Nice shooting, especially given the # of firsts you had that day. Lots of good advice ehre, so I'll give you my 2 cents, and worth every penny you paid.
First, given how the rifle shoots from the bench and on your 1st day in the field, I would hold off making any gear-related changes right...
Question to those with some more experience - what about the other 6.5 calibers, like the Creedmore or 6.5 x 47, or even 6.5 x 55 at higher pressures?
Do you think that with handloads, those are inadequate for the task? Or is it a small enough difference to be irrelevant?
thanks.