If Remington had done it right this wouldn’t be happening and the Creedmoor would’ve never been made they dropped the ball here
While Remington is famous for REPEATEDLY “dropping the ball” with their marketing campaigns, or lack thereof, rather, I don’t think the rest of this sentiment is at all apt. I feel like a broken record here of late, but this kind of statement keeps popping up.
This is much like saying the .308win never would have been made because the 30-06 existed, or the .30-06 because the .303 was in place, or the 300wm, 300rum, 30TC, 300 Dakota, 300wsm, 300wby, 30-378wby, 300rsaum, etc etc etc... or play the game with 22cals - 222 Rem was around, why make a 223? Then why a .22-250? A .22-243? 22-6? .220 Swift, 221fireball, 22 Hornet, Nosler, Valkyrie... or maybe in the 6mm’s, 243win, 6BR, 6XC, Dasher, 244rem, wby, 6rem, 243wssm, 6-284, 6-06... Remington, Savage, Ruger, Marlin, Weatherby, Howa, Tikka... Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, Mountain Dew, Sprite, A&W... F-150, Ram, Silverado, Tundra... Nike, Adidas, Reebok, Asics, Brooks, Under Armour, Solomon...
There really weren’t - and aren’t - many 6.5mm short action cartridges. The x55 Swede and 6.5-284, 6.5-06, .264wm, etc are all long action cartridges (or mid lengths at best) if you want to stretch them out with heavy, high BC bullets. There really weren’t many in the short action length, heck, even the .260rem struggles to fit comfortably in short action repeaters with the long pills. So it was basically the 6.5 rem mag (another Rem marketing debacle), and the 260 in the short action 6.5mm game...
With half to a dozen 30 cal cartridges doing roughly the same ballistic performance, it’s kinda silly for guys to claim the 6.5 creed wouldn’t be around if the .260rem had been better marketed.
I’d argue the contrary - if the 260rem would have been more popular early on, we would have seen a lot more cartridge competition in the 6.5mm short action space, so something like the 6.5 Creed would have came along decades ago...
With both standing side by side on the shelf, there are modest advantages for buying the 6.5creed version over the .260, and not as much advantage for buying the .260... It’s not quite as simple as “flip a coin,” or “6 of one, half dozen the other.” The Creed has a stranglehold on the lead between the two, with no reason to let go.