Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles How many have gone back from 6.5 CM?

My 5R Milspec in 6.5 Creedmoor makes me smile every time I shoot it. Admitting the merits is easy for me.

I'm not an elk hunter so no comment there.

6.5 Creedmoor ballistics kill deer and pigs very well at my camp though the case heads said 260 Rem for this data.

Exactly! What it was designed for in no way detracts from what it does on game.

I think you missed his point. Neither the 30-06 nor the 7x57 were designed as hunting rounds either. So saying "not being designed as a hunting round" is a negative for the 6.5 CM, if you're a fan of the 30-06, 7x57, .308, 6.5x55 (designed for war) or the 7-08 (designed for silhouette) IS pretty silly. Want a round designed for hunting? Get a .270, .243, 9.3x62, or .257 Roberts.

I added a 6.5 CM to my herd of rifles this year, just to get in on the fun. Already had a 6.5x55 and a .256 Newton. The Creed is a welcomed member of the remuda. It's the most accurate rifle I've ever owned. I won't "go back" to another caliber because I'll never leave them. I have more rifles than I can ever hunt with in my remaining years so I constantly switch them out for each hunt. I took the new Creed to Montana this fall and killed a nice pronghorn. Just like I have with the 25-06 last year, the 6.5x55 the year before, the 270 WSM the year before that, and the .257 Roberts the year before that. And so on. I love my rifles and love to hunt them.

I think the 6.5 CM is a fantastic cartridge and if I was not a total rifle slut I could live with it for a long time. I'd want to add a 30-06, .338-06, or .35 Whelen, all of which I have also hunted in the last few years, and I'd be pretty well covered for this continent.

Cheers,
Rex

Actually, in the context it was originally raised, the comparison is quite valid. The idea that the round shouldn't be used for hunting because it was conceived for target shooting -- despite it being very, very effective for hunting -- makes zero sense. It's like saying Jeeps shouldn't be allowed to drive on pavement because it was designed for different terrain and other vehicles designed for "normal daily driving" already existed.

And saying the 06 and 7mm are different because they had fewer comparable competitors makes no sense, either. If they had *any* competitors that were already used to hunt the principle would apply. (That's the thing about principles...) By that logic the 6mm Navy and Swede shouldn't coexist; the 03 and 06 shouldn't coexist; 7x64 shouldn't be hunted nor should the 32 Special; 270 and 280 never should have been developed because of 06 and other competitors already available.

Long story short: the "not designed to hunt" argument is founded on nothing but some people not liking that the Creedmoor displaced other pet rounds.

PS - what are the "hundreds" of current peer cartridges to the Creedmoor?

That's called CBHS.

All my center fire rifles are super modern compared to what I hunt with at times.
my Rifle 2 by Steve Zihn, on [bleep]
When I want to use very modern guns I step forward from 1760 clear up to 1888 with my 8MM Mauser or 1889 with my 303 British. More modern still is the 6.5X54 M/S from 1903 or my 30-06 from 1906. Creeping to the ultra modern guns I go clear up to 1920 with the 300 Savage or 1925 with a 270 Winchester. Then if I want to go "space age" I can go to the 6.8SPC.
But the 6.5 CM never hooked me. It's an excellent cartridge, but lacks anything I don't have covered already with several other rifles and cartridges. It just has no "historical class" which is something I like. Others may not, and that's 100% ok too.

But few if any are as fun to hunt with as the 1760 style flintlock.

To add a bit to the discussion, this past August found me in the Talkeetnas searching for a legal Dalls Sheep. Back at the guides home, his 13 year old son pointed out the trophy caribou taken last year at 225 yards. The rifle was a "boat paddle" in .223 Rem.. The guides last caribou hunter brought a 300RUM - go figure. - and the hunt was a rodeo - finally putting the 'bou down.

The moral of the story has been stated here many times.................

I don't own a CM for no other reason that I don't need one. My going back was to a Mauser M12 308 Win, forty years ago my second center fire rifle round via Ruger Ultralight. The 270 was fine on my pronghorn and the 308 on my largest whitetail this year with cheap factory loads also my first non-handloaded hunts in just shy of forty years.

Yes.

But also consider that by the "there were already hunting rounds that covered that space" logic you wouldn't have or need a 270 or a 7x64 or a 280 or a 284 or a 7 mag or a 300 Savage...

I'd like to see the probability distribution of 300RUM owners who are truly comfortable and very competent shooting them vs otherwise. Similar for a lot of other big rounds.

Thanks for your input buddy. Living where I do, I always keep elk in mind and generally think elk when choosing a rifle. Deer hunting to me is low priority, while elk hunting is my vacation plans every year. If that makes any sense. I hunt in a very low hunters success rate area (4%), but still love it and take an elk every other year on average. I guess that means I'm not the best elk hunter out there, but I stick with it. The hardest part is finding them, in my honest experience. When I see one, trust me, it gets taken down. That's the easy part. The rifles I pick are generally bigger than the creed. Threads like these help to give confidence in what works. If the creed works well for most with the right bullet, I will definitely consider it. I'm generally running one of my 30-06's with the 200gr nosler partition or the 338wm. It knocks the chidt out of them. However, often after shooting them I think to myself that a 308w would have worked just as well. My last bull was close enough that I regretted not taking my old Winchester lever rifle. Yet, did not even think about using one of my creedmoors.

I learned to shoot a bolt action rifle with a 300wm in my teens. It was my lone rifle for all hunting. When I could afford others later, it was a revelation how much easier it was to develop good shooting habits and a repeatable process with just a little less recoil.

Yes! And therein lies the crux to much of these discussions. Failing to admit to personal recoil limitations. I am thankful I did a few years ago when the 300 WSM rocked me into reality repeatedly on the bench. In my youth I could go thru a box of 225 gr. Partitions in my 338's and never have a problem.
But those 300's had a special kind of recoil - you know it. But for those who can handle them well into their late 60's - congrats! I'll gladly accept some limitations to lesser cartridges and have fun sneaking another 50 - 100 yards. Good luck!

I see no reason to move away from that 30-06 load.

That's the answer when someone says "I never feel the recoil when shooting at game."

I used to punch paper with a 338 shooting 250 grain bullets and a load of 4350 because it was fun. My rifle is a very nice Sako Finnbear I won't part with, but it hasn't seen action in a long time. Maybe if someone at the deer camp gets a real hogzilla on a game cam I'll bring it out of retirement.

You have to recognize your affection for the Creedmoor has you ignoring the lack of relevance it has compared to the amount of cartridges already in existence that will equal or better its performance. Hunting cartridges have been splitting hairs for the past 30 years. Nothing really has been innovative since smokeless powder, bottleneck cases and jacketed bullets came on the scene 125 years ago.

Check the the cartridges available in 1910 vs 2007 and you will see a dramatic difference in what cartridges existed and what they were capable of. The Creedmoor is so similar to so many existing cartridges of the day in what it does, the same couldn’t be said in the 30-06 and 7X57 era.

A lot of shooters of the 6.5 CM arrived there through a maturation process. Just an observation.

No one is saying you're wrong about quantity in the early 20th century vs. today OR that you're wrong about the 6.5cm not being a wonder cartridge. It's a slightly improved and much better marketed 260. And people like to buy new stuff. So here we are.

BUT its origins or its amount of competition still has absolutely nothing to do with whether it's a suitable or effective hunting round. That's not disputable at this point. It is on both counts.

And for the record, I'm a fan of the 3030 and various 7mms, particularly the 280. Have one CM stashed away for the kids -- a Micro Midas that can grow with them and they can go from reduced recoil loads (less pushback than a 243) up to full house elk loads down the road.

Threads within threads are the best!
Grew up on Coors Banquet and now enjoy the hoppier stuff but those blue mountains on the can do call once in a while.

OP- I now have 2 Creeds, both Tikkas (T3x SL & Compact) Im really enjoying them but will likely not replace others. To me, they are efficient & rewarding to shoot but as we have covered here so many times, headstamps matter WAY more than bullets 😜