Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Which cartridge

I'm the first to whine when someone provides choices other than what the OP requested. However, based on how you worded your alternatives, I'm assuming it is open season on choices. Having said that, based on your criteria and only those two cartridge choices, I would go 6.5 Creedmoor as it falls in line more with your criteria.

However, given your stated criteria, I would select an 8 twist 223 and shoot 77 grain TMKs, 75 grain Amax or 75 grain ELD-M. It too fills your criteria and then some and will work just as effectively as every thing suggested so far. I'm just a mental midget who thinks too many people overlook the effectiveness of the 223, unnecessarily so, when the criteria jumps up to medium and big game however one defines those.

Arguably, with those bullets and especially the 88s mentioned by the homunculus from Alaska, assuming your rifle were twisted properly and had the mags and throat to handle them, one could hunt pretty much all North American big game with that combination. Note, I said arguably and recognize that is fodder for a different thread.

Probably the best advice I’ve seen yet.

Thanks for all of the replies

My wife has been diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer that has spread. She is a fighter and with treatment she is going to overcome this. She is a health nut, eats well, and was walking 10000 steps a day. This has bee a total shock. I posted about this several days ago asking for prayers. I come here to get distracted when she is sleeping and I cannot. Please pray for her.

I have a fast twist single shot.223 that I feel confident in for deer hunting. I am looking for an all around deer rifle that could be used for hogs, black bear, and maybe other animals if the opportunity ever arises to hunt out out of state. I don’t mind ordering ammo online or purchasing at stores. In my small town, 308 and 350 Legend has been the only consistently available ammo. I have used the 7mm08 a lot but ammo availability and price males the 308 make more sense to me. The 6.5 Creedmoor checks a lot of boxes to. I know it is really just mind games as most of my shots will be under 100 yards.

I'll be sending prayers for your wife. I hope she beats that cancer.

If recoil is a problem the the maybe the 6.5 CM might be the answer. However, I've been a reluctant fan of the .308 for a long time now. Reluctant? I always thought the 30-06 was king of the walk for a general all round rifle until too many cigarettes made the old bubba'd Springfield 03 just too damn heavy at 9,000 feet plus above sea level. I reluctantly bought a Remington 660 in .308 Win. at the local hardware store in the little rural town I was living in and went with that. I thought recoil was brutal in that rifle until I got a set of muffs as a birthday present. Dang! Where did the kick go? The rifle had a 20" barrel which didn't help. Still leery as hell about the .308 until a deer hunt that year (1976 IIRC) I took a shot at a Mule Deer my hunting partner had wounded. Dropped the deer with one shot and when we paced it off, 426 paces. I kind of looked a bit differently at the .308. Now I have 5 I think. Did quite a bit of hunting up in the Kaibab with a Ruger M77 RSI. Longest shot with that on was 250 yards on a nice Mule Deer.
The real eye opener was when for spits and grins, I ran some 180 gr. Winchester Power Points in a Winchester M70with 22" barrel against the same make ammo/bullet combo in a 30-06 Remington M700 over a chronograph. End result was the .308 did 2610 FPS and the 06 did 2630 FPS. Big whoop!.

I guess you know which would be my choice. The .308. I think I explained the why. Anyway, good luck whichever one you choose. I hope your wife gets better. I'll be sending her prayers.
Paul B.

Still have a 7-08?

Stuck on a 6.5 CM and 308 only?

I do not have a 7mm08. I started thinning rifles out a little while back. I am not limiting my choice to the 6.5 CM or the 308.
Not sure what our financial future is with everything that is going on but just trying to come up with that one all around deer rifle

Well it seems like every shelf in every gun store in Georgia thinks everyone has 5 Creedmoor in their arsenal. Does anyone buy anything other than a 6.5 Creedmoor anymore. They are 20 to 1 over every cartridge it seems anymore. So for that reason I’d do the creed. A 308 is fairly “findable” ammo.

I would choose a .308 Winchester and for several reasons.

First, performance on game will be an absolute wash; it'll not make one iota of difference at the ranges the average hunter shoots whitetails. However, the .308 Winchester does indeed have the largest catalog of ammunition choices as well as .308" bullets are offered in a greater variety of projectiles than any other round should you decide to take up handloading. Additionally, there will be more brass choices for .308 Winchester than most others and it tends to be cheaper than 6.5 Creedmoor. on the lines of cost, recently Norma was direct selling their excellent 150 gr. "whitetail" ammo in .308 Winchester for $16.99/box. I've seen this ammo on sale multiple times over the last two years anywhere from $12/20 to $16/20. It has shot sub-MOA for me in three different rifles. The Norma brass is also excellent should you decide to save it to be used in future handloads.

Another consideration few seem to mention is barrel life. The 6.5mm Creedmoor, as anemic as it is compared to other 6.5s still has around 2500 rounds of barrel life. I have seen many that just wouldn't shoot anymore. If you're like me and shoot 400-500 rounds a year, you'll enjoy having double or more barrel life in .308 Winchester (and that's a conservative estimate).

To be honest, the only reason I can think to choose a 6.5 Creedmoor as a primary whitetail rifle is because one may be recoil-sensitive, which additionally burden will be added with a light rifle such as the T3X Lite.

I don’t think you have to be recoil sensitive to benefit from a lower recoiling rifle.

Heck, I can shoot a 30-06 or 300 Mag if I want. It don’t hurt. But it’s a lot easier to be ultra accurate with a 243.

I’ll repeat what I said earlier
For 100 yard shots on deer or pigs. Low recoil, supper cheap ammo in bulk of 500 rounds, that’s fairly accurate is the 7.62x39.
Or as I am slowly learning I can re confirm what you want to hear. The 6.5 has less recoil than the 308 and will work great for your wife

Perhaps not, but where is that line drawn? Should we all use .22lr? The .308 Winchester doesn’t recoil to the point which it affects accuracy on most adult males…unless you’re recoil sensitive.

Sometimes less recoil can be present with more blast, so it can be a trade-off.

What do you currently have on hand??

270 would be a good one. Easy to find ammo and an absolute hammer on whitetails.

Less recoil than a 308 and will shoot just as flat as the 6.5 to normal hunting ranges.

22LR isn’t even legal for deer hunting.

Most 1000 yard open class competition shooters are adult males. Most use something resembling a 243 and not a 30 caliber.

I used to shoot a 660 in 308 with no pad. It’s a handy powerful rifle in tight quarters. And I could shoot a box or two of 180’s if I wanted and never flinch. But i do believe the jumpiness of the muzzle made it more difficult to shoot with any kind or extraordinary precision if shooting a lot from a bench.

I mean if I’m shooting four or five hundred rounds a year like you do, I’d rather a 243. Because I, personally, would have some kind of goal of extreme accuracy.
Or a 6BR if I wanted long barrel life. This is closer to the choice of a 3-600 yard competition shooter.
Surely most anyone shooting four or five hundred rounds isn’t just out to burn powder with the cheapest off the shelf ammo they can find. Most likely that’s a proposition for a reloader.

Prayer for your wife.
If someone asked me this question a year ago I would have said 308. That was before I had Mrs Blacktailer's Kimber rebarreled to 6.5 Creedmoor. Haven't shot it a lot yet but loaded up some 129gr Hornady SP and got over 3000 fps MV (24 inch barrel, nowhere near max). I'm thinking it will kill stuff. We'll see what the 127gr LRX from Barnes will do.
Again, best to you and your wife. My wife and I have been through the big C twice each and are still on this side of the grass. I thank the Lord everyday.

Most Open division shooters are shooting a .284 Winchester, with some 7 SAUMS, .300 WSMs, or .300 Winchester thrown in. Some shoe-horn their 6mm BR derivatives in, but they do not shoot a .243 Winchester.

If I'm shooting 500 rounds a year through a hunting rifle for practice, that means I need to either rebarrel or buy a new .243 Winchester about every three years or so. That is NOT what I want. With a .308 it can last TEN years or more.

Buying cheap ammo, for instance like what I mentioned above, is EXACTLY what one wants to practice their field shooting with.

So you basically know what to expect from a 7mm-08 class of rifle. And when you combine “all around” and “deer”, in your estimation it’s not just for deer.

But if you don’t know what your financial future is, odds are you are not going out west in pursuit of elk or larger for the foreseeable future. Because even if you were so lucky to draw a tag, it wouldn’t be an inexpensive proposition. So I wouldn’t buy a rifle with that in mind.
Although I would never disregard the possibility of a used rifle. In which case it might come down to rifle preference over preference for a certain cartridge.

Besides what everyone else has already said, I’d also think about the rifle itself. I think Tikka uses a 24
inch barrel on the 6.5 CM and 22 on the 308. If that matters to you.

Take a sample...most F-Class shooters shooting LR are shooting a .284 Win (or variant thereof), a 7mm SAUM, .300 WSM, .300 Winchester Magnum, etc.

6mm chamberings aren't really competitive at all at LR, but many shoe-horn them and they are mostly seen at 600. But you really didn't address any of my points, you just showed a video.

You are correct that most F-Class Open shooters use heavier calibers. Most.

I’m not saying that the OP should buy a .243 Win.

But John Whidden did.
https://www.ssusa.org/content/six-key-reasons-why-john-whidden-uses-243-win-for-long-range-shooting/

I have both a .308 and a 6.5 Creedmoor in Tikka T3x Superlites. I have owned and hunted with .308s since 1964 and have tipped over a fair pile of big game with this cartridge over the years. The .308 has been very good to me. However, I have become a believer in the inherent efficiencies of 6.5 bullets and the pleasurable shooting experience of the Creedmoor cartridge in lightweight hunting rifles. So, I would recommend you try the Creedmoor for a couple of seasons and determine if it works for you.