Does anybody have any experience with this cartridge for larger whitetails. I am and always have been a magnum cartridge kind of guy. But I'm looking for something in a short action rifle. I know shot placement is critical and I consider myself to be a better than average shot. Do any of you have any experience with this or recommend any other short action cartridge over the Creedmoor. 7 mm O8 was another choice of mine. Thanks to all

Greenetrapper, My hunting partner purchased a ruger 6.5 creedmoor. He harvested a black bear and a large whitetail with it. One shot on both animals and they dropped. He is really pleased with the creedmoor. Eric

Ballistically the Creedmore is so similar to the 257 Roberts, 260, 6.5x55 Swede that there is no tangible difference between them. Especially if all you want to do is hunt. The amount of ink that has been spilled over the Creedmore is spectacular, especially considering it is nothing new under the sun.

Personally, I’m not enamored with the 6.5C like the rest of the shooting public. The 7-08 you mentioned would be my choice if I were going short action and not looking for a magnum. 308 and 243 would be good options as well. In fact, the 243 with a twist rate capable of stabilizing the longer high BC bullets would be my choice way before the 6.5C. It’ll shoot just as flat and still has plenty of thump for deer. Plenty of guys have killed bears back home with the 243. If you’re looking for heavier bullets though, get the 7-08. Killed a pile of deer growing up with the 7-08.

If you’re a fan of the magnums but like a short action, look into the WSM family of cartridges. The 7WSM with a 162 hornady eld-x is a devastating rig but you’ll probably have to hand load. Haven’t seen them in factory rounds but I’ve not looked real hard either. The 300WSM is a great performer in a short action. Only draw back is that some have feeding issues. My browning not the exception. Has trouble picking up the last round from the magazine but the first 3 are more then enough anyway. Read somewhere how to tweak the magazine but haven’t tried it yet. Just one mans opinion.

I have recently changed from a 270 to a 6.5 Creedmoor. The 270 is an excellent long action cartridge, just wanted a bit less recoil (rotator cuf surgery, right side, in recent years), also wanted a lighter rifle (getting old).
Anyway, the 6.5 CM will do about whatever you want it to do, if you do your part.
Yep, the 260, 7mm-08, 308, etc, are all fine cartridges and will perform equally as well.

Isn't that the truth.

Osky

^^^ This

Hornady did a great job promoting this round. And it had been around for some time before they started pushing it so hard. Shame they didn’t do the same for the 280, 257 Roberts, 284, and many of the other great rounds that fell off into obscurity.

That statement only holds water for factory ammo. For the hand loader there is quite a difference.

How much are you really gaining with hand loads? All the above mentioned rounds are loaded to lawyer specs. There’s not enough difference in case capacity between the 260 and 6.5C to get excited about. Maybe, maybe, you might get an extra 200 FPS. Any shooter worth his sand can figure out dope for drop and at that point, it becomes moot. A deer will never notice the difference. Bears or elk neither. I’m not trying to pick a fight. Just took me the longest time to recognize that a couple hundred FPS just didn’t matter. Want real gains? Jump to the 26 Nosler. There’s a whiz bang 6.5 that’s worthwhile.

I have a 6.5 Creedmor custom build that I really like. There are several other calibers that will accomplish equal ballistics and are also equally suited to to the woods and the range . I chose it simply because there is a lot of high quality factory ammo available these days, I wanted to become a better longer range shooter out to 500 yards and a white tail deer is the biggest animal that I am likely ever to shoot. Choose a caliber that suits your needs and learn its characteristics, strengths and weaknesses and shoot it often enough to be very proficient with it.I have fallen into a trap with a new round before (.30 TC don't want to talk about it) but the 6.5 Creedmor is here to stay so if it meets all of your needs buy it.

If my memory is right, last year my buddy took a cow elk with his 6.5 creedmoor

7-08 any day ammo and components readily accessible inherently accurate. Have three friends that cleanly kill elk with them every year.

The problem as I see it is that Factory ammo is loaded so that grand dad won't blow up his 1900 vintage Mauser. If you load the Swede to take advantage of modern actions those extra 6 + grains of case capacity do make quite a difference. Going with your argument, May as well go with a 6.5 Grendel as the difference between the Creedmoor and the Grendel is not worth a discussion.
By the by I have a Grendel, sold the Swede and am missing it but am in the process of building a 6.5 Gibbs. I really like the 6.5 but do not see a Creedmoor in my future. Another Swede is very likely though.

Now we’re talking. 6 grains will make a difference. I’d take the Swede over the creed any day of the week. Not even a question.

6.5 is my favorite caliber for Whitetails, hands down. The bullets just seem to perform perfect on this size animal.

I bought a 6.5 Creedmoor because I couldn't find a 260 Rem in a rifle platform that I liked. Didn't want the bother to re-barrel a short action rifle I like.

The creedmores only advantage comes in the AR platform.

How come ??? It has an advantage in price as every ammo manufacturer and they dog are churning them out now . I think an AR10 is a heavy piece of equipment to lug around in the field no advantage there IMHO.

I am thinking about getting one. Every gun store has a big pile of them and claims they dont sell. I keeping hoping they will start a sell on them. I think the majority that are stock piled are Remingtons, I dont want a Remington.

Imo cant beat a 7mm08.

I've bought 2 Creedmoors.

1 savage axis scope package. It has less than 30 shots through it. The only thing I had done was the trigger. It shoots dime sized groups at 100 yds with factory Winchester deer season ammo.


I was so impressed with it that I decided to build one, but decided that for the cost of building a rifle I could buy a better one.

2. savage model 11 trophy package. I've shot it about a dozen times and it gets better with every shot. I know the groups are less than 1 inch at 100 yds so far, with the same ammo.






Hype or not, I really like the 6.5 creedmoor.

To me the advantage of the Creedmoor is that factory rifles are being built with a twist rate that will stabilize the (heavy and long) high BC bullets favored for long range shooting. That advantage is not necessarily applicable to hunting situations, especially for women or young shooters who may be recoil sensitive. The Creedmoor has shown itself effective on medium game, as have the 1/2 dozen of similar sized cartridges listed in the above posts, but if the goal is to reduce recoil then using the heaviest bullets possible for caliber defeats the purpose. If you don't use those heavy for caliber projectiles, the Creedmoor advantage is gone. However, the Creedmoor doesn't have to be better that those other 1/2 dozen cartridges to be a good cartridge in it's own right and being popular, readily available, and inexpensive is not a disadvantage.

I think there is a lot of overlap in cartridges. A cartridge that will insure complete pass through gets my vote. My grandson just shot a big doe in the shoulders with a .243 and it fell in its shadow at 200 yards, but did not exit. The rifle did its part more penetration would have been better. Bullet was 100 grain.

I have a Browning A-Bolt in 30-06. I have a half dozen other rifles from 25-06 to 45-70.
If I could only keep one it would be the aught six.
It still shoots as far as I can see.

Zim

I have a Ruger American Predator in 6.5 creedmoor. The best shooting gun I own. Tight groups and for the price it’s unbeatable. I did do some sanding on the stock because it rubbed the barrel (very cheap stock) and I made the trigger slightly lighter but those were free upgrades. How it performs on deer I don’t know. I hunt with my Winchester Model 70 7mm short mag. But I have been thinking about taking out the 6.5 to test it out at some point on deer. Ballistics should be just as good as a .270 which is a very good deer cartridge.

^^what he said !

or the Roberts or Swede or 260! all mild recoil and deliver lead in that magically deadly velocity of 2600-3000 fps. These would be my 2nd, 3rd and 4th choices.

The .260 Rem was right in front of everyone for 20 some years. If you weren't enamored by it, what could you possibly see in the 6.5 CM?

I won one of these in a raffle so I sighted it in this fall. The thing pounds tacks at 300 yards and would likely do at even greater distances if I was some place I could of shot farther. Figured I should shoot a few deer with it before gifting it to my daughter and it performed flawlessly this fall.

23 years ago, long before 6.5 craze, I had a .243 Ackley Imp built. 25" Hart barrel, everything trued up, wood stock but bedded in Devon. 3200 fps + with a 100gr Nosler Partion. It's hammered everything I have shot with it since then. Remember, when companies manufacture something they need to hype it up to sell.
Thanks Clark.

I am thinking it was the numbers that put people off in the past. To be more precise, the metric system. There is a whole bunch of old 6.5 mm rounds that will walk all over the Creedmoor but they have not had any success this side of the pond in the past or even now. 6.5 x 55 , 6.5 -06 6.5 A Frame, 6.5 Gibbs and the list goes on without even naming the obvious ones. It took some hard core marketing to get the Creedmoor where it is today. It is cheap to manufacture with the 308 as the parent case. I think it is here to stay. Not because it is so good, but because the marketing in this case just worked.

one the son bought last week is a Savage i see on the box.he paid 300 from someone that won it plus the transfer fee.

The parent case of the 6.5 CM is the 30 TC.
The parent case of the 260 Rem is the 308 Win.

I have shot it out to 550. No problem hitting 12 inch steel plate. Only misses were left and right because of strong wind gust (very windy day) only got to shoot this far 1 time. Was shooting with a friend on someone he knows land. I can only get out to 300 yards where I normally shoot. If you put the right scope on this gun it’s a great gun. I have a Leupold VX2- 6-18x40 CDS.

the problem with owning an 06 first is that you never "need" another rifle. so it is important that you find excuses to buy more and not tie you purchase of guns to any sort of need.



I think everyone should buy all the 6.5s they want , use any law-full reason you like as justification. sure it isn't doing that much that any other short action or long action cartridge isn't already doing but it does it in a nice little package.

keep the rifle manufacturers going and shoot it a bunch it like the Precision Rifle competitors that it was built for they burn up a barrel a year or more some getting as little as 1800 rounds some getting as many as 2500.

the closest route to make a 6.5 CM case is start with a 250 savage. so now you have an idea of the case capacity, it will do nothing any other 6.5 will do, only reason it is popular, is that the makers built decent rifles and made good ammo for factory loaded stuff. any good custom rifle with proper handholds will shoot circles around them.
RR

Actually, the 6.5 CM case is a tad shorter than the 260 Rem case, this allows the benchrest crowd to load heavier (longer) bullets and still fit in a standard DA magazine, whereas the std 260 case will not fit in the magazine with the heavier match bullets.
This is the biggest difference. Also, my understanding from other reloaders is a 6.5 CM case can be made from a 308 based case using a two step process.

The benefits of the creedmoor is the long heavy high bc bullets. Nothing else with the fast twist barrels and throating required to stabilize the high bc bullets is or was available for purchase over the counter.
Close range inside 300 yards mute point. Beyond 300 and over a 1000 is where the high bc bullets really shine.
This round was built for the long skinny bullets the 260 rem and rounds others mentioned were not. Can. They be used? Yes but... they were not built for them.
If you want magnum performance this is not the round for you. Deer will die with little fuss using the creedmoor. But The 6.5 PRC may be a little more your style. It does everything the creedmoor does, Just 200 FPS faster still in a short action rifle.
If that is not for you one of the other wsm, saum etc rounds should work.
God Bless

Dustin

.308 Winchester Parent case to the following.

.243 Winchester

6.5x47mm Lapua

.260 Remington

7mm-08 Remington

6.5-08 A-Square

.338 Federal

6.5mm Creedmoor

.358 Winchester

Check google. 6.5 creedmoor's parent case is 30 TC

Yep and the 30TC is a shortened 308 and fire formed.

So, you're saying the 260 Rem and 6.5 CM have identical cases ?

Hornady Reloading Manual, tenth edition
Pg 317 ; "The 6.5 Creedmoor was developed by Hornady Senior Ballistics Scientist, Dave Emary and Dennis DeMille in 2007 and announced in the 2008 Hornady Catalog. Based on the 30 TC, the 6.5 Creedmoor is a shortened and improved design....etc"

No, no. You didn't read what he said. You must first take a 308, turn it into a 30 tc, the proceed to making your 6.5 creedmoor. Obviously the 308 is the parent case. LoL

I always read that the 30tc was developed as a substitute for the 308, not from the 308.

still the shortest route to a 6.5 CM case is forming from a 250 savage, less trimming and you size it to 6.5 and fire form. lets look at the numbers
case length
308 2.015
6.5. 1.920
250. 1.912
you'll hafta trim the 308 back .095", the savage is .008 short, but as the body taper is blown out fire forming the case will get longer, if it doesn't make full length, they will not be short enough to make any difference.
neck shoulder junction from casehead
308. 1.7118
6.5 1.635
250. 1.6377.

so size a 250 savage to a crush fit in a cm chamber, load a mid level 6.5 powder charge, seat a bullet and shoot, no trimming needed.

Your statements seem to be contradicting each other.
The 243 which did not pass through, dropped the deer in its tracks. I see that happen more times than not when the bullet does not pass through with high powered rifle rounds placed in the heart/lung zone.
A clean pass through is where they do not tend to drop in their tracks in my experience. They fall over dead soon enough, but not in their tracks for the most part.

The 243 with a nosler partition 100 grain , through the lungs , may not pass, through although some do. Quite often you will find them inside the hide on the other side. of a white tail. I have been very happy with that performance. Never had a creedmor. old243

30TC it's own cartridge

a littel shorter in length than the 308 and a bit larger in the body of the case to get a tiny increase in volume and a sharper shoulder

but enough that it took a 308 that was almost everything a 30-06 was to the 30TC which is basically claiming to be everything a 30-06 is in a short action


it is almost a 308 ackley improved , Ironicaly Ackley never made a 308AI because he felt the gain was too small.

there was also never a 260 , 7mm-08 or 270 AI the gains would be so small the expense wasn't warranted.

I suppose it also became necessity with the weaker 7.62 nato actions around that a new case not fit any action that isn't short magnum capable

30TC applies some of the short magnum technology without getting into magnum territory to get gains on a 308win to achieve 30-06 velocities.