Anyone using 6.5 Creedmore for Elk?

hflier

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Anyone using 6.5 Creedmore for Elk? Wondering how this round does on larger animals?

Ron


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Same question here Ron.

Just noticed you are from OK. I'm in Sand Springs

Looking for a new rifle and this caliber has piqued my interest.
 

wseidel

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My son used a 6.5 Swede (similar to 6.5 Creedmore) to down a 6x6 bull this past fall in Wyoming. Don't know about long distance knockout power as his was within 100 feet :) Seriously, the penetration is excellent but the foot pounds of energy at longer ranges is the real key for efficient kills - as well as the angle (broadside vs quartering for example). Bullets have come a long way, too, with some excellent choices such as Accubond, Partition, Berger, etc. You might check out the research of Nathan Foster (New Zealand) - a real expert in cartridges, rifles and terminal ballistics...hence, his business name "Terminal Ballistics Research". He has a wealth of information on caliber choices, recommended bullets and the autopsy results on 1000's of animals. Worth checking out. Hope this helps...
 

NVCHUKAR

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Little bit small for bulls imo, not that it won't kill, perfect shot placement is key and wouldn't recommend shooting over 400 yards for ethical hunting.
 

AustinL911

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I took GunWerk's Long Range University L1/L2 course this past fall. If you buy into what they tell you (and I mostly do), the 6.5c is an 8-900yd gun on soft skin North American game. The idea is this:

Call up your bullet manufacturer of choice. Ask them at what velocity your chosen bullet will reliably open. That becomes your effective range.

For example, the Hornady 143gr ELD-X for the 6.5c will reliably open down to 1600fps. This is somewhere in between 8-900yd for a MV of 2700fps.

Would I take that shot? Depends. But the bullet should do it's job out to that point "if" I do my part.
 

Boreal

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Look up 65creedmoor.com. Lots of discussion about the Creedmoor for all sorts of game. Consensus is good shot placement and the Creedmoor will work out to about 800 yards. Good bullet selection and placement is paramount, as with any cartridge.
 

jjolg

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Shot my Alberta bull @ 363 yards in the rockies. Worked so well he toppled immediately and proceeded to roll into a ravine just to make my experience that much more fun.
 
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I've killed a bull and a cow with a 6.5 sweede the bull at 200 and the cow at 50. With good shot placement it's an effective round. The bull buckled at the shot into the boiler room took two steps and fell over. He was a younger 4x4.
 

ericF

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Everybody has pointed out that yes, with good shot placement it works. The problem is that you don't always have good shot placement. Maybe your rest slips as you pull the trigger, or the bull suddenly quarters away. In both of those cases, the 6.5 Creedmoor will be less than ideal. Every time one of these discussions come up, you always hear success stories, but no one ever mentions how they took a marginal shot at a couple hundred yards and found a blood trail, but never recovered the animal. I love my 6.5 Creedmoor for Deer and Antelope, but i'll always take my 300 WSM for elk.
 
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Everybody has pointed out that yes, with good shot placement it works. The problem is that you don't always have good shot placement. Maybe your rest slips as you pull the trigger, or the bull suddenly quarters away. In both of those cases, the 6.5 Creedmoor will be less than ideal. Every time one of these discussions come up, you always hear success stories, but no one ever mentions how they took a marginal shot at a couple hundred yards and found a blood trail, but never recovered the animal. I love my 6.5 Creedmoor for Deer and Antelope, but i'll always take my 300 WSM for elk.

I fail to see your argument. A crap shot is a crap shot. I fail to see how crippling a critter with a 45/70 is better than crippling it with a 6.5 hipster. Shot placement is the key no matter what you shoot. However, there are the folks that feel that all animals are now bullet proof and nothing short of a 300 win mag will kill it. Because lord knows not a single animal died by the hand of man before the magnum came on the scene.
 
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Yep apparently elk are bullet proof. Never mind the pile of them my brother and I killed with a .243 when we were younger or maybe a couple ive seen killed with a .22-250.
 

204guy

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Yep, and when somebody says XXX magnum is a better choice or that will work but only to XXX yards. They always without fail never address bullets, they matter far more than what the headstamp says or what the caliber is. Admittedly more so on the lighter for caliber end of the spectrum.
 

madtom

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I have killed an elk each of the past two seasons with my 6.5 Creedmoor (cow in 2015, calf this year), both with Hornady Superformance ammo loaded with 129 grain Interbond bullets. Both one-shot kills that resulted in a dead elk in less than 10 seconds. Cow was 225 yards broadside. Bullet hit the heart and she made it about 15 yards before going down. Calf was 275 yards quartering slightly toward me. Bullet hit the near side shoulder and he went down on the spot.

Small sample size, but I have to say it's been working for me so far.
 
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I've seen several elk shot with the 6.5 Creedmoor. Most under 200 yds, most one shot kills. Had a client hit one in the back of one lung at around 275 yds. It went about half a mile before expiring. Another at 410 yds. Heard the thump, thought the shot looked good through 10x binos. Nothing but a 3 day blood trail. Never found that bull. Will the 6.5 kill elk? Absolutely. Would I prefer a much bigger rifle? Absolutely. I love the shock and immediate trauma that a 180 gr. bullet launched out of a 300 Win Mag delivers on big animals like elk, and no benchrest caliber is going to change that.
 

robtattoo

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I've been shooting a 6.5 almost exclusively (on game) for 3 years now, a modern action Swede & honestly, with the bullets I've used (140 Berger VLDs) I really wouldn't trust it on an elk.
I know that many folks with a lot more experience than I have taken big bulls with 6.5s, but in my mind, if my bullet won't reliably go all the way through a broadside Tennessee whitetail, 2 out of 7 so far, I'm not prepared to trust it on an animal 8-10 times the size.
That's why I own several 30 & bigger calibers.
 
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Yep, and when somebody says XXX magnum is a better choice or that will work but only to XXX yards. They always without fail never address bullets, they matter far more than what the headstamp says or what the caliber is. Admittedly more so on the lighter for caliber end of the spectrum.

Yep apparently elk are bullet proof. Never mind the pile of them my brother and I killed with a .243 when we were younger or maybe a couple ive seen killed with a .22-250.

I've been shooting a 6.5 almost exclusively (on game) for 3 years now, a modern action Swede & honestly, with the bullets I've used (140 Berger VLDs) I really wouldn't trust it on an elk.
I know that many folks with a lot more experience than I have taken big bulls with 6.5s, but in my mind, if my bullet won't reliably go all the way through a broadside Tennessee whitetail, 2 out of 7 so far, I'm not prepared to trust it on an animal 8-10 times the size.
That's why I own several 30 & bigger calibers.

Your problem is your bullet selection not caliber. Change to a partition or barnes......better bullet for the application. Bullets are not one size fits all game.
 

ericF

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I fail to see your argument. A crap shot is a crap shot. I fail to see how crippling a critter with a 45/70 is better than crippling it with a 6.5 hipster. Shot placement is the key no matter what you shoot. However, there are the folks that feel that all animals are now bullet proof and nothing short of a 300 win mag will kill it. Because lord knows not a single animal died by the hand of man before the magnum came on the scene.

The argument is that a crap shot with a 6.5 Creedmoor could be a killing shot with a 300 WSM. Take a quartering away shot that gets a little far back. Is the 6.5 Creedmoor going to have enough penetration to get to the lungs? Probably not. Is the 300 Win Mag going to have enough penetration to get to the lungs. Probably so. That's the difference between a wounded animal and a dead animal. Yes, shot placement is key which is an obvious statement, but to the average Joe hunter, there is no guarantee that they are always going to make a well placed shot with a 0% chance of screwing it up. In that case a bigger caliber will result in a greater chance of death. It is simple physics.
 
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