Is anyone else excited about this?
6.5mm Creedmoor with the same tech as 7mm Backcountry. Exceeds 6.5mm PRC performance.
Reloadable case.
I am pumped. Might need to get a Proof Research PXT barrel ordered so I can shoot this stuff and not murder the Bartlein I currently have.
I’m always skeptical about these types of things, but it’s interesting.
7mm Backcountry is already strait up living up to claims, I see no reason this won’t perform too.
Uncle Sam is transitioning to this tech for ammo, at this point it’s pretty well going to be a thing.
Pappabear and a guy here at work checked out your link. We’re interested for sure.
I’m all about it in bolt gun. In gasser? Not my thing. I wouldn’t even shoot M855A1 in my ARs.
Unless your gas system was dialed in for this high pressure stuff I tend to agree.
That and the stress on the relatively small bolt lugs. I’ve never really felt that 77s were lagging in reach within the realistic range of the M4.
I’m curious how these new cases keep primers from bursting though. I’ve had a few instances where primers burst and puked gas but the brass case head didn’t fail. Just thinking out loud.
The primer thing will be interesting but I have talked to a guy using .277 SIG bi-metal cases running 80K and he hasn’t had any primer issues, and has been running necked down to 6.5CM stuff at velocities Federal is now claiming.
Has my interest for sure. I have shot my 6.5 5R at 1K and did well with it but this sure looks interesting. When it becomes available I will look some up for sure. Says reloadable and that should be interesting,special die I would imagine.
The neck sizing has to be controlled to like .0005” ID under projectile diameter, where a lot of conventional sizing dies will size down well to under .003” ID of the OD for the bullet.
My guess is that at a minimum you’re going to have to use a neck expander mandrel to set case neck ID.
My Short Action Customs modular sizing die will probably just need a different neck/shoulder bushing and a different size neck expander mandrel.
If factory ammo shoots well I would seriously consider just using this stuff for hunting and not bother to reload the +Peak cases, at least until a suitable barrel can be had that isn’t going to get completely torched out running high pressure ammo.
The other recent development is the Proof Research PXT (exponential gain twist) technology that has been released. It’s another .mil solicited project to dramatically increase barrel life. Think of a barrel taking the entire finished length to go from 1:300” to 1:7.5” at the muzzle. The super long essentially zero twist reduces throat erosion and torque damage to the rifling and bullet jacket. The longer the barrel the bigger the barrel life benefit. Pretty wild stuff.
I’ve read/seen stuff on this, but as usual I’m skeptical. Granted we’ve never shot high pressure ammo like this, but we do shoot a lot and have yet to roast a barrel.
If “they” A/B’d 2 barrels and shot the piss out of them and then sectioned the two for inspection, I could be sold on the logic if the results were obvious.
I really don’t see any debate about it. The same concept has been used on medium caliber barrels 12.7mm+ - 75mm for auto cannons for quite awhile and it improves barrel life. They’re just applying it to small caliber stuff.
There’s a few guys on Snipers Hide playing with them already one who works for Hornady who got a couple of pre-production units. They shoot as expected according to the Hornady guy, and they don’t cost exponentially more than any other Proof barrel, it’s like an extra $300 for a barrel. If you get more than a 30% improvement in barrel life it’s money well spent.
The Army did some testing and were finding the same thing in cannon barrels.
Proof Research got the initial experience doing medium caliber auto cannon barrels. Just applied it to our small bore stuff.
I wonder how good these will work in my LUPO.
I used to borescope my own cannons and the wear on smooth bore Barrels was significantly reduced. especially where the chamber ends and the Lands and Grooves begin.
Quite frequently toward the end of the service life you would find a gap at the six O’Clock position where gasses escaped under the projectile. This Gap would widen sometimes and you would meet the condemnation criteria and have to replace.
Eventually the round will jump and the tip will begin point up on ignition and then your problems would begin to compund.and accuracy will begin to degrade.
Should work great.
The steel case is grippy compared to brass and mitigates bolt thrust to near brass levels according to Federal.
It’s the best of both worlds. Use brass case ammo for practice, matches, or any other volume shooting and use steel case for hunting. Like a .357 Magnum revolver you get to use readily available ammo at two drastically different performance levels.
We were just talking about this round in the hallway here at work. 
I think it’s a very cool concept.
A guy can buy a few boxes and try it out in their existing rifle. That’s way more cost effectual having to buy a new barrel or a new rifle.
I’m skeptical too, of just about anything new, but this seems to be several steps beyond the semi-annual claim of, “this new caliber and bullet technology makes everything before it (including last month’s amazing new caliber and bullet technology) obsolete!
My reason for saying this is that info on the actual performance boost from these cases seems to be universally supported by testing at the range (not be me). Jeez, now that I say that it kinda sounds like I’m saying “all You Tubers agree,” but come on, some of them are quite legit at least in my opinion, where many are basically ready to support any claim out there.
Plus. In an early discussion with someone I have contact with who really knows this kind of thing at the R&D and manufacturing level, I learned that (or it was claimed that) these higher pressure, higher velocity rounds do not increase bolt thrust due to the steel gripping the chamber walls more solidly during obturation– so that the case itself is holding some of the thrust and not transmitting it all to the bolt face. It’s been a while since that convo and I lost my notes but it seems like there was a good answer to “Yeah but what about throat erosion?”
In any case I think this is worth our while to listen and study. Might just be something to it.
I’ve never really found 77 gr 5.56 ammo lacking in the least. But 6.5cm could certainly use something to make it more consistent beyond 1000 yards.
We have gap between 1000 and 1300 yards due to terrain, and 1300 is very squirrely for 6.5cm. Some days are good, and some days we to the “Six Five Shuffle” as I have coined it. Chase your ass for 5 rounds to get a hit.