R270Man,
The 6.5s have never been as popular as the .270 Win and .30-'06 fro hunting in this country, but they are very effective rifle hunting cartridges. I killed my first deer with a 6.5X55, so I think I got warped early.
My favorite is a 6.5-'06 I built as a custom rifle about six coons' ages ago, which still kills them dead, only now I have been shooting 130 gr Berger VLD bullets from it instead of the 140 gr Hornady Spire Point bullets I started hunting with it.
The plusses are mostly ballistic advantages, while the negatives are mostly ease of use. If you compare to the .270 Win, it is pretty easy to go that route, but you have to really want to hunt with the 6.5s to get there from here. Maybe if JOC had written more about his experience with the .256 Newton we would be somewhere else, but it was not to be.
jim
