- Location
- Haliburton County, Central Ontario
Mine is an 18" 'custom' rifle, with a brake and it is sub MOA with 130 gr bullets at 100 yards. 20 or 30 fps, compared.to a 20" barrel, is not worth considering. The deer will not notice.
Great powder I have used it for years . Great in a lot of cartridges - BUT BUT ! RL26 is even better ! JMO RJ
The Deer or ? Will not notice being SHOT FROM of a 18 and or a 26 Barrell - it’s ALL about rifle handiness and weight . JMO. RJ
I have a 18" 6.5 CM barrel for hunting.
I use 123 Scenars to get some velocity out of such a short barrel, sending them at 2850 fps. I would stick with 130 grain or below projectiles for velocity purposes.
Tikka's, while being great shooters, are also notoriously slow. So that may be another reason to go to lighter projectiles for your project.
Thanks...thats also part of what steers me towards a longer barrel. Knowing I may well lose a bit on top of what is normal for that barrel length.
The Scenars look like strong performers on game...and thats a great velocity for your barrel length.
It doesn't take much to get the Scenars going.
If you want to go the short barrel route, I would strongly recommend the 123's.
How are the scenars performing while hunting?
The more I'm looking into them the more I read about guys using them for hunting with great success. It is after all a match bullet, but you read about the same things guys are doing with the hornady match rounds.
Considering a short 6.5 CM barrel, but stuck on the 16" or 18" route. Going to be using 139 gr scenars in the 26" barrel bench rifle, and they are grouping awesomely so far. Just about to finalize my new load with them, but threw a wrench in there and wanted to try some N555 before I settle on RL16.