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ALWAYS WEAR EYEPRO or what happens when you shoot a 6.5 CM rd in your 260

m1match

m1match

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This morning was a practice session for some of our local precision rifle shooters. We were running some of the stages from last weeks NRL Borderwars match. The shooter next to me had a blown primer on the last round of his stage and got a faceful of gas and particles when he was NOT wearing eye pro. While he went to his car to rinse his eyes out, myself and another shooter recovered his rifle and brass cases. He was shooting a Rem 700 action in 260 Rem. We pulled the bolt and could see the case with the blown primer was still in the chamber. We pulled the bolt and the other shooter got a cleaning rod and a light tap got the case out. The case was intact but the primer was blown out. Then we noticed that the blown case was a 6.5 Creedmoor case! What happened was someone had dropped a live 6.5 CM round on the ground which got picked up and put on the table behind the firing point. The shooter also had his ammo on the table and when he was loading his mag, he thought the loose round on the table was his and loaded it in his mag, hence firing a 6.5 CM round in a 260 Rem. chamber. The shooter gathered up his stuff and drove home and I hope that he doesn't have any eye injury.

This is a lesson in why shooters should ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION. It was a hot day and we have to wear masks at all times at this shooting range so a number of shooters were shooting without eye pro because they were getting fogging issues. Regardless of fogging issues I'd rather deal with fogging than an eye injury.

EDITED TO REMOVE REFERENCE TO A BLOWN EXTRACTOR- I've communicated with the shooter and the gun DID NOT have a blown extractor. I assumed it was trashed since we had to tap the case out with a cleaning rod- but the shooter said that he checked his rifle after attending to his eye injury and the the gun extracts normally now. So all it did was blow a primer which ejected gas into the shooters face.
 
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The range is owned by an Indian tribe so they set the rules that we have to follow or the state or the tribe could shut the range. Just take the mask thing out of it, we should always be wearing eye pro when shooting no matter what.

One thing I learned was a 6.5 CM will fire in a 260 chamber but bad things happen. I have also seen a 308 fired in a 30-06 chamber with no ill effects. It just sounds a little funny, the bullet doesn't go where you thought it was going to go, and you extract what looks like a straight walled case from the chamber.
 
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That's wild. Out of curiosity is there anything that will fire in a 6.5 creedmoor gun that would cause similar problems? I imagine 6 Creed would get a little weird....
 
Kind of scratching my head how this is possible. The body shoulder junction of the Creed is quite a bit fatter than a 260. I wouldn't have thought it would chamber. Time to go pull some rifles out of the safe.
 
You can use the same headspace gauge for 6 creed and 6.5 creed so I'm pretty sure 6 CM will chamber and fire in a 6.5 CM, but the bullet won't seal in the barrel since its smaller so you'll probably get a funny sound and the bullet will come out slow and unstable.

surgeon260 I was thinking the same thing about the different cartridge shoulder dimensions. But I saw it happen not 4 hours ago so I know 6.5 CM will chamber and fire in a 260. I also don't quite understand why it blew the primer, since powder charges between the two cartridges are almost identical, but obviously the mismatch in calibers did cause excessive pressure which blew the primer out.
 
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Yep I wholeheartedly agree with you @CoryT . I met you and shot one of your MP5SDs with Bill Murphy at the Huntington Beach PD range about 25 years ago. That quiet 9mm might be one of the only full auto firearms that I wish I could own. Hope your well.
 
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Was there a reason that particular round was laying on the deck? Was it chambered and didnt go into battery in the owners 6.5 CM? That might indicate something amiss with headspace or shoulder. Did it fo into battery hard (if the shooter remembers after such a nerve rattling event)? I would have thought there was something amiss for a warning sign, but can never be sure.

Was instructed long ago by my captain once a round is chambered, it never goes back in the mag. I will admit to picking up ammo at end of day, return home for full inspection and gauge test, if all passes then practice round only.

Hope this guy is OK and no injury. Thanks for sharing the story and the safety reminder.
 
Shooting some old Federal ammo in my Sig 226 rimfire. I squeeze the trigger and feel a stinging sensation in my face, the rimfire case head cracked allowing hot gas to come back and hit me in the face.

I was wearing eye protection so no harm but it was a freaking rimfire 20" away. I was surprised at the power of that little cartridge and never ever want to feel a gas leak of a centerfire round.
 
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m1match said:
This morning was a practice session for some of our local precision rifle shooters. We were running some of the stages from last weeks NRL Borderwars match. The shooter next to me had a blown primer on the last round of his stage and got a faceful of gas and particles when he was NOT wearing eye pro. While he went to his car to rinse his eyes out, myself and another shooter recovered his rifle and brass cases. He was shooting a Rem 700 action in 260 Rem. We pulled the bolt and could see the case with the blown primer was still in the chamber. We pulled the bolt and could see the gases had blown out the extractor. The other shooter got a cleaning rod and a light tap got the case out. The case was intact but the primer was blown out. Then we noticed that the blown case was a 6.5 Creedmoor case! What happened was someone had dropped a live 6.5 CM round on the ground which got picked up and put on the table behind the firing point. The shooter also had his ammo on the table and when he was loading his mag, he thought the loose round on the table was his and loaded it in his mag, hence firing a 6.5 CM round in a 260 Rem. chamber. The shooter gathered up his stuff and drove home and I hope that he doesn't have any eye injury.

This is a lesson in why shooters should ALWAYS WEAR EYE PROTECTION. It was a hot day and we have to wear masks at all times at this shooting range so a number of shooters were shooting without eye pro because they were getting fogging issues. Regardless of fogging issues I'd rather deal with fogging than an eye injury.
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If I’m guessing right, I shoot at this same range...Always wear eye pro and the mandatory mask. It doesn’t seem to ruffle the staff too much if your mask accidentally slips down past your nose while shooting.
 
Not a match cartridge, but I seen a guy that couldn't get his gun sighted in at the range. He was shooting .270 through his 30-06. Apparently he had both guns and grabbed wrong ammo.
 
surgeon260 said:
Kind of scratching my head how this is possible. The body shoulder junction of the Creed is quite a bit fatter than a 260. I wouldn't have thought it would chamber. Time to go pull some rifles out of the safe.
Click to expand...

Happened to have mine out for a little post rainy day clean, Bolt stops with about a .250 to go with 6.5 creed in my match .260. Guy must have been persistent or had a really sloppy chamber or both.
 
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2aBaCa said:
I'm betting in certain areas a shooting range would be a high priority closure for not following Covid guidelines. So yeah.
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They can eat a cock sandwich.

The state HS athletic association here thinks it can make spectators wear them in outdoor venues. LOL
 
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This precisely why I keep my ammo in boxes until it enters the magazine.

260 is a wonderful precision hunting round and a great platform to start reloading with. Confused why people use it for PRS anymore, though.


260vs54CM.jpg
 
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308pirate said:
They can eat a cock sandwich.

The state HS athletic association here thinks it can make spectators wear them in outdoor venues. LOL
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It’s not the range, it’s the state/county that would close them. Stupid state mandates, but I prefer the range be open and shoot.

If the state threatened to cancel all sporting events and would realistically do so, I think the fans would probably wear the stupid masks rather than ruin an entire sport season for the athletes.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s all a bunch of garbage, but until there’s MASS pushback, the state will continue to pick off the few business that do and make examples of them.
 
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Familydude said:
It’s not the range, it’s the state/county that would close them. Stupid state mandates, but I prefer the range be open and shoot
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Your state mandates people to wear masks outdoors?

And for the record, I won't and don't wear one inside or out.

Not only that, I immediately supported the first USPSA club in the state who told the governor and health nazi to fuck off and started holding matches when they wanted to, not when they were "allowed".

I need to have a conversation about culling the governor's emergency powers with both my rep and senator. That shit needs to be controlled or we're going to live in a "state of emergency" forever.
 
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Reloads? Possible he ran a 6.5 case through his reloading process? Even if he trimmed to length, a lot of brass moving and certainly different internal capabilities when done. Or not even trimmed and pinched the bullet. Both could spike pressure and blow a primer for sure.

I have run a 6 creed through my 6.5 die by accident...it works. Also recently think there was a thread about a guy accidentally running some 6.5 brass through his 6 Creed die. Just a little case forming.

ZY
 
So, I was there. In fact, I was the RO running the stage when this occurred. I was there when he chambered the round. I was there when the round was fired. I was there when the case was tapped out of the chamber. And, unfortunately, I was the one who picked up the round and tossed it onto the table, yelling out that someone dropped a round and needed to come pick it up.

It most certainly chambered in the .260 rifle, though the guy running the bolt is a fairly fit/muscular guy and may have slammed it into the chamber (was the last round of the mag, last round of the stage, so time was running short). It's a Remington 700 IIRC.

The good news is that no permanent damage was done; to the shooter or the rifle. He had some fragments pulled out of his eye, but no long term damage.

And I also learned, that I will never pick up a round again to try and help folks. If they don't realize they lost it, and/or don't care to pick it up, then it's staying in the dirt!

Complacency can kill/injure...
 
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Earlier this year, a friend was testing some 6.5 Creedmoor hand loads and got a face full of gas and a stuck case on his first round. When knocking the stuck case out with a cleaning rod, we noted the rifle was chambered in 270 Win. The bullet exited the barrel but the case had 4 splits from the base of the neck all the way down to the web of the base. This was a very experienced shooter who just picked the wrong rifle from his safe (both Remington 700s that looked identical). Fortunately, no injuries occurred (other than perhaps pride).
 
I once, unknowingly shot a .270 through my .30-06. It was like a kick with no pop. Very light recoil, no extra gas, no popped primer. I sold the wifes .270 after that and got her a 6.5cm. Appeared to have no ill effect or anything on the rifle. I was a bit pissed though, entirely my fault as bothmy 30-06 loads and her .270 loads were loaded with the appropriate diameter hornady a-max's.
 
I wear Rx shooting glasses, so I have eye pro on 100% of the time. The kind I wear has an Rx insert behind tinted lenses. It always baffles me when everyone says "I'm not wearing eye pro!", "I'm not putting a $3 piece of plastic between my eyes and my $4000 scope!", "I don't make mistakes at the reloading bench!"

So...buy a nice pair of glasses instead of a disposable pair. Unless it's raining, I never have any issues, and don't notice any optical degradation that would make me miss a target I'd otherwise be able to see. I would go so far as to argue that I've never missed a target or lost a match because my glasses made my $1500 Razor Gen2 turn into Coke bottle lenses.

All it takes is one fragment, one ricochet, one pierced primer to ruin your day or life. And when you think about it, your "good eye" is always going to be behind the scope and in line with the action, so if you have a blown primer or a kaboom, that's likely to be the eye that gets damaged.
 
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The only problem I have with eye pro is ROing at a match. Spotters have really short eye relief- at least mine does. The on-off-on-off is a pita, especially with tight fitting over ear pro.
 
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hlee said:
The only problem I have with eye pro is ROing at a match. Spotters have really short eye relief- at least mine does. The on-off-on-off is a pita, especially with tight fitting over ear pro.
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I hear you, it is a pain, and I generally don't wear it when spotting/RO'ing. That being said, I've caught crap coming out of peoples brakes before (enough to draw blood). So when RO'ing/spotting, I always make sure I'm not in the path of brake exhaust/blast, as it can carry chunks of carbon (blown off the brake) at some pretty high velocities.
 
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Just checked... and my 260 will chamber 6.5CM. Not even that difficult- it just felt like a case that didn't get the shoulder bumped back enough. If you were running fast it wouldn't have been enough to raise a red flag. But it will only do it on factory rounds. I ran a once fired piece of brass through a full length sizer and it would not chamber. As far as my 260 having a over sized chamber-- it could, but the brass resizes very easily and only takes the +.004 competition shell holder to get the .002 shoulder bump. After measuring it looks more like the 6.5cm round is under sammi size.

It surprises me that it caused pressure though, with the same projectile, OAL, and powder charge I would have thought it would sound weird and fire form. It pays to be careful.
 
Gaddayum thats nuts. Hope i never see that at work, work at our level 1 trauma center as a nurse.
 
Dang, finally decided to lose the eye pro a couple weeks ago in the heat; saw and shot better w/o. Sometimes I just hate common sense.
 
MarinePMI said:
And I also learned, that I will never pick up a round again to try and help folks. If they don't realize they lost it, and/or don't care to pick it up, then it's staying in the dirt!

Complacency can kill/injure...
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Don’t beat yourself up too bad. Hell, I found a 6.5 Creed round in a factory new 6 Creed box.

That’s the takeaway for sure, because I definitely did not find the mixed in round until I tried to chamber it - now I double check the factory loads too.
 
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Damn! Glad he’s ok that’s wild. Bet that was an “eye opener “
 
SmartDonkey said:
Just checked... and my 260 will chamber 6.5CM. Not even that difficult- it just felt like a case that didn't get the shoulder bumped back enough. If you were running fast it wouldn't have been enough to raise a red flag. But it will only do it on factory rounds. I ran a once fired piece of brass through a full length sizer and it would not chamber. As far as my 260 having a over sized chamber-- it could, but the brass resizes very easily and only takes the +.004 competition shell holder to get the .002 shoulder bump. After measuring it looks more like the 6.5cm round is under sammi size.

It surprises me that it caused pressure though, with the same projectile, OAL, and powder charge I would have thought it would sound weird and fire form. It pays to be careful.
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Because the shoulder of the CM is shorter, it caused excessive head space. Near as I can tell, the firing pin hit the primer, knocking the case forward. As the case ignited, the primer let go, since it wasn't supported by the bolt face. Then the hot gases blew what there was left of the primer, out between the bolt and inside receiver walls. When it went off it sounded odd, and there was a blast of gas into his face, but it sounded (noise wise) like a round going off.

We all thought initially it had to be a bad load or something. It wasn't until I walked him back to his vehicle, and he asked to see the brass, and started cussing that it was a Creedmoor case, that it dawned on me what had happened. He was shooting small primer .260 brass, so it was blatantly obvious to him what happened as soon as he saw the case I had placed back in his box.
 
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Shit happens. No permanent injury. Nothing broken. Everyone has their shit tight now.
 
308pirate said:
Then you should have zero problem laying your case out here for all to see
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Lord... I'm not getting sucked into a debate with some rando who spells rioters like rotors.

I'll take the easy route and move on with my life...

2013: https://precisionrifleblog.com/2013/12/17/best-rifle-caliber-what-the-pros-use/

2018: https://precisionrifleblog.com/2018/12/14/rifle-caliber/

2020: https://precisionrifleblog.com/2020/08/27/best-rifle-elr-caliber-cartridge/

Notice how many have abandoned the 260 Remington since 2013 (and went to numerous other cartridges... but 6.5 Creedmor still hangs on).

Shoot what you want, fella.
 
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