What The Pros Use: Precision Rifle Calibers & Cartridges

Welcome to “What The Pros Use” 2024 Edition! I surveyed the top-ranked shooters in the Precision Rifle Series (PRS) from this past season to learn what gear they’re running in long-range rifle matches. These guys represent the best precision rifle shooters in the country. (Learn about the Precision Rifle Series)

Over the next few months, I’ll be publishing all of the details they shared about their rifle, optics, and other gear they use to compete at the highest level. It’s been 5 years since I last surveyed the top-ranked shooters, so I’m excited to share how things have evolved and changed. There are more than a few things in the data that surprised me!

We’ll start by looking at what caliber and specific cartridges these shooters use to compete and earn their spot at the top.

Best Precision Rifle Caliber

Five years ago, the majority of shooters shot a 6mm, with a few using a 6.5mm. But I know a few of the top shooters that started using a 25 caliber last year. In fact, here is an article I wrote based on an interview with two-time PRS champion Austin Orgain, where he shared all the details of the 25×47 and 25 GT that he competed with this past season: Austin Orgain: Top Shooter Spotlight & His Experiment With 25-Calibers.

With that in mind, I was interested to see how many others had switched over to a 25 caliber. Here is a breakdown of the top 200 ranked shooters over this past season and which caliber they chose to compete with:

On the chart above, the various colors represent where a shooter landed in terms of season rank in the PRS. For example, black indicates shooters who finished in the top 10, the darkest blue is people who finished 11-25, and the lighter the blue, the further out they finished in overall standings. The chart legend itemizes the ranks each color represents, but basically, the darker the color, the higher the shooter’s overall ranking.

77% of the top shooters are still competing with a 6mm! That includes 7 of the top 10 shooters. So, the 6mm maintains its dominant position as the caliber of choice for the PRS.

10% are now competing with a 25 caliber, which wasn’t as many as I thought it might be. However, there were 5 using it among those who finished in the top 25, which represents 20% among that group at the pinnacle of the sport. Honestly, I don’t know if there would have been a single shooter using it if I’d done this same survey the year prior.

So why hasn’t the 25 caliber been more popular before? I remember a conversation with Bryan Litz where he told me, “Cartridge popularity always follows bullet design.” The truth is there haven’t been many great options in terms of match-quality, high-BC bullets in 25 caliber. (Note: High-BC means a bullet is very aerodynamic and able to maintain its velocity further downrange and be less affected by the wind, which is a major advantage in long-range shooting.) But, over the past year or so, you can find two great options for 25-caliber bullets:

There were still 6% of shooters using a 6.5mm, including 2 of the top 10 shooters. So, the 6.5mm continues to be a very competitive caliber choice for PRS-style shooting.

Why would someone go with a 6.5mm over the 6mm? Well, one of the biggest reasons is the heavier 6.5mm bullets make it easier to spot your impact. In the PRS, you can’t get any help while you’re on the clock shooting a stage. A critical part of this sport is being able to spot your impact, whether it’s on target or a miss, so you can constantly correct to try to center your next shot. That is one of the biggest differences that separates these top shooters from the average competitor. They see most of their shots, and if they don’t hit the center of the plate, they are going to calculate what correction it would have taken to hit the center and then apply that knowledge to their next shot. Those heavier bullets have more energy at the target and make it easier to spot your impact. Another part is that larger cartridges typically also have slightly better ballistics and less wind drift, which can potentially convert a miss just off the edge of the target into an edge hit.

However, the downside of a heavier bullet with more energy is increased recoil – which makes it harder to stay on target and shoot precisely. If it was all about high-BC bullets with lots of energy at the target, we’d all be shooting 300 Norma Magnums or 375 CheyTacs! But notice that nobody is doing that! Everyone is searching for that “Goldilocks” balance between these competing characteristics:

• Good ballistics/low wind drift
• Low recoil so you can stay on target and be in a position to see where the bullet hit
• Large bullet signature when it impacts down range (so you can correct and center the next shot)

It’s impossible to optimize for all 3 at one time, so we’re all trying to strike the “right” balance between those competing characteristics, which is very subjective. There is certainly no one-size-fits-all “right” answer, which is why this large sample size of the very best shooters in the world is so interesting.

If you’re interested in learning more about this balance and getting direct insight from one of the top 10 shooters, you should check out this article.

There were also a handful of shooters using 22 caliber, 7mm, or 30 calibers, and I’ll expand on those after I present the specific cartridges these guys were using below.

Best Precision Rifle Cartridge

Now let’s look at the specific cartridges these top-ranked PRS shooters believed gave them the best odds of competing:

#1) 6mm Dasher @ 41%

41% of the top shooters were using a 6mm Dasher! Wow!!! There were even 5 of the top 10 shooters using a 6mm Dasher: Austin Buschman, Jeff Guerry, Ken Sanoski, Chris Kutalek, and Nick Gadarzi. The 6mm Dasher was the most popular cartridge the last time I did this survey 5 years ago – but only by a relatively narrow margin over the 6mm Creedmoor (see that data). We’ve never seen such a dominant showing in the PRS by a single cartridge!

Often, as a shooting sport matures, the community eventually settles on a small number of cartridges that have proven to be optimal for that specific game – like the 6mm PPC for Benchrest or the 300 WSM for 1,000-yard F-Class. This data clearly says the 6mm Dasher has established itself at that same level in the Precision Rifle Series. While I don’t expect the 6 Dasher to go away, it will be interesting to watch how this might still change with the recent interest in 25-caliber cartridges.

I’ve heard many people refer to the 6 Dasher as “the easy button” when it comes to load development and reloading. I’m not a guy who jumps from one cartridge to another, and I had been using the 6mm Creedmoor for several years – but I finally decided to try the 6 Dasher early last year. I can attest to it being extremely easy to find a load that has a 5 fps standard deviation (SD) in muzzle velocity or less. I worked so hard to get consistent velocities out of my 6 Creedmoor, but I did it with the Dasher with literally zero load development! I thought I’d break in the barrel with a load that I heard a top shooter say they’d used across several barrels – and I’ve never changed it. It prints bug holes and has 3-5 fps SDs – so I didn’t have to do any tinkering.

Here are the average muzzle velocities these guys reported for the 6 Dasher for the most common weight bullets out of a 26” barrel:

• 105 gr. = 2,847 fps (based on 21 shooters)
• 109-110 gr. = 2,825 fps (based on 18 shooters)

#2) 6mm GT @ 11%

The next most popular cartridge was the 6mm GT, representing 11% of these competitors at the very top of the game. There was only 1 shooter in the top 25 using a 6 GT, but it was Kahl Harmon, the guy who took 1^st and won the golden bullet as the 2023 PRS Season Champion.

The 6mm GT cartridge was released around 2019. It was designed by Geoge Gardner of GA Precision and his friend, Tom Jacobs of Vapor Trail Bullets, with the goal of making the perfect cartridge for competitive rifle shooting. The case length and 35-degree shoulder of the 6 GT helps it feed from a standard AICS magazine without needing a spacer kit like the 6 Dasher or other 6 BR cases. The 6 GT case has a small primer pocket, which many believe creates a stronger case head, extending the life of your brass. Some also think a small rifle primer produces more consistent velocities, too.

The original claims were that the 6 GT could easily push a 105-115 gr. 6mm bullet at 3,000 fps with a modest 34-35 gr. of Varget powder. I asked these top competitors what bullets they were using and how fast they were running, and here are the average muzzle velocities they reported for the 6 GT for the most common weight bullets out of a 26” barrel:

• 105 gr. = 2,897 fps (based on 5 shooters with 26″ barrels)
• 109-110 gr. = 2,869 fps (based on 9 shooters with 26″ barrels)

So this group is running the 6 GT around 50 fps faster than the typical 6 Dasher load with the same bullet, but they are far short of the 3,000 fps claims when the 6 GT was initially introduced.

Tie for #3) 6mm BR @ 8% & 6mm BRA @ 8%

The next two cartridges were the 6mm BRA and the 6mm BR, which are extremely similar and were each represented by 8% of these top shooters. None of the guys in the top 10 were using those cartridges, but there were 3 using the 6 BRA and 1 using the 6 BR among the top 25. Those, along with the 6mm Dasher, 6mm BRX, and 22 Dasher, are all variants of the 6 BR case. You can see a nice side-by-side photo of the 6mm BRA and 6mm Dasher below.

Below is a look at the most popular variants these shooters were using that were based on the 6mm BR. Each has small tweaks that add a little case capacity to the 6mm Norma BR case. However, if you held these cases in your hand, it might be hard to tell them apart without close inspection.

#5) 6mm Creedmoor

The next most popular cartridge is the 6mm Creedmoor, with 7% of these top shooters opting for it, including 1 of the top 10 shooters (Kyle McCormack). The 6 CM has 25% more case capacity than the 6mm Dasher (41.6 gr. of H2O for the Dasher vs 51.9 for the 6CM). Those shooters running a 109 or 110-grain bullet from a 26” barrel averaged a muzzle velocity of 2825 fps with a 6 Dasher and 2966 fps with the 6 CM. That means the 6mm Creedmoor is 141 fps faster than the 6mm Dasher! That is a 5% increase in velocity, but it takes around 29% more powder weight to get there. So you get less wind drift and more energy on target, but at the cost of barrel wear and slightly more recoil. That’s why some opt for the Creedmoor, but many opt for the Dasher. While everyone has an opinion on which is better, they are clearly both competitive at the very highest levels (the top 10 in the PRS).

#6) 25×47 Lapua

Making its first debut on this list is the 25×47 Lapua, with 5% of the top 200 shooters using it – including Austin Orgain in the top 10 and 2 additional shooters in the top 25!

“When I tried out the new Hornady bullets in my 25×47, I was like, ‘Man, that thing actually shoots really good!’ I had tried the 6.5 Creedmoor a little bit last year and didn’t really like the recoil, but I did like how the bigger signature from the heavier bullets. So I thought this 25-caliber might be a nice balance between that recoil and the heavy bullet – and it really is. It’s quite a bit less recoil than that 6.5 Creedmoor, and obviously, it’s more recoil than a Dasher – but it’s a good balance between the recoil and the energy of the bullet downrange and on the plate. I don’t know that it really gives you a huge advantage over anything else, other than carrying a little bit more energy – but it has shot well for me.” – Austin Orgain

Austin won 3 major PRS matches in 2023 using the 25-caliber, which is what caught the attention of other top shooters. The first major, two-day PRS match Austin used the 25×47 in was Clay’s Cartridge Company Classic in March, which is known to be one of the most challenging PRS matches – and Austin won it with a 7-point lead over 2nd place and a 15-point lead over 3rd place! Then, a couple of weeks later, he took it to the Box Canyon Showdown in Kansas, where he finished 1 point behind Morgun King, but those two were 10 points ahead of 3rd place! “After that sequence of events, the 25-caliber really started catching some traction, and it seemed like a lot of people started ordering 25-caliber components,” Austin said.

To learn more about what Austin thinks about the 25×47 and 25 GT, check out this article: Austin Orgain’s Experiment with the 25-Caliber.

#7) 6.5 Creedmoor

The good old 6.5 Creedmoor still represents 4% of these top-tier shooters, including the guys who took 2^nd and 3^rd: Andy Slade and Morgun King. Andy also used his 6.5 Creedmoor to win the AG Cup at the end of 2023 (read more about that). That means 20% of those in the top 10 were using a 6.5 Creedmoor, and there were another 2 in the top 25 using it. With 4 shooters represented among the top 25, the 6.5 Creedmoor had more shooters than any other cartridge other than the 6 Dasher at 10!

Clearly, the 6.5 Creedmoor remains one of the most capable precision rifle cartridges on the market. I have lots of friends who ask me for advice when they buy a rifle, and I continue to recommend the 6.5 Creedmoor more than anything else. While there seem to be haters out there for anything popular or mainstream – there is a good reason the 6.5 Creedmoor has become as popular as it has. That’s why there are now more SKUs on the shelves of most sporting goods stores for 6.5 Creedmoor than any other cartridge – even the 308! If you are trying to optimize a rifle for PRS-style competitions and plan to reload all of your ammo, then maybe you should consider the 6 Dasher or other cartridges on this list … but that doesn’t mean the 6.5 Creedmoor can’t still be competitive. I’d bet Andy Slade and Morgun King might argue it’s still the optimal choice for these matches, and I’m not sure how you could argue with them, considering their results!

#8) 308 Win

I bet many of you are probably shocked to see the 308 Win had 7 shooters represented among this group. If you aren’t shocked, you are likely new to this sport. I’m reporting on the top-ranked shooters in the PRS Open Division, but there is also a Tactical Division that limits shooters to either the 308 Win or the 223 Rem. A few of the shooters competing in the Tactical Division with a 308 or 223 did well enough in matches that their overall points put them in the top 200 of the Open Division.

For example, Scott Peterson took 1^st in the Tactical Division using a 308 Win and was ranked 74th in the Open Division. Robert Brantley took 2^nd in the Tactical Division with a 308 and was ranked 79th in the Open Division. Honestly, the fact that those guys were ranked so high in the Open Division while using a 308 Win is a true testament to their shooting skills. I believe if those two guys reshot the matches using a 6mm Dasher or any of the other popular cartridges, they’d have very likely placed in the top 25 in the Open Division season standings. They’re both outstanding shooters who specifically chose to compete in the PRS Tactical Division, which is why they’re using a 308 – not because they believe the 308 is competitive against these other cartridges.

I actually ran the ballistics to see the difference between the 308 ammo these guys are running compared to the most common 6 Dasher ammo others were using – and there wasn’t as big of a gap as I expected. Three of these guys were running a 308 Win with a Hornady 176 gr. A-Tip very close to 2,720 fps, and I compared that to a common 6 Dasher load of a Berger 109 gr. LRHT at an average of 2,822 fps. The 10 mph wind drift at 1,000 yards was 2.4 mils for the 308 and 2.3 mils for the 6 Dasher! I originally thought you’d have less margin for error on your wind call using a 308, but it doesn’t appear to be significant with that 176 gr A-Tip bullet at the velocities they’re running it at.

However, the 308 has considerably more recoil with 50% more energy at the muzzle with that load compared to the Dasher load – so what these 308 shooters did to land in the top 200 of the Open Division is still very impressive! The elevation adjustment for the 308 is 12% more at 1,000 yards, but that isn’t as big of a factor for these competitors. Whether you have to dial 7.7 or 8.7 mils for elevation doesn’t matter much; as long as your ammo velocity is very consistent, you should hit the plate. It’s really the difference in wind drift that is the most significant factor because that basically tells you how much margin for error it leaves the shooter for their wind call – and it looks like the 308 with that 176 gr. Hornady A-Tip bullet at the velocities these top shooters are running is surprisingly similar to a 6 Dasher. The biggest difference between the two is recoil, with the 308 having significantly more than the 6 Dasher – which is why nobody in the top 50 of the Open Division chooses to run a 308.

#9) 25 Creedmoor

We’ve got one more somewhat popular 25-caliber cartridge on our list, with the 25 Creedmoor represented by 6 of these top 200 shooters, including 2 within the top 25.

One great thing the 25 Creedmoor has going for it is you can buy match-grade 25 Creedmoor brass from Alpha Munitions that is ready to load. I know at least 2 PRS Season Champions (Austin Orgain and Austin Buschman) who have told me they have the utmost confidence in Alpha brass. They both load virgin brass and would take it to any match. So, you wouldn’t have to wildcat or fire-form your brass if you were using a 25 Creedmoor, but you would have to do that with the 25×47 – at least until Alpha introduces that as an option. (Maybe after they read this article! 😉)

The Rest of The Top Precision Rifle Cartridges

Beyond those 9 cartridges above, there were a handful of other cartridges that were only represented by 1 or 2 shooters among the top 200:

• 22 GT
• 22 Dasher
• 223 Rem (Tactical Division)
• 25 BR
• 25 GT (Alpha Munitions told me they plan to release 25 GT brass next week!)
• 6mm ARC
• 6×47 Lapua
• 6mm BRX
• 6.5×47 Lapua
• 7mm SAW

None of the cartridges above were represented among shooters in the top 25. Now, that doesn’t mean that if one of the top 25 guys were shooting one, they would have placed lower. These are necessarily inherently less capable than the more popular choices. It’s simply an observation I thought was worth mentioning. None of these represent the “proven path” to success – yet. 😉

Muzzle Velocity SD By Cartridge

Finally, I thought it’d be interesting to look at the average standard deviation (SD) in muzzle velocity that these top-ranked shooters reported for each cartridge. (Learn more about SD & velocity.) That was an optional question on my survey, and I asked that if they didn’t know their exact SD over a 10-shot string, they leave that answer blank. The data below shows the average SD reported for each of the cartridges that had 5 or more shooters who filled in their SD among the entire top 200 shooters in the PRS. I sorted the list with the lowest reported average SD on top, and you can see the sample size that averages were taken from in the 2nd column.

That is pretty interesting data. I have personally loaded and shot thousands of rounds of 6mm Dasher and 6mm Creedmoor, and I’d say those average SDs very closely match my experience with those cartridges. I’d say that any of the numbers that are based on 13 shooters or more are likely pretty indicative of what you could expect, if you used similar components to what these guys are running. However, those cartridges based on a sample size of 9 or less might should be taken with a grain of salt.

Coming Up!

If you enjoyed this content, there is more to come! Over the next few months, I’ll be publishing a ton of data on what the top precision rifle shooters are using.

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