Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting WHY AREN'T THE 6.5s MORE POPULAR ??

No, it's not. It's actually a damn good question.

He keeps getting banned for doing stupid chit, usually in the classifieds. The he comes back under another name until Rick Bin bounces him again.

i use 49.5 grains of RL19 gets me 3/4" all day long. im happy with it

Thanks Smoke..

I thot those pics looked familiar. I've seen them under a different female handle.

I'll have to be more alert and I won't waste MY TIME.

Thanks
Jerry

Jerry, It is still a silly thread BUT in any case the question was answered with facts not invective.

In addition there is a bias against "metrics".

Why do you suppose the 6.5/308 is called the 260 Remington ? The 8mm/300WSM the 325 Winchester ? How did the 6.5 and 8mm Remington Magnums do ? Why are American guns chambered for the 35 Whelen when anyone with a ballistics table knows the 9.3x62 is superior ?

WE are not doing any silly stuff in the classified, in fact over a dozen scopes and rifles have been purchased here by our club members. It's called supporting your fellow members and site sponsors with dollars rather than yapping.

WE have a lot more pictures of fine guns and game taken with them. More than can be said for SOME loudmouths who are only here to troll.

Almost all our names are here, where were you ? Thanks, Roger

Yup that about sums it up...

Now old douche lady is back in with his "club" members..

How many times have you been banned larry?

Larry is in FL, dickhead, I am in WY. Come on down for a visit. Bring you little mexi-virgin with you as we're having a lot of 3 dog nights and she'll dump you in a heartbeat. Roger

Oh, you're not your wife this time? TFF...

You lie like a rug, and everyone here knows it, you jackass.

This schit is priceless. I love Larry and his alter egos

Larry how stupid are you ....I mean really?

Is that a rhetorical question?

You guys go easy on him, I hear he's in hormone therapy, and is having just tremendous mood swings.

Seems like a question of marketing. US firms have tended to market US chamberings most actively, and that marketing included getting rifles to gun writers for reviews, etc. Coverage in the gun and hunting press tends to stress the minor numerical advantages of one caliber or another, like the flatter trajectory of the 270 v. most 30-06 loadings, etc. etc. The .260 rifles don't stand out in terms of energy delivered down range, or even trajectory. 7mm-08 beats .260 or 6.5x55 on most stats, and the 270 even more so. The fact that most factory ammo for 6.5x55 is loaded to lower pressure limits contributes to numbers on charts that aren't impressive. None of this means much in the field, and as many have observed the high sectional density and accuracy of these rounds produce great results. It seems like .260 is gaining ground in popularity, but whether that continues will depend on manufacturers offering it. Interestingly both Sako and Tikka are offering more rifles in 260 now than in the old Swede, probably to get around the lower pressure factory ammo of the Mauser round.

PeaEye,

Actually, you've got it backwards.

The reason 6.5mm rifles aren't all that popular isn't that rifle manufacturers don't offer enough models, or that they don't get 6.5mm rifles to gun writers for testing. Winchester did a MAJOR publicity campaign with the .264 when they brought it out. Remington pushed their 6.5 and .350's in the 600 carbine pretty hard as well, sending a bunch to various gunwriters, and also tried pretty hard to sell the .260. Jim Carmichel was on board from the beginning there, even claiming to have developed the .260 himself.

The .264 actually did pretty well until the 7mm Remington Magnum came out, but the .260 appeared AFTER the 7mm-08 so never really had a chance, since the ballistics were so similar. (For some reason the average American hunter much prefers 7mm over 6.5mm.)

The 6.5 Remington Magnum never really had a chance because of the 600 carbine. Nobody really wanted lightweight hunting rifles in those days, and most gunwriters totally misunderstood the entire purpose of the 6.5 in a "carbine." It might have had a chance today, but I kinda doubt it.

The reason manufacturers don't offer many rifle models in 6.5mm is that 6.5mm rifles have never sold very well in the U.S.--except to a relatively small percentage of rifle loonies. These days 6.5mm rifles are slightly more popular due to the fascination with long-range shooting among (again) a very small percentage of hunters, due to the very high ballistic coefficients of their bullets. But the average hunter could care less about shooting beyond 300-400 yards. What he wants is a rifle chambered for a common round that will do the job, and the world had a bunch of those long before Winchester ever brought out the .264--including a cartridge called the .270 Winchester.

Consequently not many hunters will buy 6.5mm rifles, not matter how many small ballistic advantages they might have, and firearms companies are not in the business of making rifles people won't buy.

More kudos to companies like Ruger and Hornady who have the courage to not only introduce a new 6.5 but to support it as well.

John i actually don't remember Remington pushing the 260 hard at all.Currently they only offer it the model 7.You would think that being they developed the round it would be offered in more of their rifles. I remember the 6.5x55 swede as being a fairly popular.So if the 260 was marketed properly i would think it would be more popular.I for one like short actions which the 260 is chambered in.

Perhaps Remington thought Carmichel's blessing was plenty. After all, he was considered by many to be the top gun writer in America, and wrote a monthly column for one of the largest circulation magazines. But I also remember a number of other articles on the .260 when it appeared, and Remington initially offered more than one rifle, as well as a pretty wide variety of ammo--much more than today.

Big gun companies (the only ones that can afford to introduce new commericial cartridges) do pretty much the same thing as book publishing companies. When they introduce a new cartridge or book, they do a press release and send "review copies" to the right people in the business. If the public response is luke-warm, they tend to quit spending money on promotion pretty quickly, write that project off, and go on to the next deal.

The .260 never excited the American public, so Remington backed off. Yeah, they could have spent another bunch of money trying to convince Joe Deer Hunter that it was the greatest cartridge ever, but by 1997 the American market was saturated with good deer cartridges. Why would somebody buy one instead of a .243, .25-06 or 7mm-08?

I know, I know, the .260 has those magical 6.5mm ballistic advantages, and when handloaded can do anything the .243, .25-06 or 7mm-08 will do. So what? Rifle loonies want to buy exactly the right rifle for every job, not one rifle that fills several niches. Avergae hunters want to buy something that shoots cheap, available ammo and kills deer.

The .260 didn't excite either crowd, and still doesn't. The 6.5 nuts have gone on to other cartridges with even more minute advantages, and average guys kept buying .243's, .25-06's and 7mm-08's.

Don't get me wrong. I had a custom .260 for a while, and my wife owned a Model 7. It's a fine round, and have owned a hunted with a bunch of other 6.5's over the years, from the 6.5x54 Mannlicher to the .264. Right now I own four 6.5's, and have hunted with all of them. But not one is a .260. I pick as many nits as any rifle loony, but the .260 has never excited me--which is apparently the same reaction of most hunters.

One of the realities of capitalism is that you can't force people to buy rifles. If there'd been any sort of positive reaction to the .260 when it appeared Remington would have kept pushing it. But that just didn't happen, an apparently never will.

I remember Boddington writing a very favorable article on the 260 in Rifle Shooter... motivated me to want one... he and his wife used it on numerous African plains game with superb results... but I still don't have a .260. Local gun emporium had a used Stainless synthetic Model 7 for $425... I hesitated... and it sold. Oh well, my eyes remain open...

You make a good point John. Remingtons been known to muff a few cartridges in the past. One that comes to mind is the 7mm Express.But i do understand the way corporate thinks,if it doesn't make money in X amount of time......move on.