Since we’ve made the switch to 6mm Creedmoor for our personal match guns we’ve gotten questions about doing a 6mm shorty. Recently I’ve been testing a Lothar Walther button rifled barrel and decided to find out first hand. I originally finished the barrel for my Tikka at 25″ but decided I was going to cut it down to 18″. I run my shorty 6.5 CM at 16.5″ so 18″ seemed like a good length. I also decided to run a suppressor because they go hand in hand with short barrels.

I’ve been shooting factory Federal Premium ammunition through this rifle and with a 25″ barrel I was pushing 105 Berger Hybrid’s at 3,145 fps. After cutting the barrel down to 18″ the same ammunition was going 2,954 fps. I was impressed with the velocity and also the 9.6 fps standard deviation on a 10 round string over the chronograph. I lost 191 fps but gained a much nicer handling rifle. Accuracy remained the same as when the barrel was longer.

I definitely think short barrel 6mm’s have their place. We gained a shorty that is flatter shooting than our 6.5 with similar resistance to drift and slightly less recoil. The shorty 6 Creedmoor will carry 1,000 ft./lbs. of energy out to 590 yards, get to 1,000 yards with 7.4 MRAD of elevation on the scope and stay super sonic to 1,435 yards in my conditions. I do think you can edge out the performance of factory ammunition by hand loading. We are looking forward to sharing more information in the near future.