.260 vs 6.5 Creedmore

[the blur]

6 pages... I think I'll take my .243 Antelope hunting. It'll shoot flatter than any 6.5 or .260
Maybe a little more wind shift...

 

[kamml53]

Yeah, big green blew it with their 6mm against the 243 too. So its not the their first time off the mark.

 

[bigngreen]

I don't think marketing has as much to do with it as many think, the Creedmore took a long time to become popular it's almost 13 years old, it took a LOT of people running it and seeing something to get it to be worth the marketing dollars we see in the last few years. There is like one grain difference between it and the 260, if you see a performance difference it's in throating or what pressure your willing to run to, the 260 has room to get more capacity and I don't see why someone would compare a 260AI to a 6.5 Creedmore because obviously were talking a new chambering. The 260 has more room to be improved for sure and is and always has been where it is at it's best but that's a different thing!!

 

[SavageHunter11]

Why is the 6.5 CM much more popular than the .260 ?
On paper the .260 is better, flatter, more energy; but not as popular.

Is it because of all the magazines articles ?

6mm Remington is better all around than the 243 Winchester and yet you can't easily find rifle chambered in 6mm Rem but the new and used market is full of rifles in 243win. The 270 Winchester is mostly only as popular as it is because Jack O'Connor spouted off about it for 4 decades in Outdoor Life when the numbers show the 280 Remington is the better cartridge. Again, you don't find 280 Remington's in any significant numbers anywhere on the shelf or in gun safes but everyone and their dad has a 270 Winchester it seems. Just more examples of how good marketing can push a slightly inferior cartridge into the mainstream regardless of the ballistics.

Mind you, this is all coming from someone who shoots a 6.5 Creedmoor and who compared 260 Rem, 6.5 Creedmoor, and 6.5x47 Lapua for over two years before he settled on a 6.5 Creedmoor. There's more reasons as to why I shoot a 6.5 Creedmoor now over the other two than just ballistics. There's inherent accuracy, availability of components (both reloading and rifle), ability to seat longer bullets further out, etc, and etc. It's not as simple as looking at a ballistics table. If it was we would have a single cartridge for each caliber in the various action lengths and that would be that.

 

[sturner]

Every time I see that dang duck I fall out laughing

 

[CVCOBRA1]

"The Creedmoor being shot by relatively new shooters".......I'd say this is one of the key statements. If you are a young adult or a teenager seeking "your" new rifle and have read any of the gun magazines in the last six or seven years you have been bombarded with Creedmoor revelations. You want something new and a 270, 308 and 30-06 are not in that category.

 

[SavageHunter11]

6 pages... I think I'll take my .243 Antelope hunting. It'll shoot flatter than any 6.5 or .260
Maybe a little more wind shift...

*cough* 6mm Creedmoor *cough*






(sorry I had to poke that bear )

 

[Pdurry]

Apparently, Mach 1 and I are on the same page. I have owned a 260 Rem in the past and currently own a 6.5 Creedmoor. Both are great rounds, but I would suggest that much of the current hype surrounding the 6.5 Creedmoor is just that - hype. I have not been able to get my Creedmore up to the performance of my old 260. I recognize that rifle characteristics and barrel length can have some impact on that. But I believe the real difference for me had more to do with my reloading than anything else.

From what I have seen, the 260 Rem and 6.5 CM appear to be close in terms of velocity when comparing load data. However, that is with an unlevel playing field. Min/Max loads for the Rem 260 tend to be 58,500 - 59,600 in pressure. The 6.5 CM is typically run at 60,200 - 60,500. If you push the 260 to those same pressures, then the difference becomes more apparent. I only used Lapua brass in my 260 because it could withstand the higher loading pressures I was using. Lapua doesn't make brass for the 6.5 CM (yet). I have been hearing good things about ADG, so maybe my 6.5 CM can be boosted a little more with high quality brass.

As to the arguments of 'better case design' and 'more inherently accurate', these claims are hard to quantify or justify. However, I would hasten to point out that the 260 Rem is nothing more than a 308 Win case necked down to .264. The claims regarding case design and inherent accuracy of the 308 were and still are the mantra for most of the bench competition shooters, so I am at a loss as to when and how the Rem 260 lost those same attributes.

Lapua does make 6.5 Creed brass......

 

[pacowboy]

Remington sucks - their marketing sucks, the R&D sucks, they have no idea what long range hunters/shooters want or need. Thats why none of their 260 offerings came with a twist rate fast enough to stabilize the high BC 6.5 bullets.

Edit: to sum it all up they are idiots and they suck. The 6.5 creedmoor never would have been necessary if Remington hadn't screwed the pooch on the 260.

I admit that Remington doesn't do a good job at marketing certain items like the .260 and it's original barrel twist. Had they learned their lesson from the 6MM Remington we wouldn't be talking about the creeds or the .243 Winchester at all. I did very well with an accurized 700 action shooting 1k competition. Had I done my part better it would have done better. Remington does some things well and seems to fall on their nose other times. Just like all the rest.

 

[JohnMill]

Yeah, but what did you do to them? I guarantee they aren't stock guns anymore. I have M700s as well. Trigger and stock swaps at a minimum? Probably a new barrel to get the twist you want? Big green survived on the military contract reputation and got lazy.

Yeah, me too. 6.5CM vs 260? Most of the shooters I talk to (2500 member club) just want to shoot. Hit the target accuracy is fine with them. So off the shelf ammo will sell a lot of rifles. Guys like me that are "selling" precision hand loading and precision games will get 5-10% coming in the door and more down the road but most just want to shoot right now. Some of those we will never "get".

 

[Pdurry]

FYI
https://www.lapua.com/cases/6-5-creedmoor/

Thanks Barrelnut! I bought some when they first started making them.

 

[PP guns]

I prefer the 260 based on performance. But the CM is more efficient and can fit in the mags while having bullets close to the lands. That's the only benefit I can tell and quite frankly I don't care about that. My custom 260 shoots 1/4 moa all day long out to 800 yds.

 

[TxHeartShot]

Every single pronghorn, whitetail, muley, coyote, bobcat, and coues I have run across has been super ****ed I built a 260 Rem on a 700V action with a Hart barrel screwed on it. I'm pretty sure they would have just as upset had I built a Creedmore.

 

[wbm]

There's more reasons as to why I shoot a 6.5 Creedmoor now over the other two than just ballistics.

Agree. I love 6.5x55 SE....always have. Why? Don't really know because it is not ballistically superior enough to the 260 or 6.5CM to warrant that.

Have had a 260 and built several 6.5CM's and liked all of them but the availability of quality 6.5CM ammunition is a VERY big plus. The article on three 6.5's done by Zac Smith several years ago sorta sums up what I think of the 6.5 offerings. He did another article saying that the 6.5CM was the 260 "done right". If I were going 260 again, it would definitely be an AI and on a long action...to me that is the 260 "done very right."

http://demigodllc.com/articles/6.5-shootout-260-6.5x47-6.5-creedmoor/

 

[JASmith]

It's been said already -- while the the 260 pushes the same weight bullets a bit faster, the cartridge and barrel spec were designed to handle the high BC bullets.

The discriminating long range shooter therefore gives the nod to the Creedmoor.

The average hunter will not see a difference in performance in the field, but we all want to emulate the best long range shots. The modest recoil compared with larger cases helps too.

Hence more people buy the Creedmoor even though several other cartridges in the .264 - .277 diameter class will do as well or better.