When pushed with equivalent pressure, these bullets will provide almost identical wind performance to 1,000 yards. Powders such as Reloder 15, Hodgdon H4350, Vihta-Vuori N550 and Varget work well in the 6.5x47 Lapua. Best overall performance was achieved with RL15.

Accuracy with most combinations was excellent, with sub-quarter m.o.a. groups yielding from all three bullets with RL15 or N550 powder. Likewise, single-digit velocity standard deviation was common.

The 6.5x47 Lapua case is very strong, and the brass is excellent. I was able to meet and beat velocities achieved in my .260 with the 6.5x47 Lapua, but pressure was prematurely limited by primer cratering and an occasional pierced primer.

The fault was the rifle's. The Arctic Warfare is designed to reliably ignite 7.62 NATO ammunition in field conditions. Its firing pin protrusion and firing pin hole are not optimized for a high-pressure small-rifle primer.

Even with this limitation, my final load was the 123-grain Lapua Scenar at 2,930 fps, using RL15 and BR4 primers; it was about 110 fps faster than Lapua's factory load.

The 6.5x47 Lapua has proven itself a winner in both long-range bench-rest and in field-style practical and tactical matches. I took the converted Arctic Warfare to the Camp Guernsey Invitational Multi-Gun Match, which includes long-range rifle competition out to 700 yards.

An accurate rifle, rock-solid data and the light-recoiling 6.5x47 helped me dominate one of the two long-range stages, giving me the match points for an overall win over a field of 38 shooters.

Does the 6.5x47 Lapua offer anything over the regular .260 Remington? Ballistics are nearly identical, considering normal variation from gun to gun, and the 6.5x47 Lapua does it with just a few less grains of powder. To drive the same bullet at the same velocity in both calibers, the 6.5x47 Lapua load will have higher pressure; however, the Lapua brass seems to be able to handle that pressure just fine.

The most compelling reason to choose 6.5x47 Lapua is the excellent brass. Like the .260 Remington, the 6.5x47 Lapua provides long-range ballistics usually limited to the big magnums in a short-action package with low recoil. Because it shares the .308's head diameter and rough case dimensions, converting a .308 rifle to Lapua 6.5 is just a matter of replacing the barrel.

The 6.5x47 Lapua cartridge is a good solution for the shooter looking for a very accurate mid- to long-range rifle cartridge.