Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Best 6.5/264 mule deer & pronghorn cartridge/rifle?

Looking to buy my 30 year old son a great mule deer & pronghorn rifle. I'd rather not go over $1500 for the rife.

6.5 Nosler?

6.5 Weatherby?

264 Win Mag?

It's got to have readily avail factory ammo, though I'm a handloader. I hope to handload for his new rifle for years to come. This will be his first new rifle. He's had several pass downs and normally hunts with either a 6mm Remington or an ancient (over 100 years old) 30-06 rifle. So... I'm thinking something with a lot of zip, not much recoil, good accuracy... Something I can put a 3.5-10x Leupold or similar scope on...

Please advise, I'm not up to speed on the various 6.5's but they sure seem to have great bullets avail. Well, when bullets are available.

Thanks, Guy

6.5 creedmoor, 6.5 PRC.

Swede all the way. 6.5 X 55

Cascade: ALL.... of the Mule Deer, Antelope and Whitetail Deer I have shot with my 260 Remington Rifle have been "one shot kills"!
My Rifle in 260 Remington is the now discontinued Remington 700 VLS (heavy barrel, laminated stock, 26" barrel) and I have a Leupold 6.5x20 variable scope on it.
Patience when selecting ones shot and the superb accuracy of my Rifle are what I credit with the wonderful results that I have gotten with my 260.
Best of luck to you and your son with whichever cartridge you decide on but do not overlook the 260 Remington.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

I'd ditch the big boomers and look for something in a short action. 6.5 CM followed by 260 rem. If handloading 6.5x284

E

Ditto that above ^

I’d look no further than the 6.5 CM..... readily available in a lot of good platforms, easy to shoot, inexpensive ammo and lots of it - not so with the choices you mentioned. Those larger cartridges are available in just a few rifle models, too.

Some people want to bang on the 6.5 CM but if you are looking for an accurate rifle and that have many, many factory ammo choices, all being very good, the 6.5 CM is an easy decision. There are some guys here on the fire who have killed Elk with them, as well. My choice would be 6.5 CM, 6.5x55 and 260 Rem. Easy to shoot well, fully capable of longer range kills and it does it all without excess recoil.

prc

I bought a Browning Xbolt Stalker Long Range 2 weeks ago in 6.5 PRC. I paid 829+ tax for it. I mounted a Vortex Razor HD LHT 3-15x50 Milrad on it. I Had it sighted in 2 shots at 100, I was shooting Hornady 143 ELDX factory ammo.

It looks like you are favoring some heavy hitters there. None of those have readily available ammo, but I do see the occasional box of 264 WM on shelves. Those chamberings will do just fine, but you don't have to burn that much powder to do what you want to do.

Best is obviously a very subjective term. There are a whole host of rifles and chamberings that will serve you well. The 6.5 Creedmoor will do very well and do it with little fuss. Factory ammo is pretty easy to come by even in this tight market. The 260 Rem an 6.5x55 are essentially indistinguishable. I am seeing 260 Remington ammo on shelves as well. the 6.5x55 isn't as prevalent.

Th 6.5 PRC is another good choice and lies in between the Creed/260/6.5x55 and the boomers you mentioned in power. Ammo is very difficult to come by now. I guess the same could be said for the 6.5x284.

Rifles? Whew, that's a massive can of worms. A Winchester model 70 SS 264 WM would be a good one, and there are a lot of them out there right now. A Christensen Arms Mesa 6.5 PRC would be a good choice. I have one and it's very accurate. It's a little heavier though and you'd have ammo availability issue right off the bat. The same rifle in a 6.5 Creedmoor would be a good choice. It's lighter and ammo is readily available. You could just cut right through all the BS and get a Tikka 6.5 Creedmoor. You'd have a lot of money left over for a really good scope.

My recommendation is to spend a little time shopping ammo. Your stipulation of "readily available ammo" is limiting in today's market. Online prices for the ones you mentioned go from 3-4 bucks per round! 6.5 Creed can be had for about $25 per box. Once you have researched ammo availability and made a decision on chambering, go rifle shopping.

tikka t3x in 260 rem,6.5x55 swede or as bad as i hate to say it out loud the nkotb 6.5 cm in that order personally. the 6.5 cm will give you a ton of options factory loaded ammo wise.
Big Ed

Agreed ^^^^^^ Any of the 3 above would be fine. My personal preference would be the 6.5x55, just because it is my personal preference. Antelope will never know the difference. Pick a rifle. Buy a case of ammo. Go kill stuff.

It isn't often the campfire agrees on something but I think the above responses are about as close to consensus as you will ever see here... I would have to recommend the 6.5 Creedmore also- lots of available ammo in excellent bullet availabilities, easy to handload for relatively cheaply, and just about the best compromise of ballistics, bullets, recoil, and availability in rifles chambered for it I've ever seen.

My choice, after handling my brother's rifle would be the Tikka T3x Superlight... extremely light to carry, but extremely accurate right out of the box. Leaves enough money for a good scope also- which to me , for the game you are going after would be a 4-12 or a 4.5 -14 or something in that range. I wouldn't be afraid to go after elk with the 6.5 either with a good Nosler Accubond 140 or ELDX bullet loaded...

Bob

Mighta seen a Fieldcraft in that one time


Lol

If ammo availability is indeed important , I say Creedmoor

Would you consider spending another $100 to $200 for a CLR/NULA hybrid in 270 WIN, 7mm RM, or 30-06?

I recently got my CLR/NULA hybrid in 270 back from NULA and like it even more than I thought that I would.

6.5 prc would be my first choice followed by 6.5 creedmore and then 6.5x284 if handloading.

This stuff shot great for us. Be the easy button for sure.

https://bergerbullets.com/product/6-5-mm-creedmoor-135gr-classic-hunter/

Thanks guys, I appreciate the input!

Guy

For me it's the 6.5X54 Mannlicher–Schönauer
2018 #1 Ant. Buck by Steve Zihn, on [bleep]
And the 270 Winchester is excellent too.
IMG_20190918_192827625 by Steve Zihn, on [bleep]
And a good old fashioned 150 grain 30-06 does just fine too
M1 2020 Buck 2 by Steve Zihn, on [bleep]
Several have fallen to my 300 Savage M99 with iron sights But I didn't have a camera and neither did my hunting partners as they did with the pictures posted here. (All taken by hunting partners. I should take a camera but I almost never do.)

I have taken 7 of them with a 6" S&W 357 magnum M27 with issue sights but got no pictures of them either.
I have killed 3 with a 4" S&W M29 with issue sights.
I have killed 4 with a 62 caliber flintlock.
I have killed about 12 with an AR15 in 6.8SPC with no scope on it, just the peep sights.
I have killed 2 with an FN FAL, 308, with iron sight
I have killed 3 with a stock AK47 with Wolf 123 grain factory ammo and issue sights
2 with a 50 caliber flintlock
I killed 1 with a marlin 30-30 with a peep sight.
I killed one with a 45-70 with peep sights
1 with a 303 British Lee Sporter with open sights

No bragging is intended here but my point is simply that comparing the 3 cartridges you listed, which are so close to one another that no animal could tell any difference and thinking that one may have some advantage over the others for antelope hunting is to miss the point by miles.

All are fine. In fact all 3 are way more then "fine".
A 357 magnum revolver with a 6" barrel and no scope at all (and no rifle even taken on the hunt) is fine.
A .490" round ball leaving the muzzle at only 1750 FPS is fine.

It's not about the gun or the shell.

It's about you and how well you can hunt.

Knowing how to hunt is most important and once you learn that, the gun and cartridge become far less important.