#Best 9mm ammo for competition series

Offering superb accuracy coupled with very light recoil, the 6mm Creedmoor is a favorite amongst PRS shooters needing to spot their own impacts at long range. Rather than the 3,000 to 5,000 rounds a careful shooter gets out of a 6.5 Creedmoor, most 6mm Creedmoors are burned out by the 2,000-round mark, and many last fewer than 1,500 rounds. However, the propellant chamber is more or less the same size as that of the 6.5mm version, making the 6mm Creedmoor just a bit overbore for ideal efficiency. This sizzling descendant of the 6.5 Creedmoor offers a couple of PRS-match-winning advantages - but at a cost.īecause it shoots a much lighter bullet about 300 fps faster than its parent, recoil is much lighter, trajectory is flatter and wind drift is equal or less.

I suspect that going forward, a lot of top PRS shooters will be transitioning to the 6.5 Creedmoor. I recall several savvy shooters proclaiming that Lapua would never produce 6.5 Creedmoor brass. However, that’s probably because until 2017, Lapua brass (widely regarded as the best in the world) wasn’t available in 6.5 Creedmoor, which is a direct competitor to Lapua’s own 6.5mm. Serious PRS competition shooters may argue that the 6.5x47 Lapua actually holds more places in the PRS top 50 spots, and that’s true. Many, even most, will average half-MOA groups out of an accurate rifle. At least a dozen or more superb match loads are available from Hornady, Federal, Barnes, Nosler, Winchester, American Eagle, SIG Sauer and a plethora of smaller boutique ammo companies. While absolute best-possible performance is usually achieved through handloading, the 6.5 Creedmoor typically provides unprecedented factory-load accuracy. The short case body allows long, aerodynamic bullets to be seated far out, eliminating bullet-base intrusion into powder capacity, while still fitting comfortably in standard short-action magazines. 308 cartridge families, the 6.5 Creedmoor’s direct ancestor is the. While it uses the same case-head dimensions as the. With an aggressive muzzlebrake, it’s possible to spot your own impacts on downrange steel targets.īallistically, it absolutely trounces the. Recoil is polite, making it easy to focus on correctly executing the shot instead of clenching your teeth in anticipation. Barrel life is excellent, even when 10-shot rapid-fire strings are run over and over during a weekend match. Like the classic ’06 did during the Great War, this efficient, mild-mannered, high-performance 6.5mm has opened the eyes of shooters to a new realm of possibilities.īy efficiently boosting high-ballistic coefficient (BC) projectiles at useful velocities in a case and chamber designed for inherent accuracy, the 6.5 Creedmoor enables shooters to consistently connect with 1,000-yard targets (and beyond in the case of a savvy shooter). 30-’06 has had such a fundamental effect on the way American precision shooters view long-range shooting as has the 6.5 Creedmoor.

Most useful for: PRS & 1,000-yard slow-fire matches.

#Best 9mm ammo for competition series

Although tempted to focus on the top six winningest cartridges in the current hottest, fastest-growing long-range discipline - Precision Rifle Series (PRS) - I finally opted to cover an arbitrary spectrum (heaven help me) of match types and cartridge demands. Picking six top long-range competition-cartridges was hard because various long-range disciplines apply a vast spread of demands, and many - such as Palma and Service Rifle - have cartridge-specific regulations.

An F-Class shooter engages the 1,000-yard target at the Wendover, Utah, Air Force range (inactive). Each can be proven to be above par either by history, by track record or by engineering features and calculated ballistics.

For starters, all the cartridges included below feature the following prerequisites: They are all readily available in quality, task-appropriate factory ammunition (i.e., their benefits are not limited to handloaders). I can already hear the snarls and gnashing teeth of offended readers.īefore undertaking presumptuous claims such as I’m about to make, it’s worth laying down a few guidelines. Picking the “top six” cartridges for any discipline is akin to shimmying out on a branch and then rasping away on it with a pruning saw. It’s a thankless job, but somebody’s got to point you toward the best of the best.