I just wanted to chime in here. I am going to go through this and try to help out where I can. But from what I have read so far I would like to address a couple of things. I would first like to recommend reading Bryan Litz's books on long range shooting. But I would also like to address that part of it is number of rounds sent down range. When you are not paying for the rounds, you tend to practice more. Simple truth is, before we went to Iraq (I was a corpsman, but I know plenty of snipers) we put thousands of rounds down range over the course of months in preparation. Then again in country. So for one, its muscle memory, and firing so often you don't loose it as much as you do when your having to pay for the ammo, and time out of your own pocket.
As far as the discussion goes, 6.5 with Berger 140s are incredible rounds. The new book is coming out with the data on them as well, if anyone is interested. Also the new curves are being released around December 1st.