Why do some of you despise the 6.5 Creedmoor?

LoonWulf said:

Ill say that WAS a design flaw.
My take is that .260 was really ment as a short action hunting cartridge, which put it in direct competition with the 140gr 7mm-08 on the top end and the 100gr .243 on the bottom.
That gives it 120 a nice fit, and buy twisting it slow it also theoretically did better with the 95+/-gr bullets. Unfortunately folks dont really care about shooting 95-100gr bullets from a 6.5, and DID want to shoot 140+ like the 6.5x55 of yore.
If they had just gone with a 8-9 twist, i bet the 260 would be more popular, at least with hunters.

It didnt help those early remingtons were hit or miss accuracy wise.

Click to expand...

I remember my dads shop got in a bunch of model sevens, some the bores were .050 off center.

troy fairweather said:

I remember my dads shop got in a bunch of model sevens, some the bores were .050 off center.

Click to expand...

yeah ive heard similar stuff, over sizs bores, undertwisted, all kindsa fun stuff.

The Creed doesn't do anything that I can't do with my other cartridges and do mostly better than the new guy on the block. That said, if I didn't have any centerfires, it would be a good one to start with.

WestKentucky said:

Fanboys. The 6.5 superdynawhopper has been made out to be somewhere between perfection and holiness embodied in brass, lead, and gunpowder made from unicorn dandruff. Once it gets to that point, I’m done. I can get on a bandwagon for something that’s truthfully good, but not until the fanboy vultures move on to the next guaranteed pipsqueak-bangflopper. Prove function, don’t prove popularity. Same reason I cant get behind 300blackout, 224 valk, or fn5.7 because its all talk and very little proof in the pudding. 6.5 creedmore has its merits, just like a bunch of others, but with the popularity it has seen it seems to be a product which got off the ground by use of marketing dollars funnelled into gunrags to build a following amongst people with voices that get heard. It’s doing well in some circles, but in the circles it was touted as the end-all-be-all its already out of favor, and is in the real of has-beens.

Click to expand...

The difference between 300 BLK and 6.5 CM vs the other two cartridges you mentioned is that the 224 Valk and 5.7x28 don’t do anything well enough to gain a large following. The 300 BLK fits its niche better than literally every other mainstream cartridge. It is tailor made to perform in short-barreled, suppressed rifles. The only cartridge that comes close is the 6.8 SPC and although I believe the 6.8 to be the superior cartridge, it requires a different bolt and mag which makes many people compromise on performance and choose the 300 BLK.

The 6.5 CM is similar in that, no cartridge before it was capable of doing exactly what it did. It took all of the positives of the 260 Rem and married that to faster twist barrels as a standard. That allowed the high BC, heavy for caliber bullets to perform the way they were meant to perform. It fits in a standard short action while giving more punch than the 243 with less recoil than the 308. It’s fairly flat shooting with little recoil which makes it an inherently easy cartridge to shoot accurately. Yes, the hype definitely helped, but performance created demand which in turn created the kind of market support that few other cartridges have achieved.

The 224 Valk and 5.7 failed to generate the kind of hype the previously mentioned cartridges generated because one (224 Valk) has had accuracy issues, while the other is just an underwhelming rifle round that happens to fit in an incredibly ugly, unwieldy pistol.

I don't know what firearms forums some of you guys frequent, but have yet to run across "all these" 6.5 CM "fanboys" I hear about. Instead, I've come across dozens upon dozens of curmudgeons who are showing how easily threatened they are by something new. Almost makes me want to go out and get another 6.5 CM just to piss off the old pharts at the range.

Cuz they have been mostly quite, since the 6mms are the ones winning.

Newtosavage said:

I don't know what firearms forums some of you guys frequent, but have yet to run across "all these" 6.5 CM "fanboys" I hear about. Instead, I've come across dozens upon dozens of curmudgeons who are showing how easily threatened they are by something new. Almost makes me want to go out and get another 6.5 CM just to piss off the old pharts at the range.

Click to expand...

Agreed. The stereotypical "Creedmoor fanboy" doesn't exist as far as I can tell (the actual early CM adopter was a highpower competitor, then PRS shooters). But the butthurt .270 guy who can't stop complaining about the Creedmoor is very, very real.

troy fairweather said:

Cuz they have been mostly quite, since the 6mms are the ones winning.

Click to expand...

While the 6mms are more popular than the 6.5mms in PRS, there doesn't seem to be much evidence they're "winning" - a fraction of top shooters continue to use the 6.5s and don't seem to do any worse (or any better).

If you consider all shooters rather than just top shooters, then recently there are more bad shooters with 6mms than 6.5mms. A 6.5mm generally means you've been around a bit.

Newtosavage said:

I don't know what firearms forums some of you guys frequent, but have yet to run across "all these" 6.5 CM "fanboys" I hear about. Instead, I've come across dozens upon dozens of curmudgeons who are showing how easily threatened they are by something new. Almost makes me want to go out and get another 6.5 CM just to piss off the old pharts at the range.

Click to expand...

We have a few who take a hard line in favor of the CM, but most of the "New Hotness" bluster is passed. Now its mostly an opposition of design and usage theories. Which can, and do, become quite heated at times.

Newtosavage said:

That's just silly. I rebarreled one of my Savage rifles to 6.5 CM for a while. I didn't all the sudden grow a man bun and beard and start wearing plaid.

It's just a rifle caliber people. Grow up.

Click to expand...

For the record, I don't hate or love the 6.5 Creedmoor. Nor do I really know enough about ballistics and rifle calibers to get upset or argue. I just like funny memes.

troy fairweather said:

View attachment 914646

Click to expand...

That doesn't really show any particular strength for the 6mms vs. the 6.5mm. It does however show that there are MORE 6mms. If there was a strong bias, you would not expect to find many if any 6.5s among top shooters, the way you find zero .308s for example.

Newtosavage said:

That's just silly. I rebarreled one of my Savage rifles to 6.5 CM for a while. I didn't all the sudden grow a man bun and beard and start wearing plaid.

It's just a rifle caliber people. Grow up.

Click to expand...

I was once working with a customer who was looking at Swarovski and Zeiss. We had a couple of their high end models out and he was looking through them. A young man walked up and said, “You oughta get a Vortex, they are the best scope made”. To which I responded with, “So any Vortex scope is better than a Schmidt & Bender, NightForce or Kahles? I could tell from his look that he probably hadn’t heard of S&B and Kahles. The responded with, Yes, “Vortex makes the best scope in the world”. The gentleman I was helping rolled his eyes and left. I later heard the kid telling someone else that the 6.5 Creedmoor was the best caliber in North America for all hunting, including elk and moose.

I’ve found in listening to people expound on the 6.5 Creedmoor quite a bit that the ones who tout it’s virtues the most are the ones with the least knowledge about firearms, hunting and optics. From personal observation it also seems these people follow the latest fads with no research and knowledge before taking the plunge. There are also exceptions to every rule.

I stated the 6.5 Creedmoor is an excellent cartridge because it is. You call me silly for a belief I have. I’d be very careful in doing that, it could come back and bite you.

troy fairweather said:

Cuz they have been mostly quite, since the 6mms are the ones winning.

Click to expand...

Quite? quite what?

cdb1 said:

I was once working with a customer who was looking at Swarovski and Zeiss. We had a couple of their high end models out and he was looking through them. A young man walked up and said, “You oughta get a Vortex, they are the best scope made”. To which I responded with, “So any Vortex scope is better than a Schmidt & Bender, NightForce or Kahles? I could tell from his look that he probably hadn’t heard of S&B and Kahles. The responded with, Yes, “Vortex makes the best scope in the world”. The gentleman I was helping rolled his eyes and left. I later heard the kid telling someone else that the 6.5 Creedmoor was the best caliber in North America for all hunting, including elk and moose.

I’ve found in listening to people expound on the 6.5 Creedmoor quite a bit that the ones who tout it’s virtues the most are the ones with the least knowledge about firearms, hunting and optics. From personal observation it also seems these people follow the latest fads with no research and knowledge before taking the plunge. There are also exceptions to every rule.

I stated the 6.5 Creedmoor is an excellent cartridge because it is. You call me silly for a belief I have. I’d be very careful in doing that, it could come back and bite you.

Click to expand...

"once..."

cdb1 said:

From personal observation it also seems these people follow the latest fads with no research and knowledge before taking the plunge.

Click to expand...

There are a lot of sheeple in the world, even amongst gun owners.

You play paintball for a month and you literally hear 1-2k dollars worth of brand new gear walk by, and the person talking hasnt even played a game....or you used to, who knows, might have changed since i played.

New shooters never have anything intelligent to say about whatever's popular. They're just excited about it.

The odd thing about the 6.5CM is that it's actually a pretty good fit for most new hunters and target shooters - low recoil, with accurate cheap practice ammo, good inherent accuracy, and well suited to the whitetails that make up the bulk of "big" game taken in the US. It's not the best (nor by far the worst) elk rifle but that's a niche market.

Only read about it. Im 66, don't care about new loads. I still use several .308s and I bet it can do all I need with this great caliber. So many calibers in last few years, this is probably the only one that will stay.

Newtosavage said:

Quite? quite what?

"once..."

Click to expand...

It was one example used to make a point. One of many.

cdb1 said:

It was one example used to make a point. One of many.

Click to expand...

many? Really? More than the number of people you've read about complaining about the 6.5 CM? Because I can count quite a few.

Simmer down before howlands thread gets shut down.

I only have one 6.5 Creedmoor and it's proven to be a fantastic cartridge. Sub half MOA at 100 yards is the norm for me with good factory ammo and hand loads. Ive taken cheap S&B ammo out to 1200 yards easily. It has low recoil which makes spotting my shots much easier. And around here buying match grade ammo, it's cheaper than 308. Yes I can get cheap blaster 308 ammo for cheap but Im not shooting that through my precision rifle.

Im a swede guy myself, but since pretty much no new rifles are chambered in 6.5x55, looks like Im being railroaded into buying a creedmoor at some point. Probably for my daughter in a year or two. I dunno, might build her a custom. Anyhow, my brother is a creedmoor fanboy, no man-bun, but gosh have I heard all about how creedmoor is better than swede. Also, how .375 ruger is far superior to H&H, and .300 wsm is better than 300 win mag or H&H. Im not against it, just still seems like an unnecessary cartridge to me. Blah blah short action blah blah ar-10. Lol joke.

troy fairweather said:

Simmer down before howlands thread gets shut down.

Click to expand...

LOL It's an opinion thread from the get-go. Nothing wrong with asking why people have their opinions.

My point? Made.

"It's the Swede, a 125 year old cartridge. It's available in a whole bunch of new rifles, unlike the Swede, and they are a few millimeters shorter in the reciever. That's good."

There is an honest evaluation of the 6.5 CM

Now, in comes whoever it is that perennially turns up to tell us how it was designed as a target cartridge in a short action so it's different to the Swede. Except the target world it was intended for rapidly moved on to the 6mm. Next, the " the 270 guys are butthurt because the Creedmoor is better ". But it isn't better.

If I wasn't already happily set up for the Swede, I would have considered the 6.5 CM. But the hype? Yuck.