Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters So JB, why does the 6.5 CM get more attention than the 7mm-08?

Interesting, no confidence in 70 positive outcomes?

I have complete confidence in my 22-250 and have never recovered a bullet in three dozen critters. I have caught a bullet every time with my 222. 65gr Sierra's and 55gr GMX so far. 1 turkey, 4 deer and an antelope.

If a new want to be shooter came along and ask which cartridge would you recommend - a 7mm-08 or 6.5 CM, which would you suggest? Personally I think the performance is close enough that it really doesn't matter. What does matter is the availability of ammo and quality rifles to shoot it out of. Currently the 6.5 CM is about a 10:1 favorite on local sporting good shelves and would easily be the cartridge that I recommend.

CRS, although the ,22s have made a number of kills successfully, they don't leave good blood trails. I often don;t see signs of a good hit I have come to expect from bigger calibers. It is just not there and it never will be for me. I am also very careful when I shoot game with .22s. It is mostly in the mornings. when I have time to follow up if something goes wrong. As far as 300 and 400 yard kills, I have made lots on coyotes, but never shot at game that far with .22s. No faith. I guess if it works for you fine. I always have one in the truck and used it when things were correct. I have never had them afield after game without a heavier caliber if things didn;t work perfectly..

For sure 6.5 CM and more so if handloading is not involved. I guess my initial post was geared to the loonies.

IMO there isn't enough difference between the 7-08 and 308. On paper the 7-08 looks a little better, but you're really splitting hairs. With the best loads the way I see it 7-08 beats 308 at 500 yards with about 1" less drop, 35-50 ft lbs more energy and with about 1 ft lb less recoil. When I was deciding between the 2 I didn't handload and the proliferation of 308 ammo and at better prices made 308 a no-brainer for me. Now that I handload the choice would be harder. And at this point in my life I ain't changing, and they are too close to justify both. Probably no reason to own 6.5CM and 7-08 for exactly the same reason. But to me, 223, 6.5CM and 308 make a pretty good trio to own.

The 6.5 CM exactly splits the difference between my 223 and my 308. Recoil is between 243 and 308, but a bit closer to 243. As a hunting cartridge it shoots the same bullet weights as 270 about 200 fps slower at the muzzle, but as range increases the 6.5 is catching up. Somewhere around 300 yards it is a draw. I can't see any animal ever knowing the difference between 6.5CM, 270, 7-08 or 308 for that matter.

I'm not into serious long range target shooting, I but do enjoy some informal plinking at longish ranges. I bought a 6.5 just to try it. So far, I've had a chance to shoot 5-6 of them and every one of them was more accurate than any rifle I've ever shot.

Agree.

A Fire (sage?) once posted that the 7-08 was a .308 with the “suck” squeezed out of it. Frankly, I never thought the .308 “sucked”…

I have both, critters don’t seem to know the difference. Can’t say I find much difference, like them both. To me it boils down to the individual rifle as much as the round.

The Loony thing is to have all of the above in the safe. That way you got it covered.

DF

True enough, how are you going to find out which is better if you don't have both

We've caught a few, 3 I can remember, 55 Corelokts from 22-250. They look like a nickel with a short little stem on one side where the base was.

What I think is odd, is the 6.5x55 has been around for 100 years and the 6.5 Creedmoor just duplicates it. I don't see the "oh wow" attraction. I read people raving about it, but WTF? I'd prefer the 6.5x55 just because it is classic. My younger brother's favorite deer rifle is a 700 Classic in 6.5x55. He also has a 6.5x55 on a '96 action, but it isn't quite as accurate.

As far as the 7mm-08 is concerned - I like mine, but I like my 7x57 more, but only because it is a classic cartridge.

I suppose the trouble with the older cartridges is the rifles that were chambered in them. But some like "new and improved" over classic, I guess.

It's a turn-key solution. Affordable rifles ready to go with the right twist, ammo on the shelf with excellent quality and low prices, low recoil, and Walmart-style availability

It's not about duplicating the ballistics, it's about uniformity and mechanical packaging advantages.

Yep

And marketing. But you gotta deliver for marketing to work.

They did.

DF

Yup. One could look at the 6.5 CM as the 6.5x55 v3.0.

Bugger,

Have explained all this before, but will have another go at it:

Generally older handloaders are the ones voicing your opinion. This is because they apparently can't understand any rifle shooter who doesn't handload, but the vast majority of shooters do not. For them the 6.5x55 cannot duplicate 6.5 Creedmoor "ballistics," because 6.5x55 throats are all over the map, the reason many ammunition companies load it down somewhat, especially in the U.S. Accuracy can also vary considerably, due to the same throating problem, and older 6.5x55 rifles may not be able to safely withstand "modern" pressures.

The 6.5 Creedmoor was indeed designed to approximate the "best" 6.5x55 ballistics, and solve the problem created with the .260 Remington in modern "short" actions when shooters started wanting to use longer, high-BC bullets. This was done by creating a somewhat shorter cartridge than the .260, with a chamber throat specifically designed to work well with higher-BC bullets.

This worked so well that even very "affordable" 6.5 Creedmoor rifles shoot very well with "affordable" factory ammo (or at least the ammo was affordable before the present buying panic"). This is NOT true of the 6.5x55, or even the .260, because few ammo companies ever leaned into loading really accurate ammo for the .260--and when they did it cost more.

I have fooled around with at least eight 6.5 Creedmoors. My first was a walnut-stocked Ruger Hawkeye purchased in 2010, mostly out of curiosity and a potential article or two. I also bought a few boxes of Hornady ammo. The rifle's very first 100-yard group measured around .6 inch, and it shot pretty much like that with ALL the ammo.

Since then I've owned four more 6.5 Creedmoors, mostly because I was curious about whether they would do the same thing. Have also fooled around with a few 6.5 Creedmoors costing 5+ times as much as that Ruger, and some factory rifles costing a lot less. The WORST factory ammo accuracy from any of them--a rifle then retailing for around $200--was three shots in an inch. Most did a lot better, and the expensive rifles didn't do a great deal better than the "affordable" rifles.

In fact I know several handloaders who didn't bother handloading the 6.5 Creedmoor until ammo became hard to find and more expensive. They could buy off-the-shelf loads that shot so well they could spend far more time shooting, rather than handloading--and then sell the fired brass to handloaders.

If the 6.5x55 could do all of that, in very affordable factory rifles with affordable factory ammo, then the 6.5 Creedmoor probably wouldn't exist. But due to its history the 6.5x55 doesn't do that, and never will.

Agreed on this. Uniformity of chamber, throat and magazine specs to facilitate loading of what really is a better bullet.

You can rebarrel/re-throat about any rifle and get optimum specs for any cartridge bullet combo you desire. Magazine issues are another thing. There are rifles out there, and commonly so, that become single shots loaded to their max potential.

Not even in the least. You left out all of his other snide remarks: He's never had one, yet tells us his opinion. JB and mathman hit the nail on the head on this subject matter. You've also had a few and you know there's more to the creedmoor than just obligatory hype and marketing strategy. I don't wear a manbun, but I like the hell out of the 6.5 CM. I have a few and have tested them a bit. I also have a 6.5x55 and also love that cartridge. I think maybe I just got a good rifle? Who knows... As for why the 7mm08 isn't as popular? Guys should read what JB just posted. I feel his pain, he's written on the subject so many times and knows what makes the 6.5CM more "popular". I like both cartridges, load for both, but the edge in accuracy always goes to the CM. Its just designed to be that good...

That may be the best distillation of the advantage that the 6.5 CM holds over the majority of the currently active.short action .257", .264", and .284" bore cartridges that I've seen.

A person who doesn't reload could use the Federal 95 grain V-Max factory load for shooting predators and whatever brand and bullet style/weight moves him/her for shoot medium game, a real dual purpose cartridge for the one rifle hunter.

Or a guy can just use one load, say a 140gr and shoot what ever the hell he desires. Why make chidt complicated?

I basically repeated what JB has said.

THIS IS JB, OUT! *MIC DROP*