B & R Photography

The 6.5 PRC was designed by Hornady and released in 2018. It quickly has become a very popular hunting and precision shooting cartridge. Mostly for its long-range terminal ballistics and accuracy.

The 6.5 PRC was designed to be a faster flat shooting 6.5 Creedmoor in a small package. Having a short fat magnum body case gives it an increased velocity of roughly 200fps with similar projectiles to the 6.5 Creedmoor. (This is with factory ammunition.)

This was actually a cartridge that I personally really wanted to own and still own. I have had two different rifles in the cartridge. I bought the first available rifle in left hand on the market here in Canada. A Christensen Arms Mesa and later sold it to buy a T3X in 6.5 PRC LH as it took Tikka about a year or two before they started offering the cartridge.

As seen by many others the 6.5 PRC has been a fantastic cartridge, I have had multiple successes on wild game and gotten some of my best groups at longer ranges with this rifle. I do have a 6.5 Creedmoor barrel and 6.5×55 Swede barrel for my Tikka’s, I don’t use them as often due to my favor towards the 6.5 PRC/ (However due to the cost of reloading supplies I might shoot the 6.5 Creedmoor a little more at the range with some SRP brass.)

Being a 6.5mm or .264 cartridge the market for reloading projectiles is quite large. We have a huge assortment of weight ranges and projectile types, from long heavy match bullets to lighter monolithic bullets the choice is really endless. Currently I have at least 8 or 9 different projectiles for this caliber.

Let’s get into the trajectory and velocity of this cartridge. A factory loading from Hornady the 143gr ELD-X Precision Hunter. Says on the box it leaves the barrel at 2960fps which isn’t too shabby.

As far as trajectory goes for this loading if zeroed at 100 yards you get the following drop information.

200 Yards: 2.9 inches of drop.

500 Yards: 43.4 inches of drop.

1000 Yards: 262.8 inches of drop.

(Please note the above trajectory information was pulled from https://www.hornady.com/team-hornady/ballistic-calculators/?autopopulated_title=6.5+PRC+143+gr+ELD-X%3Csup%3E%C2%AE%3C%2Fsup%3E+Precision+Hunter%3Csup%3E%C2%AE%3C%2Fsup%3E&weight=143&humidity=50&altitude=0&temperature=59&sightheight=1.5&shootingangle=0&pressure=29.92&maxrange=500&latitude=0&axialforceformfactore=1&azimuth=0&barreltwist=7&borediameter=&coriolis=0&windangle=90&windspeed=10&zerorange=100&zerorangeflag=1&velocity=2960&ballisticCoefficient=.625&ballisticCoefficientType=%28G1%29#!/standard )

Short Notes.

Official Name: 6.5 Precision Rifle Cartridge (6.5 PRC.)

Year Designed: 2018

Designed by: Hornady MFG

Parent Case: 300 RCM

Rifling Twist Rate: 1 in 8” (However some people like 1 in 7.5”)

Maximum Point-Blank Range: 401 Yards. (When zeroed at 340 yards and set for a 12” vital zone)

I hope you enjoyed this brief overview of the 6.5 PRC and will return next week for our Cartridge of the Week series.

Please remember to always practice safe muzzle control when dealing with firearms and happy shooting.

B