• Savage Model 10 Stealth in 6.5 Creedmoor

    Ammunition used for the testing consisted of seven different factory loadings from Federal, Hornady and Winchester. They consisted of:

    F65CRDFS1 Federal Premium 140gr Fusion
    AE65CRD1 American Eagle 140gr Open Tip Match
    #81500 Hornady Match 140gr ELD Match
    #81499 Hornady Precision Hunter 143gr ELD-X
    #81489 Hornady American Whitetail 129gr InterLock
    #81496 Hornady SuperFormance 129gr SST
    S65CM Winchester Match 140gr BTHP

    Ammunition used for testing.

    My range testing of the Stealth took place in late February and early March, which in the flatlands of northwest Ohio means shooting in steady winds of 15-20mph on most days with gusts being upwards of 30mph. Not exactly the most favorable conditions for accuracy testing by any means, but I digress. Fortunately Mother Nature was nice enough to grant me a few calm days at the end of my testing which is why the accuracy at 200 yard was noticeably better than it was at 100 yards.

    Ammunition Type
    100yd Avg. Group
    200yd Avg. Group
    Federal Premium 140gr Fusion 1.50" 2.25"
    American Eagle 140gr Match 1.125" 1.875"
    Hornady Match 140gr ELD 1.25" 1.625"
    Hornady Precision Hunter 143gr ELD-X 1.00" 1.75"
    American Whitetail 129gr InterLock 1.375" 2.25"
    Hornady Superformance 129gr SST 1.125" 2.00"
    Winchester Match 140gr BTHP 1.375" 2.125"
    Group Averages rounded to nearest 1/18"

    Shooting at 100 yards on the first few days with the rifle proved to be frustrating due to the wind and my getting acclimated to the rifle. As you will notice in several of the attached group photos, the vast majority of my 100 yard groups had three or four shots in a nice small cluster and then one or two really opened things up. Some of those outliers were cold or clean bore shots, while others were merely shooter error on my part.




    When I moved to 200 yards things got ugly as my first series of groups ranged from three to five inches. Knowing something wasn’t right I started checking over the rifle and found that three of the four scope base screws had worked themselves loose over the course of 180 rounds. I distinctly recall checking the base screws and torquing them down to 30in-lbs. upon receipt of the rifle, so this development was very unexpected and led me to question my accuracy results at 100 yards. Unfortunately budget constraints prevented me from repeating my testing at that distance.

    With everything torqued down I headed back out to the range the next morning for my fourth and final day of testing. With the dead calm conditions, what had previously been a rather average shooting rifle started turning in consistent sub-MOA groups at 200 yards with multiple factory loads.




    What surprised me most with the Stealth was that it shot most everything I fed it very well. Clearly there were a few factory loads that stood out from the rest, but even the worst shooting loads averaged just over 1 MOA at 200 yards. This particular rifle clearly favored the heavier 140 grain bullets over the lighter 129 grain pills, but it’s impossible to discern if that’s a trait of the barrel or simply a difference in quality control and uniformity between the heavy match bullets and the lighter hunting bullets.

    After a little more than 300 rounds, my best group at 200 yards with the Model 10 Stealth was just over 1-1/4” and was shot with the Hornady Precision Hunter 143gr. ELD-X load. At 100 yards I had two ¾” groups tie for best group: one was shot with the Hornady Precision Hunter 143gr. ELD-X load and the other was shot with the American Eagle 140gr Match load.