Thread: Seriously underrated 6.5x47 Lapua

I have been having a blast shooting Creedmoor for the last year or so and have tested the crap out of that little cartridge to the point I feel it was time to move to something else to keep me entertained.

I have been thrashing my Desert Tech with a new .308 barrel I made up for it and its been fun shooting the .308 again, I hadnt shot it in years and it still hasnt lost its hard hitting charm. I have shifted to shooting the heavier 175gr TMKs from 150 and 168gr in previous rifles Ive owned and I have to say Ill never look back. Getting 2610fps from a 21" Trueflight match 1-10" twist I chambered with a 95 Palma match reamer it shoots some of the smallest sub .5" groups Ive ever shot in .308win.







@Flyblown fire forming some new Lapua .308 Palma Match brass for me on the 100y range






While it is fun and does everything I ask of it, it is a cal I first started shooting with, hunting with and competing with, its predictably boring and feels like a very old relationship.
I worked up a ridiculously accurate load in about 20 mins and 15 shots in total with a couple of different powders 8208 and 2208 (BM 8208 was new to me in this cal) which just confirmed just how much time Ive spent with this cal before the 6.5 bug bit and challenged everything I thought I knew about reloading and ballistics.

So I wanted to make a new barrel that will become my "go to work horse".
When I moved from .308win to 6.5 I was tossing up between 6.5 Creedmoor and 6.5x47 Lapua for quite a while but after lots of online research (my first mistake) and seeing there was a shortage of Redding 6.5x47 dies at the time, in fact the the deciding strike was that none of the usual exporters in the states had them in stock, I went with Creedmoor by default.

Some of you followed my Creedmoor journey but to cut a long story short, I still really wanted to build a X47 Lapua.
So.. With a big thanks to @graeme for retiring from F class shooting this year and selling me his 6.5X47 Trueflite match barrel and bucket of Lapua brass for up cycling to fit my Desert Tech.
It was a low use 30" long 1-1/4" 1-8" twist that had the first 6" turned to a step-down for the target stock mounting block which had to be cut off to use the full dia with the clamping system of the desert tech. this gave me 24" to work with which in x47 Lapua standards is quite short but I knew what I could get out of a 20" Creedmoor so 24" was definitely right where I wanted to be for this project.

Here's the truck axle along side my 21" .308 barrel







Got to work on it, cut the rear 6" off and had a heap of meet taken off to match the factory Desert Tech profile.









I re-threaded it for the DTA barrel extension nut,threaded it for a suppressor and chambered it with one of Dave Mansons match reamers before dropping it off to @DPT for @Friwi to work his lightening magic cutting some flutes in it for me. Looks great mate, thanks again.







The growing 6.5 Family: .260 Rem, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5x47 Lapua and 6.5 Grendel



Load development to come.