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16-18 inch shorty rifles

For those of you shooting 16.5" 6.5 Creedmoore. What velocities are ya'll getting with factory ammo? I tend to favor the Hornady stuff and was wondering if I could expect 2500fps or better with a 16.5" barrel shooting their 140gr ELDM, or maybe even the 147gr ELDM?
My 16.5” Krieger barrel with a 5” TBAC gets 2534avg mv with factory 140 ELD-M. Suppressor usually adds ~20-30fps so you should be right at 2,500fps.
 
Just put this together: 16.5 inch proof 6.5 creedmoor bighorn prefit from altus shooting solutions
Bighorn tl3
Manners MCS-TA with mini chassis, altus badlands camo
triggertech special
Schmidt and Bender 5-20 ultra short
Badger Ordnance 34mm alloy rings standard 1 inch height
silencerco omega with area 419 attachment
7.8 lbs bare rifle
11.3 lbs with scope suppressor and bipod.
Only 30 rounds through it, all factory stuff and it's shooting pretty good can't wait to start with some load development. Getting 2540 fps with factory hornady 143 eldx's.
2ajyxhc.jpg

23rpthw.jpg
 
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Just put this together: 16.5 inch proof 6.5 creedmoor bighorn prefit from altus shooting solutions
Bighorn tl3
Manners MCS-TA with mini chassis, altus badlands camo
triggertech special
Schmidt and Bender 5-20 ultra short
silencerco omega with area 419 attachment
7.8 lbs bare rifle
11.3 lbs with scope suppressor and bipod.
Only 30 rounds through it, all factory stuff and it's shooting pretty good can't wait to start with some load development. Getting 2540 fps with factory hornady 143 eldx's.
2ajyxhc.jpg

23rpthw.jpg
Well done, sir... nice build.
 
Just put this together: 16.5 inch proof 6.5 creedmoor bighorn prefit from altus shooting solutions
Bighorn tl3
Manners MCS-TA with mini chassis, altus badlands camo
triggertech special
Schmidt and Bender 5-20 ultra short
Badger Ordnance 34mm alloy rings standard 1 inch height
silencerco omega with area 419 attachment
7.8 lbs bare rifle
11.3 lbs with scope suppressor and bipod.
Only 30 rounds through it, all factory stuff and it's shooting pretty good can't wait to start with some load development. Getting 2540 fps with factory hornady 143 eldx's.
2ajyxhc.jpg

23rpthw.jpg

That thing looks sexy as hell! Nicely done!
 
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So many great guns here. This is the thread that first inspired me to build my first custom gun as a shorty so I wanted to finally contribute to the thread. Arrived last week but I haven't shot it yet. The gun was built by Mark at SAC and of course he and his team were great to work with and patient with my many questions. Stats are as follows:

Short Action Customs Alpha 11 action in short action
Bartlein barrel, 5R, 1 in 10 twist (I think), cut and threaded at 16.5 inches with AAC 51t brake installed
Chambered in 308
Barrel straight fluted and bolt spiral fluted by Kampfield
Bolt and action melonited
APA DBM bottom metal
Timney 510 set to 2.5 lbs
All metal cerakoted in Magpul FDE with black accents
Manners EH4 stock painted in "SAC multicam" by Branden at Custom Gun Coatings
Nightforce 2.5-10x42 compact NXS with MOAR reticle
American Rifle Co M10 rings, 30mm extra low (20mm) height

Can in the pic is an AAC762SDn6

Hope to get out and shoot this weekend. Cannot explain how pleased I am with how the gun turned out though. Hope I got the picture posting right.

This is it. You've built my ideal rifle. I'd love to hear how it handles and shoots. What's the overall weight as shown?
 
Got any numbers to report?


With factory ammo on a 50ish degree day i got 2695 fps but a horrible SD of 35 but sub .5 moa at 100yards. Hand loads will be a must for accuracy out to distance. For hunting here in eastern NC, 400 yards and in, its good to go. Thats honestly what this barrel was intended for.
 
This is it. You've built my ideal rifle. I'd love to hear how it handles and shoots. What's the overall weight as shown?

Hey thanks for the compliment. Can’t believe it’s been over four years since I built this rifle. The rifle is just perfect. Not kidding it’s the only bolt gun I shoot. It is solid 1/2 moa with 175gr FGMM. I don’t reload so who knows what it’s really capable of.

I actually took the gun to Africa on Safari this September. It performed flawlessly. I was getting some static because African animals are hard to kill and lots of folks use 300 win mag and even 375. I have been shooting Barnes 168 TTSX as a hunting load for a while. Very accurate in this gun as well. Almost as accurate as the FGMM. I shot a kudu at 250, zebra at 200, impala and wildebeest at 100 and all were one shot kill except the wildebeest that took two. Also shot a baboon at 300. The PH who sees a lot of guns and hunters was impressed.

I can put it on a scale for you and confirm weight. It is a tad front heavy given the super light stock. But I always run a can and often a bipod. Humped it ten hours a day for a week in SA and I’m not a big guy. Would do this rifle the exact same if I could do it again. Only change I would/am making is a different can. Have a thunder chicken in jail at the moment. Any questions just let me know. But Mark and team were great as I’m sure you know.
 
@charliehustle

Sounds like a nice rifle, I think I missed it. Care to post another picture? What velocities are you getting? Load recipe?

Will see if this picture posts.
E5D1E64C-860A-4907-A6F6-687CF0636CC6.jpeg


I don’t know velocities because I’ve never chrono’d but I’m guessing based on my dope that it’s around 2450 for my 168-175.
 
@charliehustle

Beautiful picture, those bullets must be really good to take such game. I’ll have to consider them for my hunting load over a 155 grain like a Berger VLD or a Hornady ELDM.

How vertical can you get your hand with the T4?Thinking about it vs. an T or EH1.

What about barrel contour?

Were you able to get a weight without bipod and suppressor?

Big fan, hope to send off an FN action to LRI this year or next for a very similar build.
 
@charliehustle

Beautiful picture, those bullets must be really good to take such game. I’ll have to consider them for my hunting load over a 155 grain like a Berger VLD or a Hornady ELDM.

How vertical can you get your hand with the T4?Thinking about it vs. an T or EH1.

What about barrel contour?

Were you able to get a weight without bipod and suppressor?

Big fan, hope to send off an FN action to LRI this year or next for a very similar build.

So that stock is a manners EH4 if I recall. It’s their shortest fore end elite hunter. At least it was at the time. I have another gun in a T4 that is significantly more vertical. I’d describe this palm swell as about in between a T4 and traditional hunting stock. Not very scientific but that’s my guess.

I did weigh the gun for you. It is 8 pound, 14 ounces with no bipod, can or magazine.

Hope this helps. Know you will be pleased if you do something similar.
 
@charliehustle

Appreciate the information. When the time is right, I’ll reach out to MCS and see if they can send me out a T, EH4, and an EH1 for an FN action to try out if I pay shipping both ways. I’ve heard they may offer this service if you call.

Again, wanting to do a very similar, considering going 20” though, Bartlien 3b/Light Palma, .308 slinging 155s as fast as I can with a sub 24 oz FFP optic.
 
^I never got those kind of SDs out of that ammo. I got good speeds with a 26" barrel but the SDs were shit. Good for you.

Could have been a lucky string. We only shot 100 yards that morning testing the ammo with 3 different rifles. The SD was horrible in my AI the first time out (40 fps!). I have about another 100 rounds and will re-chronograph after I get about 200 rounds on my new barrel.
 
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Just put this together: 16.5 inch proof 6.5 creedmoor bighorn prefit from altus shooting solutions
Bighorn tl3
Manners MCS-TA with mini chassis, altus badlands camo
triggertech special
Schmidt and Bender 5-20 ultra short
Badger Ordnance 34mm alloy rings standard 1 inch height
silencerco omega with area 419 attachment
7.8 lbs bare rifle
11.3 lbs with scope suppressor and bipod.
Only 30 rounds through it, all factory stuff and it's shooting pretty good can't wait to start with some load development. Getting 2540 fps with factory hornady 143 eldx's.
2ajyxhc.jpg

23rpthw.jpg
Beautiful Buck. Whose bottom metal is that?
 
^I never got those kind of SDs out of that ammo. I got good speeds with a 26" barrel but the SDs were shit. Good for you.

I'll second that statement. I tried the 130 FGMM in June 2018 and got some pretty awful results in my 16.5". I collected all this on a hot barrel, so maybe I cooked the first round too long and got that 2727. Even if your toss that one out, the ES is still 50+ fps. Is there any chance the recipe in that ammo has been improved since last summer? I'd love to see them be consistent my rifle.
MV data.PNG
 
I have no idea. My first time out with a fresh 16.5” Bartlein 5R barrel on my AT the SD was 40 FPS but accuracy was solid (speed was slow at 2,650 FPS) so I wanted to revisit it. Next time out we shot it out of 3 of our rifles and again accuracy was solid from each of them. We chronograohed Jason’s rifle because he has the most rounds on his barrel and we were pretty shocked at the results (and a little excited).