Somebody give me the skinny on 6.5 Creedmoor

Status
Not open for further replies.
And let us not forget the 6.5x57. It was released about the same time as the 6.5x55, but as a sporting round from the start. It was never adopted as a military round.
 
I'm kind of surprised .260 never got its second wind really in recent years because of the 6.5 Creedmoor.

It did. It just wasn’t a very big wind the first time around, and frankly, probably a bigger wind the second time, because of the 6.5 creed and because of the competition demand which elicited the Creed. The 260 was more popular ~10yrs ago than it ever was 25yrs ago…
 
Oh how I love the internet.

I'm glad to see you are happy with a 308 but to say the 6.5CM is unproven is comedic.

There is a precision rifle forum that has threads going with dozens of hunters using the 6.5 CM to kill deer every year. I guess the dead little deer didn't question the difference 1mm makes.
To prove itself to me that it will put deer down as well as the 308 is what I meant.I understand quite well that it's capable.
 
The ELD-M bullet is a target bullet, not a hunting bullet.
The ELD-M,the A-Max and the Sierra Matchking are all target bullets,but those along with some of the Berger target bullets do quite well on deer size game,especially at longer ranges.The ELD-M that I used in my 6.5 did very well as far as what it did to the deer I shot with it at a measured 300 yards.The lungs were basically pudding,but the heart was intact,possibly that's why she made it about 100 yards before piling up.I've used these target designated bullets on a fair number of deer and they've never failed for me yet.Keep in mind that when I'm using the match bullets,it's in open country and I somehow manage to pick my shots and put the bullet where it belongs.The rifles that I use for more woods type hunting use proven hunting bullets like the Partition and the Sirocco.
 
No bullet manufacturer recommends using target ammo for hunting, it creates too narrow of a wound channel. Rather not give certain groups of individuals more ammunition to make our lives difficult by using the wrong ammo for harvesting game.

Been watching some unscientific shooting videos comparing 6.5 Creedmoor vs .308. The real advantages that 6.5 gives is less adjustments at range, bucks the wind better, and less felt recoil. .308 does hit targets with more authority at the same ranges.
 
The ELD-M,the A-Max and the Sierra Matchking are all target bullets,but those along with some of the Berger target bullets do quite well on deer size game,especially at longer ranges.The ELD-M that I used in my 6.5 did very well as far as what it did to the deer I shot with it at a measured 300 yards.The lungs were basically pudding,but the heart was intact,possibly that's why she made it about 100 yards before piling up.I've used these target designated bullets on a fair number of deer and they've never failed for me yet.Keep in mind that when I'm using the match bullets,it's in open country and I somehow manage to pick my shots and put the bullet where it belongs.The rifles that I use for more woods type hunting use proven hunting bullets like the Partition and the Sirocco.

If you are wanting to shoot a very accurate bullet have you thought about the ELD-X line from Hornady? I know a buddy who actually uses the ELD-X in competition as his rifle shoots it so well. He also hunts with it and it has performed well for him.
 
So premise of my question........author of terminal wound research claims that ideal velocity at impact is within a range of 2,600 fps, an no more than 3,200 fps. (Faster than 3,200 fsp and most soft point hunting bullets will blow up on impact.......ejection vs. penetration. Blow a chunk of meat off, but animal escapes to suffer a painful death somewhere else). That is for most hunting calibers in range of 30 caliber or less. At 2,600 fps +, that is sufficient velocity for most soft point hunting bullets to expand to the point it creates a wide for caliber wound channel when sent thru the boiler room. At same time, it creates enough shock to system to shut down the nervous system. Say a good double lung shot, animal drops where it stands (nervous system shuts down), then before it can recover from the shock, it bleeds out. So two related but different forms of injury. 'His premise (and experience) says that much below 2,600 fps and same animal, same shot, nervous system does not shut down, so animal may not go down, but may still be up and moving until it bleeds out and then goes down. Ergo you get comments like "didn't get far" before it dropped. "Not far" being subjective, but perhaps a few steps to 75 yards or more. Yes it killed them.....but didn't drop on the spot. You are following blood trails and tracking to find him vs. finding him right where he dropped. Again, that is independent of caliber. Theory is that what matters is if the bullet from whatever gun is still running 2,600 fps or faster at impact to impart shock to his nervous system. And that applies to most chest shots that impact lungs, be it thru the shoulder, or just behind. Speed kills.

Where caliber comes in, and this applies to most of the 6.5's, when muzzle velocity isn't much greater than that, depending on range, bullet will have dropped below 2,600 fps at impact. In most cases, that is no more than 200 yards. Maybe less.

Ergo the very specific questions to try to confirm if the guy was FOS or credible. When you killed an animal, and it dropped right there.....what bullet, what muzzle velocity, what distance and where did the bullet impact. If all the parameters were met, then he may be right, If not, then he was not.

Where this has specific application to the 6.5 Creed relates directly to it's suitability for hunting. If his claim is true, then you need to take that into account. Load lighter bullets in 120 to 130 grain range to up velocity to extend their effective range, and accept that even then, there is an effective range, and it's not nearly as far as the gun can accurately shoot.

Since no one I saw specifically answered the highlighted portion, I'll answer the question based on my own hunting experiences.

Bottom Line Up Front: He is FOS, as you put it.

In the almost 30 years I've been shooting deer and various other ungulates, and excluding the ones shot using my preferred high neck/head shots which has had a 100% DRT track record regardless of caliber, I have had about a 50/50 split of animals that were DRT vs running some distance and those have almost zero correlation to the caliber, bullet, or impact velocity. And I'll add that I have never used a 6.5 CM on any animal, but have used the 6.5x55 on 2 deer and 1 feral pig and 6.5x47 on 1 deer, so I have some idea how the CM would perform.

The very first deer I ever shot was shot at about 40ish yards in almost the dead center of his lungs using a 30-30 loaded with a cast 170 grain bullet over, if I remember correctly, 12 grains of Unique for a muzzle velocity of around 1,500 fps and that little six point couldn't have dropped faster if he had been hit with a howitzer.

Contrast that with the deer that ran the furthest, an older doe who was shot using a 7RM shooting Winchester Supreme Ballistic Silvertips (anyone remember those? what a work of art) at around 100 yards so impact velocity would be around 3,000 fps. She ran at a full sprint for a bit over 250 yards until she jumped the fence line and collapsed. While dressing her out, I basically poured a chunky soup of her lung and heart out of her chest cavity.

To be specific concerning the aforementioned 3 deer and 1 pig killed with some flavor of 6.5 bullet, two of the deer dropped in their tracks and the third deer ran about 50 yards, well actually more like he jumped at the sound of the shot and then pranced around in a circle for a couple seconds before dropping. The pig ran about 75 yards and then holed up in some bush for a bit before dying.
 
Probably leftover from the days when target bullets were just that, and not well suited to shooting game
I always thought that old time target bullets blew apart easily. FMJ’s would punch a hole without expanding.

Then again, maybe some target bullets did have thick jackets. Dunno

Back in the 60’s I had a .22-50 that I hand loaded for. The store didn’t have varmint bullets so I got target bullets. Salesman swore up and down they would blow apart just like regular varmint bullets. I recovered more than one groundhog that had a .22 hole going in and going out. Other ones had large exit holes, whether due to expansion or tumbling I have no idea
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top