Best all around 6.5?

[Dirt Wagon]

6.5 Creedmoor Hornady Full Boar GMX 200 rounds for $190 shipped.

Came across this and thought of you Creedmoor fans & decided to pass it along.

 

[6mm Remington]

6.5-06 - great ballistics and easy to neck up 25-06 brass.

 

[Sobrbiker]

I’ve been shooting 65CM since 2010, so it’s my flavor of choice. Was gonna go PRC, but if I want a little bigger I wouldn’t limit myself to 6.5, esp if I were gonna do a short action magnum.

Any good 140gr .264 bullet going 2800fps out of a good barrel in a short action non-mag will do the same thing as the others. And any will take all non-dangerous North American critters within ethical range.

....I’m new so I won’t even go onto my rant about what I think of the “but what if you only have a bad shot on a quartering away elk on the last day of your hunt?” mentality.

No caliber is good for any distance beyond that which you can reliably place a shot in a ten inch circle from a field expedient position.

 

[bigdub257]

Has anybody been able to find out if/when these (6.5 PRC Go Wild) will be available?

 

[awildswanger]

This year when it was time to get a new rifle , I got a Tikka T3X SL Stainless in 6.5Creed. If budget was not an issue, I may have got a Christensen Ridgeline in 6.5Creed. But the Tikka has been awesome. Shoots 1/2moa with Horndady 143gr eld-x. Shot my deer at 422yards this year and it didn't even take a step. My buddy used it to drop an elk at 395 yards a few weeks ago. Walked maybe 20yards then dropped. I would definitely put Tikka on your radar if it isn't.

I’m so happy to hear you say that, I’ve been thinking about pulling the trigger (pardon the pun) on the exact set-up you have, with the intention of it one day being a longer range/mountain gun for elk/sheep/black bear.

 

[Brendan]

I’m so happy to hear you say that, I’ve been thinking about pulling the trigger (pardon the pun) on the exact set-up you have, with the intention of it one day being a longer range/mountain gun for elk/sheep/black bear.

I'm looking at a 6.5 Creed too, but not sure it would be a good choice for "longer range" Elk. I personally have a 9# 300 Win Mag for that.

Would depend on what your max range shot on game would be. Need to understand bullet speed and design at that max range to see if it'd work...

 

[Sobrbiker]

Some people will mention that the 6.5 PRC burns barrels when compared to other cartridges. That's generally true, but largely irrelevant considering the low round count of the average hunting rifle.

“The low round count of the average hunting rifle” is exactly why American hunters have been led into the vicious cycle of thinking we need giant calibers: more gun usually equates to less trigger time (cost and recoil), less trigger time leads to less skill at shot placement, less skill at shot placement equals more marginal shots, more marginal shots equal need for calibers that can “get Er done” on bad shots.

The 65CM is an excellent choice as a do-all, and being committed to understand the ballistics involved (including bullet seeing parameters, velocity energy and sectional density, and the all too often overlooked time of flight) should all come into play. AZ has lots of lost elk every season from guys poking pencil holes through elk with magnums because they are shot way too close for where the bullet is actually designed to shine.

I’m saddened that we fall into the gear race of shooting, and forget the art of hunting.
Pick the job, then the best tool for the job.

I’m no “Johnny come lately” to the 65CM, been shooting one since ‘09. It’s just a damned good cartridge at what it does.
If barrel life isn’t part of a rifle investment equation, I’d suggest the shooter isn’t shooting enough to be making long shots under field conditions.

If primary job is large game (elk+) the job is different, so the tool should be different-but still, commitment to training and respect for the intended quarry and terrain should be present.

 

[Sobrbiker]

And any quality 6.5 bullet pushed out of a quality tube at 2800fps is going to do well, so considerations of shoulder angle, internal ballistics, cartridge design can be used to sort out the pissing match of 260 vs CM vs 6.5x47, etc etc.

 

[Sobrbiker]

Crap, I didn’t remember I’d already posted my opinion a week ago.
Sorry, I do that-been a long week.

I will say the industry did a great job selling us the “need for more, bigger, better” calibers for decades...

 

[mshortdog]

+1 6.5 PRC

 

[Apollo117]

“The low round count of the average hunting rifle” is exactly why American hunters have been led into the vicious cycle of thinking we need giant calibers: more gun usually equates to less trigger time (cost and recoil), less trigger time leads to less skill at shot placement, less skill at shot placement equals more marginal shots, more marginal shots equal need for calibers that can “get Er done” on bad shots.

The 65CM is an excellent choice as a do-all, and being committed to understand the ballistics involved (including bullet seeing parameters, velocity energy and sectional density, and the all too often overlooked time of flight) should all come into play. AZ has lots of lost elk every season from guys poking pencil holes through elk with magnums because they are shot way too close for where the bullet is actually designed to shine.

I’m saddened that we fall into the gear race of shooting, and forget the art of hunting.
Pick the job, then the best tool for the job.

I’m no “Johnny come lately” to the 65CM, been shooting one since ‘09. It’s just a damned good cartridge at what it does.
If barrel life isn’t part of a rifle investment equation, I’d suggest the shooter isn’t shooting enough to be making long shots under field conditions.

If primary job is large game (elk+) the job is different, so the tool should be different-but still, commitment to training and respect for the intended quarry and terrain should be present.

I'm not really sure why you've quoted me, since you're speaking on a different topic than I wrote about in my post.

While I agree with your general premise that many hunters don't shoot enough to be proficient; I disagree with the idea of the 6.5 PRC being "more gun". I am assuming that "more gun" is a gun that has more felt recoil than the shooter can handle. If my assumption is correct, then I believe the 6.5 PRC is not "more gun". For example, the 6.5 PRC has less felt recoil than a .270 Win when using rifles that are the same weight and shooting the same weight bullet. I have a hard time believing that the .270 Win is "more gun" than most hunters can shoot comfortably. That might be true for some, but not most.

You wrote about shooting enough to be proficient, and ethical shot placement. I agree with both of those topics. I can't agree with the idea of the 6.5 PRC being "more gun".

 

[Sobrbiker]

No offense intended by the quote, but it was there and illustrates my point about many hunters classically having two boxes of ammo last two seasons (including zeroing).

I agree the PRC (esp w/factory loads) not hitting the “big gun” threshold, but it does add a couple hundred more yards of legs without going long action or short mag.