Somebody give me the skinny on 6.5 Creedmoor

Nature Boy said:

Here, this should cover all bases

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The latest in creedmoor fashion

CraigC said:

but I never see the hype or marketing.

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CraigC said:

I didn't say there was no marketing

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Yea, you kind of did.

CraigC said:

All the uproar is because there's a new powder I never heard of???

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Again, you miss the point. The 6.5CM isn't popular because of a new powder... quite the opposite, there is a new powder aimed directly at the 6.5CM shooters because the cartridge is so popular. They could have called it 100 other names, but stuck that 6.5 in there, instead.

D

I decided that I don't need a 6.5. My two .270 Wins will do the job just fine.

Picher said:

I decided that I don't need a 6.5. My two .270 Wins will do the job just fine.

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That's how I feel about my .308 rifles.

The 6.5CM is sort of like if you take a .270 Winchester and mix it with a .243 Winchester, throw all the bad out and keep only the good. Compared to:

243W:
Less throat erosion than the .243 (supposedly)
Better barrel twist in factory rifles than the .243 especially for long for caliber bullets
Long for caliber bullets provide better sectional density and better BC
Better selection of factory ammo

.270W
Long action rifles only
Poor bullet selection historically and thus accuracy historically suffered
Considerably more recoil
Better selection of factory ammo

And the 6.5CM seems inherently accurate, at least in my Savage Axis II and my Kimber Hunter it will shoot sub MOA with no effort.

This is getting fruitless, to say the least. 6.5CM has its strengths and weaknesses like any other cartridge. A quite decent compromise but far from be-all, end-all medium round it's hyped to be. Nothing is, really. A proverbial coin toss between .308, .243 and a bunch of others, IMO, depending on what the intended use is.

I'd definitely consider it were I in the market for a medium caliber rifle, among a number of others, and most likely end up with a .308 because I hunt moose quite a bit and the .338Fed has gone the way of Lambada.

JB111 said:

That's how I feel about my .308 rifles.

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Mr_Flintstone said:

Kills deer, black bear, and boar. Check
Lighter recoil. Check
Available ammo. Check

Thanks to all who contributed.

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That all applies to .22 LR as well but I don’t suggest it to a new deer hunter.

3Crows said:

The 6.5CM is sort of like if you take a .270 Winchester and mix it with a .243 Winchester, throw all the bad out and keep only the good. Compared to:

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Yeah It's almost like they took everything we've learned about cartridge development over the decades and hit a sweet spot for a short action mag length cartridge lol

Charlie98 said:

Winchester releases a powder called 'StaBALL 6.5'? That's not marketing?

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Yes, but it isn't marketing to convert customers to use 6.5, it's marketing that targets current 6.5 owners to use the powder.

On the hunting part, what is the experience of animals (lets say deer) shot, lots of damage.....blood trails, etc, yet they still travel a bit before dropping?

Or DRT? If DRT, what bullet, what muzzle velocity, what distance and what shot placement? Come to think of it, if they wandered off, same.

Picher said:

I decided that I don't need a 6.5. My two .270 Wins will do the job just fine.

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"Need" has nothing to do with it......

.....I have enough variety to hunt field mice to elephant.....and punch needle sized holes to half inch in paper....and it's still fun to play with and master a new to me cartridge!

I would like to know what caliber the OP is moving away from .

Walkalong said:

I don’t understand the haters, or the it’s the best ever crowd. It’s another good choice among several

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If you’re looking for a logical answer, a gun forum is not that place

I’ve said many times over, a given bullet at a given velocity is going to give a certain performance. Doesn’t matter the shape of the case, the angle of the shoulder, the name on the head stamp. If you make the case bigger to hold more powder for more velocity, they complain that it kicks too much, is too loud, and eats barrels. If you reduce the amount of powder it doesn’t shoot flat enough.

Evidently the CM has hit a sweet spot where it’s balanced between performance and recoil. I have three friends that go antelope hunting. All switched to the CM

I bought 6.5 CM for the same rationale suggested in the OP.
Did I believe the hype or jump on the bandwagon? Not really.
There's nothing wrong with the cartridge and it fits a lot of people's needs.
So do dozens of other cartridges, but dealers don't have stock of all those chamberings (like 7mm-08, 260 Rem, 7x57), the factory ammo choices are limited for many, and even some types of reloading dies and components aren't offered for all.
If I had a 270 or 308, I wouldn't feel compelled to get a 6.5 CM, but I didn't have those. I didn't particularly need them to kill little deer either.
The momentum behind 6.5 CM is appealing. Not only can I find high-quality ammo like Barnes Vor-TX Long Range (LRX bullets) on the shelf (whereas in 270 I might only find boxes of stuff like Remington Core-Lokt), but I can also find premium reloading dies from LE Wilson chamber type seating dies, Redding micrometer adjustment neck sizing and seating dies, or the RCBS Matchmaster seater. Now I can find those dies for the 270, but not for the 6.5 Grendel or the old belted-magnum cartridges I already had. The 300 and 7mm are usually there, but none of the others, none of the Weatherbys. And as for Grendel, remember that's not an odd novelty. It's been around longer than 6.5 CM. It just didn't catch on as much.
How about quality brass? I can get Lapua in 6.5 CM, but not for any of the other rifles I have.
Bullets? There's no issue with 6.5 and 30 cal, but 8mm, forget it. I had an 8mm rifle. If that's all I had, then yeah, moving away from that to 6.5 would make sense. Even though I had two other 6.5's, adding 6.5 CM still made sense given the relative obscurity of the other two. Creedmoor also comes with more twist rate. Some older 6.5's won't work with lower drag bullets that are popular now for both match and hunting.
It's not just a bandwagon or a fad. There are rational reasons for the 6.5 CM and the momentum behind it makes it even more compelling.
If you've got a Swedish Mauser, there's no need to change it, but if you don't already have one, the whole industry today is behind 6.5 CM instead.

I have no particular interest in any cartridge by itself, including 6.5 CM. What I am interested in is the projectile coming out the end of the barrel. A 140 grain 6.5mm bullet going 2700-2800 FPS turns out to be a very useful thing for long range shooting with acceptable recoil and barrel life, and also for killing medium size game. A 6.5 CM case just so happens to be the most conveniently available cartridge to hold the right amount of powder to do that, and to fit in the guns I want to use. Its just a brass cup we use to hold our powder and primer. I don't especially care what its called.

I built my first 6.5 CM back in 2009, a couple years after it was introduced. I loved everything about it except for the Hornady brass. You were lucky if the primer pockets held past a couple reloads. We don't have that problem with all the different premium brass made for it now.
There's nothing magical about the 6.5 CM, it's just a well designed cartridge that was marketed probably more than any other cartridge, and then backed by almost the entire firearms industry. It makes a very good medium sized game hunting cartridge, as well as a great target cartridge.
I like 6.5mm cartridges - I have several gun's chambered in 6.5 CM, 260 Remington, 6.5-06, and a wildcat AR15 in 6.5x6.8. But, I also like and have many other rifles from 223 up to 300 WM.
The funny thing is the 6.5 CM case has spawned offspring just like many other cartridges. I've also built custom rifles in 22 CM and 25 CM since there are plenty of high BC bullet's to choose from today in those caliber's.

I took a spare Savage action and got a wild hair up my third point of contact. Built me a shade-tree Swede. Got a 26" #4 contour stainless steel barrel, lost the tupperware and bought an old wood stock from Numerich and proceeded to sand on the wood for about 2 hours to fit that dang barrel.

After full assembly I now have a rifle that weighs about 14 lbs, looks like its seen some serious beatings and shoots like a dream. The rifle will give me 1/2-3/4 groups at 100 with factory PPU and handloads can close them up a bit when I am being serious. Plus the barrel weight means no major recoil to speak of.

PLUS...one thing the Creedmore does NOT have....factory wooden bullets.

I've seen quite a few cow elk taken with 6.5 cm.

Txhillbilly said:

The funny thing is the 6.5 CM case has spawned offspring just like many other cartridges

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IRCC, the 6.5cm is spawned from the .308 as is the .243 and some others.

I have a Savage Model 12 and an AR in 308 but have been considering swapping barrels on both to something with less recoils due to shoulder injuries along with arthritis. I have looked at .243, 6mm Creedmoor, and 6.5 Creedmoor.

All three calibers will do what I want and there isn't a lot of differences between the three when talking about targets 500 yards or less. So another factor I have been taking into consideration is barrel life since I do more target shooting than I do hunting. While the .243 and 6mm CM have less recoil than 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 CM has the edge when it comes to barrel life.

Another factor that I take into consideration is ammo availability, here again the 6.5 CM wins.

Though I still haven't decided which caliber to go with yet. And until I decide, I'll keep shooting my AR in 6mm ARC.