No 6.5mm caliber has ever been a big hit in the United States, but this is changing as long-range shooters seek more performance with less recoil.

The 6.5-284 Norma is a mainstay cartridge for long-range target shooters but requires a long action and suffers from short barrel life. Choices for a short-action 6.5mm cartridge are limited to the .260 Remington and wildcats such as the 6.5-08 Ackley.

Nammo Lapua Oy recently developed the new 6.5x47 Lapua cartridge specifically for long-range target shooting. In cooperation with Grunig & Elmiger, Lapua set out to develop a cartridge optimized for 300-meter CISM shooting, a sort of military olympic competition prevalent in Europe.

Somewhat similar to NRA Highpower shooting, 300-meter CISM has a set course of fire from defined shooting positions, using highly specialized target rifles.

Due to its excellent accuracy, good ballistics and low recoil, 6mm BR Norma currently dominates 300-meter CISM. When the 6.5x47 project officially started in 2005, two initial project goals were to improve ballistics by decreasing wind drift and to reduce barrel wear compared to the 6mm BR Norma, which will get only about 2,500 rounds at top accuracy before the barrel starts to show wear.

Stepping up from 6mm to 6.5mm provides a clear advantage in reduced wind drift, due to the increased ballistic coefficient values available in 6.5mm bullets. The increase in bore area also significantly extends barrel life over the 6mm BR Norma.

U.S. target shooters got wind of the new 6.5mm cartridge and suggested some changes, such as using small primer pockets for accuracy. The final list of design goals included following: excellent accuracy through quality and consistency, low wind drift, flat trajectory and low barrel wear.

The resulting 6.5x47 case has the same head and body diameter as the .308 Winchester and shares the same body taper. This allows use of the same magazines, bolts and actions as the ubiquitous .308.

Lapua set the maximum pressure for the cartridge at 63,090 psi, near the practical maximum for brass cases. In conjunction with a small primer pocket, the resulting case is very strong.

The 6.5x47 Lapua case is about 0.3 inch shorter than a .260 Remington case and has a sharper shoulder and a longer neck. With an overall loaded length of 2.700 to 2.800 inches, most bullets can be seated with their rear bearing surface above the case shoulder. It can be thought of as a shortened and "improved" .260 Remington case, with a small primer pocket.

Factory 6.5x47 Lapua loads shoot a 139-grain Lapua Scenar at 2,690 fps, the 123-grain Scenar at 2,790 fps or the 108-grain Scenar at 2,950 fps.

Midsized 6.5mm cartridges, which launch high-BC bullets at moderate velocities, provide wind deflection and drop values that equal or beat the .300 Winchester Magnum's standard 190-grain load with less than half the recoil and just over half as much powder burned. They blow the .308 Winchester out of the water. For long-range performance, it's a no-brainer.

To test Lapua's new cartridge, I had an Accuracy International Arctic Warfare model rebarreled from .308 Winchester to 6.5x47 Lapua.

G.A. Precision (gaprecision.net) chambered a 6.5mm barrel from Satern Custom Machining (satern machining.com) for the 6.5x47 Lapua cartridge and fit it to my Arctic Warfare. The cut-rifled Satern barrel was finished to about 25 inches and fluted to shave off a little weight.

I set out to determine how the cartridge would perform in both benchrest testing and long-range practical shooting in the field. With a pile of new Lapua brass and high-BC bullets from Lapua and Berger, I commenced load development.

The 6.5x47 Lapua case is only a few grains smaller than the .260 Remington case, so most .260 powders can be used. I focused on the 123-grain Lapua Scenar (.547 BC), 139-grain Lapua Scenar (.615 BC) and Berger 130-grain VLD (.595 BC).