Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters is there a winner between the 6.5-300 and 26 Nosler?

All of my Sako’s and pre-64 264 Win mags are 1-9 twist barrels. All shoot 140’s just fine. They are almost 60 years old. I doubt they have had a hundred rounds fired in all three put together. I need to fix that.

Jim,

I've fired my 26 Nosler almost 300 times now. It still shoots great, and there's only a hint of throat erosion visible through my bore-scope. Nosler reports that most people are getting at least 1000 rounds before requesting a rebarrel, and one went 1500. Based on what I'm seeing with my rifle, that sounds about right.

The 6.5-.300 Weatherby has just about exactly the same case capacity, though the long "freebore" throat allows a little more velocity. If anything, I'd expect the freebore to extend barrel life. I've fired my rifle around 100 times, and can't be sure I'm seeing any erosion in the bore-scope.

I read that the 6.5-300 is pretty sharp in the recoil department. Any truth to that. Described as very quick -sharp and not a long heavy push.

It feels to me a lot like a 7mm Remington Magnum of about the same weight with 140's.

No, it is not a long, heavy push. If that's what you're looking for, a .375 H&H does the job.

My hunting, shooting, and business partner owned a “specialized” rifle for every conceivable situation. He had every variation of short/long, light/heavy, bigger/smaller, long range/short range and so on. His idea was to have a passel of porters each toting two of his rifles. He fantasized that he could to turn to his porters and they would present him with the “just right” rifle.

I had a 7 pound 270 and just went hunting.

Another story.
My African PH outfitter buddy work hard for many days to find a massive kudu for his well equipped US client. Finally he found the kudu, and told the client “shoot straight quickly”. The American ranged it with his laser, checked the wind, turned the dials of his scope, and adjusted the power ring. Sadly, the kudu wandered off. My pal who is not easily provoked got himself under control and asked his client why hid didn’t shoot. Our nimrod explained he was preparing for the shot. My pal didn’t understand the need for all the technical adjustments the kudu being about 115 yards from the muzzle of the gentleman’s rifle.
True story.

Not a surprise at all.

Mr. Rin:

I'm confessing,..... I stole this story w/o your permission. I used it in another thread to 'illustrate' my point on MPBR.
I'm asking 'forgiveness' instead of permission.
IF you don't approve -- I can delete that from the other thread.






Jerry

That story is fulfilling in so many ways. I feel uplifted.

RinB's logic and experience is why i have stopped short of buying so many rifles in so many different chamberings the last ten years. I know that my M700 in 280 Remington will do anything i need doing. Knowing that has kept me from buying a 270, a 3006, and a host of other "must have because" cartridges. It has kept me from falling for the 6.5 Creedmoor koolaid, and likely a 26 Nosler... lol

You are no fun!

Agreed. I've only been bitten by the bug (where I could afford more rifles) for about 5 years. I started planning every possibility in my head until I had an epiphany. In the real world, the difference on paper between between a 270 win and 7-08 are not as significant. Also, the weight difference between a 7.5-8# all up rig wasn't worth the extra $1000 - $2000 for me.

Now, I fully plan builds and analyze ballistics on paper. But, I almost always stop before I regret it. I settled on a 30-06 Savage bedded into Boyds for my hunting rig with a .243 M77 Ruger as my light gun. I'll probably toy with a M70 classic SS 7 Rem I have to possibly take the 30-06's place and add a Talkeetna down the road. That should round me out for life.

The only winner in that race is the powder companies.

Dogger,

If you knew RinB as well as I do, you'd also know that he still constantly buys and sells rifles, trying to find perfection. He swears off once in a while, but then a year or so later is right back in it.

However, his story about the guy who couldn't shoot a damn kudu at 115 yards because he "needed" to dink around with his high-tech gear is also familiar. Even before the recent changes some hunters were guilty of similar delays. I know this from doing some guiding myself over the years. One of my "favorites" was a guy from Maine who came to Montana on his first pronghorn hunt. He'd hunted quite a bit for whitetails, caribou and moose, but this was his first Western trip.

I was driving along a ranch road, headed for a reliable area I knew well, when a small herd suddenly appeared next to the road. The buck was pretty darn good, especially for a first antelope, and it was early in the season so the herd wasn't very spooked, so we got out and lay down on a small hill next to the road, my client with his 7mm Remington Magnum.

By that time the herd had stopped about 200 yards away "That's a GOOD buck," I said, expecting the guy to shoot, since I'd seen him loading the chamber. When he didn't I looked over, finding him looking through HIS binoculars, so I said, "Shoot him. He's not going to stand there forever."

The guy finally dropped his binoculars, but then started fiddling with his scope. By then the antelope had decided to move on, but still weren't terribly alarmed, trotting slowly. They'd started to slow down to stop again, still only about 250 yards away, when the guy finally shot--and of course missed.

Afterward I asked him what he'd been doing with his scope. It turned out he felt 200 yards was way to far for a 4-12x variable set on 4x, so he was turning it all the way up....

Sirs, I appreciate this desire to find personal perfection in a rifle. I have a lot to learn. I dropped my M700 into a B&C 2265 Alaskan ti and I like it very much. It shoots Nosler 140 E-tip into groups small enough to put game down at any reasonable range if i do my part. But I wonder about that bolt handle breaking off (grin) and I wonder about that nylon bottom metal failing at the wrong time... I know i can improve on this platform for fast shots at longer ranges, but the gains will be small increments - there ain't much that will shoot noticeably flatter and buck the wind better than a 140 grain 280 out to 400 yards.... the 26 Nosler is likely to give me the biggest stretch. Not sure what to scope it with... the idea is to build the flatest-shooting wind-buckingest bullet launcher i can, with a simple scope set up, and when the "Go" decision is made to shoot, put the reticle on the right spot of hair and pull the trigger... no dial twisting, no adjusting power... no spazzing as precious seconds step by and the critter moves away.

After owning 3 264's and many other 26 calibers over the last 20 years.

I'm not all that impressed with large powder volume 26 calibers.

I can pretty much mimic the same performance with a 7 mm Rem Mag and 120/140 grain bullets at 3,500/3,300 fps.
Especially if your large powder volume 6.5 rifle is a purposed flat-liner with no turrets.

For me, the high B.C. 6.5 caliber bullet is what does the work, not the powder volume.

The 6.5 bullets over-perform with less recoil, that's the beauty of shooting a 6.5/26 caliber rifle.

I wouldn't own a 6.5 rifle without being able to dial a turret for it as the 6.5 bullet is a natural for hang time.

60 grains approx of powder is about as much as I want to go in a 26 caliber rifle.

If anything, the 6.5 RCM/PRC has my attention.

SU35, that brings me back to the 6.5x284 I have had eyeballs on...

I like the 6.5 caliber a lot, my one only run with it was in a 6.5/284 with the 120/125s for a couple years. I "did" have a rifle made up for the Creedmor but had only shot a box of factory ammo ( 123 SST stuff) before I had to sell it for a pressing expense. I felt like it was/is a "modern .257 Roberts" as far as uses go, based on my former use of it ( I even had "it" Ackleyed) so I actually have more time with faster .25s, i.e. 25-06, 257 Weatherby. I hunted/played with the RUMs a few years, and "almost" had a 6.5 STW made up once, same with the 6.5/06 (went back and forth on standard or Ackley) Never did either one. Due to Obammacares "hidden in the 2000 pages" tax on Ministers Benefits I had to sell everything not nailed down in the last year, now I'm back to rebuilding a "sensible" battery...for a Preacher anyhow, ha. A 338 Winmag, a 7mm Mauser and working on getting a .243 Win. I discovered that my "Loonyism" just won't let me sleep with one "do it all" rifle. Been there done that wasn't happy! lol
I always think of my old friend down in East Texas that does that with his Mod 700 .264 winmag. He shoots deer from spitting distance to several hundred yards down the pipeline right of Way with 140gr Partitions ( when he can get them from our mutual handloading friend down there, or factory loads. His boys have used it to shoot varmints and a few bucks out to 500yds with it! ha He will "wipe it with a rag/gun oil" and about every three years take it to a gunsmith for " a good cleaning", ha. If his throat is burned up, he wouldn't know it! Its only guys like us that fret with those things, and how many of "us" actually "get" to hunt/shoot enough to even "reach" a 1000 rounds on one rifle? I bet not many...I don't think I ever have and I'm a pretty looney 65 yr old ! ha

Yeah, and I like the 6.5x284. Basically what the PRC is all about.

I mean, really, what is the extra powder of the 26 Noz and 6.5 Bee going to give you?

what's really ridiculous is my 300 RSAUM can likely push a 150 accubond as flat to 800 yards as a 130 accubond in the 6.5x284... of course with more drift and more recoil.