Range Report 25 cal for comps

[cwinner]

I spun up a 25 Creedmoor (1:17.25 Krieger )a couple weeks ago and can tell you guys this new 131 25 bullet is legit! Was able to reach 3,050fps easily with H4350 and lapua brass and my initial validation yielded a G7 BC slightly higher than their published .330, I was closer .350 in my kestrel out to 1,680yds. I adjusted to BC in Shooter to .360 G7 and was pretty close, more fine tuning is yet to come.

Here's a quick look at the results of my initial validation out to 900 yds with both predicted and validated drops

I'm can agree with most comments here as I've shot both 6.5&6's quite a bit and am hoping this 257 performs more consistently than I've seen from my 6mm's which seem to shoot great until the drop 50-100fps on you for no apparent reason!

Time will tell but it's definitely a fun project and bullets are now readily available.

 

[abn31c]

I'm no expert, but I do have 40 years reloading experience. My best estimate would be about 1800 to 2000 rnds barrel life with sane loads. Whatta you guys think?

 

[cwinner]

I'm no expert, but I do have 40 years reloading experience. My best estimate would be about 1800 to 2000 rnds barrel life with sane loads. Whatta you guys think?

In line with what I'm thinking as well I bought 2k bullets and this tube is going to get all of them!

I can't remember ever shooting out a 6.5 barrel as I usually got nervous and pulled them after 2k .......my 6's well that's a different matter! I've had them go in as few as 600 and never much past 1k, I have run the 110's from 3,190 down to 3,000 and never really found a balance between performance & useful life that I liked.

 

[steve123]

I spun up a 25 Creedmoor (1:17.25 Krieger )a couple weeks ago and can tell you guys this new 131 25 bullet is legit! Was able to reach 3,050fps easily with H4350 and lapua brass and my initial validation yielded a G7 BC slightly higher than their published .330, I was closer .350 in my kestrel out to 1,680yds. I adjusted to BC in Shooter to .360 G7 and was pretty close, more fine tuning is yet to come.

Here's a quick look at the results of my initial validation out to 900 yds with both predicted and validated drops

I'm can agree with most comments here as I've shot both 6.5&6's quite a bit and am hoping this 257 performs more consistently than I've seen from my 6mm's which seem to shoot great until the drop 50-100fps on you for no apparent reason!

Time will tell but it's definitely a fun project and bullets are now readily available.

Thanks for the report.

Well, what kind of accuracy are you getting? Any bullets blowing up?

Length of barrel?

 

[cwinner]

Barrel length is 25" hung on an Impact action in a JAE chassis......been my go to rig for a couple years.

Accuracy has been stellar thus far..... I've found the OAL length to be super consistent with none varying more than .003"

Here's a 900 yd group while I was validating ..... as for the paper, I was mainly shooting to chrinograph and not really focusing and it showed!

Going to go work it out tomorrow at distance and finish up getting her broke in...... feel free to ask any questions you may have about these 131 Blackjack bullets.../. I plan on shooting them quite a bit this next year.

 

[steve123]

Barrel length is 25" hung on an Impact action in a JAE chassis......been my go to rig for a couple years.

Accuracy has been stellar thus far..... I've found the OAL length to be super consistent with none varying more than .003"

Here's a 900 yd group while I was validating ..... as for the paper, I was mainly shooting to chrinograph and not really focusing and it showed!

Going to go work it out tomorrow at distance and finish up getting her broke in...... feel free to ask any questions you may have about these 131 Blackjack bullets.../. I plan on shooting them quite a bit this next year.

Thanks

Show us some 1/2" or less groups when you get a chance.

 

[cwinner]

Totally agree on the issue of barrel life.... it all depends on how fast your shoot them and for how long, long strings torch throats for sure.

Did some more validation today, basically confirmed my previous thoughts...... would up using a banded BC is my shooter app on iPhone to line everything up nicely all the way to 1925 @ 18.3Mil


As for The Kestrel..... .350G7 is working great

Here's three 5 shot groups @100, not perfect but they should work.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

The 131 BJ ACE is a laser. I'm shooting it in plain vanilla 25-06 1:7 Remage @2925 MV no problem. That puts the G7 conservatively @ .330 at least. Impacts are impressive without saying. The more wind the more pleasure it is to shoot. Love the reaction and feel of the recoil. No brake.

 

[kthomas]

Cool idea. Pretty big gamble to build off of a cartridge that essentially only has essentially only one viable bullet available. Better hope that first your barrel likes that particular bullet, and secondly hopefully bullet availability is not hit or miss or dries up.

If Hornady, Berger, Sierra, etc. start coming out with some decent .25 bullet offerings, then there would certainly be potential to this cartridge.

 

[cwinner]

Just buy enough bullets at one time to last the life of the barrel..... that's my plan, picked up 2k and looking forward to now worrying about what I'm going to shoot this year!

 

[kthomas]

Just buy enough bullets at one time to last the life of the barrel..... that's my plan, picked up 2k and looking forward to now worrying about what I'm going to shoot this year!

That's a perfectly acceptable plan, as long as the bullets shoot well from your barrel.

 

[MarkLeupold]

Cool idea. Pretty big gamble to build off of a cartridge that essentially only has essentially only one viable bullet available. Better hope that first your barrel likes that particular bullet, and secondly hopefully bullet availability is not hit or miss or dries up.

If Hornady, Berger, Sierra, etc. start coming out with some decent .25 bullet offerings, then there would certainly be potential to this cartridge.

People told me that too and then I pointed at the Hornady 110 gr ELD-X and the Berger 115 gr Classic Hunter. Those are my "backup plan," but I also haven't seen ANYONE complain that the Blackjacks won't shoot from their barrel, and if there was someone, we would know about it. Either way, the Hornady and Berger options still fly with 6.5 Creed-esque trajectories, so I won't be super disappointed if I have to shoot them.

Trust me, I used to say the exact same thing as you and then I decided, "Fuck it," and jumped in with both feet because it was what I really wanted to do.

FWIW Blackjack is introducing a second bullet this year as well.

 

[Bear24]

Cool idea. Pretty big gamble to build off of a cartridge that essentially only has essentially only one viable bullet available. Better hope that first your barrel likes that particular bullet, and secondly hopefully bullet availability is not hit or miss or dries up.

If Hornady, Berger, Sierra, etc. start coming out with some decent .25 bullet offerings, then there would certainly be potential to this cartridge.

This mindset is was stalls or kills innovation. The more people that accept a very tiny risk (compared to Blackjack and other small companies) and adopt a new product that is superior in performance. Guess what? Other companies will want a piece of the pie and introduce better bullets and their will be other options. It’s good for everyone, especially shooters. Speaking for Blackjack we welcome competition because we are confident we won’t be beat!

 

[kthomas]

This mindset is was stalls or kills innovation. The more people that accept a very tiny risk (compared to Blackjack and other small companies) and adopt a new product that is superior in performance. Guess what? Other companies will want a piece of the pie and introduce better bullets and their will be other options. It’s good for everyone, especially shooters. Speaking for Blackjack we welcome competition because we are confident we won’t be beat!

I agree 100%.

I'm just not going to be an early adopter, but appreciate the risk and time that others do so we all benefit. You must agree that there is a degree of risk to relying on a single bullet and a single manufacturer.

If more options open up, then everyone benefits.

 

[Bear24]

I agree 100%.

I'm just not going to be an early adopter, but appreciate the risk and time that others do so we all benefit. You must agree that there is a degree of risk to relying on a single bullet and a single manufacturer.

If more options open up, then everyone benefits.

Oh I do agree but it’s a few hundred dollar risk for a single user. Not $100,000+ And Outrageous amounts of time that the innovators spent to make something viable to the public on a large scale.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

You only have one rifle?

 

[steve123]

Oh I do agree but it’s a few hundred dollar risk for a single user. Not $100,000+ And Outrageous amounts of time that the innovators spent to make something viable to the public on a large scale.

Oh I do agree but it’s a few hundred dollar risk for a single user. Not $100,000+ And Outrageous amounts of time that the innovators spent to make something viable to the public on a large scale.

In fairness, buying the barrel, the reamer, the dies, the bullets - hopefully enough to burn out one barrel, and paying for gunsmithing "$450" is more than a couple hundred, but I get your point as far as your investment goes.

BTW you should be offering bushing and non bushing die sets directly from your site.

At one point the 115 DTACS dried up years ago, good thing the 105 hybrid had come out! I'd hate to have to use the low BC 25 cal bullets from the other companies if you were out of stock or decided to quit altogether.

Lost River went out of business exactly when I got my 375CT years ago, for a long while I shot 260 grain accubonds just to shoot the rifle until another Co began making a close copy of the LR projectiles.

See where some of us are coming from???

Even still I always wanted a 25 cal, and with a high BC option, so I'm saving and selling for quite a bit more than $200.

Where did 257 Blackjack go? He didn't follow up on the questions I was asking in PM. Make communication a strong point even though it's a hassle, don't overlook this annoying but important part of daily business tasks.

Just sayin

 

[Bear24]

In fairness, buying the barrel, the reamer, the dies, the bullets - hopefully enough to burn out one barrel, and paying for gunsmithing "$450" is more than a couple hundred, but I get your point as far as your investment goes.

BTW you should be offering bushing and non bushing die sets directly from your site.

At one point the 115 DTACS dried up years ago, good thing the 105 hybrid had come out! I'd hate to have to use the low BC 25 cal bullets from the other companies if you were out of stock or decided to quit altogether.

Lost River went out of business exactly when I got my 375CT years ago, for a long while I shot 260 grain accubonds just to shoot the rifle until another Co began making a close copy of the LR projectiles.

See where some of us are coming from???

Even still I always wanted a 25 cal, and with a high BC option, so I'm saving and selling for quite a bit more than $200.

Where did 257 Blackjack go? He didn't follow up on the questions I was asking in PM. Make communication a strong point even though it's a hassle, don't overlook this annoying but important part of daily business tasks.

Just sayin

The dies is something we considered from the start but 90% of customers already have 6.5x47 or 6.5 creed busing dies and all they need is a bushing that is easily obtainable from about any place that sells Redding products. Myself and my business partner do 100% of everything from design, marketing, ordering, packing, shipping etc.... on top of both working 60+ hours at our real jobs to fund Blackjack. We have to pick our battles so we can deliver on what we do have, dies that are easily sourced from big box stores were one thing we had to stay out of, for now anyway.

If you have questions for PM please direct them to me, we try to get on and answer questions when possible but forums are very time consuming in that regard and we budget time to fulfilling orders and questions that we get asked via social media that can be handled more efficiently.

 

[Jimmy31593]

Has anyone burnt out any barrels yet? Would love to see real world numbers as far as barrel life goes.

 

[Bear24]

Has anyone burnt out any barrels yet? Would love to see real world numbers as far as barrel life goes.

Bullets have barely been out for 3 months. Barrel life is really to subjective to take anyone’s word on it. My shot out may not be your shout out and same with everyone else.

This isn’t magic though. Take the x47 case for exapmple I have had multiple barrels in 6.5x47 go over 3500 rounds and still didn’t consider them shot out when they were retired. I have had multiple guys that I shoot with regularly have their 6x47’s go down around 1500-1600 rounds. Since .257 is only 1/3 the way down from .264-.243 bbls life will be better than the average of what you deem normal barrel life between the two.

So (3500+1600)/2 = 2,550

Like is said it’s subjective so plug in the numbers that you think fit the best (they have to be the same case or it’s not a valid comparison) and the .257 version of that cartridge should get more than their average.

 

[Bulldog Firearms]

All this crap about talking about barrel life. It is like listening to women. It will have likely have more barrel life than a 6mm, less than a 6.5, but that depends on how you shoot it. You pay to go fast. There isn't any free lunch.

 

[Bulldog Firearms]

I don't quite agree with this passionate statement. i go thru about three barrels a year. fast barrel life doesn't just mean replacing a barrel. That correlates to an interruption in the middle of a year. The normal cycle for a barrel for me is; new barrel, break in, zero confirm multiple times, load development, get past 200rd speed up, shoot enough to be confident in stable load and barrel RTZ, then into shoot matches and predictability phase. Got a good load going, solid zero, good true on ballistic app, just performing usual low scale maintenance like chasing lands and cleaning, shooting and enjoying a primo barrel and good performance.. Then usually around the 1000rd mark I get an "uncalled flyer", a breakdown. doesn't group as well, velocity drops, run out of case neck and have to switch to a longer bullet. last 6SLR barrel had to switch to a different powder. A quick break if I'm lucky of short load development to adjust to the aging barrel and I'm back up and running. get another 600 to 1000rds and then velocity loss, flyers, larger groups, uncertainty in matches, more load dev to try to correct/ salvage, getting tired and frustrated with barrel. Call it DOA and screw another barrel on. Start all over again.

The honeymoon phase we dream about with the next wonder cartridge and bullet is a little shorter than we always think it will be. The amount of rounds simply shooting and getting pure performance isn't 99% of the barrel life. The periods of stability are important and the the periods of troubleshoot, fix, and maintenance and interruptions to this cycle. A faster barrel life means a faster changing bore which means more periods of interruption. If you mean to say, "F' it, its just money", then sure. But it's not just the money.

Buy a second identical gun. If you can afford 3 barrel a year and the time to go shoot that much then you can afford a second identical gun.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

Or just shoot the .308. Or shoot a .224, .244., 257, 264, and .308. Might as well add a .30 magnum as well.

 

[psinclair]

25/PRC......that might be a fun one.

 

[Bear24]

25/PRC......that might be a fun one.

I have been running 25 SAUM for awhile now, it's awesome! I'm mostly running a PRS friendly load (3175 fps) @500 ft DA, elevation adjustment at 1000y is 5.8 MIL/19.8 MOA

mine is a 24.25" Rock Creek 1:7.75" and I have ran it up to 3285 fps with Hornady brass, with better brass and a longer tube I'm sure its capable of well over 3300 fps

 

["A Plate Right..."]

Doesn't is seem like outright denying the validity of any new "project" leads down the same road as the haters of the 6.5 Creed and the Valkyrie? Bear24, what type of wind drift are you getting at 1k with, at lets say, 10mph full value? I've committed to the 25 Creed, should be complete by the end of the month....

 

[Deleted member 10043]

Less than 1.5 mils

 

["A Plate Right..."]

Hard to argue with results like that....

 

[Bear24]

Doesn't is seem like outright denying the validity of any new "project" leads down the same road as the haters of the 6.5 Creed and the Valkyrie? Bear24, what type of wind drift are you getting at 1k with, at lets say, 10mph full value? I've committed to the 25 Creed, should be complete by the end of the month....

10 MPH 3 o,clock is 1.2 MIL

 

[Jimmy31593]

All this crap about talking about barrel life. It is like listening to women. It will have likely have more barrel life than a 6mm, less than a 6.5, but that depends on how you shoot it. You pay to go fast. There isn't any free lunch.

omg such a great post. Why didn't I think of that?

Sarcasm over, when someone burns out some barrels in a PRS setting please let me know how long they lasted. I would think that if someone put this much time and energy into designing something, they would have already burnt out a barrel or two themselves before releasing this to the public. I guess its cheaper if customers figure it out themsleves and just report back.

I realise that being 6.25 it would probably last longer than a 6mm and less than a 6.5, but running 130s as fast as this is I have concerns if it will get anymore life than a 6mm.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

STFU if you got no vested interest in the bullet. Get off your ass and do it yourself. Everybody already knows the .257 is a wicked overbore long before your mother had you by accident on the docks with her own overbore, lol. You candy asses cried the .308 to sleep and now bitch about barrel life. WTF is 6.25?

 

[Sheldon N]

Buy a second identical gun. If you can afford 3 barrel a year and the time to go shoot that much then you can afford a second identical gun.

I’m with reubenski on this, it’s not just the $$ it’s the time and effort to get the next barrel match ready.

 

[Jimmy31593]

STFU if you got no vested interest in the bullet. Get off your ass and do it yourself. Everybody already knows the .257 is a wicked overbore long before your mother had you by accident on the docks with her own overbore, lol. You candy asses cried the .308 to sleep and now bitch about barrel life. WTF is 6.25?

Obviously I am interested in this bullet by posting/following this thread. Not sure why i need to spend my own money to have interest in shooting one in the first place. Im not going to be the test dummy here. But I'll gladly chamber one of these once everyone else has spent money to have more data than is currently available. My original post asked if anyone had burnt out a barrel and what their findings were. Then everyone like yourself got E tough and started bashing me. Not sure what makes you qualified to weigh in on the subject. If you have shot this caliber and burnt a barrel out please report your findings. If not then please crawl back in your hole and keep your mouth shut.

 

[Bulldog Firearms]

You do what it takes to be competitive. There's no free lunch. It takes work. Speculating about barrel life is just stupid because there's so many variables. Someone might consider a barrel burnt when it doesn't hold .3 moa, another person might consider it burnt when it doesn't hold 1 moa. Just too much b/s.

Different powder, different bullets, different barrels, different shooting frequency, different metrics, different different different. I can say with a high degree of certainty that the barrel will last between 1000 and 3000 rounds for what most people consider suitable accuracy for conventional disciplines.

 

[Bulldog Firearms]

omg such a great post. Why didn't I think of that?

Sarcasm over, when someone burns out some barrels in a PRS setting please let me know how long they lasted. I would think that if someone put this much time and energy into designing something, they would have already burnt out a barrel or two themselves before releasing this to the public. I guess its cheaper if customers figure it out themsleves and just report back.

I realise that being 6.25 it would probably last longer than a 6mm and less than a 6.5, but running 130s as fast as this is I have concerns if it will get anymore life than a 6mm.

If you're worried about barrel life shoot a 308 or a 6.5. On a cartridge that's fairly overbore and probably will be hot rodded by most, you already know the answer.

 

[Bulldog Firearms]

What is that dedication and work like?!! Man! I admire you... PLS tell me how to "Bro" through obstacles and come out smelling like monster energy drinks and ford rapters.

First step is not worrying about sand...

 

[Sheldon N]

You do what it takes to be competitive. There's no free lunch. It takes work.

Ain't that the truth. In the week and a half before the PRS finale I spent pretty much every day shooting in order to fireform brass to my brand new match barrel, break in the barrel, do load development, confirm drops at distance, plus a bit of 223 practice mixed in. Probably shot 700 or 800 rounds in that 10 day stretch. It gets to be work more than fun. I would hate my life if I ran a caliber that died every 1k rounds.

My 0.02 on the 25 cal for comps... it's going to be noticeably more recoil than the BR variants running a DTAC, with slightly better ballistics, with more energy on target, with about the same barrel life. Probably appealing to the guys who chase ballistics running screaming fast 6 Creeds with a 110/115... will have way better barrel life and not too much more recoil. Maybe appealing to guys coming down from 6.5 where the 25 will be less recoil and equal or better ballistics. However to the guys who shoot BR variants (many, many in the PRS world) the jump up in recoil is not that appealing. All those BR guys have made the choice to put lower recoil ahead of ballistics and the 25 cal doesn't really change the equation.

 

[Sheldon N]

Don't bring your logic and analytical analysis in here. Bulldog and I were Bro'ing out. He was teaching me how to be tough.

Logic confuses tough guys.... go get him while he's distracted.

 

[Bulldog Firearms]

Only grunt style shirts with my multi cam pants, full sleeve tats, tactical beard, and everything I own is fde.

 

[Bulldog Firearms]

Only grunt style shirts with my multi cam pants, full sleeve tats, tactical beard, and everything I own is fde.

That is the second step.

 

[steve123]

So the solution must be 25 Dasher done off the 6mm Norma Dasher brass with 131's, .330 G7, 2750 fps, 3000 rounds barrel life

 

[Deleted member 10043]

Obviously I am interested in this bullet by posting/following this thread. Not sure why i need to spend my own money to have interest in shooting one in the first place. Im not going to be the test dummy here. But I'll gladly chamber one of these once everyone else has spent money to have more data than is currently available. My original post asked if anyone had burnt out a barrel and what their findings were. Then everyone like yourself got E tough and started bashing me. Not sure what makes you qualified to weigh in on the subject. If you have shot this caliber and burnt a barrel out please report your findings. If not then please crawl back in your hole and keep your mouth shut.

Then quit asking people to do the work for you or tell somebody how to run their business and R&D. Do the fucking math yourself. My last .257 was a bartlein and it went over 1700 shooting 120s over 3200 fps. I didn't shoot it out. I replaced it with a 1:7 for this bullet and I will probably retire it before it is shot out as well. We don't really shoot a barrel out we retire them long before they even get to one moa accuracy. The average hunter can take our retired barrels and use them just fine for life. Besides, most you people waste too much time and resources working up what amounts to just a respectable load. So, I get 1500 out of this 1:7 and report that and it is going to help you how in making a fucking decision on your own? Null. Anyway, I'm too busy shooting and reloading 224, 244, 257, 264, 308, and 300 H&H to report back to somebody waiting to buy a particular bullet. You still haven't answered what is a 6.25 ???

Here maybe this will help...

http://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/barrel-life-expectancy-chart.216353/

Look at the 25-06 overbore region and compare it to the .243 Win.

And more info here...

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/tag/barrel-life/

Is there anything else we can do for you?

 

[MarkLeupold]

Damn, I relax for one night and we have a bunch of excitement? Who was drinking, lol?

Sarcasm aside, I don't think I've seen anyone who has said they'e over 800 on a fast twist quarterbore with Blackjacks yet. But, I think this is going to exceed 6mm barrel life by a decent margin, at least in comparable cartridges shooting the same discipline and considered "burnt out" at the same accuracy standard.

If you're that worried about barrel life coming from a 6.5, please don't do it because it will probably be worse.

If you want reports, I'll make them when I start shooting, but you'll have to wait. I'm a college student and I expect to put about 1000 on my barrel this coming year, but even that may be optimistic.

I think @Sheldon N has it right. This is attractive to guys who like the ballistic advantage. While they were chasing it with 6mm's, now they can be better ballistically AND have better barrel life. The low-recoil BR guys will stay away from anything bigger than 6mm and in my opinion some may go the other way and go to 22 cal variants. Only time will tell.

If you want to hop on the 25 train, please do. If you don't want to be one of the first because you're risk-adverse, that's fine too. More Blackjacks for me!

 

[Bear24]

omg such a great post. Why didn't I think of that?

Sarcasm over, when someone burns out some barrels in a PRS setting please let me know how long they lasted. I would think that if someone put this much time and energy into designing something, they would have already burnt out a barrel or two themselves before releasing this to the public. I guess its cheaper if customers figure it out themsleves and just report back.

I realise that being 6.25 it would probably last longer than a 6mm and less than a 6.5, but running 130s as fast as this is I have concerns if it will get anymore life than a 6mm.

I'm not going to get in an argument over this but I'll say my peace and move on.

You are missing a very large component of this equation, yes we spent 3 years of time and energy in the design of this bullet but that's just that.. a design. To make that design a reality it took Money, a great deal of money. Getting high BC .257 bullets to the market is a completely different deal than making another 6mm or 6.5mm bullet, where you just have to design, manufacture and sell them. With .257 the bullets are less than half the initial investment, we had 185+ fast twist .257 barrels and 36 reamers in stock when we launched the bullets since they would be basically useless with out them. Can't sell bullets without the barrels and can't sell barrels without bullets.

That money came out of 2 guy's pockets, 2 guys that also work 70+ hours a week at our main jobs to make all this a reality. I know very few people that could afford to sit on that much inventory so they could test an extremely subjective metric that would take months to complete. Even if we could have, What cartridge do we choose to test? What barrel manufacture? What powder do we use? What pressure level do we load it to? What shooting regimen? what do we consider to be shot out?

Even if we had the time to do all that, it wouldn't make people happy. Say we tested the 25 creed in that manor. The next questions would be: What about the 257 WBY? 257 Roberts? 25x47L? 25x45 sharps? 25xc? 25 SAUM? 25-06? 25-284? ....its not feasible and it would never be enough.

Going even deeper into that, say we did test every cartridge known to man. Would you believe the data? I know a handful of guys that swear they get 3000+ rounds out of an 6XC barrel, do I believe them? No. What about the people that claim 2500+ out of a 6.5 SAUM? I don't buy that ether. Are they lying? probably not but the data is not verifiable.

I also can't recall EVER seeing a barrel life figure coming from ANY bullet company. I'm not saying it's never been done, just that I haven't seen it. There are too many variables.

 

[Bulldog Firearms]

People are susceptible to confirmation bias. They keep asking the same question knowing full well the answer and expect someone to parrot something that confirms their bias. There's no way to predict an exact number but with the knowledge that's easily and readily available a educated guess can be made.

Barrel life crap is beating a dead horse. You already know the answer. Women ask questions like, 'do these jeans make me look fat?' You damn well know the answer. At least here you don't have to mince words or come home with a scorned woman.

 

[Deleted member 10043]

They feel entitled to that which is guaranteed by bureaucratic expense. The whole time I was communicating with Sierra asking for a heavier SMK in .257 and they never gave me a single hint. In fact they told me not gonna happen. Sierra does this with their own badged new bullets. Takes years before they add it to their own reloading manual. In the meantime they are on the shelves being sold at retail. People aren't waiting around.

 

[oldnmkid]

When I get my 25-284 built, if it only lasts 800 rounds and it shoots good...I couldn't be happier! Got some Blackjack bullets yesterday...They are nasty looking!! C'mon Bartlein.

 

[oldnmkid]

I don't shoot competition anymore. It will probably last me 5-6 years!

 

[MarkLeupold]

You'll have to moderate your excitement then, at a rate of 150rds a year

If it's a hunting rifle, it'll last longer than that!

 

[Bear24]

Has anyone burnt out any barrels yet? Would love to see real world numbers as far as barrel life goes.

I don’t have time to log in here often but this thread got brought back to my attention in my notifications.

real world results of a PRS shooter: 2 barrels of different manufacturers both lost ~30-35 FPS at 2500 rounds. Still shot as good or better than when it was new. That shooter added a few tenths of powder and won 2 one day PRS matches back to back weekend and dropped less than 5 points at both of them. The real kicker is that they are 25 Creedmoors running 3140 FPS with RL16! That’s smoking. May be why my 25x47 running my slow node at 2810fps is still the same every time I take it out with over 3k Rounds on the tube.