Still use and compete with the 6.5 Mystic. works wonderfully and can say, very easy to tune. Having gone through 6 different barrels and rebarrels, tuning is very similar from rifle to rifle. As easy to dial in as a 6BR.
Brass life is superb. I toss the brass with the barrel. haven't lost any case to normal wear and tear.
Performance is limited by my ability to read conditions. I have shot enough groups at 300m in the 1's and 2's to know the cartridge works. With mirage and wind, groups get worse but I don't blame a rifle for my poor driving skills.
Vertical dispersion can pretty much be dialed out of this rifle and have shot it accurately all the way to 2365yds. distance limited by the amount of UP in my optics.
I have used all common bullets in the initial testing. 139gr Scenars were the prefered bullet for those barrels. So I shot this brand of bullet. I am presently shooting a 260AI Shilen which is very similar in case size/shape as my Mystic (260AI a bit smaller) and I have throated to the same specs as the Mystic.
It shoots with very similar loads as the Mystic and similar accuracy. however, this Shilen prefers Bergers so that is what I will feed it. The set up will allow ANY common VLD to work just fine so test the bullet for best accuracy and use it.
CCI BR2, H4831SC, Winchester 308W brass necked down and prepped is what I use in all my rigs. Bullets have been 139gr Scenar and now 140gr Berger VLD's. I don't bother with anything lighter.
This improved case may not stack well in hi cap mags. It works ok in the reg Savage mag but doesn't stack nicely in the hicap. you get a few more in but then things hang up.
If you are building a mag fed rifle, I would recommend the 260Rem. You will have way less headaches in the long run. The speed loss will be minimal but brass life will be shorter due to case stretching.
I use Savage rifles and these mags allow for almost 3" of cartridge OAL. I see no point in going shorter. If you did, you will loose case capacity and that will reduce velocity. Changing to H4350 or Re17 will likely solve this issue (H4831SC is pretty close to 100% load density).
So if going to a standard 308 mag (2.8"), I would use something else.
Hope this helps...
Jerry
