After the initial hype of the 6.5mm Creedmoor cartridge, it seems to have kept growing commercially in popularity, with 6.5 Creedmoor chambered factory rifles available from most of the large manufacturers and loaded ammo in this caliber readily available on most shelves in the US. Jeff is intimately familiar with the shooting industry competitor, instructor, RO, range master, match director. Because of the velocities achieved by the 22 Creedmoor out of most barrel lengths, many varmint shooter favor a 22 Creedmoor short barrel rifle for ease of handling but still offering varmint velocities. Well, Im always a bit skeptical of studies and statistics since they can easily be swayed depending on what is included or excluded in the study, or how the study process is conducted. With all the more appropriate cartridges out there, why anyone would use a barely capable 22 caliber class round on medium sized game is beyond me. Note: the following data does not necessarily demonstrate the most accurate load (or node), but rather demonstrates how barrel wear can be reduced by altering the propellant load. For a varmint cartridge, 95% of your shots will be inside 500 yards, and probably 80% inside 300. This varies depending on your rifle, barrel, load, velocity and bullet. Required fields are marked *. Note, I shoot it like I stole it. Required fields are marked *. A MAGPUL magazine well kit was added. Nobody routinely uses a 45-70 or a 30-30 where they anticipate regular shots at over 100-150 yards; stupid comparison. A rifle barrel can continue wearing while still proving the shooter with many months or years of successful shooting, until reaching a point where the barrel no longer provides the accuracy that you require from the rifle. An occasional shooter may still enjoy years of successful shooting beyond this point, however precision will gradually decline, until eventually reaching a point where precision and accuracy is no longer satisfactory. There is also 22 Creedmoor SRP brass available offering small rifle primer holes for shooters preferring small rifle primers. The net result is the 6mm BRX []. Full house loads in 7-pound rifles recoil with about 15.7 ft.-lbs. Similarly, there are no big-name ammunition companies loading for the 22 CM, but there are several smaller companies offering ammunition so you dont have to reload at all. Fun while it lasted. $269 after rebate is a no-brainer price for a donor action. This so far is the oldest actual documented mention of it, but with the image of the cartridge loaded and shot on range from McWorter Custom Rifles showing them as the oldest actual documented builder of a rifle able to shoot it. With proper annealing and die setup, it will no doubt serve you very well! So what is accurate barrel life, and how do we determine a barrels life expectancy? Here's the relative bullet diameters for these three Creedmoors: 6mm: 0.243. The typical American had just a few all-purpose guns a few decades ago. Any idea where to look to get that? I know several folks including myself have been playing with the 22 creedmoor for a while now. Its a great quality barrel, but the only profile available at the time was far heavier than I would have liked, so in order to keep the overall weight of the gun down I had the gunsmith make it shorter, giving up some velocity to gain mobility afield. A barrels life expectancy is caliber dependant, and may range anywhere from 1000 rounds to 6000 rounds or more. 22 creedmoor is SUPERIOR to 22-250 AND 220 swift. I mailed out my barreled action to long rifles inc to be converted. The 22 Creedmoor or 22CM as some call it, was bound to happen at some point as almost every new caliber or cartridge created, gets necked down to a wildcat with a lighter bullet for more speed at some point in time, however the exact person to first do it is still to be confirmed. Many who knew of my easy duty wondered how I did it. We have checked the reamer records accordingly. Im running a 21 Shilen 1-8 twist and I have excellent accuracy with 80gr smk, 80 eld-m and 88gr eld-m bullets. After hundreds of comments, phone calls, and mess. Our one member has personally taken a large Zebra stallion with a 22 Creedmoor, shooting a Hornady 75gr ELD-Match bullet at around 3650fps, with a well-placed clean head shot as can be seen below, with a tiny entrance and quarter sized exit wound, and blood streaming out the ear showing a good brain expansion. Many readers misinterpret our article on barrel life; assuming that were estimating the exact number of rounds until a shot-out barrel. Preferably with h1000? Thanks for the half baked artical. Just as they were done, Loki, disguised as a fly, bit Sindri on the elbow causing all 6.5 barrels forged to wear out at 4000 rounds but be extremely accurate Yet the 22-243 had obstacles of its own, with it often having somewhat narrow and finicky accuracy nodes. Id tell them that my Dad was a Senator on a military senate sub-committeetheyd believe me. For those wanting to know more about the .22 Creedmoor, check out this video we put together for you below! Anyone try the custom whiddens? When starting with 6mm Creedmoor brass, you will need to neck it down to produce 22 Creedmoor. Then one opening day, when it got daylight, I could see I was surrounded by other hunters. The same with rifles. Life Extenders What is maximum effective range of a 6.5 creedmoor? Ammo, I kept the barrel short to run a suppressor. I'm currently shooting a rifle I built with a Bartlein 1:7.7 twist M24 taper with a Brownells Stryker Ridge action (made by Defiance) in a Manners EH1. Expect to spend $0.95 per round and up [ED: mid 2020 prices now start at about $140 a round]. Loaded ammunition is available with bullets in the 70-75 range leaving 24 barrels at velocities around 3400+ fps, a bit more conservative than personal hand-loading, but still making it a very flat shooting, low recoiling round delivering impressive results. 0.077 1300 100). I'll elaborate more on 25 Creedmoor in future stories! The barrel may still produce many years of happy shooting. Our Small Frame .22 Creedmoor is a bit lighter than our F4-15 EBR chambered in .224 Valkyrie. Back in the day, my first ever rifle was a Remington 700 in 6mm. The bullet diameter is .224, the same as any other .22 centerfire cartridge like the 223 Rem., 22-250 Rem., 224 Weatherby Magnum, 223 WSSM and 220 Swift. The 6.5 Creedmoor is the most popular big game hunting rifle cartridge on the market today. The first rounds I loaded were made by necking down readily available 6mm CM cases before 22 Creedmoor head-stamped brass was available. Out of stock. I intend to use 83 gr Hammer or 75 gr Swift bullets. So I'm wondering if your guys are getting that number? UPS has officially stopped shipping guns? Barrel life variable depend on your rifle, barrel, load, velocity and bullet. We used a Tikka T3 Stainless Action from a rifle originally chambered in 308 Win, fitted a .224 Krieger barrel on it with the chamber cut for a 22 Creedmoor, and now we have a superb Tikka 22 Creedmoor. Sep 30, 2004. Regardless of the barrel length you . It's an 1:11 finished at 28". Shooting heavier bullets at more reasonable velocities also calms some barrel-burning qualms. Maybe not the article to raise this point. The oldest actual proof of the 22 Creedmoor caliber in a rifle, being an image uploaded on a McWhorter Custom Rifles blog post about the 22 Creedmoor caliber round and the speed achieved by one shot on 22 September 2012. Why would I switch. On coyotes and varmints on the other hand, fire away! With long range precision shooting becoming increasingly popular amongst rifle owners throughout the world, barrel life expectancy is often a question of concern, particularly amongst new buyers. Bullet diameter.224, Shoulder angle30 degrees, Rim diameter.468, Case length1.92 inches, Primer typeLarge and small. The 22 Creedmoor trim length for cases is 1.910. Making brass from 6mm creedmoor is simple and quick. It was great for about 3 years. The 22 Creedmoor finds itself in the perfect configuration for functionality with heavy bullets within short action magazine system limitations. Most states would not allow it as lacking sufficient energy. When the rifle is fired, the explosive heat and pressure from the propellant gasses begin to erode the throat of the barrels interior surface. We would even recommend it above 6mm competition calibers in precision shooting matches under 800 yards other than PRS matches with their 3,200 fps limit. Name Phone Number Email Message But I am interested in this apparent incongruity. It will not be long and 22CM dies will be in stock at the usual sources. How ever those were heavy barrels on the rifles, I mainly now have sporter barrels on all I have with the exception of the Ruger American Predators, I have Three, there barrels are a bit heavier then the sports as Im sure you all ready know. JavaScript is disabled. We use this jacketing method rather than wrapping the barrel in carbon fiber because this method of . Your email address will not be published. You will certainly NEED many more, if just to point out to others the importance of diff bore sizes, stock styles, etc..even if you NEVER shoot them! Life Jackets . This is something that plagued me with the traditional 22-250 and caried over into the 22-243win I ran prior to switching to the 22 Creedmoor. Thank You! We have mentioned it a few times throughout this article so far, but really to reiterate, Lemi Shine works wonders for cleaning brass, removing the ugly green hue sometimes left after tumbling brass in a wet tumbler, and leaving the brass looking shinier than when it was new. This requires that you have the correct reloading shell holder or case holder as it is sometimes called for each of the calibers that you reload ammunition for, to ensure that you can hold the cases in the reloading press to use them. For PRS you dont actually need all the speed the 22 CM has to offer from longer barrels. This will assist in understanding why groupings may eventually open up, while also allowing for timeous submission of new license applications in certain countries around the world; take South Africa for example, where a barrel may take up to 1-year to license. As with any multi-purpose tool there tends to be compromises. Here is a brief summary of the cartridge. The 6 creedmoor forester ultra micrometer seating die should work for seating bullets in 22-250 Lapua brass to fire form into 22 creedmoor? It shot the 80.5 Berger's with great accuracy also. Thanks for your comment and for sharing your experience with us Mike. I have killed a couple with that round as well..but it took a lot longer to do so. Even "shot-out" barrels in an infamous barrel burner like the 220 Swift are usually in excellent condition at the cooler muzzle end. 2,959. For the best experience on our site, be sure to turn on J I built the 22 CM to be a dual-purpose gun, or actually a 3-purpose gun. My Rifle isnt Shooting Right: What to do? Mark I shoot a 22-6mm rem which is a touch faster but very similar in performance. Copper creek will have it along with loaded ammo using the 75gn Hornady eldm. Who do you know who has enough guns? Initially to create brass for 22 Creedmoor cartridges, one would simply neck down high quality 6mm Creedmoor brass with a good full length sizing die and enough case lube, or by fire forming 22-250 brass. Want to know why speed matter for Coyotes and Varmints? I know that huge advances in rifles has taken place since the 1970s. The process for making that brass was easy enough, but still, somewhat time-consuming. The tough northern coyotes we hunt have a reputation for taking some vicious hits and then just getting back up to run off. At this point we can say that it has reached the end of its barrel life, and seek a replacement. I think you'll be very happy going that route. The consensus on the optimal barrel length for 6.5 Creedmoor is 24" and 26", if the objective is long range Precision Rifle Shooting (PRS). Looking forward to using it for predators. Mine is throated long, twisted fast and loaded hot but I'm able to sling 95gr SMKs at 3200fps from a 22 inch tube with H4350. The Kimber K6 Deep Cover The Snubnose for Today. the SRMP is your baby!! This was a super accurate load but rather slow for this cartridge. energy at a recoil velocity of 12 fps. The only real issue that remains on the 22 CM rifle is just how long the barrel is going to last. One of the easiest ways is to select a cartridge load that does not necessarily produce the fastest muzzle velocity, but rather considers barrel life versus effective range and stopping power; settling on a favourable compromise. SMFH. I'm about to replace the barrel in this rifle after approximately 800 rounds. On High Power ranges there are few obstructions to affect downrange wind conditions making it easier to manage . Not so likely. Or even better, compare it to the 220 swift! About the author: Your email address will not be published. My buddy has one. Allow extra time for your barrel to cool between shots, and avoid rapid or sustained fire where possible. The area of the chamber just forward of the web on the original [], The 6mm BRX vs 6mm BR The 6mm BRX uses 6mm BR brass as the base brass. The only thing needed is a fast twist barrel to stabilize the long, high BC bullets; 1 x 7 7.5 twist. Laugh! 6mm Creedmoor Barrel Life. Shop; Reference Material; Ask A Question; Join Facebook Group; Shop; Reference Material; Ask A Question; Join Facebook Group Leaning toward the more conservative number of 1300 ft-lbs, the same 22 CM bullets combinations are good out to 300- 400 yards. wildcat. IN something like this with such a short barrel life.I am of the opinion that once I find a load that works, I stick with it. I thought my barrel was toast with around 900 rounds but I shot this yesterday at 100. The Hornady 250 grn FTX worked well on a large Black Wildebeest at 296 yards, the first shot took it down, the second ensured it never got back to its feet. It makes for an excellent test platform when chambered in 6mm Creedmoor. When did the 30-30 change from a brush gun to a 200 plus yard tack driver?? For this project, my sacrifice was in the barrel. And finally, as demonstrated by the example above, shoot less-powerful cartridges. Seriously doubt any significant difference. With good bullets, medium sized game can be taken quite easily with some 22 calibers. More importantly, why all the fuss? Once I lock in on the bushing size required to size effectively, I will load up 3 rounds at a hot load and fire them in my chamber. Dies, brass are coming out now, powders and GREAT bullets are already here. This is known as a barrel log. The only thing I wish I had done is to get a brake put on it. .22-250. My opinion of the matter is as it has been for many years. But I digress. The ability of the heavy .224 bullets to retain both velocity and energy at long distances makes this . You could achieve better barrel life going with a slower powder especially with the 80 and heavier bullet weights. So, was a 22 CM worth spending the time and money to build? A longer barrel generally costs more. With the exponential advancement in technology and growth of information it is only natural the shooting industry is using this information and technology to unlock more cartridge and bullet performance. The available ammunition is priced in line with high-quality hunting and match ammunition, which is taking the 22 CM a step beyond the realm of a wildcat requiring hand-loading, and getting closer to that of being a factory product. Both are 26. Maps & Charts . We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to amazon.com and affiliated sites. Those of you using bushings will typically want to take two steps to neck down. It's a precision rifle caliber and whether it's hunting ammo, target ammo, or long range ammo, it's all match grade kind of stuff. At 4100, it was about the best shooting 308 barrel I've ever had. You could even use 6.5mm brass, it would simply take more work to neck down. Interest is then sparked. Choke Tubes, Stocks and Parts . We have found some 22 Creedmoor shooters pucking the bullet speeds in excess of 3400 fps to get around 1200 to 1400 shots out of their barrels, and some have been able to extend that with proper barrel care life letting the barrel cool between firing strings, and hBN coating their bullets. And barrels cost less than new truck tires! It should now be apparent that there is no easy answer to how many rounds a rifle barrel can fire before accuracy declines; there are simply too many variables involved. The 22 CM drops below that 800 ft-lb threshold at between 600 to 775 yards depending on the bullet and velocity of Copper Creek's different offerings. Everyone has a different take on what they consider acceptable accuracy which will increase or decrease the numbers. The lack of recoil resulting from using relatively light bullets makes it possible to watch your own impacts or misses if the terrain allows. The following chart displays accurate barrel life data for a number of popular rifle cartridges. I have plenty like that..including my original model 73 Winchester in .38-40! One of the reasons that the 6.5 Creedmoor has become so popular is exactly because of its light recoil . Ive heard of guys blowing up 90 and 95 smks with 6.5 twist barrels. Satterlee Scott. I took many deer with that rifle with an 87gr. The action is a standard Savage 12FV in 6.5 Creedmoor purchased at Cabela's during their sale. Just received my 22 creedmoor reamer and have a 20" Proof Carbon Savage pre-fit in 223 that I'm going to have reamed out and picked up a Savage take off 22-250 barrel to ream and use for fire forming/prairie dogs. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. I just wanted to see if I had enough H4350 on hand to burn out my barrel. Edit May 2022: After researching for the origins of the 6mm Creedmoor, I stumbled upon an even earlier post, where member skeetlee started a thread first suggesting necking down a 6.5 Creedmoor to a 6mm, an then later joked about also just doing it in a .22cal version. What is does excel at though, and arguably better than any other cartridge ever made, is for taking down coyotes and other varmint. Not trying to start a war on the very interesting .22 thread. You can also neck 6mm Creedmoor down to 22cal easy enough. Starting with a .260" bushing on the first pass and finishing with a .250" will often work quite well. I loaded up 200 rounds with fireformed 22-250 Lapua brass and 45.5 grains of R26. I totally agree! Rather than gripe, i got out of my tree and left it to the combat hunters. Now I just need to come up with so load data. While on numerous TADS (Temp Assigned Duty) over a three and a half year period on San Clemente Island (next island out in the Pacific from Catalina Island off of Calif.)..we Airedales had fun experimenting with combat weapons of various types and calibers. There arent really any large scale manufacturers making a 22 Creedmoor Factory Rifle, however, there are somewhat off the shelf 22 Creedmoor rifles available from companies like McWorther custom rifles and GA Precision to name but a few. You must log in or register to reply here. To put it into context, a credit card is around 0.032" thick, so the amount of erosion we're talking about over the life of a barrel is barely more . Not a trace of it. Im running the heavier bullets, typically 88 or 95 grains. The item "Thompson Center Encore SS PH 3007599 6.5 Creedmoor Barrel-NEW" is in sale since Saturday, June 26, 2021. I can actually smell the heat. Our 22 Creedmoor is loaded to fit in rifles running the standard .081 freebore or longer. I know several folks including myself have been playing with the 22 creedmoor for a while now. This rifle is an absolute nightmare on Coyotes, Feral Hogs, Prairie Dogs, and Whitetail Deer. The 22 Creedmoor's' standard is a 1-in-7/1-8-inch fast-twist barrel, combined with the increased case volume to push long and heavy .22 bullets at over at 3,450 feet per second. That means the lands on my 6mm Creedmoor eroded 0.077" over 1300 rounds, which is an average of 0.0059" every 100 rounds (i.e. Everyone is in the .45 ACP vs the tiny 9mm for a couple of years..then they ALL switch to the side of the deeper hitting 9mm! If you are gun-savy and have a barrel vise, a Savage barrel nut wrench and the corresponding chambers' Go gauge, you have everything you need to correctly change your Savage barrel. For instance, 22 LR's can go much further than 5-10K, while 223 types can burn out in less than 1K. For me, the Varget/69TMK was almost an accident, but its showing good numbers, and superb accuracy. This one has my attention. That growth continues as of this writing, as the cartridge has now gone mainstream with hunters and shooters alike. Accurate barrel life can defined as the point where precision will start to decline. H4350 is kind of a "go-to" powder for the Creed case but I have had really good performance and barrel life out of H4831, H1000 and RE23. I did group it against one with far less rounds and it did not group as well. Good news Petersons 22 Creedmoor brass is very good so you dont even have to neck down brass. Testing the AGM TS19-256, .22 Magnum for Personal Defense Is the Juice Worth the, Ruger Introduces Custom Shop Precision Rifle in 6.5, SafarilandReleases First of its Kind Hard Armor Rifle. All harvests have been one shot kills. Getting quality headstamped brass with no fire forming is what sets the 22 creedmoor apart from the 250ai. The 22 Creedmoor ballistics, beating out those of the .22-250 and many other fast .224 caliber cartridges, are what is drawing more people towards this cartridge lately. 370. I presume the Alpha brass is good too. These general guidelines apply more to the older traditional calibers when speeds were much lower, and with modern cartridge advances, the velocities achieved by modern smaller calibers make up for the energy lost in mass of the bullet, and the modern twist rates allows low drag bullets to carry those velocities and energy further down range. The 22 Creedmoor was built with long, heavy .224 bullets in mind. The one company is doing a buy one, get 50% off that barrel for the next barrel, so I figured I would build the first one expensive. Getting to 22CM from 6CM is a straight forward pass through a FL die. Ive used the same round on whitetail deer and inside of 100 yards it takes them off their feet and they never know what hit them. The primary culprit in a centerfire rifle that affects accuracy is an eroded throat, however the rest of the bore and/or rifling can wear too. I then send those pieces of fired brass off to Whidden Gunworks to have a custom full length sizer and micrometer seater die set made. The last deer I shot I tucked right inside the shoulder blade as he was quartering towards me and it completely destroyed the opposite lung. But again, that just my opinion. The 6.5 Creedmoor also has a distinct advantage over the .308 at long ranges where there's little time to make wind decisions. Winchester Model 70 Super Grade AAAA Maple Walnut - 6.5 Creedmoor - 22" . Here []. It's a cool cartridge for sure. For a sub-MOA barrel, many shooters report a loss in peak accuracy for 28 Nosler around the 800-round mark, while a 6.5 Creedmoor barrel can hold accuracy until around 2,000-2,500 rounds on average. The heavier bullets being used in the 22 CM range from 75-95 grains. Reduced recoil compared to 6.5 Creedmoor. A chronograph for example, mostly only a rare expensive piece of laboratory technology a few decades ago, is now part of almost every precision shooter and reloaders equipment, and a very affordable one at that. That experiment reinforced my belief that 3500 is a good number for replacement. Great question!! You could achieve better barrel life going with a slower powder especially with the 80 and heavier bullet weights. One concern that might need to be considered with a cartridge such as the .22 Creedmoor is that barrel life probably won't be all that great. Making the 6mm BRX is easy and involves loading up 6mm BR brass and fire forming it in a 6mm BRX chamber (the fire forming loads can also be very accurate). Big bore vs small bore, back and forth FOREVER. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should! Both these rounds are considered fantastic for long-range shooting. This against a lot of critique among seasoned shooters and [], There are multiple different case head sizes for the various cartridges. Thats some great information, i figure my barrel will be lucky to make it to 1000rds, 800-1000 seems to be a trend, Im running test with the 4831sc this weekend, and I think I low balled myself compared to those loads you posted, we will see, once again thanks for contributing, this really is one bad ass round. All of these Creedmoor cartridges are truly great long-range rounds when compared to the old military/police standard 308. Most shooters first roll their eyes when hearing you say you have a 22 Creedmoor, just hearing the word Creedmoor, but they often do a double take a second or two later and ask, 22?.