I got into the 6.5 CM game because shortactionsmoker, the member here who runs Whittakers, posted that they were closing out some Howa Lightning rifles. I drove the hour and a few minutes north the next morning and picked one up for around $300. Drove 30 minutes south the next day to Midsouth, picked up a set of dies, some brass, a pound of H4350, and a couple of boxes of bullets, some 120 Sierra MK's, and some 140 Nosler BT's. Loaded up a few rounds of each, put a scope on the rifle, went out and shot some of the smallest groups I've ever fired on a rifle right out of the box. Took it deer hunting and killed a nice buck, with the Nosler doing it's job just as it was supposed to.

I buy, sell, and trade a lot, and am now on my fourth and fifth rifles chambered for the 6.5 CM. I do not shoot factory ammo in my rifles, everything I shoot are my reloads. With other cartridges and rifles, it is usually an experimentation in different powders, primers, bullets, and other things, in order to come up with a load that I like. I have found with the 6.5 CM it is a very simple process to come up with an accurate load. That's what I like about it the most, and it's pretty much what it was designed for. It's almost boring sometimes, because it's ridiculously easy when it comes to coming up with accurate loads that my rifles like.