Where ballistic calculators are used we kept as many variables the same between rounds of the same cartridge. Can someone explain why the 6XC over the 243? BONUS OFFER: Get your 500 Page Ammo Comparison Handbook (worth $43) for FREE right into your inbox. The 243 WSSM has also been deadly on elk. More importantly, this round maintains the velocities to cause sufficient penetration and expansion, and it carries more than enough stopping power out to 300 yards which is excellent for a .243 hunting round at this weight. It’s a good way to compare cartridges, but when actually looking for rounds to use, you will need to pay more attention to the individual characteristics. Both cartridges can get the job done. Deeper penetration is not always an indicator of a better round or cartridge. labnoti Member. Each rifle tends to have its own small differences in its profile, and this means some small differences in the ballistic output. BCs could also have several articles written on the variables that go into its calculation, but for now, we will stick with the basics. The future of the 6mm Creedmoor is still up in the air. The 58 and 55gr .243 rounds are extremely flat with only 6 and 7 inches of bullet drop while the remaining rounds fall to the 10 and 11-inch range. It is all there in the box for a $1300 MSRP complete with your choice of .243, .308, 6.5 Creedmoor, and 6mm Creedmoor caliber options. .17-Caliber Reloading Data and History for 5 Cartridges, M&P15 SPORT II Rifle Available with CTS-103 Optic, Ruger Precision Rifle Now Chambered in .300 PRC and 6.5 PRC, .45-70 vs .450 Bushmaster — Cartridge Clash, .30-30 Win. While both bullets have the same mass, bullet B is concentrating all of that mass in a smaller area, which in theory, should drive the bullet deeper. There are several rounds of both the .243 and 6mm CM rounds that carry very similar momentum numbers. ), and.240 Weatherby. We see a cartridge that has been a long-standing favorite for target shooters, and we see a new cartridge that has thrust itself into the same scene and shown incredible potential in its short time. If you're a deer hunter who dearly loves his .243 Win. At 300 yards, the 6mm Creedmoor had an advantage over the heavier .243 rounds with about 1.3” flatter trajectory on average. Please note, the following information reflects the estimated average ballistics for each caliber and does not pertain to … Get our PDF with 13 pistol & rifle targets (worth $48) including expert instructions for FREE! OSG's Lynn Burkhead and Ruger's Matt WIlson kick off SHOT Show 2018 by taking a look at the Ruger Predator. Plus, there are a whole bunch of different ammo options available to you, everything from 55- or 58-grain varmint loads to 100-grain big game loads, and if you want to shoot competition there are heavier bullets for the .243 that will work. So for a cartridge comparison, we can’t say there is an advantage for one over the other regarding sectional density. |   Hornady is claiming its 6mm ARC will yield 2,750 fps with a 108-grain ELD-M bullet from a 24-inch barrel. In this case, bullet C will have a higher sectional density due to its increased mass. The 243 WSSM has also been deadly on elk. The larger the coefficient, the better the bullet is at resisting these external factors. 6mm vs the .243 AI. And that doesn’t mean they aren’t great rounds for what they are designed to do, kill varmints. It’s got an old school vs new punk type feel to it. This with the overall better BCs of the 6mm CM rounds might turn a lot of people to their use when taking long-range shots. In this next section, we are going to take a look at several categories that all fall under the ballistic specs. Which would you build for a varmint/deer rifle and why? Like all of our cartridge comparisons, we want to step back and take an unbiased look at these two cartridges. Over the past decade the 6.5 Creedmoor has become among the most popular long range shooting cartridges available. Starting at left is the ill-fated .243 WSSM, .243 Win., 6mm Rem. Because of that, we will strictly focus on energy that is accompanied with the bullet and will be transferred to the target, the amount of penetration you will get on the target and the momentum of the bullet which also plays a role in penetration. It does not have any SAAMI ratings and a lot of “wildcat variants” are still out there which makes getting the hard numbers on the casing specs difficult. When looking at the 6mm Creedmoor vs .243, we are looking at two cartridges that come with the advantage of having light recoil. 243 Win vs 6mm Creedmoor vs 6mm Rem Any thoughts on these as long range target cartridges? mm (in) Necking down of the 6.5 CM allowed the base to be fitted with a .243 cal bullet and allowed a lower recoil producing round. Still not too shabby, but steeper than the 6mm Creedmoor rounds. We also saw a pretty significant difference in the ballistic coefficients of these rounds. At the muzzle, all of the rounds group pretty tightly together barring the 55gr Nosler .243 round, but we do see the 6mm Creedmoor rounds group a little higher. Without much momentum, you might only get a shallow wound which might drop the animal, but it could mean a long day of tracking. We used the same sight height for all the rounds and used the bullet weight, muzzle velocity, and ballistic coefficient to generate the data. We think that the 6mm Creedmoor vs .243 Winchester is a intriguing comparison. The 6mm CM is basically a necked down version of the 6.5 Creedmoor. All bullets, once fired, carry kinetic energy that is generated by the force of the gunpowder being ignited and the weight of the bullet. A lot of this difference has to do with the bullet design used by the 6mm Creedmoor which makes them more aerodynamic. Re: 6XC vs. 6mm Creedmoor Both Copper Creek and McCort amunition have several loadings for the 6mm Creedmoor on properly headstamped brass. Of course, they are varmint hunting rounds, and that flat trajectory might be worthless depending on what you are hunting or too expensive to target shoot. Obviously the 55 and 58gr rounds might not be the best choice for medium sized game, but they still carry over 1,000 ft.lb of energy at 200 yards. 24370 50 2 C5". A lot of different variables go into calculating a bullets BC but it, along with velocity, are big factors in the how the bullets trajectory and wind drift behave. The .30-30 Win. The vast majority of factory loads for the .243 are more oriented towards hunting. a run for its money due to its superb accuracy. The Brass is … To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. 6.5 Creedmoor vs 223 Inside the gun community there are always talks about which is the better caliber, such as .308 vs the .243 or 9mm against the .45 ACP. With a degree in Microbiology and several years of doctoral work manipulating bacterial genes, he attempts to merge the rational and unbiased thinking of scientific research with the passions of hunting and fishing. At 500, 600, and 700 yards, the 6mm is shooting around 8, 16, and 28 inches flatter than the heavier .243 rounds. The ELD-X are great controlled expansion bullets that can penetrate and pass off a large percentage of its kinetic energy. It’s not quite the same as the actual felt recoil that you feel, but increased recoil energy does correlate with increased felt recoil. For their sized game such as coyotes or other varmints, they carry enough energy at any point in their range. 243 vs 6.5 Creedmoor. There is not as much to go on regarding its performance, but that’s part of the intrigue of this 6mm cartridge; what is its full potential? and the ill-fated .243 WSSM—as well as competition-centric rounds like the 6XC and the 6x47 Lapua. The majority of the data is available from the manufacturer, and where that was not available, we relied on ballistic calculators from trusted sources. Second, it was chambered in the delightful Winchester Model 70 Featherweight, which was a major factor in the .243’s huge success. . The 6mm Creedmoor, on the other hand, is a much newer and more tailored to a smaller niche in the shooting community and a niche that already has a lot of cartridges flooding the field for the fastest and flattest load. So if you are concerned with penetration, this section and the previous are going to be especially important to you. We can look at some of the ballistic and other performance data we have already covered to look at accuracy in a roundabout way. The parent case of the .243 is the other cartridge of discussion in this article, the .308. The light .243 cartridges are much flatter and give the .243 around a half inch advantage of the 6mm Creedmoor rounds. This cartridge provides incredible trajectories with only 3″ of bullet drop at 200 yards. Maybe the 6mm Creedmoor has the potential to rival the .243 with a strong marketing push, but realize that the .243 Winchester remains in the … Now I am wondering if I … Main reason I ask is I wouldn't mind having just one more barrel for my savage action before I wait a while and go to a custom magnum action for a 338 LM or something in that category. I think it definitely has a leg up on .243 Win as it was designed from the onset to be a long distance target cartridge while the .243 Win was adapted to be a long range cartridge but that wasn’t the design intent. Recoil really comes into play when we are talking about more recoil sensitive people such as inexperienced users. This data, paired with the sectional density results, points towards the heavier 6mm CM rounds having more potential for deep penetration. Cartridge manufacturer, Hornady introduced the mission-specific 6.5mm, Creedmoor center-fire rifle cartridge in 2008. As a caliber, the 6mm has the least number of commercial members. Hornady 6mm ARC Details. What exactly are we looking at when comparing the 6mm Creedmoor and .243 Win cartridges? Would simply downloading a .243 or 6mm Creedmoor with a powder like H4895 to 6mmBR levels get you 6mmBR performance from a case that feeds reliably? Thread starter Greg Duerr; Start date Apr 30, 2015; Help Support Long Range Hunting : Join the LRH Team or . On impact, this kinetic energy is transferred to the target where it causes damage to surrounding tissue and organs. All of these categories including the categories outside of ballistics all go hand in hand and influence each other. Of course, bullet design (including sectional density) and expansion also influence a rounds ability to penetrate. Even with the lightweight .243 rounds, which show the flattest trajectories, the 6mm Creedmoor holds an advantage throughout the entirety of the range, though the differences in the average are less than one inch at the 300 and 400-yard mark with all rounds in play. Jump to Latest Follow 1 - 15 of 15 Posts. Shot placement is equally if not more important than the amount of energy that the bullet is carrying. From the 300 yard mark to the 500-yard mark, the trend flips and the 6mm Creedmoor rounds only lose around 500 fps while the .243 rounds lose on average 800 fps. The trajectory is one of the most discussed ballistic properties when it comes to discussing the performance between different rounds as well as between two different cartridges. We have the Brass in stock along with Dies. Next Last. The .243 Winchester is the one that remains in the top spot for cartridges, but with proper 7mm bullets, the Remington could tackle small to medium sized games and long range shots without difficulty for a deer hunter. Neck down the 6.5 Creedmoor case for 0.243-inch bullets and you have the 6mm Creedmoor. With the long-range trajectory, we see the same trends as with the short range, especially at the 300 and 400-yard range. Instead of arguing for one specific method of identifying a bullet’s stopping power and attempting to draw conclusions, we are going to take a look at all of them. Cartridge Celebrates 125 Years, Berger Long Range Hybrid Target Bullet Review, Black Hills Evolution of Rifle Cartridge: .308 Win. Starting at left is the ill-fated.243 WSSM,.243 Win., 6mm Rem. Although Remington could have a greater advantage for accuracy, bullet selection, accessible ammunition, and big game hunting, we could also name Creedmoor’s exceptional benefits. Even 400 yards they can still bring them down with the proper shot placement. We gathered the bullet energy data from the manufacturers and graphed them over a range of 500 yards (Graph 7). Hornady's launch of the 6mm Creedmoor as a commercial cartridge (the initial wildcat was the brainchild of Outdoor Life's John Snow) coincided with the rise of a new rifle discipline, too—Precision Rifle Series competition or PRS. First, the 6mm Creedmoor does not dominate the .243 Winchester in performance, when both are stoked with hunting loads. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. I seem to recall reading (on the GAPrecision site?) 243 ackley improved vs. 6mm ackley improved #4973691 02/23/11: Joined: Apr 2007. A lot of other factors go into felt recoil, including gun design, so it’s not very quantifiable. When we talk about trajectory, we are only referring to elevation and how much a bullet will drop as it moves downrange. Like everything we have covered, it all depends on what you’re shooting at, and we will discuss this more when we get to the applications of these cartridges. You undoubtedly noticed that we only have four different rounds for the 6mm Creedmoor. For that, they still have plenty of bullet energy. Recently, the 6mm Creedmoor cartridge which propels lighter thinner 6mm/.243 caliber bullets at higher velocities is becoming an attractive alternative. The issue with some of the heavier bullets is the other ballistic performance specs. Nothing to base a decision on. While the .243 has a rich history in the hunting world and is often a young sportsman’s first centerfire rifle, the 6mm Creedmoor has yet to break into that world. So, we have generated the recoil energies from these two cartridges using an online ballistics calculator (Graph 1). Each cartridge uses different diameter bullets: .243″ (6mm) for the .243 Winchester and .264″ (6.5mm) for the Creedmoor. While assessing different cartridges, you could have a general idea about their characteristics if you carefully research their development history. Of course, depending on what you’re doing with these rounds, the flat trajectory might not make up for what they lack in stopping power. While the .243 Winchester is probably the greatest of the great 6mms, the 6mm Creedmoor, which blossomed in 2017, is giving the .243 Win. Below are the averages for the 6mm Creedmoor vs the .243 Win when we include the extra fifteen rounds for the .243 cartridge. In this cartridge comparison, we are going to take a look at the 6.5 Creedmoor vs .243 Winchester. It’s an even smaller margin if we don’t take the lightweight varmint rounds of the .243. The same trend happens at the 300-yard mark. We will be sure to update this article as more information comes out. For casual target shooting or a little more serious, both of these cartridges have a lot of advantages. 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