I have a 6.5 creedmoor rifle that I've been using for deer and antelop hunting and hoping to make my all-around rifle. I'm hoping to draw an elk tag next year and use the same rifle for that as well. The only other centerfire bolt rifles I own are a 223 and a 243 that has a compact stock and is used by my wife. I like keeping my number of rifles relatively small and am not interested in getting many more.
Ammo availability has been a major issue lately for me, as it has been for most folks. I was fortunate enough to grab two boxes of ammo for deer season this year, which will last me a long time if I never practice with the thing.
Every time I go to Scheels or Cabelas I notice that there is usually a variety of 308 offerings. I know that this ammo shortage will eventually come to an end, but what about the next one, and the one after that? I suppose the answer could be to just hoard all the 6.5 CM ammo I can when it becomes affordable, but it seems like this shortage has shown the priorities of the ammo industry, and that priority is to manufacture lots of 308.
I'm considering selling the 6.5 and picking up a 308. The 308 would give me a little more recoil and a little less BC, but it would give me cheaper ammo and more trigger time.
Is there any real downside to going to the 308?
If you want to maximize your trigger time, you would do better to find a .22 rifle with the same type of action and approximately the same size/weight and then set it up with the same scope and rings. I put together such a rifle for friend a couple of years ago that was based on a Marlin XT-22VR and it has worked out well for him.
