Are Bergara's slow?

[jbuck88]

Just checking. I friend got a bergara he was really excited about so we went up shooting to try it at 500yds. He was shooting factory Hornady 147gr eldm's and getting 2680fps out of his 20" barrel. I would have expected more.

His rifle is a Bergara in 6.5 PRC.

 

[oldrifleman]

What cartridge are you using?

 

[wpeach1912]

2680 out of a 20” barrel sounds fast to me. I get like 2675 out of my 24” proof right now with hand loads

 

[jbuck88]

Ok. I would have thought it would have been faster. Box said 2910fps.

Factory Hornady Match Ammo with 147gr ELD-M.

 

[stello1001]

That's not slow for that ammo and for such a short barrel, TF lol...

 

[6MT]

That's not slow for that ammo and for such a short barrel, TF lol...

^this

 

[jbuck88]

Right. I shoot a CM and assumed the PRC would be a couple hundred FPS faster. Shooting 143gr as fast as his 147gr. Granted 4gr heavier, but didn't think it would be that much different.

 

[stello1001]

Right. I shoot a CM and assumed the PRC would be a couple hundred FPS faster. Shooting 143gr as fast as his 147gr. Granted 4gr heavier, but didn't think it would be that much different.

He has a PRC not a creedmoor?

 

[jbuck88]

Correct. He has a 20" 6.5PRC and I have a 20" 6.5CM

Typing on my phone. But I was expecting his PRC to shoot ~200GPS faster then my CM. I didn't think the 4gr difference in bullet weight would negate the capacity of the PRC case over the CM case.

 

[fdkay]

Hornady has had supply issues with powder. There have been a plethora of reports on magnum cartridges not getting advertised velocities.
There is a reason magnum cartridges typically come with 24 or 26 inch barrels.

 

[jbuck88]

I looked into the PRC 6 years ago as a do all, but haven't looked into it much at all since. This was my first experience shooting one. I was wondering if bergara was slow like tikka has a reputation for. Sounds like it might be the powder used by hornady.

 

[stello1001]

Correct. He has a 20" 6.5PRC and I have a 20" 6.5CM

Typing on my phone. But I was expecting his PRC to shoot ~200GPS faster then my CM. I didn't think the 4gr difference in bullet weight would negate the capacity of the PRC case over the CM case.

Prolly would've been best to mention that in the OP lol. Does seem a tad but slow but not surprising to me and not uncommon for factory ammo to be slow. Especially hornady!

 

[jbuck88]

Figured the prc vs cm was beat to death and didn't want to go off topic.

Was more interested in if anyone had experience with a 20" prc to see if the velocity he was seeing is normal for a 20" barrel or if his prc was running slow with factory ammo.

 

[wpeach1912]

Didn’t realize it was a 6.5 PRC. 2680 may be a touch slow, but not crazy. 50fps/inch is a rough rule of thumb, so that’d put you at 2710. I wouldn’t worry too much about having a slow barrel with factory ammo

 

[vh20]

Figured the prc vs cm was beat to death and didn't want to go off topic.

Was more interested in if anyone had experience with a 20" prc to see if the velocity he was seeing is normal for a 20" barrel or if his prc was running slow with factory ammo.

Yeah, but if you're going to ask "Is this slow?", the answers you're going to get are going to be very different if they think it's CM when it's really a PRC and it wasn't mentioned. When you said, "The box says 2910 fps" I immediately said no, it doesn't, because most of us were thinking CM. And now the answers you're getting are different after you disclosed it's PRC than the first ones you got when everyone thought it was CM. I'd edit the OP to state it's a PRC for better answers. The numbers you posted would be pretty good for a CM, not so much for a PRC.

 

[vh20]

Regarding the post-2021 quality of Hornady ammo, I have noticed a big difference in ES/SD of the 225ELD factory load in 300PRC, but not really a decrease in MV from the pre-2021 lots. Before 2021, they were loading Alliant and Hodgdon Extreme powders (stick). I haven't pulled a post-2021 load down, but others who have are saying it's ball powder now in the 300PRC 225. One of their engineers on here stated they can't get Alliant or Hodgon Extreme now and they had to source other powders. Again, I haven't looked personally, but my first guess would be their using the StaBall line. Anyway, in the 300PRC I went back to hand loading for it recently because of their ES/SD increase, but I didn't really see a decrease in MV after they changed powders.

 

[NewsShooter]

I put a 24 in PRC barrel on a Tikka that I got a good deal on at Christmas. Norma 143 factory ammo is slower than my 6.5 CM shooting 140's with handloads.