"crap like that, air guns" and "ruffling feathers"
You can't use phrases like that and not ruffle some feathers.
There are a whole world of serious rifle guys that crank out rounds at paper, that do not hunt. There are a whole lot of military and ex-military guys among them. They shoot (accurately) way past 400 yds (your stated hunt limit) and such things as less drop (for unknown distances) and less wind drift (always) matters. Referring to match/paper shooters interests as "crap" will not win you any fans here. Camp Perry is one of those places where that sort of crap is very popular. To use a phrase from Elmer Keith, "I'm for any sport that burns powder".
I too am mostly a hunter, but dabbled in regional match shooting F-T/R(.223/.308) just enough to know that there are some dang good shots at those matches. I also saw that the .308 scores at most any match I went to could not equal the scores being shot by those with wind slipping 6mm, 6.5 and 7mm F-class (open) rifles. In the wind ( and it doesn't take much ) the .308 was at a distinct disadvantage.
Regards air guns and recoil. Above rifleman may well shoot 100-125 or more rounds over the course of a match weekend. Every one of those trigger presses are hoped to be perfect. Less recoil is conducive to that no matter how much hair you have on your chest. There are also a whole lot of folks who hunt that have found that to cleanly kill a 150 lb whitetail, they don't need .30 caliber punch.
The 6.5CM fits in neatly above the .243, which is accepted as a good deer combo by many. Where the 6.5CM may come into its own as a hunting round is in the ultralight rifles like the Kimber Hunter. At 5.5 lbs naked, the Hunter and its like are very light, and the 6.5CM, with more punch than a .243, and more reach than it's bigger brothers (arguably), but less recoil, may be the ideal spot and stalk medium game rifle. I'd think it ideal for something like an antelope hunt, mule deer and the like, where you cover a lot of ground, and shots can be long (that's what they say anyhow, I'll likely never get the chance to find out).
I don't own a 6.5CM, or a Kimber Hunter, but I can see where the combo might be an ideal tool. I've not shot a whitetail past 225 yds, and for that, all my old standbys work fine, and there's likely not one that couldn't have been taken with a .243, and most could have fallen easily to a 30-30. I no longer shoot in the F-T/R matches, but in F-Class and the new PRS game, the 6.5CM may be the answer. It certainly seems popular afield on the firing line.
For a lot of reasons.