Hunting & Fishing 6.5 creed labeled “marginal”
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Here’s a good article on the subject I have referenced over the years.
The last paragraph contains experience that is most overlooked when people are looking for an appropriate hunting rifle:
The last paragraph contains experience that is most overlooked when people are looking for an appropriate hunting rifle:
My buddy James and his son Jakob have killed more Polar Bears with a .243 than you will ever kill deer.
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How did hunters ever survive prior to the 6.5 CM? SMH, look at the rifles that our grandfather's carried in the woods. There were alot of the old trusty 30-06's, 30-30's and such.
The 6 Remington was touted as a varmint rifle cartridge and the 243 was a deer hunting round.
I killed alot of my Elk and Mule Deer with my old 30-06 that I carried as a kid.
The debate will continue for years to come....
The 6 Remington was touted as a varmint rifle cartridge and the 243 was a deer hunting round.
I killed alot of my Elk and Mule Deer with my old 30-06 that I carried as a kid.
The debate will continue for years to come....
I had a couple kids {cousins} from Barrow AK at one place I worked. They killed polar bears and caribou with an Ar-15, 223. I feel like these conversations loose sight of the fact people used to kill mastodons with spears.My buddy James and his son Jakob have killed more Polar Bears with a .243 than you will ever kill deer.
Ookpik Tours
If you want factory ammo that will absolutely perform on heavier game in 6.5 creedmoor look no further than the Sako 153 deerhead. Absolute hammer.
That being said, plenty of deers were DRT with Lapua scenar in 6x47 and 6.5 if you Google the thread deceased via scenar
That being said, plenty of deers were DRT with Lapua scenar in 6x47 and 6.5 if you Google the thread deceased via scenar
Most older folks are familiar with Jack O'Connor and the .270 Winchester.
Guess what his go-to hunting rifle cartridge was, vs his gun magazine article cartridge?
Campaigned a 6.5 Creedmoor in Namibia & South Africa in 2019. Dropped 37 animals on a cull hunt. Longest one-shot kill was a springbok at 847 ranged yards. IMHO, everything comes down to rifle management, bullet selection and bullet placement.
Dont know if it's the correct answer but the rifle he is holding in the top photo is a custom 1903 Springfield chambered in 7x57mm.Most older folks are familiar with Jack O'Connor and the .270 Winchester.
Guess what his go-to hunting rifle cartridge was, vs his gun magazine article cartridge?
From guys that knew O’Conner, he wrote endlessly about the .270 Winchester, but often resorted to using .30-06 for Elk.
I think you’re hitting on something that doesn’t get touched too often in these discussions, magnum class velocity matters. Shoot enough animals with a standard class cartridge and a magnum class cartridge, and the difference is noticeable. While I don’t consider a 6.5 Creed marginal, I prefer a 6 on the same case, and neither compares very well to a 6.5 SAUM.
I’ve had decent sized mule deer “bang, flop” with a .223 at 300+ yards. To say a 6.5 creed is marginal is just irrational.
We've killed way over 50 deer with a 223, and I know of 22 Caribou that were killed with a 223 with 55 gr soft points on a "bow" hunt that resulted in open tundra with no trees. Of the deer, 2 were 2 shot kills, the caribou only 1. Both of the 2 shot kills were gut shots that humped them in place. The big difference is very simply speed, velocity kills. If you ever saw what a 110 gr copper bullet at 3500 fps does after impact it wouldn't even be a debate. Tissue damage alone doesn't transfer to DRT. High velocity literally shuts down the nerves. This isn't observation from a dozen critters being shot but closer to 1000. I have been in on cull shoots where we shot everything from 223's to 300 mags. Everything will kill a deer, but velocity trumps everything else. The Creed was brought out as a target round initially and morphed into a hunting round. If I were to hunt with 1 again, it wouldn't be with a bullet weight of over 123 grs.
Well for you men, who really want True Knockdown Power and are just not satisfied with your typical squirrel rifles (300 win Mag) power to take down chipmunks or your typical deer rifle (that would be say a .416 Remington Mag) may I suggest a Holland and Holland Double Rifle in 700 H&H. Now it might be just a touch pricy, being in the class of “If you have to ask, You can’t afford it.” May I suggest a slightly used model in the apologetically weak 3” 500 Magnum for only $175,000.00. Ready for immediate delivery, (for sale on another site, NDIH)
Two year wait on the 700
Pictured is the 700 H&H Double Rifle
This post is about as ridiculous as some of the other meanderings in this thread.
Two year wait on the 700
Pictured is the 700 H&H Double Rifle
This post is about as ridiculous as some of the other meanderings in this thread.
The flipside of that is....what if you’re shooting too fast at magnum velocities within common hunting distances, exceeding the capability of many bullets to hold together? This was one of the main problems with the .270 Winchester and then Roy Weatherby, who took the .270’s magnum velocities and pushed heavier bullets even faster from the .300 H&H parent case.
It forced the bullet industry to respond with solutions by trying to build tougher bullets that wouldn’t frag, like the Nosler Partition. Then came Barnes with the original X.
Meanwhile, for over a century, I’ve never heard someone shooting .30-30 Winchester complain about bullets coming apart, and they just harvest game by the millions without a fuss. Same with legacy and the modern heavier projectiles in 6.5x55 Mauser, most of which were 156-160gr.
But then you look at us out West in our need for plains rifles, and a .30-30 Win. just isn’t going to cut it. That’s where something like the .270 Winchester really shined for zapping speed goats and mulies at 200-350yds, limited by the optics of the day really. I grew up on .270 Win. with a wire/post reticle well before we had any of the new waves of modern rifle optics that have emerged over the past 25 years.
The place where 6.5 CM comes into play is that for shorter range medium and large game (within 200yds), it might make more sense to go heavy if you aren’t shooting bonded or monoliths, and for intermediate ranges, use a bullet that provides consistent performance for penetration. A good all-round bullet for that is the 140gr A-MAX, which was discontinued.
Screaming 129gr SSTs and SPs within 100yds especially will likely see significant fragmentation from 22-24” barreled 6.5 CM rifles. Plenty of people have had DRT results though with those bullets and speeds and will cry foul, so it’s an interesting study on caliber and bullet selection I think.
For a plains rifle, I would much rather have 6.5 SAUM or PRC, but you can get lots of trigger time with the CM. It’s something to consider to have multiple rifles with different performance in a hunting party if you might encounter both short and long shots.
And then we come full-circle back to .30-06 Springfield, which will do all of that.
I usually take my 300wm on prairie dog shoots. A 200g bullet at 3000fps will make an acrobat out of the clumsiest fat bellied varmint.
My dad always laughs about taking a guy out shooting them who brought his his 300 Weatherby. He said everyone was laughing at him because he kept missing, then finally he pops one like six feet in the air, it lands and takes of running back down its hole. He obliterated its mound though.
Biggest problem with high velocity on animals you intend to eat is meat damage.
No, when the ruskies saw that the Ukrainians were about to shoot at them with a 6.5 Creedmoor, the got so scared, the scuttled the ship to avoid the certain and complete destruction.
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