I have 122 Cayuga 6.5mm hunting bullets in stock.
I shot 4 whitetails with them this year from 170-515 yards, all 4 of them dropped within 20yd and 2 of them dropped in their tracks.
The bullets were used by a number of people this year to take everything from whitetails and javelina through black bear, elk and mule deer. Point blank to over 700 yards.
For a short barrel like you're talking about I think you need to look for something with some speed and use a field zero that allows you to hold dead on. With a 6.5 Creed I'm doing that for Coyotes and using a 265yd zero. That gives me point blank to 350yd without moving at all, if I hold on the back of the dog I get 400yd which gives me the extents of the areas I have to hunt them. This is done because with my thermal it's not feasible to change POI in the scope each shot.
patriotvalleyarms.com
I also have the sister bullet for match use that's 124gr
Same bullet from the tail to the bearing surface and pilot band, I don't change my load or even my seating die to switch between the two bullets.
@usmc45 if you like the way the Hammers perform I think you'll really like the Cayugas. Easy to load, good speed, but WAY better form factors for retained velocity at long range.