Was the 6.5 cm really a necessity?

[Mitchell Demand]

I think what they mean by "rammed down our throats" is that it seems that everyone else has almost been paid-off or bullied (I said the word "seems", so nobody get all ****y) to abandon any cartridge similar to it, and the gun magazine editors just gushing over it every chance they get (my guess is more $$$), and Hornady's marketing team being so much better than everybody else's, plus Hornady backing the CM with the latest and greatest bullet and powder tech for their factory ammo and ignoring all other similar 6.5 cartridges, and leaving others behind. It's like they're steering everyone into that iceberg, whether we like it or not, by slowly dissolving the market for any other mid-range 6.5mm cartridges.

6.5 Grendel gets treated good by Hornady, but it's not in the same class as the others. It was geared more for AR platform, but also excels in bolt-action form. I wish Remington would put out an SPS Tac in 6.5 Grendel with a 20" 5R 1:8 heavy barrel with 5/8x24 threads from the factory. How sweet would that be? No recoil, but still a sub-500 yard deer and coyote killing machine. It would also be an awesome mid-to-long range plinker and loading for it would be cheap (less than 32 grains of powder).[/QU

 

[Mitchell Demand]

In my opinion neck the 6.5 CR down to 6mm then you got something. Good for benchrest and have alot of bullets to kill crittets with

 

[gkc guns]

This may be a dumb question, and I don't mean to start any kind of flame wars. Years ago I bought a savage model 12 long range precision in 260 Remington caliber. I had wanted a 260 for quite a while before I was able to get one. I love the round. I had wanted a 6.5 short action caliber, and the 260 foot the bill for me perfectly, something I felt I could hunt anything from coyote, to elk with. I bought the model 12, because I wanted a rifle I could shoot targets with, as well as take out hunting. Since then, I wanted to buy another 6.5 mm caliber short action rifle, that was lighter in weight. I was looking for a cheap accurate 260. I ended up buying another rifle, chambered in 6.5 mm Creedmoor. My question, is, what exactly does the Creedmoor do, that the 260 does not do? As far as I can tell, it appears to me that Remington's marketing completely dropped the ball on this caliber. I am looking at these two cases, curious as to why they Creedmoor is such a hot item, and the 260 has been so overlooked by the masses. I am punching dimes at 100 yards with my 260 pretty consistently, with 140 grain bullets going 2780 feet a second. The Creedmoor appears to be a good caliber, don't get me wrong, also, finding ammunition for the 260, the 6.5 x 55 Swede,or the 6.5 x 47 Lapua, in most stores is hard, to say the least. Creedmoor ammunition is stocked with match ammo ready to go. I just do not understand why the Remington 260 is never taken off like the Creedmoor did. It's like this caliber is been shoved down everybody's throat, to be the new king of the hill, when I can easily think of three other cartridges that would outperform it in the same caliber, and a short action. Am I missing something here?

Have 260 AI and 280. Both my favorite cartridges.

 

[Cold Trigger Finger]

Steered toward an iceberg ???
Remington could have done what Hornady and Lapua did . They had developed a good cart. They could have went for it. They did not. H + L did. Nothing nefarious about it.
Other than Remingtons gross incompetence.
I don't see that there's anything to root and beller about.
The 6.5 Creedmoor is a Great round. So easy to shoot well.
Everyone talks about how akrit Rems are. My Ruger Hawkeye 6.5 Creed . prints in the sub 1/2 moa consistently. And has filled my freezer twice so far.

 

[CTK]

I also wish that Lapua would expand their brass offerings. I think they would do well with 280ai, 300 Win Mag, and

I couldn't decide between the Creed or X47. After talking to Travis at RBROS I went with the X47. Sometimes I wish I had a little more case capacity, but the gun he built me is fast enough. Get just under 3000 fps with a 130 Berger. He assured me I was not at max with that load either. Haven't swayed from the load he developed for me. Shoots way to good to try something different.

I wonder if many (me included) are pushing the pressure envelope on this little cartridge. It almost always seems to have an accuracy node at the top. 3000 FPS with a 130gr is smoking fast. That is factory 270 win speed. My un scientific observation is that the VLD is easier to push than a standard bullet. Conversely, I had a tough time pushing the 120 TTSX anywhere near the speed I could push a standard 120 gr bullet. Must have something to do with this whole bearing surface idea I keep hearing about

 

[Canhunter35]

Vlds have such short bearing surfaces which I suppose reduces friction and lets them speed up a little over other bullets...means little if the node is below max speed.
That's why monolithics usually have cannelures, to reduce friction because the bearing surface gets so long on them

I had 130 elds screaming out of my 6.5cm, but they grouped so well at 2850fps I went with that.

 

[Mike 338]

Some of us still aren't over it

That caused an out-loud laugh.

 

[RandyinVa]

This may be a dumb question, and I don't mean to start any kind of flame wars. Years ago I bought a savage model 12 long range precision in 260 Remington caliber. I had wanted a 260 for quite a while before I was able to get one. I love the round. I had wanted a 6.5 short action caliber, and the 260 foot the bill for me perfectly, something I felt I could hunt anything from coyote, to elk with. I bought the model 12, because I wanted a rifle I could shoot targets with, as well as take out hunting. Since then, I wanted to buy another 6.5 mm caliber short action rifle, that was lighter in weight. I was looking for a cheap accurate 260. I ended up buying another rifle, chambered in 6.5 mm Creedmoor. My question, is, what exactly does the Creedmoor do, that the 260 does not do? As far as I can tell, it appears to me that Remington's marketing completely dropped the ball on this caliber. I am looking at these two cases, curious as to why they Creedmoor is such a hot item, and the 260 has been so overlooked by the masses. I am punching dimes at 100 yards with my 260 pretty consistently, with 140 grain bullets going 2780 feet a second. The Creedmoor appears to be a good caliber, don't get me wrong, also, finding ammunition for the 260, the 6.5 x 55 Swede,or the 6.5 x 47 Lapua, in most stores is hard, to say the least. Creedmoor ammunition is stocked with match ammo ready to go. I just do not understand why the Remington 260 is never taken off like the Creedmoor did. It's like this caliber is been shoved down everybody's throat, to be the new king of the hill, when I can easily think of three other cartridges that would outperform it in the same caliber, and a short action. Am I missing something here?

This may be a dumb question, and I don't mean to start any kind of flame wars. Years ago I bought a savage model 12 long range precision in 260 Remington caliber. I had wanted a 260 for quite a while before I was able to get one. I love the round. I had wanted a 6.5 short action caliber, and the 260 foot the bill for me perfectly, something I felt I could hunt anything from coyote, to elk with. I bought the model 12, because I wanted a rifle I could shoot targets with, as well as take out hunting. Since then, I wanted to buy another 6.5 mm caliber short action rifle, that was lighter in weight. I was looking for a cheap accurate 260. I ended up buying another rifle, chambered in 6.5 mm Creedmoor. My question, is, what exactly does the Creedmoor do, that the 260 does not do? As far as I can tell, it appears to me that Remington's marketing completely dropped the ball on this caliber. I am looking at these two cases, curious as to why they Creedmoor is such a hot item, and the 260 has been so overlooked by the masses. I am punching dimes at 100 yards with my 260 pretty consistently, with 140 grain bullets going 2780 feet a second. The Creedmoor appears to be a good caliber, don't get me wrong, also, finding ammunition for the 260, the 6.5 x 55 Swede,or the 6.5 x 47 Lapua, in most stores is hard, to say the least. Creedmoor ammunition is stocked with match ammo ready to go. I just do not understand why the Remington 260 is never taken off like the Creedmoor did. It's like this caliber is been shoved down everybody's throat, to be the new king of the hill, when I can easily think of three other cartridges that would outperform it in the same caliber, and a short action. Am I missing something here?

"I ended up buying another rifle, chambered in 6.5 mm Creedmoor." This was your first statement about the Creedmoor and the second was something along the lines that it was crammed down your throat. You should not have to buy one of each to know how they stack up.

You were the victim of good "Marketing" and the following media hype that Creedmore generated. You answered your own question. I have a grown up .260 (Ackley) and that capability of moving up is similar to adding a turbo to an automobile. Those that have them realize how special they are.

 

[gohring3006]

All the 260 guys are making the case for the Creed.
Remington doesn't support the 260. It's not a well thought out design.
No brass
No ammo
Not ideal for short actions.

The 6.5 Creed fills the above criteria well!

The 30-40 Krag comes to mind. It was quickly improved and the rest is history!!

 

[Mitchell Demand]

"I ended up buying another rifle, chambered in 6.5 mm Creedmoor." This was your first statement about the Creedmoor and the second was something along the lines that it was crammed down your throat. You should not have to buy one of each to know how they stack up.

You were the victim of good "Marketing" and the following media hype that Creedmore generated. You answered your own question. I have a grown up .260 (Ackley) and that capability of moving up is similar to adding a turbo to an automobile. Those that have them realize how special they are.

Turbos are fine if the high BC bullets will shoot there. Problem is that they wont. 3200fps is max for the high bc bullets for competition.
Mitchell

 

[Mitchell Demand]

I only shoot 130k round a year testing bullets so say I'm wrong if you want

 

[Dialing Long Distance]

"I ended up buying another rifle, chambered in 6.5 mm Creedmoor." This was your first statement about the Creedmoor and the second was something along the lines that it was crammed down your throat. You should not have to buy one of each to know how they stack up

I do feel the Creedmoor was in a sense crammed down everyone's throat. It has been said earlier in this forum thread, that thanks to Remington's dismal marketing department, it is pretty obvious the Hornady has done all they can do to take over the short action 6.5 market. I would have bought a 260 instead of the Creedmoor have been given the choice at the time. I already have dies for the 260, I was looking for a low-cost lighter weight hunting rifle in a short action 6.5. Sure I could build another rifle lighter in weight than my model 12 LRP, but I was looking for a low-cost alternative to that heavy gun and building on myself (I believe) would more than likely not be low cost.

 

[dana bodnar]

All they did was reintroduce the already invented wheel, and make people believe they needed it. Like Schnyd said, there was already +/- a half-dozen other cartridges that can do as good or better than the CM, that all fall into the same rough category.

Well said I see alot of shooters buying them up and they do shoot well and are easy to make loads for. I'am still old school and just love my Savage Model 111 LRH in 300 Win-Mag because I have had so many 1 shot clean kills with it and I also do alot of Elk hunting with it and you really need some good Knock down power at long range when harvesting Elk.

 

[Mike 338]

The 6.5's are fairly new to me. I converted a Remington 783 to a 6.5x47 Lapua (lots of new parts). I stayed away from the 260 due to seating high BC bullets long. At the time, Lapua didn't have brass for the Creed and the small primer pocket and long brass life sold me on the '47. Now that Lapua has similar brass for the Creed, it's a toss up. Gott'a say though, the '47 has been a joy to shoot. I'm on the same 25 pieces of brass that I started with and lost count a long time ago of how many times I've reloaded them. I can shoot them about 8 times before I need to trim them and the primer pockets are still like new. I bet a box of 100 will go the life of the barrel. I had it out to 525 yards a couple days ago and was spotting my shots easy enough (no brake) and all my shots were going where I was aiming them. I'm discovering that slightly more powder doesn't necessarily mean more fun are really even appreciably more performance.