I remember seeing the first ads come out for the 6.5 Creedmoor round in about 2008. Usually second page on the right side of American Rifleman or other magazines – the best ad placement. I didn’t pay much attention as it did not seem to be anything I needed or wanted. It looked sort of funny with all that bullet exposed, compared to sensible rounds like 5.56.

But I kept noticing it over the years, and it gained in popularity. In the 20 teens I was reloading for 5.56, .243 Winchester and .223 Winchester Super Short Magnum (that was a real barn burner at over 4,000 fps muzzle velocity. Barrel burner, too.) When I decided to reach out very long distances, the 6.5 Creedmoor seemed like the way to go.

But pricing of those rifles was just out of reach. That is, until Ruger came along. The Predator was well under a grand, and it was getting great accuracy reviews. But it had a really crappy, flimsy plastic stock and a tiny 4-round magazine. Still, it had a rep for shooting straight.

When I took mine out of the box, the first thing I noticed was that the free-floated barrel wasn’t. The right side of the fore-end was right up against the barrel. Thus began the first of many fixes/improvements/upgrades. Sandpaper took care of the first.
So, how did she shoot. First shots:

Two sighters, then three vertically. OK! We can work with this. Then a dining room table picture to show 1 MOA:

And I shot Federal Premium until I had enough brass to start reloading.

And at 300 yards?

Yep, fairly accurate. Tomorrow, we’ll talk about upgrades. And then maybe some long distance shooting?