4 http://www.riflemagazine.com Rifle 305I
’ve been sort of sequestered
over a couple of months, ow-
ing my cardiologist’s instructions.
First, he took care of an irregular
heartbeat, and a few months later
installed a pacemaker. Both proce-
dures were less troublesome than
waiting for special-order pizza.
The problem was the “don’t do” list
afterward, effectively summarized
by “don’t do anything stupid or lift
anything over 10 pounds for four
to six weeks.” I didn’t ask about
chopping wood.
While waiting for the obligatory
timeframe to pass, it has been in-
teresting to review the more recent
cartridge introductions in the gun
press (print) and on the Internet,which as folks might be aware, are
on two different planets.
Of course, you would have to
be chained up in the basement to
have escaped the never-ending
press coverage of the 6.5 Creed-
moor, which is basically a modi-
fied .260 Remington, but “better”
because it has a scosche (Japa-
nese) longer neck and a tad (En-
glish) less powder capacity.
That last is interesting, since
the gun press has spent the last 50
years fawning over anything with
the case capacity just short of the
.50 BMG, as witnessed by the cul-
mination of big beltless and belted
wonders that generate the kind
of recoil that no rational person
would care to put up with. And
yes, for the discerning shooter,
there are wildcats based on the big
.50 for those who like to shoot, as
they say, “over the horizon.”
Hornady has also come up with
the 6.5 Precision Rifle Cartridge
(PRC) that seemed to lay dormant
for a bit but has been approved by
SAAMI on a shortened .375 Ruger
case. Ballistics boil down to 2,
fps or so, depending on barrel
length, with a 147-grain bullet. In
effect, it’s a so-called more mod-
ern beltless version of a .264 Win-
chester Magnum that was run out
of town nearly 50 years ago. Layne
Simpson wrote about the 6.
Short Action Ultra Mag (SAUM),
aka 6.5 GAP 4S, with about 4.
grains more case capacity than
the 6.5 PRC in his column “Wild-
cat Cartridges,” Handloader No.
318 (February-March 2019).
The long neck on the 6.5 PRC,
however, is designed to slow
throat erosion. That’s good news
for target shooters who might
wear a barrel out in less than a
year, but for hunting rifles that
might be fired five or six times per2020 W. Quail Avenue - Dept. R
Phoenix, AZ 85027SPOTTING SCOPE by Dave Scovill
TargeT Versus
HunTing
CarTridges
Sporting Firearms Journal
ISSN 0162-
Volume 51 Number 4
Issue No. 305 July 2019Publisher/President – Don Polacek
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John Barsness Dave Scovill
John Haviland Stan Trzoniec
Brian Pearce Mike Venturino
Gil Sengel Terry Wieland
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