According to a Precision Rifle Blog survey, the MasterPiece Arms (MPA) chassis system is the second most popular stock in the PRS game, and it’s gaining ground fast. MPA was second only to Manners Stocks in popularity among the top 100 PRS shooters. Remarkably, the MPA chassis experienced a nine-fold increase in use in 2016 over the previous year. This thing is really catching on.
Here MPA President Phil Cashin Shows How to Set Up the MPA BA Chassis:
2015 PRS Champion David Preston (who is currently ranked #1 in Precision Rifle Series standings) favors MPA Chassis systems: “I chose the MPA BA Chassis because of its adjustability, versatility, and company’s willingness to adapt to shooters needs and suggestions. It’s the most comfortable and reliable stock on the market.”
One reason the MPA Chassis works so well is that MPA’s president, Phil Cashin, is an active PRS shooter who regularly tests out features in competition. He also gets feedback from other PRS competitors: “We’re always implementing feedback and suggestions from shooters into our products. In fact, the idea for our EVG grip, which has a rest on it to better support your trigger finger, came directly from a suggestion that David Preston, 2015 PRS Champion, gave me at a match.”
New MPA BA Competition Chassis
The “latest and greatest” MPA stock system is the MPA BA Competition Chassis. This offers the best features of the original MPA BA Chassis system plus some new, notable enhancements. With the elimination of the monopod, weight is reduced. A movable barricade stop comes standard. The buttstock offers full adjustability for length-of-pull, cheek height, and buttpad height/cant.
Rotating, Multi-Position Barricade Stop — Aids stability when shooting on a variety of barricades. Trinity Rail System — Allows closer bipod when shooting off oil drums or similar props. Modified Magazine Well — This “Ryan Castle” magwell allows fast side-loading of mags into chassis. Rear Bag-rider Attachment — Improves tracking/stability in rear sandbag.
MPA Production Class Rifle with Savage Action
Along with its chassis systems, MPA offers a complete rifle for the PRS Production Division:
To fit PRS Production Class Rules (PCR), MPA has developed the new $1999.99 BA Lite PCR Competition Rifle built around a Savage Model 12 short action. The Savage action is upgraded with a Rifle Basix 2-lb trigger, and the adjustable, MPA BA Lite Chassis offers a bag rider, barricade stop, and even a built-in bubble level. Bipods can be attached up front to a rail, with optional spigot mount. MPA PCR Rifles come with stainless Bergara barrels, 22-26 inches in length, fitted with MPA muzzle brakes. Chamberings offered are: 6mm Creedmoor, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6-6.5×47 Lapua, 6.5×47 Lapua, .243 Win, and .308 Win. The PCR rifle includes a 10-round AICS-type magazine.
Say Hallelujah. These are pallets of Hodgdon H4350, something that’s been very hard to find recently. Check with Bruno’s, Graf’s, Midsouth and Powder Valley very soon.
Hodgdon H4350 has been the Holy Grail of reloading powders — highly desired but near impossible to find. For many popular cartridges such as 6XC, 6.5×47, 6.5 Creedmoor, and .260 Remington, H4350 has been the powder to beat — the “gold standard” for accuracy, low ES/SD, and temp stability. Unfortunately, H4350 has been in very short supply for the last couple of years. Major vendors such as Grafs.com, Midsouth and Powder Valley have been back-ordered for a long, long time.
But now that may change. Hodgdon has received a very large supply of H4350, and has started shipping pallets of the popular powder this week. The photo above was taken May 9, 2017. Hodgdon announced: “We have a lot of powder going out the door most days, but we have some special powder going out again this week. This should be on your local reloading shops’ shelves in the next couple weeks. Reloaders, rejoice!” If you’re in need of H4350, we recommend you contact your favorite shooting shop or online distributors soon. And guys — buy what you need, but don’t horde. Leave some for other shooters.
Planning a new tactical or hunting rifle project? You may want to consider a Howa barreled action for your new rig. Brownells has a large supply of these well-made Howas in a variety of chamberings, including the popular 6.5 Creedmoor. You can just bolt this barreled action into the chassis system of your choice. These barreled actions start at $359.99 complete with two-stage trigger and magazine. The 6.5 Creedmoor barrelled action with 24″ Heavy Barrel is $449.99 blued, $479.99 blued/threaded, or $546.00 Cerakote Gray. Many other chamberings are carried by Brownells, including: .204 Ruger, .222 Rem, .223 Rem, 22-250, 6.5 Grendel (Mini), 7.62×39 (Mini), .243 Win, 7mm-08, .308 Win, .270 Win, .30-06, 7mm Rem Mag, .300 Win Mag, .338 Win Mag and more.
Watch Unboxing of Howa Barreled Action in Video:
Bolt-In to Chassis Systems
Howa barreled actions are ready to drop into stocks or chassis systems for quick, DIY bolt-action rifle builds. These barreled actions are available in a wide selection of calibers, barrel lengths and profiles in both blued finish and grey Cerakote. Some have threaded muzzles for easy attachment of suppressors or other muzzle devices. Actions have factory-installed two-stage HACT Trigger, and internal 5-round box magazines. Detachable-mag bottom metals and extra magazines are also available. Actions are ready to accept scope bases and rails. Brownells currently has more than 75 versions of Howa barreled actions.
HACT 2-Stage Trigger
One of the best features of the Howa barreled actions is the HACT 2-Stage trigger, which is way better than most factory triggers. Set at around 3 pounds, the HACT can be adjusted to about half that pull weight. This is a very nice trigger system, and we like the 2-Stage pull for field applications. Writing for the Western Outdoor News, WONews.com, Steve Comus field-tested the HACT Trigger: “The take-up on the [HACT] trigger was fast and easy. The crisp, positive release when pressure was put on during the second stage [reminded me] of some of the target rifles I shot through the years.”
According to Military Times, the U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) is considering replacing the 7.62×51 NATO in semi-auto sniper rifles with a mid-size 6.5 mm cartridge. The two leading candidates are the 6.5 Creedmoor and the .260 Remington. These 6.5 cartridges would deliver a flatter trajectory, better long-range ballistics, and reduced recoil compared to the 7.62×51 NATO (aka .308 Winchester). While the .260 Rem enjoys a case capacity edge over the 6.5 Creedmoor, in the real world, performance is similar — both cartridge types can push a 130gr bullet to velocities around 2900 fps. (See Sierra 6.5 CM Load Data.)
“Major Aron Hauquitz told Military Times Tuesday that SOCOM is in the preliminary stages of exploring a sniper rifle chambered in the 6.5 mm caliber. The two commercially available rounds being evaluated are the .260 Remington and the 6.5 mm Creedmoor.
Research shows that both rounds will ‘stay supersonic longer, have less wind drift and better terminal performance than 7.62 mm ammunition’, SOCOM officials said.
‘We’re purely in the exploratory phase’. Hauquitz said. ‘We’re trying to see if we can take a weapon that is 7.62 and give it greater range, accuracy and lethality.'”
The SOCOM representative indicated that test rifles in 6.5 Creedmoor and/or .260 Remington might be issued to test teams later this year, but there was no issue date in place yet. Hauquitz said the 6.5 mm exploration came out of preliminary results of the Small Arms Ammunition Configuration study, which assesses commercially available ammunition and new ammo technologies.
SOCOM Also Considering Polymer Cartridges
The Military Times report also revealed that SOCOM is considering polymer-cased rifle ammunition, with the goal of reducing load weight. SOCOM’s research shows that a polymer-cased mid-sized 6.5 mm cartridge could be one-third lighter than conventional brass-cased 7.62×51 ammo. That means the next-generation 6.5 mm ammo could “come in at 5.56×45 mm weight ranges”. While SOCOM is seriously looking at this new option, polymer-cased ammo will NOT be required for SOCOM’s new semi-auto rifle. In other words, if the polymer ammo is not ready, that “would not delay potential fielding of a 6.5 mm rifle” according to Maj. Hauquitz.
Savage has a new flagship field rifle — the Model 10 GRS, fitted with a superb GRS rifle stock from Norway. We shot this rifle at SHOT Show Media Day and liked it better than many of the metal-chassis rifles being marketed to the tactical/PRS market. The Model 10 GRS is very comfortable to shoot, and the inherent accuracy is impressive for a rifle with a $1449.00 MSRP and “street price” around $1250. Two chamberings are currently offered, a .308 Win with 20″ barrel and a 6.5 Creedmoor with 24″ barrel. Between those two choices, for tactical games, we’d certainly favor the 24″ 6.5 Creedmoor.
The Model 10 GRS features adjustable cheekpiece and adjustable length of pull. The grip area is very comfortable, filling the hand naturally. The stock has a nice surface texture providing good “traction” on forearm and grip. The stock is fairly light but very strong, being made from 15% fiberglass-reinforced Durethan, with 65% glass bedding material.
Initial prototype Model 10 GRS rifles showed impressive accuracy (better than some of the metal modular rifles on the market). We attribute this to the fluted, heavy-contour button-rifled barrel and the user-adjustable AccuTrigger. We could get the trigger pull weight plenty low enough for tactical competition use.
Features & Benefits:
GRS adjustable stock made of 15 percent fiberglass-reinforced Durethan
User-adjustable Savage AccuTrigger
Slim grip and fore-end with textured rubber grip surfaces
Adjustable length-of-pull from 33.5 to 36.5 cm
5/8-24 threaded muzzle
Fluted heavy barrel
10-round AICS-compatible magazine
Flush cup sling loops plus sling mount for bipod use
The verdict is in — Lapua’s new 6.5 Creedmoor brass is ultra-tough and very consistent. So sayeth the 6.5 Guys, who recently field-tested the brass, loading it to very stout levels. Even after 20 reloadings, the Lapua 6.5 CM brass held up extremely well. This brass, with its small primer pocket and small flash hole, really does out-perform other 6.5 Creedmoor brass offerings. Yes the Lapua brass is pricey, but it outlasts the alternatives, and, if the 6.5 Guys test is any indication, you can run higher velocities with this brass compared to other brands. Watch the 6.5 Guys Lapua brass test in this video:
If you have a 6.5 Creedmoor rifle, or are considering getting a gun chambered for this cartridge, we strongly recommend you watch the full 6.5 Guys Video. Ed and Steve spent a lot of time conducting this test, and the video includes helpful summaries of their findings.
The Evolution of the 6.5 Creedmoor
Over the last few years the 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge has become increasingly popular among precision rifle enthusiasts. However, availability of brass cases was limited to only a few manufacturers. In early 2017 Lapua introduced to the market its own 6.5 Creedmoor case with a unique twist — the case has a small rifle primer pocket and small flash hole — like the 6mmBR Norma and 6.5×47 Lapua.
Lapua 6.5 Creedmoor Brass — Test Protocol
The 6.5 Guys tested a box of Lapua 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge brass supplied by Graf & Sons. The project involved two phases. First the 6.5 Guys weighed and measured the cases to assess weight uniformity and dimensional consistency (which was impressive). Then came phase II — the “torture test”. The 6.5 Guys loaded the brass with a very stout charge of H4350 pushing 140gr Hornady ELD bullets*. The brass was loaded and shot over 20 times. This durability test was conducted to see how many repeated firings and resizing/reloading cycles the brass could handle. Remarkably, after 20+ loadings, the brass was still holding up — no “blown-out” primer pockets. This stuff is tough. The 6.5 Guys note: “You can go at least 20 reloadings without a split neck…but brass spring-back may be another issue.”
After 20 Load Cycles — Going to the Extreme
Once the Lapua cases had been shot 20+ times, the 6.5 Guys tried something more extreme. They stuffed the brass with a very hot load — a powder charge weight well beyond a sensible maximum. Even with this “beyond max” load, the Lapua brass held up but there was some evidence of pressure on the primers: “You do see some cratering on the primer with a Remington 700 that you don’t see with a Defiance action, but nothing to indicate a potential pierced primer.”
WARNING: The 6.5 Guys deliberately used a very stout load for testing. Do not attempt to duplicate. This load was shot in a faster-than-average barrel with a chamber set up for long 140gr bullets. You may not be able to achieve similar velocities — maybe not even close. As with all hand-loading, always start low and work up charges in small increments.
6.5 Creedmoor vs. 6.5×47 Lapua — Battle of the Middle-Weights
With this new brass, does the 6.5 Creedmoor enjoy an edge over the 6.5×47 Lapua? The 6.5 Guys answer: “That’s hard to say. From a market share standpoint, the 6.5 CM is more popular in the USA. From a technical perspective, 6.5×47 Lapua offers near identical performance with better barrel life. But from our tests, you can drive a 140-grain bullet much faster with 6.5 Creedmoor than you ever can (safely) with a 6.5×47 Lapua. That’s our non-answer answer….”
The 6.5 Guys concluded that the 6.5 Creedmoor will enjoy a velocity advantage: “We’ve had a number of discussions with RBros and other folks about this. It appears that 6.5×47 still has the edge as far as barrel life. But it also looks like you can push a 140gr bullet pretty fast with the 6.5 CM — speeds that are not obtainable with the 6.5×47 Lapua.”
* Why were the Hornady 140gr ELDs chosen for testing? The 6.5 Guys wanted a bullet in the 140gr weight range. Beyond that, the choice was fortuitous. Ed explained: “Our bullet selection was quite scientific — we sat down at my reloading bench and looked around. Saw the Hornady 140 ELD Match and decided to roll with that.”
It’s not easy to place a first shot on target at 1500 yards. You must measure the wind speed with precision, know your exact muzzle velocity, and have a sophisticated ballistics solver. In this short video from Ryansrangereport.com, the shooter manages a first-round hit on a steel silhouette at 1500 yards. He used a Kestrel 4500 NV Weather Meter with Applied Ballistics software to figure out the trajectory for his 6.5 Creedmoor rounds.
The Kestrel recorded a wind velocity, and the internal software calculated a solution of 17 Mils elevation (that’s 928 inches of drop) with 2.5 Mils windage. “Bang” — the shooter sends it, and 2.6 seconds later “Clang” he had a hit (flight time was 2.6 seconds). Bryan Litz observes: “This is the science of accuracy (in the form of an Applied Ballistics Kestrel) being put to good use at 1500 yards”.
Later in the video (1:05-1:15) the shooter places three rounds on steel at 1000 yards in just 10 seconds. The three shots all fall within 10″ or so — pretty impressive for rapid fire. The shooter reports: “[In my 6.5 Creedmoor] I’m using a 136gr Lapua Scenar L. This bullet has impressed me. It screams out of my barrel at 2940 fps and holds on all the way out to 1,500 yards.”
The rifle was built by Aaron Roberts of Roberts Precision Rifles (RPRifles.com). Chambered for the 6.5 Creedmoor, it features a Leupold Mark VI 3-18x44mm scope.
Roberts Precision Rifles
19515 Wied Rd. Suite D
Spring, Texas 77388
Phone: 281-651-5593
Email: rprifles @ gmail.com
Do you shoot a mid-sized match cartridge, such as the 6.5×47 Lapua, or 6.5 Creedmoor? Then here’s a great deal for you. Right now you can get 123gr Nosler HPBT match bullets for just $20.49 per hundred. These are on sale as “factory seconds” with cosmetic blemishes, such as water spots. But they are otherwise fine bullets, and your targets will never notice the blemishes.
We prefer bullets in the 120-130 grain weight range for the mid-sized 6.5mm cartridges. While you give up a little BC compared to the 140s, the lighter bullets seem to be easier to tune and often group tighter. You can also get significantly higher velocities with a 120-grainer compared to a 140-grainer. The extra velocity may allow you to reach a higher accuracy node. With our .260 Rem, we got consistently better inherent accuracy with 120gr bullets running at a high node, compared to the slower moving 140s. YMMV, but we think it’s worth trying these Noslers at just $20.49 per box — half the price of some other premium 130gr 6.5mm match bullets.
Bullets in the 120-grain range often shoot very well in all these cartridge types. And they may be easier to tune than 140-grain class 6.5mm projectiles.
by Gavin Gear, UltimateReloader.com
Norma is known for its high-quality brass and ammunition. I’ve used Norma brass for precision reloading in calibers like .30-06 with great results. Recently, I saw that Norma had announced a new addition to their Professional Hunter lineup of ammunition: in 6.5 Creedmoor! I thought I should try some out with the Ruger Precision Rifle, and that’s what I’ll cover in this post.
As you saw in the video, this ammunition behaves more like match ammunition than it does hunting ammunition — I really wish it was deer season! Here are the chronograph results:
This article comes from the Midsouth Shooters Blog. You’ll find other helpful gear reviews, reloading tips, and technical articles at www.MSSBlog.com.
With an SD of 13.7 FPS, this ammunition is very consistent in terms of velocity. It’s not surprising that the first four shots went into a .5″ group. This new ammunition is built around the Swift Scirocco II 6.5mm Bullet, and here’s more info about this precision-oriented hunting projectile:
Technical Information
Caliber: 264, 6.5mm
Bullet Diameter: 0.264
Bullet Weight: 130 Grains
Bullet Length: 1.350″
Bullet Style: Polymer Tip Spitzer Boat Tail
Bullet Coating: Non-Coated
Ballistics Information:
Sectional Density: .266
Ballistic Coefficient:.571
This is certainly a great choice of ammunition if you are hunting medium game with a rifle chambered in 6.5 Creedmoor. Can’t wait to sit down again with this ammunition to see if I can get that 3/8″ 5-shot group I know this ammo is capable of! If you want to try this Norma 6.5 Creedmoor Professional Hunter ammo yourself, you can purchase this excellent ammunition at Midsouth Shooters Supply.
If you watch just one episode of Shooting USA TV this year, it should probably be this week’s hour-long SHOT Show Special. Tonight, March 1, 2017, enjoy a full hour of SHOT Show coverage. Jim Scoutten’s team of gun journalists work hard every January, bringing you highlights from the gun industry’s largest trade show. Jim, son John Scoutten, and other staffers prowled the 12 miles of aisles in the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas, visiting many of the 1,600+ exhibitors. This episode provides a “first look” at the new guns, optics, and gear introduced for 2017. Click HERE to learn more about this week’s SHOT Show episode.
2017 SHOT Show Highlights: Savage MSR Rifles, GA Precision Tempest Action, Smith & Wesson M&P 10 in 6.5 Creedmoor, Colt double-action Cobra, STI Match pistols and a whole lot more.
Shooting USA Hour AIR TIMES
Shooting USA’s SHOT Show Special will air for a full hour on Wednesday, March 1, 2016 on the Outdoor Channel. Here are the air times, but you should check your local schedule. Look for Shooting USA TV on the Outdoor Channel.
Wednesday Night Schedule:
Eastern Time – 9:30 PM; 1:00 AM (TH)
Central Time – 8:30 PM; Midnight (TH)
Mountain Time – 7:30 PM; 11:00 PM
Pacific Time – 6:30 PM; 10:00 PM
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Here are some of the 50+ new products featured on the SHOT Show Special:
Bolt-In to Chassis Systems
It’s not easy to place a first shot on target at 1500 yards. You must measure the wind speed with precision, know your exact muzzle velocity, and have a sophisticated ballistics solver. In this short video from 
