Ruger may not always light the world on fire like they did with the Ruger Precision Rifle, but they can generally be counted on to not sit back and rest on their prior accomplishments. This year’s trip to the Ruger booth at Media day saw some minor improvements on existing lines, but the changes they made were worthwhile. First up is the Predator series which gets the addition of 6 mm Creedmoor and a scope bundle.
Instead of dropping the “other” 6 mm offering in .243 WIN, Ruger has elected to chamber for both in the hopes that the market will decide which direction to go. After only one day on the ground here in Vegas, I’ve already seen a lot of 6 mm Creedmoor rifles out and about, and I expect that if Hornady backs this like they did 6.5 Creedmoor, there will be a big uplift in interest in the 6mm.
Ruger’s new rifle in 6mm Creedmoor is a pussycat, especially with a can on the end. Offhand shots at 100 were no problem, and the utter lack of recoil made for easy shot calling. As I expected, nothing else has changed, so the trigger is great while the ergonomics of the stock still leave something to be desired.
Rounding out improvements to the Predator line, Ruger is now offering a scope bundle for four of the chamberings they currently list – .223 REM, 204 Ruger, 6.5 Creedmoor, and .308 WIN. The scope in question is the Vortex Crossfire II 4-12 x 44. MSRP on the scope bundled rifles will be $699 with the non scoped rifles at $529.
These aren’t landmark shifts for the Ruger line, but they do add a bit of variety in the cartridge lineup at a very affordable price. As soon as factory 6 mm Creedmoor ammo starts rolling off the line, we’ll be picking up one of these rifles for test and evaluation.
I bought this rifle in .308, and I love it. I’ve looked pretty hard at 6.5mm Creedmoor, and if it weren’t so dam expensive I’d buy one of these. Anyone know of any ammo companies planning on making regular factory ammo that won’t cost $1.50 each?
Oh this is 6mm Creedmoor, not 6.5mm. Never mind.
Now make me a damn .308 magazine that holds more than 3.5 rounds with the bolt closed! The American Predator is an awesome rifle for the money, but the magazines suck. I have to slam the mag in there if I insert 4 rounds and that gets annoying.
I have it in 30-06 and the magazine fits perfect with 4 rounds.
Somebody explain to me how 6mm Creedmore is better than .243 Win. To me, .243 Winchester is the better of the two and has a good, better following and better ammo availability.
Honestly, I don’t have an interest in either compared to 6.5 Creedmore. 6.5mm is right in the sweet spot between .223, .243, and .308 that it can stand on its own merit.
Neither round does anything the other doesn’t do well. The difference is marketing. The .243 and .270 are old hunting rifle calibers. Marketed to your 50 year old who wants a great Coyote round. The 6.5mm and 6mm Creedmore are marketed to his son who grew up on Call of Duty and served in Iraq and shoots with his dad. I think that sums up the difference.
Creedmoor case dimensions are better designed for match grade accuracy, and for holding really long match bullets. Barrels chambered in the creedmoors typically have a faster twist to accomodate heavy match bullets. 243 / 260 have slightly larger case capacity over 6.5 or 6 creedmoor. For the average shooter you wont ever notice the difference. For a 1k target / long range shooter you will.
6mm Creedmore had better offer a compelling advantage over .243 Winchester otherwise it will be another by-gone cartridge in a few years. 4mm shorter OAL is not a compelling advantage. I doubt you could pick a 6mm Creedmore in a handful of .243s. Considering how many people have mixed up 8mm Mauser with .30-06 and other similar rounds, this is not a difficult mistake to make.
Anyone building a custom target shooting rifle will select a barrel with a faster pitch rate to stabilise heavier bullets over the long distances, so this advantage the Creedmore cartridge offers is already moot.
Downunder 6.5 Creedmore is being talked about in the magazines but on the firing line you will see .260 Remington (often made from necked-down .308 brass) or 6.5×55. There is no compelling advantage over existing over the counter cartridges or components.
Ruger’s website specs 1:7.7 for the 6mm Creedmoor twist, which isn’t that much slower than the 1:7.5 that the 6XC folks are using with the 105’s and 115 DTAC pills. The 115’s made the 6XC a viable 1000 yard round, so the benchrest folks could shoot both competitions with the same rifle, perhaps only changing their scope & mounting situation.
I too don’t see the burning need for the 6mm Creedmoor. There’s already plenty of 6mm precision rounds out there, it’s just that most people don’t know about them because they refuse to learn about what people have developed for competition in 6’s. There’s the granddaddy of them all, the 6 PPC, then the 6mm BR, the 6 XC, 6mm Dasher, 6mm BRX, 6mm BRD, etc, etc. And of course, there’s still the .243 Win and 6mm Remington.
There’s plenty of 6mm cartridges extant for precision rifle work.
I’m not understanding what the 6mm Creedmoor will do that the 6mm XC cartridge won’t. The 6 XC is already used for across the course and 1000 yard competitions, and has a shoulder set back to allow for VLD pills to fit in a .308-sized magazine.
The benchrest world has already done decades of load development in the 6mm bullet space. Fixating on a new round in 6mm at this point is silly, because there have been 10’s of thousands of man-hours (and woman-hours) that have gone into perfecting a 6mm precision rifle round, and they have results to show for it.
Probably because Hornady saw how profitable it was to standardize on 6.5 CM and wants to do the same in 6 CM. The Creedmoor name has panache now to a whole new breed of shooters, and even though you and I know that the .243 and 6 XC can do all the same stuff 6 CM does, those loads just don’t have factory support. And when you’re in the business of selling $999 precision rifles, factory ammo with slick pills means $$$.
My $0.02 on the matter.
Norma sells loaded 6XC rounds and brass. They also sell loaded 6mm BR rounds, which is sometimes called the 6mm Norma BR. The 6XC is derived from the 6BR by changing the angle on the shoulder.
The Swedes have used the 6XC to win national matches in Europe. Many American shooters already have match-winning results with the 6XC. The 6mm Creedmoor has none of this track record.
As I’ve ranted earlier here at TTAG, this sort of thing (the 6mm Creedmoor) is just intellectual onanism passed off as slick marketing. Poseurs who want to look like they know something about shooting buy into the latest “new new” thing without realizing that what they’ve wanted has existed for decades, or perhaps even a century (eg, the 9.3×62 Mauser cartridge – why would anyone need a “magnum” for North American game?).
Well, it can re-sell idea of 105gr or DTACs being acceptable for US shooter to touch, let alone shoot. Just look at those silly short benchrest cases, surely they cannot do what long, slick .243 can? đŸ˜‰
(this being said, I am completely ignorant on issues of sticking high-BC bullet in SAAMI-length .243 Win. I do remember that Berger’s .270 Win offering, 170gr EOL, requires faster twist and breaks COAL limit, which is expected but not especially welcome)
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