If I weren't a handloader, I'd probably never have gotten a 6.5X55. If I hadn't ever gotten a 6.5X55 I might well have gotten a .260 Remington at some point. If I hadn't gotten either, I might well have gotten a 6.5 Creedmore (I may anyway, sometime, or a 6.5 PRC.) As it is, I am solid curmudgeon. Hell, when the .260 Remington came out I scoffed..."What can it do my 6.5X55 can't do with a good load?" If I'd gone the .260 route, I'd be asking what the Creed can do the .260 can't do.
Actually, for the vast majority of hunters, none offer any particular advantages, we might even throw the .264 WM in that group. The average hunter doesn't often shoot deer-sized game much beyond 300 yards if that. I've killed them out to 400 with my 6.5X55 easily enough.
Yeah, I agree completely. I am definitely well into the curmudgeon age bracket, and seem to have been pretty happy taking most of the heads of game I've taken in the last 25 years with (mostly) the same 5-6 cartridges/rifles. I have no need for a new caliber, so finding out I like the 6.5 CM so much was a definitely unlooked-for surprise.
As for the distances most game is shot at, Mule Deer has commented on this before so I won't belabor the point... but the vast majority of game animals are taken within a fairly short distance, less than 150 yards if I recall correctly. In my own hunting records, such as they are, the vast majority of my venison has been collected at ranges of about 125 yards or less. While I can shoot a lot farther than that, and have done so when there was really no alternative, I like to get close if I can. It's the essence of fair chase, to me.
Truer words were never spoken. Good hunting, sir.
