6.5x47 Lapua Tactical Rifle Project

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The 6.5x47 Lapua case uses a small-rifle primer pocket to maintain case-head strength.

Testing of factory Lapua ammunition showed that the published velocities are a little conservative. The 123-grain loads shot at 2820 fps from my 25.3-inch barrel and consistently held half-MOA or better groups.

Around the same time I was getting my rifle put together, John Sternberg, another local shooter, was having a 6.5x47 Lapua rifle built on a Surgeon Tactical action and fitted to an AICS stock. With his action tuned to the 6.5x47 cartridge, he has no primer issues and is shooting the 130-grain JLK - another high-BC VLD type - at 2970 fps from a 28-inch Pac-Nor barrel using RL15.

The 6.5x47 Lapua has proven itself viable in field-style practical and tactical matches. Two such matches are the Sporting Rifle Match and the Camp Guernsey Invitational Multi-Gun Match. The Sporting Rifle Match is held in the natural terrain of the NRA Whittington Center in Raton, New Mexico. The match is divided into ten shooting stations spread over a two-mile trail. Each station has a firing point and six steel plates spread out in the terrain from about 150 to about 875 yards. Shooters get one shot only at each plate.

Competitor John Sternberg shoots the 130-grain JLK at 2970 fps in his rifle built around a Surgeon Tactical action, AICS stock, and Pac-Nor barrel.

I shot the 6.5x47 AI-AW at the August Sporting Rifle Match. After the main match, John and I were tied for second place. John edged me out with a better wind call in the sudden-death shootout on the known-distance range, so I ended up third overall. I try to console myself that his higher-BC 130-grain JLK bullets with a 40 fps edge over my 123-grain Scenars at 2930 fps had something to do with it. The overall match winner was using a straight .260 Remington and just beat us by three points at the end of the match. In the field, the performance of the .260 Remington is almost indistinguishable from the 6.5x47 Lapua.

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