The Barrel
     This time around I thought I’d try a BullBerry barrel on my TC. BullBerry is one of our long established barrel makers, having been around since 1980 and has been supporting IHMSA from the very beginning. It makes barrels not only for the Contender but also for the Encore as well in any length or diameter desired. Want a custom rifle built? No problem. Want custom wood on your Contender, an Encore carbine, or maybe a custom rifle? Again, no problem. BullBerry can provide any type or shape forend or stock in any grade wood you like, including exhibition. The forend on the evaluation barrel was a nicely figured piece of walnut - very, very nice.

     Bullberry barrels are also slow turned. This feature is one of the primary characteristics of BullBerry products that make them different from their competitors. All barrel blanks from quality manufacturers are stress relieved before they’re delivered to the gunsmith. This is mandatory for the best accuracy. If a barrel hasn’t been stress relieved, it can twist and kink microscopically as it heats up from being fired. Point of aim will then shift, groups open, and accuracy in general then diminishes. BullBerry is a firm believer that when a barrel blank is turned down on a lathe to the desired contour, stress can be reintroduced into the barrel by the combination of the metal removal process and heat that it generates. Consequently, BullBerry will turn down their barrels at low speeds with generous cooling to insure that the barrel doesn’t heat up and pick up accuracy robbing stresses. High quality barrel blanks, match grade chambers, and 11 degree crowns are also hallmarks of a BullBerry product. This obviously works, as every BullBerry barrel I’ve owned has been a tack driver. If you don’t agree that your barrel is accurate, just send it back. BullBerry stands behind the accuracy of every barrel they make 100%.

     As is the case with all true match chambers, this one was particularly tight in the neck area - as it should be. Consequently, this required the case necks to be turned and uniformed to avoid pressure jumps and to insure the best accuracy.

Twist
     If you’re looking for a barrel that can be used for both half scale and the full size targets, twist is an important element to consider. For such a dual application barrel, faster is always better. My recommendation is a 1:8 twist. The BullBerry evaluation barrel I worked with was a 1:9.5 twist. As a result, accuracy was generally better with lighter bullets than with the jumbos. The big bullets could be made to work well, but required more fiddling with the loads than the lighter bullets.

The Cartridge
     One natural question a reader might ask is “Why a evaluate a 6.5 TCU rather than a 6.5 BR?” While the 6.5 BR is a fine cartridge, the fundamental answer is cost. Shooting silhouettes is not inexpensive, and unlike a lucky few, not all silhouette shooters can afford to throw bushels of money at our sport. A check in one of the reloading catalogs showed that five hundred Remington 223 cases cost $66. On the other hand, five hundred 7 BR cases cost $170. Is the BR case $104 better than the 223 case? I don’t think so.

     There are other considerations as well. The BR’s main advantage is that it’s around 10-12% larger than the TCU case. Will that larger capacity allow you to kill steel rams better than the TCU? Not really. The 6.5 TCU will knock down the rams with excellent authority. The discussion then becomes one of “how dead is dead?” or “How fast do the rams have to fall in order to score the point?” On the negative side, there is then the issue of increased recoil from the larger BR over the easier shooting TCU. I’ve noticed that a fair number of 6.5 BR shooters use muzzle brakes on their guns and that equals even more expense. I’ll take easy shooting over unnecessary recoil any day.

     However, don’t get me wrong here. I like the BR case. I use the BR case, but I’m not kidding myself about the “superiority” of the BR case over the TCU. Except for its clear velocity advantage, which is probably not needed in most cases, the practical differences in the field are minor at most, while the cost difference between the two cases is enormous.

     To further illustrate the point that you don’t have to spend a pile of money to get good results, I really got down and dirty and used Winchester range brass (discarded brass I literally picked up off the ground at my local range) for this evaluation. Here, I simply cleaned the cases with the Sinclair case spinner and Never Dull cleaner/polish, trimmed the case mouths, and fired away. As the accuracy results show, these cases worked just fine. Low cost is good. Free is even better.

     Now all we have to do is fire form. There’s a myth that to fire form you need special loads to do so. Ain’t so. Just use your regular load and shoot away. Heck, I’ve seen lots of people fire form cases when shooting a match and have shot 40’s with perfect accuracy.

Loading
     Like all the TCU cartridges, the 6.5 is very flexible. What I mean by that is that it works well with a wide variety of powders and bullets. For powders, I used everything from Hodgdon’s 4198 at one end of the scale to Alliant Reloader 15, Hodgdon 335, and Winchester 748 at the other end. Bullet weights ran from 85 grains to 140’s.

     The 85’s were a perfect choice for half scale. Blistering velocities over 2500 fps were possible and extraordinary accuracy was routine. This barrel loved the 85’s. On the other hand, the jumbo 140’s with their high ballistic coefficients provided all the knockdown you could wish for on the full size targets. With a little tweeking, they could also provide very impressive accuracy as well in spite of this barrel’s relatively slow twist. The 120’s, which are the industry standard for 6.5mm bullets, had the ideal combination of velocity and punch to work the ram targets just fine. Superlative accuracy, and velocities of over 2200 fps were commonplace.

     It was the 100 grain Sierra that turned in the absolute best group punching out a fantastic quarter inch cluster. Definitely too light for the full size animals, it makes an excellent choice for half scale. Speeds up into the 2400’s will also keep sight adjustments to a minimum. Just for the fun of it you could try them for the big targets, but my guess is that they’ll leave an animal standing now and then. Never hurts to take a chance though.

     I also tried something different this time around -Lapua bullets. This was the first time I used these and I have to admit that I was very impressed with their quality and accuracy, especially the 123’s. The Europeans weigh their bullets in grams rather than grains so I had to do a little math to convert the weight to something I could relate to. These are certainly one of the most beautifully designed bullets I’ve ever seen. Some how they managed to successfully combine a Very Low Drag (VLD) shape with a good amount of bearing surface to get both a high ballistic coefficient and plenty of grip on the barrel’s lands - an impressive accomplishment. Most VLD designs have only a tiny portion of their body actually engaging the lands and so while they’re relatively slick in the air, they’re sometimes hard to stabilize. The Lapua’s are an exception.

     These are premium hunting bullets and so are probably too expensive for routine silhouette shooting. However for shoot offs they’re definitely an option and when hunting you’ll never have to worry about the bullet not going exactly where the gun is pointed.

     All powders used in the evaluation yielded excellent groups. However, Winchester’s 748, Alliant R-15, Accurate 2330, Hodgdon’s Varget, H4198, and H322 all produced half inch groups. It was Varget that won the top prize with the quarter inch group mentioned before. I hadn’t considered using this powder until an acquaintance at the range mentioned that he had really good luck with it in the 223. Consequently, I thought I’d try it. I’m glad I did. In reality, I never found a “bad” powder. They all worked well. Some just worked a little better than others.

     In conclusion, a shooter would be hard pressed to choose a more balanced cartridge for handgun silhouette, or a more accurate barrel to hang on their TC. This 6.5 has the economy, flexibility, and immensely useful performance of the TCU design, and the BullBerry barrel delivered exceptional accuracy to bang down the steel no matter how big or small it was - and you don’t have to spend big bucks to get it. Nice.