6.5 PRC Barrels - best options?

[norcan]

Thought so, removing material on a barrel will always weaken it - it's not like shaping tin to increase rigidity.

True, but if you compare using a unfluted barrel with the same amount of metal, the fluted one will be (marginally) more rigid.

In other words, if you have two barrels containing one kilo of identical materials, the fluted one will be a bit stiffer — not that it matters much.

I think the fluted look suits some rifles well, but it’s a costly way to save a fairly insignificant amount of weight and it can make the barrel annoying to clean, so I personally tend to go for a plain profile on a hunting rifle.

 

[Jvoelcker]

I had one barrel fluted, it was a belter and shot very well. When considering a second I was told by a wise man that fluting can only make accuracy worse or at best be unchanged compared to an unfluted blank. This makes sense to me…If there are stresses remaining in the steel from the rifling process E.g button rifling will this make dimensional changes in the bore more likely once the barrel wall has been weakened by fluting or by the pressure of firing? If fluting it to be done should a cut rifled blank be used? Lots of questions about a fluting where a carbon wrapped barrel can save more weight!!

I would only go for a fluted barrel if I went up a size as well to maintain the same cross sectional area at least.

As others have pointed out, if you are doing it to save weight you are better off eating less pies

 

[Bowland blades]

Really - don’t overthink it.

Any bullet that can kill a deer will kill a fox, so no need to worry about the light end. The opposite isn’t always true - I would worry about trying to shoot a heavy bodied animal with a 95gr vmax!

Anything in the 120-147gr range will do everything you need it to.

My experience is that it’s a very forgiving cartridge that’s easy to shoot accurately and kills very effectively.

Have it on good authority that 55 grain noslers from a 243 kills big red stags no bother and remember the biggest cull in history of very large New Zealand Red deer was carried out with .222 and then 223 rifles . 222 being the first issued to the contractors as they could " carry more into the bush " . My favourite deer bullet is 100 grain copper ttsx , my biggest Sika stag ( a high gold) was dropped with an 87 grain V-Max 6mm ( not a bullet i would choose but the beast dropped stone dead shot was taken at something a bit over 100 yards at most ) .

 

[stevenedwards]

Blaser 6.5 CM is out of specification with a twist rate of 1:8.666 as you say. 6.5x55 is also a slow twist, however I was under the impression that The PRC is 1:8 as it should be.
Blaser should really tighten up the CM in my opinion

 

[gaza916]

Blaser 6.5 CM is out of specification with a twist rate of 1:8.666 as you say. 6.5x55 is also a slow twist, however I was under the impression that The PRC is 1:8 as it should be.
Blaser should really tighten up the CM in my opinion

I think the blaser 6.5 PRC is actually a 1:8.66 - I have one and that’s what blaser told me. I believe the issue with blaser is that they won’t change the twist rates on their barrel blanks, hence all blaser 6.5 calibre barrels are 1:8.66. I don’t think the extra .66 makes any difference. Mine stabiluses 147 grain ELDs at 3000’FPS Without issue.

 

[Jvoelcker]

I think the blaser 6.5 PRC is actually a 1:8.66 - I have one and that’s what blaser told me. I believe the issue with blaser is that they won’t change the twist rates on their barrel blanks, hence all blaser 6.5 calibre barrels are 1:8.66. I don’t think the extra .66 makes any difference. Mine stabiluses 147 grain ELDs at 3000’FPS Without issue.

What size barrel do you have? I see they are recommending 650mm for PRC.

 

[Bowland blades]

I think the blaser 6.5 PRC is actually a 1:8.66 - I have one and that’s what blaser told me. I believe the issue with blaser is that they won’t change the twist rates on their barrel blanks, hence all blaser 6.5 calibre barrels are 1:8.66. I don’t think the extra .66 makes any difference. Mine stabiluses 147 grain ELDs at 3000’FPS Without issue.

lead it will be absolutely fine, copper ? might work but shooting copper i would certainly go 1-7.5 twist and did it has stabilized 100 grain lead to 120 copper , it i wanted to shoot a higher weight ( ie longer) copper than the 120 grain ttsx i would go a tad faster still .
copper isn't going away and there will be more types of non-toxic coming on the market that will likely be longer again for given weight i guess ?

 

[gaza916]

I’m about to do some load development for Vertus Precision on 130gr copper so will keep you posted on whether or not the slower blaser twist can stabilise them.

 

[gaza916]

What size barrel do you have? I see they are recommending 650mm for PRC.

Blaser do 2 options I. I went for the longer one which is 650mm as you say.

 

[Jvoelcker]

Blaser do 2 options I. I went for the longer one which is 650mm as you say.

Yes, it seems to be their recommendation for the PRC

 

[stevenedwards]

I think the blaser 6.5 PRC is actually a 1:8.66 - I have one and that’s what blaser told me. I believe the issue with blaser is that they won’t change the twist rates on their barrel blanks, hence all blaser 6.5 calibre barrels are 1:8.66. I don’t think the extra .66 makes any difference. Mine stabiluses 147 grain ELDs at 3000’FPS Without issue.

My mistake I was just repeating the number quoted on the Eurooptic web page and also a US retailers site I now can't find. It makes sense for Blaser not to get it right again !