This question has been on my mind, because I want to get my youngest daughter set up for deer/maybe elk. I have a 7-08 Mountain Rifle I would give her, but part of me feels like the 6.5 CM would have a better chance of really getting shot more by her down the road, simply because of easy ammo availability. I reload, but she doesn’t, and her life has her bopping all around the wild areas of the great West, so ammo availability could be key. As others mentioned, Hornady did a great job supporting this one (still waiting for 6mm ARC brass though, haha) and ammo is everywhere and, I hear, generally very good. So I say 6.5 CM if ammo availability matters to the OP.
I’ve killed an antelope and a blacktail buck with a 6.5 140 ELDM from my slightly faster 6.5 GAP 4S, and it worked great, but that’s the extent of my 6.5 killin’.
I’m a big 7-08 fan and have used it to great effect on a bunch of deer from a couple different rifles with several different bullets. As pharm said, 140 Accubond and go huntin’. It might literally be the most perfect deer huntin’ cartridge ever made.
If minimizing recoil is an issue, and especially if shooting a lot at your max range is in the cards, the 6.5 CM with 147’s will be a noticeable notch down in recoil from the 7-08 with 162’s. Not that you need 162’s for 400 yards but if you ever tried them, there’s no going back.
7-08 or 6.5 CM is a pretty great problem to have. There’s no wrong choice there.
