For as long as hunters have been hunting, they have been looking for ways to extend their reach. Maybe they wanted to be farther away from a dangerous animal they were trying to kill, or maybe they wanted to reach out farther to kill their dinner. Regardless, the desire for extended reach has always existed, and at first, it was probably a rock that could be thrown farther or maybe a longer spear. Today, it’s ammunition that will resist the wind better and shoot more flatly and accurately while still being lethal. Winchester’s latest solution to finding more reach is its Supreme Long Range ammo line.
Knowing that the key to precision is a concentric bullet jacket, Winchester worked tirelessly to ensure that the jacket for the new BC Max bullet would have a precision-drawn, thick-wall jacket with a perfectly formed boat tail. But, just as importantly, the engineers knew it needed a consistent core. A core with any voids or imperfect balance will not allow a bullet to fly true. The core used on the BC Max bullet is a lead-alloy with high antimony content. This specialized core—combined with an internal hollow cavity and the extra-large and precise polymer tip—not only helps the bullet spin and fly indefectibly, but also helps the bullet deliver good upset/expansion up close and at distance.
But, Winchester did not just stop with a new bullet. Supreme Long Range ammunition is a total package engineered from the primer to the bullet tip to perform. All the Supreme Long Range loads utilize nickel-plated cases and all cases are primed with match-grade primers. Plated cases help with smoother feeding and extraction and resist corrosion better than brass. The match-grade primers help deliver extremely consistent ignition, which in turn helps with velocity consistency.
For the last several years, Winchester has been testing and tweaking Supreme Long Range ammunition all over the world, on deer and elk in North America and on plains game in Africa. All this testing was conducted both at close range and beyond even 400 yards. Of course, just because this bullet will perform well terminally at extreme distance is not an excuse to go blasting away at critters more than a quarter-mile away, but it’s nice to know that if you need to make that long shot, or if your rifle has a shorter barrel delivering less velocity, you have ammo you can trust to deliver the hit and perform the necessary tissue disruption.
Winchester provided several boxes of the brand-new Supreme Long Range load in 6.5 Creedmoor and 6.5 PRC, and I tested these loads in an original New Ultra Light Arms Model 20 rifle with a 24-inch barrel (6.5 Creedmoor) and a Christensen Arms Ridgeline FFT (6.5 PRC) with a 20-inch barrel. I fired three, five-shot groups with each rifle from a sandbag rest at 100 yards, and the ammo stood out in three ways.
First, it’s not unusual to discover your rifle will not match advertised muzzle velocities, and there are several reasons for this. Ammunition manufacturers generally establish advertised muzzle velocities using 24-inch test barrels. Additionally, it’s not uncommon for manufacturers to round up or cherry-pick so their ammunition appears a bit faster than that of the competition. The Supreme Long Range loads I tested, however, were quite representative of advertised velocities. Out of the 24-inch 6.5 Creedmoor, the average velocity was only 20 fps slower than advertised, and any time actual velocities are within 25 fps, that’s good. The 6.5 PRC test rifle had a 20-inch barrel and delivered velocities 71 fps slower than advertised. That’s expected with a 4-inch-shorter barrel and equates to a realistic velocity loss of only 17.75 fps per inch.
Second, while it’s nice to know your ammo is performing as advertised, what’s more important is that your ammunition delivers consistent velocities. If your standard velocity deviation is in the range of 50 fps, you could experience extreme velocity spreads of more than 100 fps. For shots inside a couple hundred yards, that’s not a big deal, but at long range—let’s say beyond 500 yards or so—a 100 fps variation in velocity can equate to a point-of-impact shift of as much as 5 inches. Both loads delivered standard velocity deviations of less than 10 fps, with extreme spreads below 27 fps.
Finally, both loads tested delivered fantastic precision for hunting ammunition (or just ammo in general) at 100 yards. The 6.5 Creedmoor load averaged .93 inch for three, five-shot groups, with a best group of .81 inch. The 6.5 PRC load averaged .89 inch, with a best group of .78 inch. Not a single group fired with either load measured larger than an inch.
Winchester has been working to perfect this line for some time, seeking excellence within the materials and technology currently available. Loaded ammunition should be on shelves for the upcoming hunting season, and Winchester will be offering its new BC Max bullet as a component for handloaders. This means you’ll also be able to enjoy the high-performance flight and lethality of this bullet in other rifle cartridges, too.
Our caveman ancestors would have lost their minds with the ability to reach out like this with so much precision. And, in truth, this level of performance from factory ammunition was not expected just a decade ago. I’ll be taking this ammunition to the field this fall.
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