Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Help choosing new rifle caliber - 308 or 6.5creedmore

True. One slices tissue causing hemorrhage ,the other crushes and destroys soft vital tissue with the same results.

I'd probably take the 6.5 Creed mostly because I hate the 308....

Talk about irrational!

Well said, Bob!!!!

I'd take it because I'm pretty sure I'd shoot it more.

Yes.......


I only like what I like.

And like Formid said there ain't much difference so it matters not what I use within reasonable parameters.


Pass the 270.

For my use I'd still choose a 270 over a 223 when it comes to shooting deer.

But whatever.

And of course no big diff between a 6.5 or .308.



The real question is, which one would be quieter with a suppressor?


I'm clueless, noticeable difference?

Bob y do u hate the 308??

I'm thinking if you treated every shot with a rifle with the same judiciousness that you treat a bow shot....there'd be a lot more meat in the freezer and a lot less debating about appropriate cartridges for big game hunting.....

Bob, what game have you taken with the 308 that you'd choose the Creed over it?

Or is this just one of those emotional gut-things that aren't based in anything else? I've got several of those...

The Creedmoor is an amazing cartridge. What other 6.5 cartridge can launch a 140 grain bullet at 2700ish FPS? Absolutely ground breaking!

My impressions were that 300 magnums generally caused more trauma and broke up heavy bone better and more reliably than smaller standard cased cartridges.

They also seemed to hit heavy game harder,especially at distance..

When I was using them all a lot and seeing them used I always thought the 300 magnums really belonged in the medium bore category.

I definitely think that velocity matters as I have seen more extensive trauma from bullets traveling fast than I have once they slowed down.

Meaning to say I have seen a lot more difference between(say) a 270 and a 300 magnum than i have between a 270 and a 280.

264 Win Mag, if you back it off some!

I personally don't think the Creedmoor's success is about ballistics.

In my opinion, it's about case design and factory ammo. It gave rifle guys something that worked within mag confines and high BC bullets (mostly). It turned anybody into a long range shooter that wanted to spend some money in a gun shop -- or so they thought.

Rifles manufacturers should take note of this. Any one of several manufacturers could gain a big share of the market overnight if they did it all right from the get-go. It wouldn't cost any more money to do so....

The Creedmoor also does it with minimal recoil and an affordable price. That doesn't hurt matters either.

Not saying a .308 wil get it done better than a 243, I have likely seen more moose shot with a 243 than most here and it most certainly can and does work. Especially with the little 80 grn TTSX. Heck this same buddy has taken grizz with it. And it most certainly works, but just because you can't see a post op difference in a 243 and a 30-06 kill doesn't mean the 243 is just as good of a choice for hunting larger critters does it? If everything is perfect sure but I have found grizzlies don't always give the perfect shot and sometimes you gotta break some bone in order to get your shot into the vitals and such.

oh, say:

260, 6.5 x 55, 6.5 x 57, 6.5/06....

Thats just the ones I've loaded for...

and then there is the magnum based cartridges....

I look at the Creedmoor as just reinventing the wheel, in comparison to the 260...

the market in the USA always seem to favor what's "new and improved" ( a marketing concept) over the "tried and proven" trends of yesteryear.

Amen to this.

The reason I do not buy into this notion of seeking the lowest level of ballistic terminal effect when choosing a BG rifle.

Yes, you get my sarcasm! I have two 6.5x55s. I know the creed moor is fine round but so are the others you listed. It just baffles me when people act like the creed moor invented the 6.5 bullet.

The Answer is no it won't do "everything" a 308 will, but then again a 308 won't do everything a Creed will.

The 308 has more mass and frontal area which yields better terminal performance, but worse aerodynamics so it sheds energy faster than the longer heavier 6.5..

So the question becomes which cartridge looses what in an area you don't care about...

Availability (do you care)
- if you travel and forgot your ammo your screwed if you pick the Creed. You could go with a 260 vs the Creed and balance that out a bit. If you reload you already know the cost factor to the brass, and availability that both cartridges bring with them. Time and cost are bigger with the Creed.

Recoil (do you care)
- Not much difference here but the 308 does kick more than a Creed, if you are flinchy the creed will do you well here.

How far is your normal target engaged (how much drop- does it matter)
If you are a person who knows how to handle drop you are ok either way, but it's easier to shoot a flatter bullet, and better to pick one that doesn't shed energy at 350...If you hunt in areas where the normal shot distance is over 300 I'd go with the 6.5 and use bullets with a decent BC so they retain energy longer.

What type of shooter are you (risky shots, or not)
If you normally don't address targets over 350 than the 308 will give you a better margin of error for bad angle shots given it can keep going a bit more than a 6.5 .... HOWEVER this also depends on what type of bullets you use. If you shot only barnes or another alloy bullet this changes fairly quickly to be a level playing field. Either way if you aren't a precision shooter, or are flinchy, or .... where a marginal angle comes into play, well personal preference wise I go heavier so the 308 may be better. Again this is negated over 350 given the energy loss of the 308, or if you use lighter bullets in the 6.5 ... so other choices impact this one.


Other factors - that you won't choose that impact the results you may get..

Each rifle will "like" (shoot better) one weight.

308's tend to like 180's
6.5's tend to like 130's to 140's

Given these are short actions picking a long bullet can impact how much powder you can cram in... so if you are a speed freak do some research on the max velocity you can normally reach, the books lie about how each person is comfortable compressing a load, and I've seen folks disappointed with the top end... You don't want to be there.
300 WSM was like that - not sure on the Creed.

Energy is a theoretical number in a calculation....

Mass and frontal area, OTOH, do not change.

The reason we argue this nonsense endlessly is that the animals we hunt are easily killed with both so it's impossible to see much difference between anything (say) 6.5 to 7mm or 30 on standard cases.