I've had a 6 Creed built by GAP for a few months now, but wanted to wait to post until I had some verifiable data and real experience with the rifle / caliber to share. I'm new to LR shooting. Took one other LR rifle couse w/ a .308 a few years ago, but didn't get as much out of it as I did with BHTC. No LR rifle match experience other than 3gun out to 400 yrds. Have wanted to explore this discipline for some time. My interest is the PRS type rifle matches. I sold off a bunch of guns I don't use and got with GAP for a new rig.
Specs:
V2 GAP action
Bartlien 26" varmint contour bbl, 1:7.75 twist, with Badger FTE brake
Manners T6A stock
Vortex HD 5-20X50 Ebr2
Load (my first time loading LR rifle ammo). Lots of experience loading handgun and .223 ammo.
Hornady 6Creed brass
Berger 105gr Hybrid bullets
42gr H4350 Powder
CCI 200 primer (all I could find).
I bought a Copper Creek load development pack (5 loads at different powder charge to find accuracy node). I also went with George's (GAP owner) recommendation to start with 42gr of H4350 with the 105 B/H at 2.810 oal. I had some issue chasing the oal not realizing the meplat (tip of bullet) can vary quite a bit in size (as much as .015" in my experience). In reading on SH and other sites I realized I needed to measure off the ogive for consistent OAL. I was told the 6 Creed likes .020"-.025" of jump. After trying the CC loads and my loads at 300 yards...I settled on a ogive length of 3.155" or .023" off the lands. I've had consistent 1.5" groups at 300 with this rifle. Several 4 shot groups in the 3/4" range opening up with a 5th bad shot by me. I know it will do better, but I did not have much time to play with it. I'm limited to a 300 yard range and needed dope for longer ranges and some good instruction.
I took the rifle earlier this month to train with BHTC in PA. They came highly recommended and both instrs., Freddy and Mike, are shooters first with prec. tac rifle type match experience. In AM on day 1 we covered topics regarding marksmanship, rifle set up, optics, ballistics, how to keep a data book (what pages to use and how to properly fill them out...this was really valuable), range estimation and wind calls. In the afternoon it was off to the range (out to 1050 yards) to zero, practice milling targets, gather dope and work on hold-over drill. Instr. were awesome and I learned a ton. They shared little tricks / short cuts along the way and answered any question. I was shooting with another guy who was shooting a GAP 6 creed gas gun. We were a good team. His rifle dope stayed with mine until 500 yards where his 23" bbl / gas gun started to need more elevation than my 26" bolt. I was really happy with the way my GAP shot and was pumped with all the good dope and range estimation practice we were getting.
On day 2 we had to pick a target from the day before for a morning cold bore shot. One shot. I had been smacking the 600 yard target with ease and was going to pick it for my cold bore. The instr. who had been working with me the day before asked me what target I was going with for cold bore and I told him. He had that disappointed you've got no balls look on his face. I said you want me to shoot Xray target (1050 yards) for my cold bore? He asked, "Why are you here?" He reminded me I had good dope for the range and had a 2nd rnd hit the day before after a wind correction by my spotter. Great....no pressure. We had to shoot one at a time. When they got to me I called Xray....go big or go home I guess. I dialed 7.8mils, locked in behind my gun and checked for wind. I had a wind flag at 800 that was barely moving. I checked the tops of the trees and had little movement. I called no wind and sent it. Spotter yelled impact I can't tell you how good that felt.
The rest of the day the instrs worked with us to reinforce/confirm our dope and our milling / range estimation (note: they showed us how to do it with a calculator and a mil-dot master and I would alternate back and forth practicing with each).
Just before lunch we had to get off our guns and the instrs. took all targets off the range and set up 10 targets between 300 and 800 yards. We were told the height of each target and that we had a 1/2 hr to estimate range to each target and determine dope. I used all of the time and felt real pressure, 2nd guessing myself. You got 2 shots for each target, 10pts for 1st rnd hit and 8pts for 2nd rnd hit...miss 2nd shot and you lose 10pts. I guess this is a simulated USMC qual course. USMC requires an 80 to pass. We needed a 60, but Freddy. said it was because he uses smaller targets. The 10 targets were called out at random, each shooter waiting for his turn to shoot. We had 20 sec to get on target and send the shot. My GAP and I went 10 for 10...all first round hits......MONEY! Between the cold bore in the morning and cleaning the qual I was on cloud 9. In all honesty, we had little to no wind to deal with on day 2 and only a little on day 1. I actually hoped for more wind....That said, I couldn't have hoped for more out my new rifle, handloads and the instruction from BHTC. Didn't write this to say look what at I did....I just wanted to share a great shooting experience and how happy I was with my GAP 6 Creed, Vortex, my load and BHTC. One note on the Vortex, great scope overall for the price (got mine from Cameraland - new open box demo for a great price with recommendation from Rob01). The Ebr2 reticle was easy to use. Only complaint is that I'd love to have .1 mil graduations somewhere in the reticle for milling. Tried a guys MSR (in a Steiner) at the course and it was much nicer to mil with.
The 6 Creed is really flat. I'm only pushing the bergers at 3065fps. I think the caliber helps if your slightly off on your milling/range estimation. Barrel has sped up 15fps since I first got it. Guys are running this cal over 3150 with good results as well, but I've read some matches have a 3150fps velocity cap, so I wanted to stay under it anyway. Also didn't want to shoot a super hot load...easier on brass and barrel.
Hope this helps anyone thinking GAP or 6 Creed. As a new shooter / reloader, I was intimidated to get into this, but it is not as bad as I thought and have found the entire experience really enjoyable. I know I have a lot to learn, but looking forward to the journey. Also recommend BHTC in PA for rifle training.
Specs:
V2 GAP action
Bartlien 26" varmint contour bbl, 1:7.75 twist, with Badger FTE brake
Manners T6A stock
Vortex HD 5-20X50 Ebr2
Load (my first time loading LR rifle ammo). Lots of experience loading handgun and .223 ammo.
Hornady 6Creed brass
Berger 105gr Hybrid bullets
42gr H4350 Powder
CCI 200 primer (all I could find).
I bought a Copper Creek load development pack (5 loads at different powder charge to find accuracy node). I also went with George's (GAP owner) recommendation to start with 42gr of H4350 with the 105 B/H at 2.810 oal. I had some issue chasing the oal not realizing the meplat (tip of bullet) can vary quite a bit in size (as much as .015" in my experience). In reading on SH and other sites I realized I needed to measure off the ogive for consistent OAL. I was told the 6 Creed likes .020"-.025" of jump. After trying the CC loads and my loads at 300 yards...I settled on a ogive length of 3.155" or .023" off the lands. I've had consistent 1.5" groups at 300 with this rifle. Several 4 shot groups in the 3/4" range opening up with a 5th bad shot by me. I know it will do better, but I did not have much time to play with it. I'm limited to a 300 yard range and needed dope for longer ranges and some good instruction.
I took the rifle earlier this month to train with BHTC in PA. They came highly recommended and both instrs., Freddy and Mike, are shooters first with prec. tac rifle type match experience. In AM on day 1 we covered topics regarding marksmanship, rifle set up, optics, ballistics, how to keep a data book (what pages to use and how to properly fill them out...this was really valuable), range estimation and wind calls. In the afternoon it was off to the range (out to 1050 yards) to zero, practice milling targets, gather dope and work on hold-over drill. Instr. were awesome and I learned a ton. They shared little tricks / short cuts along the way and answered any question. I was shooting with another guy who was shooting a GAP 6 creed gas gun. We were a good team. His rifle dope stayed with mine until 500 yards where his 23" bbl / gas gun started to need more elevation than my 26" bolt. I was really happy with the way my GAP shot and was pumped with all the good dope and range estimation practice we were getting.
On day 2 we had to pick a target from the day before for a morning cold bore shot. One shot. I had been smacking the 600 yard target with ease and was going to pick it for my cold bore. The instr. who had been working with me the day before asked me what target I was going with for cold bore and I told him. He had that disappointed you've got no balls look on his face. I said you want me to shoot Xray target (1050 yards) for my cold bore? He asked, "Why are you here?" He reminded me I had good dope for the range and had a 2nd rnd hit the day before after a wind correction by my spotter. Great....no pressure. We had to shoot one at a time. When they got to me I called Xray....go big or go home I guess. I dialed 7.8mils, locked in behind my gun and checked for wind. I had a wind flag at 800 that was barely moving. I checked the tops of the trees and had little movement. I called no wind and sent it. Spotter yelled impact I can't tell you how good that felt.
The rest of the day the instrs worked with us to reinforce/confirm our dope and our milling / range estimation (note: they showed us how to do it with a calculator and a mil-dot master and I would alternate back and forth practicing with each).
Just before lunch we had to get off our guns and the instrs. took all targets off the range and set up 10 targets between 300 and 800 yards. We were told the height of each target and that we had a 1/2 hr to estimate range to each target and determine dope. I used all of the time and felt real pressure, 2nd guessing myself. You got 2 shots for each target, 10pts for 1st rnd hit and 8pts for 2nd rnd hit...miss 2nd shot and you lose 10pts. I guess this is a simulated USMC qual course. USMC requires an 80 to pass. We needed a 60, but Freddy. said it was because he uses smaller targets. The 10 targets were called out at random, each shooter waiting for his turn to shoot. We had 20 sec to get on target and send the shot. My GAP and I went 10 for 10...all first round hits......MONEY! Between the cold bore in the morning and cleaning the qual I was on cloud 9. In all honesty, we had little to no wind to deal with on day 2 and only a little on day 1. I actually hoped for more wind....That said, I couldn't have hoped for more out my new rifle, handloads and the instruction from BHTC. Didn't write this to say look what at I did....I just wanted to share a great shooting experience and how happy I was with my GAP 6 Creed, Vortex, my load and BHTC. One note on the Vortex, great scope overall for the price (got mine from Cameraland - new open box demo for a great price with recommendation from Rob01). The Ebr2 reticle was easy to use. Only complaint is that I'd love to have .1 mil graduations somewhere in the reticle for milling. Tried a guys MSR (in a Steiner) at the course and it was much nicer to mil with.
The 6 Creed is really flat. I'm only pushing the bergers at 3065fps. I think the caliber helps if your slightly off on your milling/range estimation. Barrel has sped up 15fps since I first got it. Guys are running this cal over 3150 with good results as well, but I've read some matches have a 3150fps velocity cap, so I wanted to stay under it anyway. Also didn't want to shoot a super hot load...easier on brass and barrel.
Hope this helps anyone thinking GAP or 6 Creed. As a new shooter / reloader, I was intimidated to get into this, but it is not as bad as I thought and have found the entire experience really enjoyable. I know I have a lot to learn, but looking forward to the journey. Also recommend BHTC in PA for rifle training.
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