Hornady® 6.5 PRC - Q&A with George Gardner

[richardwamsher]

George you have come up with one heck of a cartridge in the 6.5 PRC and not just for precision rifle shooting the extra 250 FPS over the 6.5CR makes a lot of difference . Over all my years of hunting 13 -80 =67 years I have never shot a harder hitting round . It’s as flat as a 25/06 or 270 and hits like a magnum . I have reduced my arsenal down to two rifles both Christensen Mesa’s the 6.5CR and PRC . At 80 I can not do much tromping around the woods I just sit over bean fields and can no longer be very picky on the deer I shoot . I can say that after three deer kills the
accuracy of the rifle cartridge combination is fantastic so disregard the naysayers, the larger weight for caliber and high BC using 6.5 mm bullets is the way to go . For moose or grizzlies it would be 300 PRC time but not many of us get a chance to hunt them any more . Keep on doing your thing George I for one appreciate your work !

[crawford]

Yes yes yes! Someone with enough professionalism and understanding of the range of skill set and knowledge of the target audience to explain what PRC meant!

[takurghar]

Great video George...very nicely done!! I can see one of these in my future.

[ricflair]

Apparently a lot of low IQ people, like Ray Blackburn, are having a very hard time grasping the concept. “I can shoot my 7-08 3300fps with 100gr”. Well good for you Ray. But considering the entire point of this exercise is to launch heavy-for-caliber, high BC bullets at reasonable velocities, one can only assume you slept through a lot of classes. Try comparing apples to apples. The BC of your 100gr 7mm bullet is under .400. Good luck using that in a prs match. Now try loading your 7-08 with a 180gr, long ogive VLD style bullet that has a BC around .650-.677 and you have a long range bullet, but not a long range rifle because your velocity tanks, which is why in 7mm guys use magnums like the 7mm LRM for prs. But wait, you won’t ever find this out because you can’t even fit that case with the long ogive bullet into your Savage 7-08 magazine without seating it half way into the case! Are you starting to see what GA Precision and Hornady were trying to do? They weren’t trying to get maximum velocity. They were trying to get a long, heavy, high BC 6.5mm bullet to 3150fps in a short action rifle. For all the other wizards out there saying it’s just another 264 Win Mag- well good luck finding a 264 with a twist rate that will stabilize the 143gr VLD bullets. Being that SAAMI mandates a 1-9” twist for 264 WM, it ain’t gonna happen. You’d have to custom build a 264 with a 1-8” twist to stabilize those bullets, and then it would shoot them faster than the PRC. If you’re having a hard time figuring this out, think about the bullets first. It’s not about max velocity, not a drag race, that was the game 30 years ago. But then someone figured out you could move a high BC bullet at moderate velocity and significantly outperform a light weight bullet at max velocity when shooting at longer ranges.
If you’re going to respond, at least try to understand the subject you’re responding to. Reference some of Gunwerks literature on the subject if you want to get educated. I’m not defending Hornady, or saying what they’ve done is perfect, but I do understand what they were trying to do, and it has nothing to do with half of the comments on this thread. I have no doubt Ray bitched about the 300 PRC, saying “it ain’t no 300 Win Mag”. Well you’re right, try finding factory 300 Win Mag ammo in 212-220 gr VLD bullets. Or load some up like the PRS guys do, and try to fit them in the magazine of your factory Tika. You can’t? Ah hah! Well Cooter, maybe Hornady just created a product you can buy off the shelf, that will allow you to shoot the same loads the PRS guys shoot, without having to hand load. They also got it SAAMI approved, so pretty soon you’ll be able to buy a factory rifle with a magazine/chamber sizes to fit these loads. Up until now, if you wanted to get into this game, you had to have a custom rifle, or custom ammo, or both. Are you starting to understand what Hornady did? They just opened a door that, until now, had been closed to most people. But what do they know, you can get 3300fps with a 100gr 7-08, so pee on them

[chriswhite]

What kind of barrel life can be expected?

[AintS]

Im glad to see the RCM platform adapted to another capacity and a whole new platform for it.

IMHO, the RCM should be a mil-spec cartridge for the advantages it brings with it. Honestly, when you're living around a 14 all day, it gets to be a burden. Then 223 became the most used and that really put a hurt on those guys on the ground from longer range cartridges.

RCM should have been issued for the lighter weight with shorter barrels and superior BC to 308 for troops. It's a real shame, it really could save more lives, but this cartridge sounds like the RCM little brother. I hope it goes where the RCM didn't!

Good to see you developing another, superior platform again!

[jerrysmith]

if you can say there is a do it all like the 308, the 6.5 prc is the flatter longer range of the all around.it will even shoot good in a short barrel.them hornady guys and george gardner have taken things to the next level. when you can buy a gun out of a store and put hornady ammo in it and do nothing special and it performs as well as it does thats doing the home work for us. great job guys.

[CindyDaisyPeanut]

I also love the 7mm-08 . I have a 7mm-08 Ackley and it is awesome but I think I'm going to build the 6.5 PRC just because I have an action and barrel laying around . I have a 25 inch barrel on my 7mm-08 ackly and I am hunting with a 140 grain Nosler Partition. My muzzle Velocity is right at 3000 fps. With the 25 inch barrel and being a Ackley really helps . I think I'll build the PRC and take up long range target shooting. It looks like a lot of fun on u-tube videos .

[ptallant]

My question is this. When will budget rifles be available to purchase from the likes of Ruger, TC, Savage, Mossberg, etc?

[GHohn]

I would LOVE to see a 7mm PRC based on the 300 PRC. Something that can push 180 ELDs to 3150 or so. The 180 ELD is crazy good form factor.

[zach.b.outdoors]

What would be the best barbell length to use?! 20" or 22" or 24" ?!

[thereloaderscloset]

When will the release of the 6.5PRC be out? Will there be brass as well being released for the 6.5PRC for reloaders? I have a burned out 6.5X284Norma and I'm looking for something just slightly faster and this sounds like a winner with 143's or some 147's.

[jaykecraig]

My bergara premiere ridgeback 6.5prc topped with a nightforce atacr 5x25x56mm does it for all my scenarios i cant complain either with using factory eldx 143g shooting 0.418" under a half a minute what more could you ask for

[elijahharris]

Hornady is the only one that's selling this round it's like playing Monopoly and someone bought all the properties and you keep landing on them

[kriegmast]

Under hunting versatility, he mentioned that the round has 2, 000 ftlbs of energy at 500 yards. Which 6.5 PRC cartridge does hornady make that does this?

[kirkmartin]

I have a buddy with a bone stock ruger precision rifle in 6.5prc and with factory ammo he's seeing a standard deviation of less than 12fps. I seriously thought the chronograph was broken. An SD of under 15fps for hand loads is pretty 15fps with factory ammo is almost unheard of.

[redleg]

What does this do that the 6.5x284 doesnt?

[wheeltommy]

It sounds like a great cartridge for someone like me who doesn’t have a precision rifle yet. Would this be a barrel burner you think?

[joejr]

Please, Hornady can you get me some reloading dies for the 6.5 prc? Can't find them anywhere now. Thanks.

[TheMeazy]

Being from Texas, this round is great for the game here. I doubt I will see a bear, but I bet this will have no problem stopping it. Aim small, miss small...