I don't believe it's hurt anything around here, at least to my knowledge. Personally, I know one guy who owns one. I certainly expect there are more in the area but when a bunch of "gun guys" are gathered and discussing rifles and cartridges it's rare the 6.5 Creedmoor is mentioned except in passing or as another "new" cartridge that doesn't actually "do" anything more than many others. I "know" several guys on various forums who have one but they live quite a ways from me.
As far as my experience with 6.5 caliber cartridges and rifles, they're nothing new to me. I was shooting a 264 Win. Mag. back in the late 70's and by the early 80's had pretty much wrung out the 6.5 Swede in 2-3 different rifles. I settled on the 6.5 X 54 Mannlicher/Schoenauer as much because of the 1903 M/S rifle as the cartridge...maybe a little more. So, when all the hoopla started about the evidently incomparable 6.5 Creedmoor I was more than a little perplexed. Heck, there's been great 6.5 cartridges since before the turn of the 20th century. US shooters have just been a lot slow on the uptake of how good the caliber actually is. I didn't understand why all the ink, hype and arguing over another 6.5 cal. cartridge that ballistically does no more, or less, than a couple dozen others. All it is, is more popular, better advertised and evidently a little higher developed than most other 6.5 cartridges. It's a good 6.5 cartridge but so are a couple dozen others. If a fella wants one, by all means, get it, grin the whole time you're shooting it and take a pile of game with it!!! It's certainly capable. Just don't delude yourself into thinking you bought the best 6.5 cartridge that ever existed because you didn't. Most popular......maybe...in the US. I doubt it's hurt the 6.5 X 55 Swede or 6.5 X 57 Mauser on a world wide basis.
