Oh My...
Federal, what have you done?
I’ve been talking with a lot of manufactures in the firearms industry to get their reaction to Federal’s introduction of the +PEAK 6.5 Creedmoor ammo. I was a bit astonished at what I learned, and I think you will be too. There are some big changes coming.
One major ammo maker said they are going to discontinue the manufacture of all non-dangerous game centerfire rifle ammo except for 30-06 Springfield, because most of those commenting on the +PEAK ammo said the 30-06 was the only cartridge anyone needed. Additionally, their lead sales rep said he was astonished to learn that “no one shoots factory ammo anyway,” and he was a bit concerned the government was ghost-buying all the ammo they make to send it to Ukraine.
Another ammo maker said they’d not realized bullets going more than 3000 fps were going too fast to kill animals. It seems high velocity bullets have too much energy to upset when they hit an animal. They just pencil through causing no damage. Oddly, this also applies to any bullet fired from a 6.5 Creed. So, they’re going to reduce every factory load they offer with a velocity faster than 3000 fps to a maximum velocity of 2950 fps, and reduce 6.5 Creedmoor loads to 2500 fps, because for some inexplicable reason bullets fired from that cartridge act differently than any others.
Just as disturbing, America’s largest gun powder distributor says they will now only sale to ammunition manufactures. They were horrified to learn about some of the handloads shooters are putting together. To quote their vice president, “We cannot in good consciousness allow our products to be used so irresponsibly.” Well, except for 4831SC and of course Reloader 26 powders. Apparently, you can load a 6.5 Creedmoor with those powders and safely get 3400 fps with a 140-grain bullet! One of their ballistic engineers told me he was reading comments on the +PEAK 6.5 Creed ammo and discovered if you used Varget powder, an additional 200 to 300 fps was an automatic guaranteed velocity increase. We were both astonished.
And get this, two custom rifle manufactures called to inform me the only cartridge they are going to chamber their rifles for now is the 25-06 Remington. Until Federal introduced the +PEAK ammo for the 6.5 Creedmoor, they had no idea that a 25-06 could shoot a 130-grain bullet faster than a 270 Winchester. One of the lead gunsmiths told me, “I don’t know how we’ve been overlooking that cartridge; we thought it was dead because no one ever asks for it anymore.”
Maybe the weirdest conversation I had was with a pest control company who said they did not realize rats were building nests in the barrels of rifles, which caused them to blow up when shot, but only if the bullet was going faster than 3000 fps. They are looking to team up with a rifle manufacturer and offer a rat poison you can put in your barrel when you store your gun under your bed down in your mom’s basement.
Federal, what have you done?
On the plus side, through social media comments on the 6.5 Creedmoor +PEAK ammo, we have identified many ballistic engineers who are out of work. A human resource manager from a large international ballistics lab and ammo manufacturer has been tasked with identifying these experts and recruiting them. We might be in luck though, because the Russian, Chinese, and Iranian militaries are their main customers.
Clearly this is all in jest, and as I predicted in my article from last Friday. But if you value your time too much to read the comments on social media, this gives you an idea of how silly or misinformed some are. Everything above was inspired from actual comments.
If you would like to read about real world hunting experiences with 50 rifle cartridges—including the 6.5 Creedmoor—check out my latest book, Rifle Cartridges for the Hunter, available now only on Amazon. You won’t find any social media ridiculousness in this book. It’s full of real world hunting stories without all the technical ballistic information that bogs down many cartridge books. Order soon and it will arrive in time for Father’s Day.
Its a great advancement and the cool thing is that if you have a 6.5 Creedmoor you do not have to shoot +PEAK ammo all the time, just when you want that little extra...
Many cannot accept that the gun or cartridge they own and trust is not the ballistic best. Of course that applies to how they ofter view their kids and significant other, so I kind of get it.