Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters I poured the 6.5 Creedmoor koolaid but...

I haven't drank it yet. Having not ever seen a real cartridge case, I asked the guys to send me a couple to make up some dummy rounds. Man, that's a small case. I don't how people are getting 2700fps out of it w/the 140gr bullet? I have a Remington 722 that I've been threatening to rebarrel for several years now. I've considered the 358, 338F, 22-250 and several others but now I'm leaning towards the Creedmoor w/120gr bullets. I have a gun to shoot 140's @ 3000fps. The old barrel is original from 1957 and is a 257AI that's getting tired. Been looking at ballistics and what seems to be an inherently accurate cartridge and am quite impressed. I just finished a 338-284 build along w/ a 280 this year but want to build something smaller. This cartridge would take care of everything I'll ever shoot in Texas, mainly varmits, hogs and deer. powdr

May as well go ahead and drink up!

Me and my son each have one. He has RAR Predator w/22" bbl and I have Sako A7 w/24"". Both shoot 1/2" or less groups at 100, using Hornady Precision Hunter 143eld-x from his at about 2600 and me w/142ABLR at 2725 chrono'd. He shot a buck Sunday at 385 yds and the bullet is devastating. Wayne Van Zwoll shot an Elk at 600 yds with a 129 sst and they video'd it. Hard to not like the whole deal but es p ec i ally lack of recoil on the old bones...good luck. Mac

Mac, is your gun a rebarrel or factory?

Both factory Powdr. My A7 is what they call the Roughtech Pro. Heavy sporter stainless fluted w/aluminium bedded stock. Little heavy but very stable even off-hand. Mac

I have a Bergara with a 22” barrel that I get 2950 with 120s and H4350. Shoots bugholes at 100. Drink up, I think you’ll like it.

Old70

The very first group out of my Howa 1500 was 3/4" with the 129 gr. Hornady American Whitetail factory loads. Subsequent groups proved it wasn't a fluke.

Drink it, 6.5 or 6...

I know stick loves it and etc...I tried it. Didn't do anything my 6,5x55 or 270 don't do. Same recoil and within an inch or two until you get way out there where most of us don't shoot.

So don't feel like you HAVE to buy one.

But go buy one anyway

260 and 6.5x55 do the same thing with less pressure. Love my 260's.
If your stuck with factory ammo - drink up - if you hand load go for the 260.

Thanks guys, keep the ideas and opinions coming. powdr

Hell, the .250 Ackley with 100Ballistics is enough.

Wifey knows that

kd

Everyone else has one, you don’t want to be left out!!

The 6.5 Creedmoor is a great round with good factory support. It has reasonably priced factory ammo with good availability. Lapua is making cases for it. Mine likes Lapua 123 Scenar. There are a lot of good accurate target and hunting bullets in .264 so what's not to like. I don't push my loadings and get 2700+ with 140gr bullets. The Creedmoor is a good short action cartridge that is easy to load for. It won't do any more than a .260 or 6.5x55 except work well in a short action and have good manners.

Another hipe by gunwritters . Remember 204 7mm rum 270 rum etc. Only thing it does is boost gun sales. Rem 260 as good before spending bunch on new rifle.

Dude...Im getting 2900 out of a 6.8 spa...the Creed will do 2700 with a good 120 grain bullet...my pard shoots one with 120 NBTs.... and it works on Texas game....

As I have gotten older I stick with the old classics, the .257 Roberts, .30-06 and .35 Whelen.

It's always interesting to read about how the 6.5 Creedmoor is a recent fad, essentially made-up by gun writers.

Instead it was introduced 10 years ago for target shooters, and very few mainstream gun writers noticed it until hunters started buying 6.5 Creedmoors a few years later. Over the past couple years it's started to become one of the standard chamberings in factory rifles, even some European models.

Whether most aging deer hunters should buy one is irrelevant. Owning a 6.5 Creedmoor won't get them anything over their 6.5x55's or .260's--except cheaper, easily-found brass, and a far better selection of factory ammo. Which are major reasons hunters who don't own a 6.5x55 or .260 (and very few own either) are buying 6.5 Creedmoors.

Anybody who can't tell the difference in recoil between the .270 Winchester and 6.5 Creedmoor needs to have their doctor check them over, and anybody who doesn't find any difference in accuracy might also have their eyes checked. I've now owned three 6.5 Creedmoors and thoroughly tested two others, only one a semi-custom rifle. The least accurate started grouping factory ammo under an inch right out of the box--and that's for 5-shot groups at 100 yards, not the 3-shot groups most hunters shoot so they can brag about the occasional cloverleaf.

Many if not most 6.5 Creedmoors will AVERAGE around half an inch for 3-shot groups with FACTORY ammo. I just range-tested another in October. Hornady ammo with their new ELD bullets averaged .47 inch, and the "cheap" American Whitetail with 129-grain Interlocks averaged .61.

Whether such accuracy doesn't make any difference when shooting deer at 250 yards, but it's one reason so many people are buying Creedmoors, whether they're deer (or elk) hunters, or steel whangers. In fact, one of my friends bought his Creedmoor both for deer hunting and steel-whanging, and after trying factory ammo decided he wouldn't bother handloading. He's a really avid handloader, far more than most, but also has young kids he wants to spend more time with, especially hunting, so appreciates the time saved by not having to handload the Creedmoor. He can easily sell the empties to the abundant 6.5 Creedmoor handloaders out there. (Oh, and one of my contacts at Hornady recently told me the "shortage" of H4350 these days is primarily due to demand from 6.5 Creedmoor shooters.)

Here's a clue for those who believe the 6.5 Creedmoor is a media-created fad that will soon disappear: Very few new rifle cartridges, even those considered reasonable successes, keep selling as well more than five years after being introduced. Only a few continue to sell well a decade after introduction, and most were originally military cartridges, such as the .223 Remington, .308 Winchester, .30-06 and .45-70, or old wildcats that were already pretty popular, such as the .22-250 and .25-06.

Among new rifle rounds introduced since World War Two, the non-wildcat, strictly commercial centerfire rifle rounds that continued selling well a decade after introduction have been the .243 Winchester, 7mm Remington Magnum, .300 Winchester Magnum, and 6.5 Creedmoor. In fact, 6.5 Creedmoor sales have continued to INCREASE each of the past 10 years. They haven't even started to level off.

Mule Deer, are you saying the 6.5 Creed is A more accurate cartridge. I was under the impression it was all about the rifle not the cartridge, outside benchrest suff.

Outstanding facts MD.