Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 6.5 CM recommendation needed

Am going to buy a 6.5 Creedmoor in the next few months.
I want to buy a rifle I can live with for many years.
My needs:
-- Very good accuracy, don't want to have to re-barrel, re-bed.
-- Decent trigger
-- Decent stock
-- Good customer service behind the manufacture-of-it if any problems arise in first year
-- Budget: No more than $1,500 without scope (would go up a little if somewhere around this number)

Tikka? Model 70? Ruger? Other?

What do you think, what has worked for you??

Thanks!

Haven't bought one yet but I'd be leaning toward a Barrett.




Travis

Thanks Travis... will add Barrett to the list of viable choices.

I'd also look at Bergara's. I have an HMR in .308 and I can't find anything wrong with it. Haven't tested any warranty stuff on it though. Thankfully...




Travis

Yeah, Barrett.

Duly added to the list....
:-)

By the way, I've just looked at the Barrett site, and their fieldcraft with a 21" barrel looks like "the cat's meow"....

I’ve got a Tikka T3X SS Lite. Shoots real well but the Barrett is pretty wicked as well.

Thanks, will definitely take a peek at this while doing my comparisons.

I'd give Christensen Arms a look too. The Mesa meets your budget and the Ridgeline is just a tad above it. Both are very nice rifles.

How about Sauer 100 ? They have some new models coming out that were published recently at shot show and IWA.

If you'd like it lighter weight then Barrett Fieldcraft. They did everything right. I used one this past year and it's a great little rifle.

Check out the Sauer 100 XT. I have one in 6.5 CM and it shoots around .65" groups with factory ammo and even a bit smaller with my loads. It's got the best factory trigger I've ever tried, even a bit better than my Tikkas, a three position safety, flush fitting 5-round mag, and metal bottom metal. The only small fault I find with it is that it has a huge LOP, 14 9/16", which can at times be a bit slow to shoulder for me when wearing heavy clothes.

Bergara Mountain Premier gets a thumbs from me

How about a V2 Weatherguard barreled action bedded in the McM stock of your choice?

The V2 in 6.5 Creedmoor that I bought a couple of years ago is the most accurate out of the box CF rifle that I've yet to own and it only got better when I bedded it in a McM Hunter style stock.

I think that a person could put this package together for around $1,200, 80% of your $1,500 budget.

I would either buy the 24" Tikka CTR if I wanted a long range rifle or the Barrett if I wanted a walking rifle. That's not to say that the CTR is too heavy to walk with or that the Barrett is too light to shoot well at long range. That's just my thought process.

I might consider the Bergara too but I don't know as much about them yet and don't trust them as well.

Get a Tikka and upgrade to a Manners or McMillan stock. Leaves $200 for rail, rings, etc....

I have a couple of Savages and a Vanguard. All shoot great.

My Sako A7 shoots 1/2 moa. Sako just does thing right.

Because you mentioned good customer service Tikka is out immediately. They have NO (as in NONE) customer service.

Of all the 6.5 CMs available today the only ones I'd consider are the Ruger, https://ruger.com/products/precisionRifle/specSheets/18029.html

the Mossberg, http://www.mossberg.com/product/mvp-predator-rifle-27785/

and the various AR10 size autos.

All the others that I know of have magazines long enough that a 6.5CM is eclipsed by other cartridges that will fit in their magazines and allow for seating the bullets to give more capacity then the CM.

The only real strength of the CM over other 6.5s is that it fits in a NATO length magazine and still allows for use of the longest bullets. So if you want a CM over a 6.5 Swede or a 260 Remington (or even a 6.5-06) you are going to have the best fit in a rifles with a NATO length mag. There is no earthly reason to put the short shell in a longer action when a longer shell fits and works as well and in most cases better.