Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 6.5 Rem Mag----Is It Any Good?

I have a friend who wants help in working up loads for his 6.5 Rem Mag. Gun is a M600 with a laminated stock and about a 20" barrel. Little brother to the 350 Mag.
Why isn't this cartridge more popular with the 6.5 lovers? Seems to about "have it all" as far as that diameter goes. Has a lot broader velocity range than a 260 Rem.
Does the 6.5-284 do anything the Remington ctg can't do? Sure doesn't seem to be too popular yet seems like it should be.
Any pet loads for elk out there?

I would have done it but we can't get uprimed brass here in Canada and Remington informed me they weren't planning on bringing it out. MidwayUSA must have an agreement with them seeing that they list the brass. It is a great little round and I am sure I would have liked it.

I`m not a historian or writer but, my take is the 6.5 bore has always been a "loonies" caliber and as you say ammo and brass is next to impossible to find. The cartridge also came out in a carbine instead of a proper lenght barreled rifle and was all bang and no go from the start. The 6.5 shooters of the day had the 264 Win mag to compare it to and it just didn`t keep up. I believe the 6.5x06 or 6.5x284 will pretty much do anything the mag will - I`m biased, I own a 6.5x284. Hodgdon lists a top vel for a 140 gr bullet from the 6.5 mag at 2943 fps from a 26" tube the 65-06=2848 fps and the 65x284=2895 fps from 24" barrels. Both of these contenders were around when the 6.5 mag was introduced.

IIRC, the little Remington carbine was very poorly advertised and marketed at the time. Thus, the gun was never a popular one, much less the chambering.

Having owned a few M600/660's in other calibers, I know for a fact that the mag-box is pretty short, so the larger pills encroached into the case, thus cutting velocity, and the 18.5"600/20"660 barrels did nothing to help.

The cartridge was re-tried in the "new" Remington Guide Guns a few years back, but it appears that Big green has fared no better in it's marketing skills, despite more than 3o years difference between the two.

Couple this with the Americans just not being able to understand or take a liking to the 6.5, which is a truly great bore diameter, and there you have it.

Hey 338 I have that exact gun. It was my dads and he gave it to me when I started hunting back in the 70's. I don't use it much anymore but I sure liked it when I was a kid - kicked pretty good and really liked to scope other folks that wanted to shoot it. I killed a fair amount of blacktails with it here in Oregon, its was a pretty handy rifle but like everyone says, not much in the way of ammo. I think about all you can get factory wise is 110 CoreLokt I think???

Got 2 of them. One M600 and a M700. As the man said,"You got to be loony", but I love my 6.5s. I get a true 3100fps out of the M700 w/ 125gr Partitions, and 2850fps from the M600. Sort of saw a dim future for this round when Remington stopped making ammo so I went out and bought all the factory ammo I could find (most at really low price because it had been sitting on shelves so long and I convinced several dealers I was doing them a favor-still have 46 boxes of factory ammo plus 700 pieces of new brass). I'm sort of strange that way because I hoarded Deep Shocks when Speer stopped making them (still have about 2500). IMHO the round is an awesome deer round but you must be willing to go the extra mile.

a little answer to create case forming ...

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=146252&t=11082005

I bought a Rem Sendero 2 in 264 Win Mag,excellant shooting rifle and looks nice also.I'm in the process of building a 6.5 STW now.

I've got an early Ruger 77 "flat-bolt" in 6.5 Mag. Great deer round. Like Matavenado, I hoarded a lifetime supply of factory ammo and brass. My Ruger doesn't shoot the 120 gr factory load all that well but loves the old 100 gr CL load that was advertised at 3400 fps. Kills deer like lightning with complete penetration.

Remington offers a 120 grain Corelokt as the only factory load. Yet they offer a 140 grain Corelokt as the "default" load for the 260 Remington.

Go figure.

I understand the short magazine and short barrel limitations but at its worst it should be better than a 6.5 Swede or a 260 Rem from any length barrel. Those two rounds make gun loonies get all mushy. Too bad about the demise of the 6.5 Rem Mag.

BIG GREEN in action.

Like I said, they had 30 years and countless articles to lear the error of thir ways.....and learned nothing.

Have had my Rem. 700 in 6.5 mag for 25+ years have formed case from 350Rem.mag brass. Had to shorten a 300 mag. size die (Lee)
to step down to 30 cal.first then FL size in the 6.5 die,(WILL NEED TO TRIM)also used imperial sizing wax. Made up over 200 case this way for my self and a friend with a Rem.660. Have about 600 case for it total and use a 260 most of the time now so should last me my life time. 129gr Hornadys @ 3100 put a lot of Black tailed deer in the frezzer.

Hey ccl, did you know only 1500 of the M700s were made in 6.5 Rem Mag? Can't be too many of these left. Enjoy shooting it knowing your rifle is as rare as hen's teeth.