Thread: 6mm Creedmoor conundrum

Currently I have a Kimber Montana in 7mm-08 I’m looking to rebarrel into a 6mm Creedmoor cut to 20 inches

Keen to know from those who shoot the 6mm Creedmoor what your experiences have been, barrel length, projectiles, powder you reload it with and the performance to date.

I’m also looking at brass, Lapua seems to be sold out but I only see it in small rifle primer (SRP).

Is it worth going to SRP brass as there appears to be some work needed to re sleeve the bolt face and change the firing pin if I was to go there.

What other brass has been good to use?

I have used Lapua, Nosler and Starline. All srp. The lapua is the best and has a small flash hole so when you select dies you need to get a special decap pin but other than that no need to sleeve anything. Starline I have 8x fired and still going fine. I shoot 115gr burgers at 2940 and no issues with brass life etc. 108 eldms at 2900 also all good.

I mostly use necked down 6.5 CM brass. Mostly LR, it just works and my Criterion barrel is plenty accurate, well sub MOA.

It produces 3040 fps with Hornardy 103 ELDXs at 22". Currently its in a Savage action set up for "paddock" shooting on a farm where we shoot reds of crop (starting after the roar). For that I like something with a bit of reach, and its certainly capable of that, I recently made the Eric Cortina 1MOA 600 cold bore challenge. But its gonna get the NV on it for crop shooting, and mostly it'll be under 250M shots.

To further confound ya. I just acquired a Kimber 308 (Hunter pro chopped to 17") and was fully intending to fit the 6CM barrel to it with one of @robhughes-games switchlugs. This is very doable as the 84M has a tiny barrel shank that will accept practically any donor barrel. However my donor is shooting astoundingly well closer to 0.5 MOA than 1.0, so altering it might not be a great idea.

I've heard lapua doesn't feed well in the kimbers.
I've just done a kimber mountain ascent in 22 creedmoor with a Hardy 16 inch carbon barrel. It's one light weight bad ass killing machine! 9 red skins so far with an 88eldm 40 yards to 400 and wicked performance.
Going off what I've seen with the 6ARC and 108eldm... it doesn't need to have a fast mv.
Do yourself a favor, go short barrel and don't bother chasing high mv's. It will flat out kill

And to add. The kimbers are absolutely perfect for the little creedmoors. So good to shoot and big cartridge performance

Originally Posted by Gkp

I've heard lapua doesn't feed well in the kimbers.
I've just done a kimber mountain ascent in 22 creedmoor with a Hardy 16 inch carbon barrel. It's one light weight bad ass killing machine! 9 red skins so far with an 88eldm 40 yards to 400 and wicked performance.
Going off what I've seen with the 6ARC and 108eldm... it doesn't need to have a fast mv.
Do yourself a favor, go short barrel and don't bother chasing high mv's. It will flat out kill

How quick have you got the 88s going out of the 16” mate?

Great replies, I was initially looking at 22 CM but the 6 CM has also caught my eye

It has a reputation as being harder on barrels than many other calibres, but 2500 rounds would still last me a looong time. YMMV though!

Originally Posted by Bol Tackshin

It has a reputation as being harder on barrels than many other calibres, but 2500 rounds would still last me a looong time. YMMV though!

They think a 6 will last that long. I thought the 22 creed was around the 1k mark for barrel life.

Originally Posted by Seventenths

Great replies, I was initially looking at 22 CM but the 6 CM has also caught my eye

Only 2864mv but does the business. I imagine the same would be achieved in a 6mm

I ran 6CM on a Tikka action for 1 barrel, and got 2300 rounds on it. Had to really look after it towards the end, and it was probably really done at 1800. ELD’s go well, but Berger 105 Hybrids go way better!

39.5gr RL16 gives 2940-2950fps from 26” barrel. From memory, i think the Hornady factory 108 ELD’s ran 2990fps.

You don’t need to bush the bolt face if running SRP brass. Lapua brass will last 10+ reloads

My kimber 18.75" 6mm Cm: 103gr eldx @2930fps.
Peterson lrp brass, ar2209.
Ive shot a few with 108 eldm when it was 24" which killed well, though all top of neck or head shot to 300m .
Have only shot a few with the 103gr eldx but its done the business.
I'm wanting to get some bonded or copper for close tight bush action, but haven't come up with anything just yet. Too busy making a Paulownia & carbon ultralight stock for it.
I'll have a mountain ascent stock for sale when im done.

Try and get some creedmoor brass to try and see how it feeds out of your magazine.
My model 7 that I changed to 6.5 creed doesn’t feed with a full mag so I need to run with 2 in the mag

Hmmm. I just tried 6mm CM in my Hunter Pro 308 mag and all 3 seem to feed ok. However my previous experiences with slightly shorter rounds like the Lap X47s and CMs in std magazines certainly haven't be universally positive so it would probably pay to test the d9nor carefully.

22 creedmoor feeds mint in a kimber blind mag