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Can you shoot 6.5 Creedmoor in a .308 rifle?

7K views 16 replies 16 participants last post by  375hh1973 
#1 ·
That was a question I never thought to ask until my brother and I went shooting on Monday and he answered it for me.

He had a Remington 700 SPS Tactical rifle in .308 that he had just sent to a gunsmith to have the trigger replaced and action put into a new Magpul stock. Rifle was his former SWAT sniper rifle and can do some impressive groups.

I broke out my new Ruger Predator in .308 and was slowly putting it through it's paces while he got out the 700 and started shooting at the 25 yard target to verify zero. He wasn't on the paper.

I told him to remove the bolt and sight down the bore and the scope to see if it was close. He tried, but the high comb of the new stock wouldn't allow it.

He kept shooting and trying to judge the dirt being kicked up on where it was hitting. Finally, he walked up to the 10 yard mark and shot the rifle at the target...

846840


Bullets were hitting sideways. I told him that meant that something was seriously wrong with the barrel. Said the bullets must be really undersized for the bore. He looked at his box of very expensive Federal Match ammo and realized that he had been shooting 6.5 Creedmoor ammo in a .308 rifle. He was not happy.

He cleaned out the barrel and loaded the proper ammo, then shot this sub half MOA group at 100 yards, which blew away my best group of 7/8"...

846841


The spent casings were fire-formed pretty well to the .308 size on the left...

846842
 
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#5 ·
I have the same 700 sps and it is tack driver, with the proper ammo of course.
Funny you mention the fire forming of the brass because I just had that discussion with a friend about fire forming some 223 brass up to 7mm TCU ,he said to just fire some 223 rounds threw it. While that would work, I didn't like the idea of an undersized bullet wobbling through the barrel at 2500 fps.
I ended up just running the 223 through the 7mm dies and it worked just fine.
 
#7 ·
I saw a guy shooting 25-06 ammo thru a 270 win and the bullets were keyholeing and tearing the paper. The gun shop proprietor sold him the wrong ammo. My friend had a old 50-70 sharps so he light loaded some bullets for it. The bore was so wore out that one of the bullets left a perfect impression on the target of a 50 cal bullet perfectly sideways thru the paper.
 
#8 ·
Reversing that... Firing a 308 cartridge in a 6.5 Creedmoor rifle, would not be good. I don't know that it would even chamber but... The results would not be good.

I have a pair of near-matching rifles, Remington 700 CDL's in 25-06 and 30-06. They often end up both going with me on antelope & mule deer hunts. I am VERY careful about making sure I've got the right ammo for the rifle I'm carrying. Would be easy to mess that up if inattentive.

Guy
 
#9 ·
I’ve seen many times that a 243 was used in 308, or 270- 25/06 in a 30/06. Never have I seen damage from that kind of mistake. When I was in business a young kid right out of high school lived near the shop. He had been given a Remington 721 in 300H&H. He kept bring gun it and mulling over trading it or buying a box of ammo. He never did buy ammo. Then one day he comes in with a Win yellow box of 300H&H. He ask me to look at the cartridges. He bought them of guy at work and getting them home he decided bullets were “ to fat”. Hearing these type of technical terms scares me. Turns out they were 300H&H brass. Cut down and formed into some short 35cal magnum wildcat. Thing is they would chamber in 300H&H rifle. If kid had touched one off he would have woke up in hospital.
 
#12 ·
I have seen the results of 300 BO fired in a 223/5.56. Pretty much destroys the center of the rifle.
The range officer at Roush Lake F&W Range has a nice collection of blown up brass. 9mm in .40 S&W, 40 in 45acp and several other combos.
 
#14 ·
That was a question I never thought to ask until my brother and I went shooting on Monday and he answered it for me.

He had a Remington 700 SPS Tactical rifle in .308 that he had just sent to a gunsmith to have the trigger replaced and action put into a new Magpul stock. Rifle was his former SWAT sniper rifle and can do some impressive groups.

I broke out my new Ruger Predator in .308 and was slowly putting it through it's paces while he got out the 700 and started shooting at the 25 yard target to verify zero. He wasn't on the paper.

I told him to remove the bolt and sight down the bore and the scope to see if it was close. He tried, but the high comb of the new stock wouldn't allow it.

He kept shooting and trying to judge the dirt being kicked up on where it was hitting. Finally, he walked up to the 10 yard mark and shot the rifle at the target...

View attachment 846840

Bullets were hitting sideways. I told him that meant that something was seriously wrong with the barrel. Said the bullets must be really undersized for the bore. He looked at his box of very expensive Federal Match ammo and realized that he had been shooting 6.5 Creedmoor ammo in a .308 rifle. He was not happy.

He cleaned out the barrel and loaded the proper ammo, then shot this sub half MOA group at 100 yards, which blew away my best group of 7/8"...

View attachment 846841

The spent casings were fire-formed pretty well to the .308 size on the left...

View attachment 846842
No offense intended, but how does someone not realize they are shooting the wrong ammo. Loaded 308 ammo and 6.5 CR do not look the same. And if someone tells you it does, then they obviously don't know jack bla bla from shinola. I reload 308 ammo and sometimes when I pick up brass at an indoor range I double check because I have caught myself picking up 7-08 cases. Similar but different. The necks are narrow. A 6.5 has an even more of a narrow neck and different shoulder angle. Like I said, no offense intended, but this is something that I would see from an amateur who knows nothing about firearms or ammunition.
 
#16 ·
When I was young and dumb I had a Rem 742c 30/06. I bought it new. I was 15 or 16 yrs old. I was forming 30/06 out of 270 that was given me. I deer hunted in WVa with about a dozen in the crew. To this day I don’t know how it happened but somehow a 270 got in my coat pocket. I didn’t own one at the time. Anyway it ended up in my 742 and when a deer jumped I was greeted by that hollow bang.
Smoke rolled and I had to clear gun. The 270 didnt eject. No damage to gun. It didn’t have anything to do with it but from that day on I would not form brass for a cartridge that was easy to buy. I even went to extremes of turning a groove through head stamp if I was forming obsolete or Wildcats. At times I might be loading 30+ cartridges and to much stuff will eventually cause a “accident”. That’s when I was young with a sharp mind.
Ive only seen one bad rifle blow up. Seen many stuck bolts from hot loads in varmit rifles but only one that sent shooter to doctors. An idiot loaded 62 grains of 2400 in a 7mm mag. The guy is lucky he didn’t suffer lose of eyes or worse.
 
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