only real choice here.

7 SAUM is fricken awesome (even better out of a LA but not essential) but if you're not loading already don't buy a rifle you don't have a viable way to feed.

If you just want to be able to tell all the Nebraska boys how many giant deer you've been dropping at 500yards out west while all you've actually been doing is blowing hindquarters off unsuspecting does up in SD…. then 6.8 Western is for you.

 

[liber]

Given the information you laid out in the orignal post, 6.5PRC is the only real choice here.

7 SAUM is fricken awesome (even better out of a LA but not essential) but if you're not loading already don't buy a rifle you don't have a viable way to feed.

If you just want to be able to tell all the Nebraska boys how many giant deer you've been dropping at 500yards out west while all you've actually been doing is blowing hindquarters off unsuspecting does up in SD…. then 6.8 Western is for you.

Yes, I'm interesting in a 7mm in the long action, but want to use a long action cartridge like 7PRC or 7BC.

The PRC gets me about the best ballistics and velocity in a short action. I don't think the current bullets are ideal though. A slightly heavier Barnes LRX would be nice, but the current 127 grain seems to have been designed with the 6.5 Creedmoor in mind. I could be wrong, but there are a couple bullets I could use in the PRC, but they need to be copper. A 137 grain LRX for PRC would be nice to try. Barnes data gives me almost 3200 fps for the 120 grain TTSX, and the same bullet gives me 2500 fps per their data. Will give up to 2600 with the right powder. Quite a bit lower.

I don't know if the 6.5 PRC is the only cartridge to meet my needs, I think the 300 WSM or 7SAUM could. Just that the PRC uses a more modern sleeker extended bullet. I see it similar to 308 vs 6.5 Creedmoor, but 6.5 PRC has a COAL advantage.