How bad are we being.........

[Jeff H]

.......Can it do anything a 6.5x55, a .260 Remington, a .257 Roberts, a .270, or a 7x57 cannot do?...............

MAYBE in the hands of one of the top two percent of long-range target-shooters, when competing with the rest of the top two percent of long-range target-shooters.

The little tweaks might even be genuine refinements, but I don't see any of them making enough difference for the vast majority of shooters to benefit from, particularly in production hunting rifles. That said, there are some production hunting rifles which will shoot like nobody's business, or at least better than most can benefit from when pairing skill and equipment.

The other guns are just not chambered to shoot the REALLY high SD bullets which make the 6.5 seem to have magical qualities - stuffed into a short action. I shake my head when short actions are touted for their lighter weight ans shorter length and then a 24" barrel is screwed on to squeeze out a couple feet per second to make it look like a shortened cartridge is as "good" as a longer, more voluminous one. The short action is reportedly stiffer and therefore supposedly more accurate too, but again, for the top two percent, maybe. Not me, certainly. Of course, pressure usually has to be boosted to aid in that aim as well.

Is it a "bad" cartridge? of course not. it does what a lot of other 6.5 (or other) caliber/case combinations have been capable of for ages. Take a 250 Savage, jack the pressure, use .257", 120 grain bullets AND have a tighter-twist barrel made and you have the same thing - with even better sectional density.

Oh, the bullets! Take any of the other cartridges and make sleeker bullets with better BCs and, voila!

I still prefer the older versions. The 6.5x55 works wonders in the "in-between" action-length of the old Mausers, runs at less pressure and are usually set up to shoot the longest bullets, as well as the shorter ones. The shorter ones (bullets) end up being in a range where there is a lot of competition among other calibers. The 160s, having been very common for the 6.5s for a long time were the real advantage for the caliber.

I'm not quibbling over tenths of thousandths of an inch on a 600 yard group among other shooters quibbling over tenths of thousandths of an inch on a 600 yard groups myself. I'm competing against squares of blaze-orange duct-tape at 50 or a hundred yards, pasted onto repurposed packaging material (cardboard sheets), so in reality, the CM offers me nothing and takes away a little (the longest bullets).

Would such a reality SELL the vast numbers of 6.5 CM rifles and boxes of boutique ammo that have been sold since its inception? Nope.

 

[Jeff H]

It's a 6.5 that allows long seating to take advantage of the .55 BC bullets in a 308 family box magazine . Otherwise nothing new or special.

Or, I could have just said THAT.

 

[richhodg66]

As I understand it, the case design of the Creedmoor allows it to use long, aerodynamic bullets in a .308 length action. For the real serious long range types, there may be some advantages, but for all practic a l purposes, it is an effucient, low recoil, easy to get good accuracy from and just about the perfect power level for whitetails. What's not to like.

Most of it's good points could be said about several other cartridges, but the popularity that Hornady's marketing of it has generated means I can get, literally, any rifle made chambered in it and also walk into any store that sells ammo and have a plethora of selections. Those are very real world advantages it has over the 6.5 Swede.

 

[Gary]

PRS shooters have kinda settled into a 6mm group. 6mm Dasher is kickin butt; 6mm ARC is right up there as well as 6mm BR. I have a 6.5 CM and it is really a fast and flat shooter. However, since my total shoulder reconstruction, 6.5 thumps way to hard for me to shoot. This Friday I should be getting my 6mm ARC.

 

[Tomme boy]

The bad thing about throating these cartridges for the really long bullets is it takes away about 2000 rounds you cold have been able to shoot. You are starting with a leade that in all reality has 3500 rounds over it by lengthening and thinning the leade.

 

[Jeff H]

Real world advantages for new shooters, not for the many thousands who need to support a 260 or 6.5x55, which have gone onto the back burner in production of brass/bullets. As the newer, better 6mms get hyped and the 6.5 CM starts to be ignored, well, here we go again.

I have no doubt that those who sold th CM bill of goods are already scheming to undermine it with the next newer/better thing.

 

[richhodg66]

I'm something of an old school purist, definitely not the type to hop on fads. I was curious, however, about all the hype about the new, cheapie bolt action rifles and the 6.5 Creedmoor, so found a good deal on a new Ruger American Predator in 6.5. Impressed to put it mildly. That rifle and scope combo may well be the closest thing to the perfect deer rifle there is, light, handles and points well, accurate, low maintenance, adequately powerful...

Many very narrow niche purposes may find something better, but one would be hard pressed to find a better general purpose huting catridge for anything deer sized and smaller.

 

[Jeff H]

....but one would be hard pressed to find a better general purpose huting catridge for anything deer sized and smaller.

Maybe one would be hard pressed to find one BETTER, but one would not be hard pressed to find one AS GOOD if that rifle were chambered in any one of a number of existing cartridges.

The idea that the components and rifles chambered for it are available is not lost on me and I have suggested the round to new shooters (to their surprise) for that very reason. However, this perk is what caused other stuff to be harder to get to begin with, so it's a solution to a problem it caused. 6.5x55 brass had become very widely available and competitively priced since the eighties, I had no problem finding it or the inexpensive, old-fashioned cup-n-core bullets I used.