My Savage Stealth 6.5 Creedmoor experience

[Dawico]

What's the max range

TSSR only goes to 100 yards right now.

The round itself is generally considered good for 1400 yards or so. I have not chronographed my loads to see how far they will travel before going subsonic. Even then they may or may not start to become erratic.

The longest range I have access to is 1000 yards at BOTW so for the time being they will do everything I can ask.

 

[orbitup]

Very nice shooting!

 

[rl96ss]

Great write up and excellent shooting. After reading your initial post I measured my barrel and it's 22" ! Not sure if I want to exchange it out yet.

 

[Dawico]

Great write up and excellent shooting. After reading your initial post I measured my barrel and it's 22" ! Not sure if I want to exchange it out yet.

You are measuring from the bolt face while closed, correct? The chamber is considered part of the barrel measurement.

 

[A & P]

I wonder how much of the spread is the shooter vs the load vs the gun though. Esp when you're talking about .1" I'm not sure I'm good enough to say the difference between the .3" and the .4" group is because my gun likes that load better.

I shot my 10BA in .308 today working up loads. My final load (not done testing, though) shot a 4 shot group of .351" 3 shots were .16" and then I stuck one barely touching that group. Good benches, shooting on bags. But I also changed the hold from the center of the dot to bracketing the dot with the hashes (Nightforce NXS @ 15x). I think I held more consistently. I had a .451 group with 5 shots at .5gr less. So, again, I have to be objective and wonder if my .351 could have been a .2 group if I shot better. Could the .451 group have been a .3 group if I had done that bracketing method instead of center hold on a 1" dot? Did I rush that last shot because it was the last of a 19 shot string? Always need to evaluate your groups on the quality of the shots too. Eliminating flyers might be fine but just taking the best 4/5 may or may not be a useful method. Might be better to call the quality of the group and just eliminate "bad shots" rather than quality data just because it's the outermost shot.

Also, once you get something that looks good, just make sure it's repeatable. That .242 group looks very nice...if it's consistent. I tend to blame my best groups on two bad things cancelling out. I push the shot just when the cross wind kicks up and puts it right back on target. Gotta be honest with the groups.

I have a Savage Stealth 6.5CM sitting on our wall that will likely be my next project. It'll give me an excuse to buy more nice glass. Glad you seem to be liking it.

 

[Dawico]

I am liking it very much.

I shoot 5 shot groups to prove the data is reliable. 10 would be better but anybody can get lucky with a nice 3 shot group.

Honestly, with the benches there being shaky I am surprised the rifle has done so well. I had a hard time keeping the reticle on the dot, much less rock steady. I really need to try it prone to know what it is capable of.

I mainly count 4/5 because I don't consider myself a great shot. I don't want the test to suffer or the data corrupted because I pulled one.

But it has proven it can do the job.

 

[Se7en62]

Nice write-up Dawico. I had already started down the path to building my own. When the Stealth was announced, it was already too late, but I'm stoked to see it's accuracy is so spot-on. That's mighty impressive.

 

[Charlie]

Good shooting and good write-up! Subscribed!

 

[Dawico]

Thanks guys.

I actually had a chance to take it out further than 100 yards with loads based on the testing. This range had steel at 200, 400, and 700 yards.

200 yards is cake with almost any rifle and is really a waste of ammo for this one.

I guessed on velocity with my ballistic app (Strelok) and was right on the money at 400 yards. That 8" plate proved to be an easy target for this rifle also.

I moved out to 700 yards and my velocity guess was still very close. A little trial and error and we had it dialed in. Hits were pretty easy if I did my part and the wind was steady.

Easy to the point of three different shooters making first round hits on the 12" steel plate in the gusty wind. At least one of them hadn't even fired it before.

 

[Dawico]

The cheap bipod and shaky monopod/ buttstock are definitely the weak points of the system. The rifle has a lot of movement to it and these parts will be my next upgrades.

A good solid base will really bring it all together.

 

[jrbfishn]

That sounds like fun.

from an idgit coffeeholic

 

[orbitup]

It's a sweet shooter fer sher.

 

[Dawico]

My Strelok app shows my velocity to be about 2800fps. If that is correct this round should stay supersonic just past 1650 yards. A mile is 1760 yards.

I don't think my scope has 182 clicks to give me a zero hold though.

 

[Charlie]

My Strelok app shows my velocity to be about 2800fps. If that is correct this round should stay supersonic just past 1650 yards. A mile is 1760 yards.

I don't think my scope has 182 clicks to give me a zero hold though.

Shim it!

 

[kyletxria1911a1]

Shim it!

Fo da win

 

[A & P]

My Strelok app shows my velocity to be about 2800fps. If that is correct this round should stay supersonic just past 1650 yards. A mile is 1760 yards.

I don't think my scope has 182 clicks to give me a zero hold though.

I wasn't thinking when I bought a 20MOA NF Unimount base for my scope that my 10BA has a 20 MOA base also. So for my 100 yard load development (just checking groups), I have all of the elevation dialed out and I still hit almost 5" high. My app says that puts my zero at 300 yards roughly (and about 30 yards). However, that gives me plenty of room in the turret to dial in elevation out past about 1000 yards. Just have to hold under inside 300.

Reminds me of some of these old rifles with rear sights that look like artillery sites or something for indirect fire.

 

[Davetex]

Nice write up Dawico, there's a lot of good information in this thread.

 

[Dawico]

I wasn't thinking when I bought a 20MOA NF Unimount base for my scope that my 10BA has a 20 MOA base also. So for my 100 yard load development (just checking groups), I have all of the elevation dialed out and I still hit almost 5" high. My app says that puts my zero at 300 yards roughly (and about 30 yards). However, that gives me plenty of room in the turret to dial in elevation out past about 1000 yards. Just have to hold under inside 300.

Reminds me of some of these old rifles with rear sights that look like artillery sites or something for indirect fire.

I have read that the best rail for a 100 yard zero and long range shooting is 30 MOA.

I am happy if I can get a 100 yard zero and 1000 yards on the turret and my 20 MOA rail fits that. At this point I don't see myself shooting further than 1000 yards anyways as that distance is hard enough to find.

 

[benenglish]

Reminds me of some of these old rifles with rear sights that look like artillery sites or something for indirect fire.

Shooting guns with sights so high that the elevation adjustment must be lowered for more distant targets is always fun. Been there, done that.

Dawico - Please stop authoring threads of this quality. You're making me want to own more and better rifles. You're making me want to load and practice. At my age and in my condition, the last thing I need is that sort of inspiration.



Keep up the good work. This is fantastic stuff.

 

[Dawico]

Shooting guns with sights so high that the elevation adjustment must be lowered for more distant targets is always fun. Been there, done that.

Dawico - Please stop authoring threads of this quality. You're making me want to own more and better rifles. You're making me want to load and practice. At my age and in my condition, the last thing I need is that sort of inspiration.



Keep up the good work. This is fantastic stuff.

My apologies Ben.