The 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge has been one of the hottest rounds in the shooting world the last few years. With chambers and bullets designed for flat trajectory as well as accuracy, the 6.5 CM has proven to be a clear winner for hunters and Hornady, whose engineers designed the cartridge. Almost every rifle platform that comes in mid-caliber chamberings is offered in a 6.5 CM. We recently had the good fortune to test three new offerings chambered for this round:

First was a Savage 110 Elite Precision Impulse with a straight-pull action. It has an MDT chassis and the 26-inch heavy barrel of a PRS-style rifle. We wondered if the straight-pull action would as accurate or as fast as what we accustomed to using for long range shooting.

Next was a somewhat seasoned Tikka T3X CTR one of our test-team members loaned us. It is a bit heavy for what we would normally consider to be a hunting rifle, though it might be great as a beanfield rifle, but it is still a bit light to be a pure competition piece. We wondered if it might fill a spot as a “jack of all trades” choice.

Our final test rifle was the fairly new SIG Sauer Cross. Using a medium-length 18-inch barrel in a lightweight action, we needed to find out if it could shoot and still be easy to carry.

We realized that while we had the same testing process and the same requirements for each rifle, they were slightly different formats and, we thought, warranted slightly different optics. We mounted a Vortex Generation 3 Razor on the Savage. It weighs 45 ounces or thereabout, but then the Gen 2 Razor did as well. This scope is guaranteed forever, for whomever owns the scope and does not require a receipt. They will fix it or replace it — period. List price is $4K, but we found some for sale at Europtics.com for $3K. Note that most of the scopes owned by this team sport camo tape, which keeps us from beating up the objective bell as the optic is shoved in and out of barricades. We used the rock-solid Spuhr SP-4001 mount from MileHighShooting.com, where it runs a bit over $400.

The Tikka T3X CTR also sported a Vortex scope, in this case the Viper PST II 3-15×44. It uses almost the exact same reticle as its more expensive Gen 3 Razor brother. List price is right at $1200, though street price seems to be closer to $1000. Rings are by Warne.

We mounted a Leupold 5HD 3.6×18-44 on the SIG Cross using 35mm Leupold rings. This optic provides great clarity and magnification in a relatively small, light-weight package. Price for this high-quality scope runs in the $2000 range.

So equipped, the rifles had premium ammo fed into them. Our test rounds were Norma’s 143-grain Match bullets, along with Hornady 140-grain ELD-M cartridges, and Berger 144-grain Hybrid Target rounds. Three different ways of packaging the same cartridge in a bolt-action rifle, each of which absolutely had to be able to shoot well. How did they do? We had a blast finding out.

Gun Tests Grade: A (BEST BUY)

$1249

Today’s crop of PRS or NRA F-Class-ready rifles are eminently capable of shooting at 1000 yards and more. That being said, there are very accurate rifles that don’t weigh 20 pounds and have a 24-plus-power scope mounted on an action in a chassis designed to be shot off a barricade. Some even have a price not likely to serve as grounds for divorce. Toward that end, we got a Tikka T3X CTR (Compact Tactical Rifle), which lists for considerably less than our other test rifles.

The T3X is Tikka’s successor to the T3 line and a number of improvements were made to the previous model. The bolt shroud on the new model is now metal and the recoil lug is steel instead of aluminum. The ejection port has been enlarged to ease the task of single feeding rounds and the scope mount has been strengthened and improved to allow the attachment of optics via a variety of hardware.

The stock is flat black and pretty boring, but it works. The polymer shell is foam filled, which strengthens the shell and deadens noise when you bang it into a tree. The pistol grip is modular and replaceable with a straighter grip. We liked the almost vertical piece supplied with the rifle. The fore end is nicely rounded in case your primary purpose is carrying the rifle afield. Tikka makes a beavertail-shaped add-on to the fore end that is available from their website. This leaves the fore end wider and flatter, making it suitable for riding a bag. Especially with the beavertail attached, the fore end is very stiff, leaving the well-relieved channel completely clear of contact with the barrel. Sling-swivel studs are provided fore and aft. The buttstock sports a cheek piece that helps but still left our face low for the scope. We added (as we do on many of our rifles) a strap-on cheek piece (MidwayUSA.com, 12566, $39) made by Blackhawk. The buttstock ends with a soft recoil pad that makes it easy to shoot this medium-caliber rifle.

The 6.5 Creedmoor may be a short-action cartridge, but our Tikka T3X is not a short-action rifle. To simplify production processes and keep costs down, Tikkas are all long-action-length receivers. Most allowances for actual cartridge length are made at the magazine, with some mags being sleeved at the rear and, sometimes, the cartridge just doesn’t reach all the way to the front of the magazine. The magazines for the CTR are all metal, proprietary and tend to be a bit expensive. If you ever buy a Tikka and they have a free magazine offer with purchase, grab it. The CTR magazine is a staggered-column 10-round mag that worked well, and feeding was almost 100%. Living on the Gulf Coast, we have found the mags prone to rust. A light coat of Break-Free solves the problem.

The two-lugged bolt is long for the cartridge, but cycles like a dream. This is truly one of the smoothest-operating actions we’ve used. It uses a spring-loaded ejector and Sako-style extractor. The bolt knob is oversized and replaceable. The safety is a two-position rocker type located just to the rear of the bolt. Again, push forward to deactivate.

Today, Beretta owns Sako (pronounced socko) and Tikka is part of Sako. Sako barrels are known for their accuracy, and we are told that the exact same barrels are mounted to Tikkas. As we understand it, the action and barrel are assembled before final boring and fitting, leaving everything more concentric and, thus, more accurate. The T3X barrel uses a much more medium profile than the Savage. We measured diameter just behind the muzzle at around 0.790 inch. It is light enough to carry but heavy enough to maintain point of impact at PRS shooting speeds.

Our Team Said: The Tikka T3X CTR is on the heavy side for walking and hunting (at least it is to old-guy testers). It is a bit light for the competition circuit. Even so, this Tikka is a tack driver, which makes it worth owning. The Hornady 140-grain ELD-M averaged just over 0.4 inch with a small three-shot group of 0.224 inch. Even with a “blown” group (0.762 inch), the Norma 143-grain Match ammo averaged 0.444-inch groups, with a small three-shot group measuring 0.206 inch.

6.5 Creedmoor Range Data