Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 6.5-06 - King of all non DG hunting calibers?

Tags, guns, ammo, money, clean underwear. Then everything else.

I have a lifetime supply of .375 Win brass and bullets. Love shooting it but bolts almost always beat levers for my hunting needs and wants.

Agreed... pass the PRC.

Nothing strange about it. 600 yards is the maximum at which we practice because it is the longest range available where we shoot. We use both steel plates and 108mm (4.25") clay pigeons for targets at 500 and 600 yards.

The .277" 150g LRAB measures 1.429" overall and 1.287" from the base of the bullet to the base of the tip.

The Berger bullet stability calculator is available here: http://www.bergerbullets.com/twist-rate-calculator/. It agrees with you that with a 1-10 twist, 7000' and 2850fps the B.C. is lower than the published .625 and suggests a corrected B.C. of .623 - a difference not worth mentioning. At 2900fps it says the bullet "is flying with full stability".

But that is using the full 1.429" bullet length. Because the tip is much less dense than the metal and is sharply tapered, it is reasonable to use a length somewhere between the overall length and the length from the bullet base to the base of the tip. Iterative calculations show the bullet is fully stable at 2850fps with an adjusted length of 1.426". That is just .003" shorter and is 99.8% of the overall length. There isn't much tip left in the remaining .003".

If an adjusted length of 1.411" is used (87.5% of the tip length included), the bullet is fully stable at 2595fps. My guess is that is a rather generous allowance.
At 1.422"" (95% of the tip length included) the bullet is fully stable at 2780fps. All that is excluded at this length is the last .007" of the tip of the tip - and there isn't much there.

In short, I don't anticipate any issues with the 1-10 twist. If there is, the easy solution is to bump the velocity to 2900fps.

King? Worldwide use may suggest the 7mm Rem Mag is probably the holder of that title. Does anything and more than the 6.5-06 and enjoys the popularity of buying ammunition any place around the globe. From 100 lbs - 1,500 lbs of game animal, probably none have been used more successfully than the 7mm Rem Mag. Hard to beat and with today's bullet choices as it is better than ever.

I think if you look into it, 30-06 sales are more. Last time I saw a chart, it looked 30-06 ammo out sold 7mm mag.

https://www.chuckhawks.com/best_selling_rifle_cartridges.htm

This. Whether it's liked it not, every other cartridge is measured up to it.

I won't discount the 30-06 as being up at the top in game fields by North American hunters, but in today's long range performance the 7mm Rem Mag shoots much flatter and drifts quite a bit less than the 06 while retaining better downrange numbers all of which is not much to worry about at 300-400-500 yards when comparing. I think you'll find that worldwide the 6.5mm and 7mm is used a great deal more than the 7.62mm. I would however say the 308 Win may be more popular around the world's game fields than the 30-06 is at this time. I think you will find that the 7mm Rem Mag stole a great deal of the 30-06's thunder post it's 1962 introduction.

Please post your source concerning world wide use or is it your opinion. One can find several cartridges that out shoot the 7mag in terms of flat shooting, wind drift etc. I doubt world wide the sales volume noted in the study I posted is much different ,but I will qualify that in that is my opinion

Yes, but from a purely practical perspective, folks are unlikely to find .375 WIN factory ammo and/or reloading components on dealers' shelves very frequently. I'm a 25 WSSM shooter and like the .375 WIN it is another virtually orphaned cartridge that works well within its niche, but is impractical due to the scarcity of factory ammo and reloading components. Lately however, WSSM shooters have been helped by Hornady's decision to make regular runs of component brass for the .223 and .243 WSSM and won't have to depend on Winchester/Olin for an occasional/seasonal run.

Guyotrd,

Congratulations on owning a great rifle!

I went a similar, but slightly different, path with my 6.5.

I had a long action and stock on hand, found a Bartlien barrel at 50% off retail, and Redneck here on the 'Fire put it all together for me, chambering it in 6.5-.280AI. It's no lightweight, but man, does it shoot!
I named it "Holmes" in honor of the late, great John Holmes since the cartridge looks like a very long 6.5CM.

Is it the perfect rifle for all things? No, but it shoots 100gr Ballistic Tips at >3,500fps into tiny 5-shot groups and has shot well under MOA groups all the way to 600yds. I simply haven't shot it past 600yet, so I can't address it at more than that. I have made called head-shots on a life-size prairie dog silhouette at 400yds, and shot a nice .5MOA group on a turkey silhouette at 600 yards with Barnes 127gr LRX.

Yup, we're a bunch of Loonies and I like it that way.

Enjoy your rifle!

Ed

Well I see that the 7mm RM is 7th on that list with 30-06 at #3. Not sure what that encompasses outside of the U.S. By the same token he has this to say about the 7mm Rem Mag's popularity.

7mm Rem Mag Popularity

One things for sure both qualify as "King" over the 6.5-06 when it comes to a track record of dropping significantly more game around the globe. I do however like the 6.5-06 but in truth it does nothing better than a 270 Win in the game field other than in someone's preferential mind.

Wife shoots a 6.5-06 and it has quickly became one of my favorite rounds. I could be perfectly happy to hunt with a 6.5-06 or a 7mm-08

I bought my 6.5-06 not long ago. I really like it, a Dumoulin action, Boyd Stock, Douglas Barrel.

260Remguy Just an FYI Sportsman's Warehouse and Bass Pro always have 6.5X55 ammo that is where I always bought mine, and in the last week I have seen it in both those stores and in Cabelas.

Yes, but that doesn't do a person any good if he shows up at his hunting destination without ammo and without enough time to have ammo shipped to him or to physically travel to and back from the nearest stocking retailer with inventory on the shelf.

The specific situation that I cited occurred in Wray, CO. While Wray is the Yuma County Seat, it is a small town, less than 3,000 people and no 6.5x55 ammo. The closest Cabela's, in Sidney, NE, was out of stock and the nearest 6.5x55 ammo that the guy who borrowed my 30-06 was able to find was in the Denver metro area, a 350+/- mile round trip.

EDIT: If the 6.5x55 shooter had had a 243, 25-06, 270, 30-30, 308, 30-06, 7mm RM, or 300 WM he could have bought factory ammo and punched his tag with his own rifle, not one borrowed from a kindly stranger who had the foresight to pack a spare rifle and ammo.

Now that DO have real merit.

I have a Swede but that doesn’t change the facts.

I suspect the 6.5-06 would also be in the (s o l ) same ‘outta luck’ situation.


Jerry

I guarantee it would be in the same boat.

I prefer a Danner size 12 wide as a long range solution...sooner or later I'll either get within respectable 8x57 wacking range or I won't. Of course everybody knows that a 114 year old cartridge with no bullets readily available with a BC over .450 is pretty useless up against modern "evolved" game...

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