Doc Russia astounded me the other night by telling me that next year (2020) he’s not going to use his custom Remington 700 in .300 Win Mag to cull Scottish deer with Mr. Free Market. Instead, he’s downloading to (another) custom Rem 700 in 6.5 Creedmoor.
Okay, as any fule kno, I am hugely skeptical of new cartridges simply because, as some smart guy put it:
“Typically, this is how we get new cartridges. A gunmaker approaches an ammo producer—which is sometimes part of the same parent company—and says, hey, we want to introduce a new round, and if you make it, we’ll produce several thousand rifles to support it. They then hype the hell out of it, cross their fingers, and hope shooters are drawn to it like raccoons to hot garbage.”
And after a couple years of frenzied excitement, the cartridge disappears as though it never existed, leaving gun owners with a rifle that’s as useful as tits on a boar hog.
However, this 6.5 Creedmoor seems to be the business, not only because it’s a good hunting rifle, but it’s also winning competitions for accuracy — delivering about the same impact as a .300 Win Mag (!) but with considerably less recoil. No wonder Doc is interested.
So with that said, read all about it.
As intriguing as it sounds, however, I’m unlikely to follow the trend (and not for the first time) because I’ve long known about the beauty of a 6.5mm bullet, in its incarnation as the 6.5x55mm Swedish cartridge, developed in the nineteenth century. Granted, the 6.5 Creedmoor hits harder than the Swede, but I’m reminded of the trenchant response from a guy who had been shooting .270 Win his whole life when told how much better was the .270 Win Short Magnum cartridge that came on the scene: “So what?”
Put me in his camp. However, I can’t wait to see what happens when Doc hits the Angus Glens with his new death-dealer…
It’s an incremental improvement over 6.5x55mm Swede with better ballistics. I think the main attraction is that 6.5 CM is shorter and fits in semi-auto actions easily. If I already had a 6.5x55mm Swede, I doubt I’d spend the money on a new rifle, either, unless I just wanted one in an EBR. Which I do, just because…
I assembled a 260 Ackley on a Savage action, right around the time when the 6.5 CM was introduced. I haven’t seen anything that makes me want to change over to the CM from the 260 AI – or the 6.5×55, for that matter. They’re all good cartridges with slight advantages in different areas when compared, I believe. Is there such a thing as a bad 6.5?
@Kim, your favorite contrarian here . . . why all the fuss over the new 6.5 CM whiz-bang?
Buddy of mine has a semi-custom Rem 700 in .308 . . . nice 6×24 Vortex for glass . . . he can routinely “ding” 8in steel @ 600 yards. I’ve also seen him do 5-shot groups, all holes touching, at 200 yards. Yes, the brand/grade of ammo makes a difference, but when the package is working its WORKING.
The buck won’t care a whit about what caliber Doc might choose.
Gonna be a dead buck, regardless. The caliber ain’t the deadly factor here.
Doc Russia, is.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
A certain South African gent got me interested in 6.5×55, it became my favorite long arm caliber. I have, er, had, four, er, five, before the tragic boating accident–M96, M38, CG63, AG42B Ljungman, and a CZ 550 American so I could shoot the round scoped. And all those beautiful guns are at the bottom of the lake now!
Feel for ya, man.
When I first started watching LaRue’s forum all the talk was about .260 Remington, and everyone was going to buy one and they couldn’t wait for LaRue to release barrels for them and… and…
Then the 6.5 Creedmore broke out and it all repeated. Don’t recall the last time I saw a .260 Remington mention. And to be fair the 6.5C really does seem to be an excellent round; two folks I know have retired their 7.62x51s in favor of it for long range.
Of course now there’s all this buzz about the .300PRC (which does not stand for peoples republic of cali) and apparently something called the 6.5PRC 😉
I almost bought a 6.5 Grendel instead of a .300 Blackout. The Grendel still seems to be doing ok in the market.
As the good Col. Cooper was wont to point out, there really is very little ballistically new under the sun.
And if you’re headed to Africa, I submit that your best bet is .375 H&H Magnum. You might just want to use it for everything, although Craig Boddington’s “Safari Rifles” had a survey of PHs…who liked .243 Winchester for a second rifle.