Federal has announced a new screaming-fast cartridge featuring their proprietary Peak Alloy casings in the 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak round. You might be thinking, “it has 6.5 Creedmoor in the name, so how is it new?” What’s new about this round is what it can do. By using Federal’s specialty components, it now has an extra 200+ FPS behind it along with that much more Foot-Lbs of energy.
Federal’s New 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak
So, let’s examine this further. Federal has invented a new cartridge dubbed 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak. Sounds suspiciously similar to this round we all have become addicted to called 6.5 Creedmoor.
- Can we shoot 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak in a normal 6.5 Creedmoor rifle? Yes!
- Are the pressures safe? Yes!
- Is it faster? Yes!
- Flatter shooting? Yes!
- More Foot-Lbs of energy for taking down dinosaurs? Yes!
So, everything can’t be sunshine, what’s the downside? Well, the factory ammo that Federal will be putting out might be a touch more expensive than the el cheapo 6.5 Creedmoor ammo you’ve been purchasing, but it is still reasonable for premium hunting ammunition standards. The MSRP pricing for 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak will be similar to standard 6.5 Creedmoor and 6.5 PRC loads, which range from $59.99 to $78.99 for a box of 20 rounds.
What’s in the Secret Sauce?
The sauce behind the 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak round, which isn’t much of a secret anymore, is the Peak Alloy casings. These casings are stiffer and allow for the safe loading of rounds to higher pressures than normally seen. The 6.5 Creedmoor, specifically, we typically see loaded to 65,000 PSI, but with the 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak, Federal has upped the ante to 80,000 PSI. This allows us to see faster velocities, more energy down range, and the ability to deploy heavier and longer bullets (usually with high ballistic coefficients).
Some other attributes that people will appreciate are the Peak Alloy casings have a higher lubricity than standard brass. So, they feed better and seat into the chamber more cleanly. All elements you want in a reliable round. A small downside is they might be slightly more stiff to extract and eject. We’ve already tested some of the 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak ammo, and while that was noticeable, it wasn’t an impediment while shooting.
Final Thoughts
The new 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak cartridge looks really promising at this time of announcement. You have a more effective round for hunting out west or competing in local matches without the need to buy a new rifle. Simply shoot it out of your standard 6.5 Creedmoor rifle.
As always, let us know all of your thoughts about the new 6.5 Creedmoor +Peak, how it outperforms the 6.5 PRC, and any other Federal products that are on your mind in the Comments below! We always appreciate your feedback and engagement.
I am sure there are plenty of issues this kind of ammo can cause and why it may not be an optimal setup. With that said it does put pressure on developing improvements in design, materials, and manufacturing methods to handle whatever issues it may cause and ultimately we probably should look into those and be on the leading edge of development so we don’t just rely on drones artillery and airstrikes.
6.5 Needmore as its called by some.
Personally, I thought it an OK round but it didn’t impress me and it was lacking a little and there were better. Now that they have added the Peak Alloy casings, higher pressures are here for it so I’ll need to give it a try.
Wow, only $80 per box of 20…and it’s sort of reloadable…but they did this in all military rifle calibers for the DoW. It’s 6.5 because SOCOM and USMC aren’t going 6.8 SiG and now you get a whole 200 fps more velocity on your rifle.
The Army wants better for cheaper, but this isn’t cheaper or much better. My 6.5 is 24″ Sendero and it already shoots 200 fps faster than the 16″ semi-auto…so here we go with another Federal Marketing invention like the originally named “8mm Super Carry” nobody asked for. FYI: The 30 Super Carry is a .30 Pedersen cartridge look alike from WW-I at three times the price of 9mm…so now it’s dead.
QUIT PLANNING FOR THE LAST WAR AND ADAPT TO THE NEXT ONE WHICH IS LIKELY CQB, TRENCH AND JUNGLE WARFARE THE 5.56 IS FINE FOR!!! I fired 5.56 A1 at Chinese body armor at 25 yards and shot through and through disastrously 5 out of 5. Anyone wearing it would be pierced, fragged and have molten ceramic in their wound…
Again which plates and when. Nothing in A1 and only some of the tungsten models made it through Chinese lv 4 made in the last 6 years be it 5.56 or 7.62? Now the Chinese lv3 from a decade ago yeah those got perforated more often than not but haven’t been able to mess around with the newer types of those. With that all said some of the newer ap with the steel point and tungsten core for the longer bullets will probably go through just about any plate commonly available.
I work in the defense industry…we have A1 and I have designed long rod core 7.62 and .338 penetrators with Tungsten heavy alloy that is now a program of record. We “obtained” the Chinese military armor and shot it last year with 556 A1. It was made of Alumina and not Boron Carbide…and the US is working on Boron Carbide Nitride which is 200% harder. The wearer of those plates tested would be treated to a nice wound filled with molten Alumina ceramic.
Like everything Chinese…it comes from corrupt “Harbor Freight” companies with a large dose of propaganda. They just cannot afford to equip their huge, civilian control oriented Army with first class armor.
First you have to own a rifle that warrants feeding it Caviar. My 25-06 Sendero has a 26″ barrel and is affordable to shoot once a year to verify zero. Years back everything outside of 25-06, 308, 223 and 9mm was sold or given away.