Just purchased a Savage 22638 10BA Stealth Bolt 6.5 Creedmoor. And, want to start reloading. Because of the other calibers I reload and what I have read I am leaning towards a 140 grain projectile. However, I would be very interested in information on what you are loading in this caliber, your experience, and your preferences.

A very good mate of mine has cartridge with similar capacity .264/204 ruger
and he really enjoying the light weight pills around the 90grn weight. they doing the bizo on wallabies and fallow...sierra I believe he is using.
if you not intending to be hunting big game with her,not really much point in making recoil any heavier than needed,a light projectile that is accurate might make her even more fun to use.

lesterg3 wrote:

I would be very interested in information on what you are loading in this caliber, your experience, and your preferences.

lester, what are you intending to shoot and at what distance?

Well I'm an angry old fart, so whatever I shoot has to be capable of taking down critters of weights ranging from 125 to 250 pounds. Currently, I have no plans on killing anything but paper. I want accuracy out to 1000 yards, or a least a cartridge that can provide it, not that I am any longer capable. The reason I mentioned the 140 gr is because it fills in a slot in my current line up of reloads.

270
Primer Fed GM210M, or WLRM
130 gr Barnes TSX BT
H4350

7MM Mag
Primer Fed GM215M, or WLRM
150 gr TSX BT
IMR 4831

308
Primer Federal 210
168 gr TSX BT
A 2520

Punching holes in paper is just fine by me, and striving for some level of personal satisfaction if not perfection. But there is also no sense in not being prepared for real hunting (if necessary) or defense. I tend to think that skills are somewhat retained through use and practice and having adequate tools. Critters that I see everyday from my back porch are deer (they are small here 120 to 175) feral hogs (some big ass 300 pound plus), coyotes, bobcat, tons of small game, haven't seen any terrorists yet, I suspect they are to busy in the big city's to worry about country folk yet.

Try Hornady's 6.5mm ELD-X. They have been very accurate in my .270 Win. You can use them for target or hunting and the will carry to 1000 yards.

The continuing saga of the Savage nightmare purchase. So I ordered this Savage 22638 10BA Stealth Bolt 6.5 Creedmoor online from Defenders Outdoors (they were absolutely no help and I will never do business with them again), best price I could find and a $150 rebate from Savage. I have it shipped to a local FFL dealer, Nichols Store. I go and fill out all the federal BS and take the rifle home, never opened it at Nichols, not that it would have matter. Got home and tried to put the bolt in the receiver, no go. I can get the bolt in, but it will not seat, or engage. So after a day I think maybe I have gotten so old that I cannot remember how this stuff works, pull out the bore score cannot see a damn thing, and there is no way I am disassembling a brand new rifle. So I call Savage and explain it to them and subsequently pay $40 dollars to ship it back to them for warranty work. Got it back yesterday, bolt locks up slicker than bacon through a goose. Very irritating though, does Savage not have a quality control department checking the function of their firearms prior to shipping? Needless to say I am a tiny bit irritated.

So now It's back and I am ready to add the optics. I am thinking a Leupold® VX-2 Riflescope 6-18X40M AO LRV DPLX, and Warne Quick-Detach 1" Matte Rings – Low.

Any ideas or comments?

you said leupold....if its got a golden ring you just cant go wrong Mate.
as for bolt not working....50 quid to a knod of goat pooh they had supplied wrong one,that rifle of my buddies we were using is a savage 11 and the bolt was just "all wrong" queerest looking set up Ive ever seen...... even inserting it in rifle was queer,combination of hold trigger back AND push lever.....we have rifles that work on one systen or the other but not both.

I only have had a single experience with a new Savage firearm (a 220f bolt action 20 ga shotgun) but it was flawless. I've never heard anything bad about their products before.

I recently replaced a VX-2 3-9x40 with a VX3i 4.5-14x40 CDS on my .300 Win Mag and couldn't be happier with it. It has the Windplex reticle and I picked it up late last year on sale for under $500.

There's nothing wrong with the VX-2. It found a new home on my .308 (along with some new Talley mounts).

Bolt system on Savage is a bit strange, but can't argue with their accuracy. My Model 12 VLP in .243 Winchester is a tack driver....3" 5-shot groups are not unusual.

I have two other Savage's and I am impressed with their reliability and accuracy. This was obviously an event that could have been avoided if someone at Savage had just tried to put the bolt in the rifle. So, the question is still, where was the QC department or is this something that we should consider in future purchases from Savage. I hope not. Still it was very aggravating, and costly, depending on SS I don't have an extra an extra $40 to ship defective materials back to the manufacturer, and more so because it was not my fault, it was theirs.

Have you asked Savage if they will reimburse your shipping costs?

Might be worth an email.

No, the terms in their warranty are explicit, the fact that they did not charge me for the return shipment is their acknowledgement it was their issue.

And, while I had thought nothing else could possibly go wrong the saga continues. It is said that sometimes the roughest road traveled is the most rewarding. Updates coming soon. Cabela's never again.

whats the lightest projectiles out there for the 6.5mm/264 ??????
cant seem to find any less than 90grn yet the 6.8mm has lower weights already......

Elvis, you were probably lucky to find that. My guess is that is due to twist rate and throat/freebore. Most 6.5s have a 1:8 twist and long freebore for those heavy, low-drag bullets while 6.8mm have 1:10 or 1:11 twist. Try to spin those light varmint bullets up in a 1:8 and they become over stabilized and can potentially self destruct (at least they do in the 5.56 fast twist).

Elvis,

I've never seen anything below 85 grains for the 6.5mm bullets. But I haven't looked in a few years, so maybe there is something out there now...