Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 260 vs 6.5x55

OK I am in the process of thinning the heard and reorganizing. I have decided a good full house load 6.5 in a light package is about perfect for me. I hate muzzle brakes and I shoot my guns a lot so that I am familiar with the weight and balance of my hunting gun. More recoil than the 6.5 as I get older is just unappealing....
I am wondering what you guys would go with between these two calibers. I see a small advantage both ways. I will have a 260 set up for shooting distance already, so I will be very familiar with the caliber. However the 6.5x55 gets a little extra fps with the 140's for hunting.
Is there anything I am missing? Lapua makes brass for both...
Tikka laminated stainless would be the gun I would get, and both calibers are listed to have a 22.4 inch barrel.....so is either caliber better suited for the short 22.4 Tikka barrel?

I went through the same thing a couple of months back. I had a tikka T3 hunter in 6.5 Swede and a Tikka T3 Superlight in 260. The long and short was that I liked the superlight more than the hunter model. I ended up keeping the 260. I don't think any animal you'll shoot with a 140 grain 6.5 caliber bullet will be able to tell the difference between the two. Good luck either way you go.
CT

Flip a coin. In a Tikka, both actions same length/weight. Both very capable but if I were running factory ammo I would lean to a Creedmoor actually. Since you handload, accuracy and velocity will be more similar than not, using good brass and loading technique. Noth more accurate than most shooters off the bags.

I like the 120-130s in the 260, not that it won't handle a 140, and on deer, I see nothing but meat in the freezer from 120 and up.

I would run a 140 at 2700 in the Swede and a 130 at 2850 in the 260. Both highly effective, and have reach.

Classic 6.5x55 in SS T3 Lite just ordered a McMillan, Gap tradition, Ti recoil lug, Ti handle, and carbon fiber knob.....not together yet, but soon.

Bought loaded Ammo 50 round Lapua 123gr and 50 rounds 108gr cheaper than 100 just brass. Will reload with 120-143 boolits later

Should be fun

The difference in case capacity is around 3 or 4 grains of H2O, depending on the brand of brass that you're using, in favor of the 6.5x55.

I have multiple of both and can't see that there is enough difference, performance wise, to pick one over the other, particularly when you're looking at the same rifle either way you choose to go. The 260 might have an advantage in brass availability, since you can make 260 cases from a variety of easy to find parents brass.

I shoot, mostly, 100 grain Partitions in my 260 deer rifles and either 129 grain Hornady SpirePoints or 130 grain AB in my 6.5x55s.

In a Tikka go for the swede, LA mag means you can load the bullets as long as you like, and Lapua brass is much cheaper and easier to find.

either one going to be better for the short 22.4 barrel, or not really any difference? Thanks

What kind of difference are you expecting from two cartridges that are more similar than different?

Lapua brass for 6.5x55 is 25 bucks cheaper.

The only 6.5 worth considering anymore is the Creed and evidently Lapua is going to be making brass soon. And now that Montanas are showing up the fat lady is singing with a mouthful of cake.

MD has pointed out that either Lapua or VV has published some "modern" loads for the x55 that give it a little more sauce than the .260.

OK, but case capacity doesn't change radically, there is still only about a 4 grain difference. 4 grains is about 7%, so if you apply MD's 4-1 ROT, a 7% increase in case capacity should gain about a 1.75% increase in MV, assuming that all other variable factors remain constant. Therefore, if the 260 is getting a MV of 3,000 fps from a particular combination of components, a 6.5x55 would project to get a MV in the neighborhood of 3,053 fps. Even if a shoot got 100 fps of additional MV, how often is that sort of increase going to make a meaningful difference either in the field or on the range?

140 AMAX @ 3,000 vs 3,100 = 3" drop and 3/4" drift at 500. Boot is untied, feet wet, knee hurts, hungry, outta water, wind shifted, looks like rain, are you on the right ridge? Where's that guy you spotted 2 hours ago? 1 hour of light left, headlamp battery low.....

See how much it matters now?

No bad choice to be made here.

+1

I have a Swede and a Creed, no .260.

For SA, I like the Creed. Of course the Swede needs to be in an intermediate (3") or long (3.4") action.

The Creed was built around long bullets in a SA. Some say the Creed is the .260 done right. I won't push that point, but there is some reasoning behind the statement.

IMO, it boils down to the individual rifle, how it fits, how it shoots, how it carries, how it functions, etc. The three rounds are pretty close, all three do what they need to do.

Fire wisdom: it's the bullet, not the headstamp...

And as always, it's the nut behind the trigger...

DF

Nope the good ole 260 Rem will still be a solid seller in 20 yrs not something Id confidently say about the creed !!

I've shot the 6.5x55 since 96 and had 3 of them and its a lovely round with the heavier SD projectiles, I've recently built a custom Mod 7 in 260 rem and scoped it comes in at around 5 1/2 Pounds, great package and 130gr VLD at 2900fps have great legs. I see nuthin the Creed offers that the other 2 dont already, apart from the look at me factor.

The 6.5 Creedmoor has at least one advantage over all other 6.5mm bore sporting cartridges, great factory ammo. Even the $18 Hornady American Whitetail 129 grain hunting loads are MOA capable.

I think that the 6.5 Creedmoor will be more popular now that Hornady is offering factory loaded hunting ammo and I have been told that Winchester/Olin is coming out with a hunting load that will feature their Extreme Point bullets.

Maybe Remington will get on the 6.5 Creedmoor train and we'll see 700 ADL or SPS entry-level rifles for under $400. Maybe.

I think quite the reverse, and tend to believe the 6.5 Creedmoor will (perhaps already has) eclipse the 260 and relegate it to near obsolescence.

Of all the cartridges introduced in my 55 year life time, I think the 6.5 Creedmoor is at about the top of the heap in terms of intelligent design (sorry you evolutionists ).

It just has more latitude in a SA than the 260 with long 140's, and I've found Creedmoor brass to be far more available.

When I build a 6.5 it will be on the Kimber MT platform and will be a 6.5 Creedmoor. Inherently accurate, miserly on powder, great barrel life, kicks a little, kills a lot... a cartridge to grow old with.

Yes.

Unless I miss my guess the 260 is going to end up like the 280 Remington.


If I thought the 6.5 Creed was going to end up as a dead duck, I would not have built this...

Got two Swedes, no .260. I'm sure the .260 is a fine round but, like everything on the .308 case, it's just two dull and sensible. I'll vote 6.5 X55 just for the cool factor.