The name Creedmoor is steeped in American marksmanship history. Creedmoor was the first premier shooting range on American soil, purchased in 1873 through an appropriation from the state of New York and money from raised by the embryonic National Rifle Association.

It was at Creedmoor in 1874 that a group of upstart shooters, the Amateur Rifle Club of New York, took on United Kingdom champs Ireland in a competition billed as the "championship of the world." The U.S. won that long-range match, fired at 800, 900 and 1,000 yards, and won it again the next year.

The following year at Creedmoor saw the U.S. beat Australia, Canada, Ireland and Scotland, and in 1877 America out-shot Great Britain in the last major international match held at Creedmoor.

So it's fitting then that the name of Hornady's new commercial cartridge, designed from the ground up to be a highpower competition cartridge, would be 6.5 Creedmoor.

The idea was the result of a 2006 discussion between Hornady senior ballistician Dave Emary and Dennis DeMille, a two-time national highpower champion and general manager of shooting supply company Creedmoor Sports. The discussion came, appropriately enough, at the National Matches at Camp Perry, Ohio, and the gist of it was this: What would be an ideal cartridge for both across-the-course and long-range highpower competitions, one the average guy could go out and buy and be competitive with?

As Emary pointed out to me on a recent visit to Hornady's Grand Island, Nebraska, headquarters, the list of usual suspects is a short one. There's the 6mm, which Emary discarded because he believes the bullets have to be pushed too hard to be competitive in 1,000-yard shooting. The .308 is a bit handicapped at long range because of its low velocity at long range. Then there's the 6.5-284, a favorite among the long-range set.

"You don't need that kind of capacity," Emary says. "Plus we wanted to make a cartridge that would work as an across-the-course rifle, not just 1,000."

And the .308-based .260 Remington? "The neck is too short for very low-drag (VLD) bullets," Emary notes.

So Emary turned to a cartridge he developed a few years ago, the .30 TC, and thought that round might just be the ticket if it were necked down to 6.5. And with that he turned the project over to Joe Thielen, an avid long-range benchrest and highpower shooter in Hornady's engineering department.

SPECIFICATIONS: 6.5 CREEDMOOR
Manufacturer	Hornady Manufacturing, 308/382-1390
Bullet:	120, 140 A-Max
Muzzle Velocity:	3,020 fps (120), 2,820 fps (140)
Ballistic Coefficient:	.470 (120), .585 (140)
Case Length	1.92 in.
Head Diameter	.473 in.
Shoulder Angle	30 degrees
Water Capacity	51 to 52 grs.
Max OAL	2.82 in
Primer Pocket	large rifle
Operating Pressure	62,000 psi; 57,000 psi as loaded by factory

Thielen pushed the shoulder back to permit a long neck while maintaining a 30-degree shoulder angle, creating a case with a water capacity of 51 to 52 grains (the sample he measured for me was 51.7). And because the team worked on the design of the cartridge and the chamber simultaneously, they were able to maximize the bullet/chamber interface by tailoring the chamber to take advantage of the reduced bullet jump provided by short-ogive 120- and 140-grain A-Max bullets.

"We set it up for the A-Max so when loaded to the correct overall length the boattail doesn't go below the 'doughnut' at the base of the neck," Thielen notes.

To boost accuracy potential even further, the freebore diameter is .2645, which reduces initial yaw as the bullet begins its journey down the bore.

The next step was to find the right powder.

"No secrets here," Emary says. "We want guys to be able to go out and duplicate on their presses the performance we're loading at the factory." If you doubt Hornady's intentions, you'll find the load recipe printed on every box of 6.5 Creedmoor that leaves the factory.

The goal then was to find an off-the-shelf powder with low temperature sensitivity that would produce the desired velocities with moderate charge weights. Temperature sensitivity is important because guns get hot during a match, and cartridges that spend time in a hot chamber while the shooter waits for the right condition can heat up significantly.