Advertising…come up with a new fad and promote it enough and people buy into it.

Seems the hype has to do with heavy for caliber boolats paired with faster twist rates in the barrel. Nothing particularly amazing, IMO.

The 6.5 and .260 are basically the same. Give a cartridge a new name and pimp it and it’ll sell…advertising.

You will not find a “new” caliber that does anything different than any other caliber before it. The .270 has been around longer than I have but lost its appeal amongst the younger generation so they came out with a 6.5 Creed, 6.5 PRC for a “magnum” version.

I don’t buy into fads when the old tried and true still work and work better a lot of times.

It has had a successful life because of great marketing.

If you want to kill deer at a mile or more, you can only do it with a 6.5 Creedmoor. PUN INTENDED

I'm sure it's a great low recoil round that's fantastic for shooting paper and steel plates.

Everyone is hyped up on fast twist and thinking they're a long range shooter when they buy a 6.5 CM

But every firearms season I get to go help someone I know track a deer that they shot with a 6.5 Needmore.
All but one of them had solid and property placed shots that should have killed them sooner than they did. And that one wasn't far off.
But for whatever reason, deer tend to travel a ways before they die from a 6.5 CM shot. I'm not saying that we don't find them eventually, but I don't want to drag a deer any further than already necessary.

I have been seeing and hearing good things about the 6mm ARC on both deer and varmints.

You do you, but there are better cartridges then the 6.5 CM for deer sized game that have decades of proof backing them up.

Raghorn sounds like they are not using proper bullets for deer to me. I get half dollar to grape fruit size exits on coyotes and the same exact results as I get from our 243 and 7mm-08.

It's not a caliber issue its a hunter issue doing something wrong bad shot, wrong bullet, or maybe a bullet failure. BUT it always easier to try to Blame a cartridge.

It only shines to the ladies and feeble old men who are scared of recoil

I tend to agree with that, Wanna Be. The 308, 270, 25-06, amongst many more, are all still relevant and very capable rounds.

Last thing I will say towards the new round fad. I wish folks would get the idea that they are going to take game at great distances out of their heads. That would go along way in these new rounds being so sought after. Hunters and snipers are two different things.

Shoot I'm 28 and hate recoil

If limited to factory ammo for the 6.5 Creedmore, what brand, type and weight would be best for southern whitetail.

I dont get into ballistics info much and know next to nothing about handloading. But, Ive heard so many bad stories about lost/almost lost deer to the 6.5 CM in my area that it is shocking. Some of these deer I have seen (after they were finally found) and they were hit where it appeared perfectly. Most were pass throughs. What gives?

Folks here have been selling their 6.5 CMs as fast as they could for a couple years now.

Someone needs to explain to me how everyone and there mom in the South kills deer with .243's but then deer magically become bullet proof and un killable with something shooting a bigger bullet going about as fast ?

Someone needs to explain to me how everyone and there mom in the South kills deer with .243's but then deer magically become bullet proof and un killable with something shooting a bigger bullet going about as fast ?

Someone needs to explain to me how everyone and there mom in the South kills deer with .243's but then deer magically become bullet proof and un killable with something shooting a bigger bullet going about as fast ?

Funny how that works. 70 years and nobody really questioned the .243 for deer.

I think a lot of younger 6.5 shooters over estimate their abilities (not necessarily the cartridges abilities).

And I think a lot of the 6.5 “train wrecks” are wildly exaggerated by older boomers packing .30-06s and 1911s. Two world wars!

I surely dont know either, but there is something amiss about the 6.5 CM.

Wellll that's factually false a lot of the new cartridges , buy the numbers are more efficient and do thing the other won't out the box ... Now a lot of those are cutting hair and it may be just the fact that newer stuff does it right out the box where you'd need to go custom with a older cartridge or newer will work better for this or that but still.

It's like how I got a .22 creed barrel coming in right now . Yeah you can say all day that .22-250 CAN do everything the .22 creed can...but the deal is ... How much do I need to do to the legacy to make it work like the new out of the box. Get a custom barrel spun up that's 3-8 weeks for most places or I just went to shaw and drop $250 and boom were here

There's also th discussion of case and chamber design being more efficient and all ( because along now the never stuff are just going ahead and doing some of the things that end up getting done when folks " improve a cartridge) but honestly for the average guy ...eghhhh

And I mean yeah if you have a smith and load or you just want a pretty generic performance set it's kinda a whatever deal. But to say the new stuff doesn't do anything different is just factually false even if it's as simple as " this new stuff is the easy button"

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Well, name me “one” thing ANY new caliber can do better than any older caliber when it comes to taking game? With today’s bullets everything is new again. Same with shotguns and TSS. My 20ga is now the same as a 12ga for turkeys. I can shoot 110gr Varmageddons in my .308 and take out hogs and coyotes or I can load up 165gr and take out hogs and coyotes. With the 110’s I get some serious range with no holdover out to 300yds…actually it was 297, but close enough. I’ve got my .243 87gr VMax the same way. Unfortunately I won’t ever get to shoot that far where I hunt, but if I ever found myself in that situation I could.
Now tell me how a 6.5 or 22creed or ARC is going to perform any better? Name anything they do better other than what they say on paper. I talk to a lot of guys that have the “fad cartridges” and they’re flat honest about performance. Basically it performs just like the old cartridges, but just sounds so much cooler. They also switch back and forth to their old tried and trues. These are also hunters, not target shooters.
I realize you like to play around with new stuff and it’s always “better” but they’ve yet to prove anything. A caliber/bullet is only as good as the person with his finger on the trigger. A new caliber doesn’t make a better marksman or kill any better than the older calibers.

well I use a creed a lot, how has it done?
2023
fall turkey (headshot) 336 yards
8 pt at 140 yards
200# bear at 388 yards
2024
8 pt at 466 yards
7 pt at 488 yards
2025
8 pt at 447 yards
6 pt at 350 yards
all with 140 gr ELD-M's
now at long range?
4 shots at 1004 yards

not too shabby for a gas gun running 2667 fps

no complaints here

Any of you gun guys know where or why it shines, along with some other newer calibers?

Wow, y’all can misinterpret anything on this forum. Never said there’s anything wrong with the calibers, just saying it’s all in the advertising and marketing. Are they inferior, no, but are they better?
Again, it’s all in the advertising…buy the latest and greatest caliber that resists wind and drops everything it hits including elephants at 3000 yards. And it was mentioned about ammo being unavailable for some of the relics…wonder why. If you’re pimping a new caliber you can’t have competition from the old stuff. Heck, go to any ammo store and you’ll find more crazy calibers than old it seems. Again, marketing and advertising has got the Creedmores, ARC, PRC, etc being bought like hotcakes and not by competition shooters only either.

Any of you gun guys know where or why it shines, along with some other newer calibers?

6.5 CM, makes me think about my 22,ARC , 6 ARC, didn't need either. But have 2 ea., sitting in the safe. Don't think of the rifles, I own there's not 1 really needed. I wanted them ! Have shot everything from Prairie dogs, to elk & bears. Own 308's, 22 250, 6mm CM, 243 & 243 Ackley, 7mm STW, 5.56's, 22 LR, 22 Hornet. I enjoy shooting long range, & have couple place to shot out to 2500 yds. Both are private and only about 6 shooters, each person buys there own steel targets, and we all kicked in on couple nice benches. I shot with vet friend who has 338 Lapua, & Barret M107A1 50, we wake the neighbor hood up with those 2. I like the 6mm CM, & 6.5 CM , not expensive to reload and love the range of bullets I can load on the twists of my rifles. My theory, is If you like certain caliber , Im good with that. My problem is I'm a GUN junkie

But how are they different? How do they perform compared to similar old calibers?

It is a modern case design engineered with barrel life, accuracy, and a twist rate so it handles high BC bullets.

Short action make a handier rifle.

The weight bullets it uses puts it in the perfect sweet spot as a deer cartridge.

Recoil is very manageable for female or young shooters.

Lot of rifles chambered in it and lots of ammo available.

If you already have a rifle that does most of these you don’t need a 6.5 CM. But if you don’t IMO it is a balance of near perfection.

People hated the 30-06 too. They hated Dale Earnhardt. They hated Tom Brady. Things are are good and solid generate animosity.

[quote=Wanna Be] IMO it is a balance of near perfection..