Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 6mm creedmoor?

Purveyors of knowledge and wisdom,

I am considering getting an RAR preditor in 6mm creedmoor (one of very few offerings I find).

This rifle will see some hunting and lots of long range steel. I am a bit concerned this round is not going to "take". If you were to offer your best guess, would you expect this round to be holding strong in 10 years? "no" might not be a deal breaker, but a (likely) yes, would seal the deal.

The 6mm Creedmoor is very popular in the Precision Rifle Series/long range competitive shooting world. I could be wrong but I don't see it disappearing, particularly with Hornady supporting it.

Yeah, I don't see it disappearing either--but it may have a tougher time grabbing some of the hunting market, because the .243 Winchester is so entrenched there. The 6.5 Creedmoor didn't have nearly as much competition, since the neither the 6.5x55 or .260 has ever been nearly as popular among American hunters as the .243.

I think it will stick around but I would hedge my bet by getting a supply of 300-500 cases. I like to do this with all new rifles so I am not constantly working up loads with different types and lots of brass. You will always have the necked down 6.5 option so should never become a problem except when brass of all types is in a shortage.

Why not go with the 6.5 CM?, that round just may be the next .243 in popularity. I think it is here to stay.

I thought a good bit about getting one, parly because of the considerable collection of 6mm bullets I've acquired for my .243s, but am holding off for the time being. If they ever make the Hawkeye Predator for it, I'll be sorely tempted. I had a notion that barrel life might be better than the .243, but that's just a guess.

One side benefit of the CM is the fast-twist 1-7.7" barrels they made for it, one of which ended up on the Number 1V I bought earlier this year.

Yeah, barrel life will be better. The 6mm CM holds a little less powder, but more importantly the sharper shoulder and longer neck don't angle hot gas into the bore just in front of the neck, as the .243 does.

I'm hoping my 243 AI results in longer barrel life--that's the whole reason I had the rifle rebarreled.............

imho, I don’t see it going away entirely But I wouldn’t expect to see factory chambered rifles in it for long or to find factory ammo for it regularly so stock up on cases. By the time you run out of cases you’ll need a new barrel and you can judge the round then.The 6mm arena is a tough one to compete in. Almost everyone from bubba down the street to the biggest rifle loonies have a .243, 6mm rem etc and going out and buying a creedmoor for a slight advantages is pretty tough considering all the other cartridges you may need to fill a niche with!

If you handload or can live with the current Hornady ammo offerings, then go right ahead. It's a $389 rifle and I bet you will get your money's worth. Should the chambering die on the vine, cases are easily made from 6.5CM brass. I personally like the concept of a fast-twist 6mm rifle in that price range. If they would only make it in stainless, I'd have one to keep in the truck.

FWIW, Hornady just expanded its offering in the 6CM to include the 87gr V-Max.

The 6mm Creed is like the 6.5 Creed- a cartridge designed first for shooters, not hunters. The "shooting" community fires WAY more ammo, especially factory, than the "hunting" community. This is a huge difference between them and nearly all other cartridges introduced. When a company introduces a cartridge for "hunting" (ala 260 Rem) they do all kinds of stupid things with it (ala 260 Rem). When they introduce a cartridge for "shooting"'they make it so shooters will want to shoot it. The 6mm Creed has all the same benefits over any other factory 6mm as the 6.5 Creed does over any other factory 6.5mm cartridge- inexpensive great factory LR ammo, rifles twisted correctly, chambers throated correctly for mag constraints, and great support from the factory.

The 6mm Creed will be as popular as the 6.5 version and it will be as common.

That will be a hammer of a load for coyotes. I shoot that bullet in my 243 in my primary calling rifle and it flat puts them down. Pretty good BC (for a varmint bullet, not as a LR steel bullet), and pretty violent opening, yet enough bullet weight to plow on through. It is not the bullet you want if you save fur, but really good if you just want them dead.

If I thought I was buying something that might not be around, it would be more like a few thousand to 5000 cases.... just IMHO. 300-500 doesn't get you through to many barrels...

In my one sort of scientific test it does, but not by a lot. The relevant numbers are that a .243 eroded the throat of a freshly set back and chambered Remington factory barrel by some .070" after 600 rounds. That same barrel was set back and rechambered to a .243 AI, and after 632 rounds the throat had receded by .061". Loads for both used mostly H4350 with some IMR4831 and a few with RE-15 all from the same 8 pound jugs so same powder lots, They were pretty much same-same pressure wise in that I increased velocity for the .243 AI in accordance with what one would reasonably expect given the 5% increase in case capacity.

The 40 degree AI does have the very real advantage of not stretching cases. I had a lot of 100 that were fired 25 times and never needed further trimming after being initially trimmed on their second firing. Wen I finally gave them honorable burial in the range brass bucket they had only stretched around .006-.007" over their lifetime. Since IIRC the Creedmoor has a 30 degree shoulder one should still realize some advantage there as well, given a minimum of FL sizing.


In the FWIW category, that Remington factory take off barrel was purchased only after the original .243 barrel had worn the throat out so far that a 100 grain Hornady Interlock could not touch the lands and still be seated inside the case, yet it was still very much sub-MOA as in grouping in the .7's and 8's right up until accuracy just went south all of a sudden. It kept that accuracy through well over three thousand rounds that I know of; I bought the rifle used from a varmint and coyote hunter so who knows how many he had put through it. Anyway, I know .243's eat throats but 3,000+? rounds is still a pretty useful barrel life. I replaced that second take off barrel after maybe 1500 rounds or so with a Pac-Nor stainless barrel, not because it was worn out in the least but because I wanted to install the P-N and was too impatient to wait for it to burn out.

Frankly outside of PRS/similar comps or shooting needs where a large capacity box magazines like the excellent AI mags are desirable, I personally don't see either of the creedmoors as anything special. They work in the previously mentioned niche extremely well though.

That said, ballistically speaking (for a handloader) the .260 give better performance. What has happened however is that the shooting world has been successfully advertised to. Everywhere you turn, you read about the new wunder-cartrdijjje capable of magical feats and all the cool kids have one. There is nothing at all wrong with them, I just have to chuckle when I hear guys talk about the "amazing" performance of the 6.5 CM.

The same thing happened many years back with the .243 and the 6mm Remington. The 6 Rem is simply a faster cartridge, but the slower cartridge became the most popular .24 caliber by a considerable margin.

If I was building a 6.5 rifle today, that was not going to be fed from AI style mags, and was simply a hunting rifle, I would strongly consider a 6.5-284 (lapua brass).

The 6.5-284 is a very under rated hunting cartridge in my observation.

If I wanted a 24 caliber, the 6mm Remington would still get the nod over the latest Creed, the .243 or anything else.

My primary hunting/target 6 rem load runs an 85 grain projectile in the mid 3400s with a 23" Lilja tube, which is fair to say, not likely to happen with the newest wonder cartridge.

Now with all that said and done, I fully expect that the both the 6.5 and 6 CM are here to stay. Manufacturers are paying attention (mostly) and delivering rifles with proper twist rates that allow guys to shoot high BC projectiles in the new chamberings.

The choices a shooter has today is pretty amazing really. Hard to go wrong.

Now Hornady has the new 6.5 PRC, which I think is the same as the 6.5 SAUM wildcat.

The fast twist, long bullet, high BC thing is here to stay.

6XC.........already proven

PRC is based off the RCM case and offers different case geometry all together, namely a longer neck. 3-4grs less powder and won't do anything the SAUM will, but offer factory ammo.

My 6 CM shoots everything I feed it well and both CM offerings are here to stay I believe, esp with Hornady backing them with quality ammo. I only see other manufactures following suit.

The 6.5 PRC sounds very close to the 4S (performance wise) based on the very limited info I have read, and I have been waiting to hear more news. If it becomes a success like the 6.5CM, there is no doubt that I would probably replace a couple rifles in my safe with one.