6.5 WSM

It's been done. Remington did it with the 6.5 SAUM, it withered. Winchester made the 264 Win Mag, but it never gained the needed momentum. Same with the 6.5mm Rem Mag. Previous 6.5mm/.264" cartridges were not popular, so new ones got bagged. Shooters are pretty tradition-bound guys, so 25 caliber , 27 caliber, and 30 caliber are easier to sell. The main source of the 6.5mm fad is among competitive target shooters who want the high BC without the high bullet weight and correlated recoil, and competitive shooters will try anything they think might give them an edge.
 
Actually competition shooters developed the 6.5 Creedmoor for long range shooting about 10 years ago. It was only after hunters discovered that it was an excellent cartridge for hunting that it really took off. The long range shooters have already moved on from the 6.5's and it appears now that they are going toward the 6mm rounds leaving the 6.5's to hunters.

There have been numerous attempts to develop a really fast 6.5 over the years. The new 6.5 PRC is based on the Ruger Compact Magnum case.

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/...6-5-prc-precision-rifle-cartridge-by-hornady/

The new 26 Nosler is I think the fastest 6.5 out there.

But I think the old 6.5X55 and 6.5 Creedmoor will continue to dominate. The 260 is nearly identical to 6.5 Creedmoor, but will slowly die off. The 2 rounds are too similar with very slight advantages to the Creed version. The 260 never really caught on and the 6.5 Creed has already surpassed it in sales by a wide margin. No reason to buy one.

I don't expect any of the "fast" 6.5's to really make a huge impact for a couple of reasos.

#1 They burn out barrels very fast. Not really a lot to discuss about that.

#2. As a target load the slower 6.5's will still remain supersonic out to 2000 yards. More speed and flatter trajectory just isn't important and wouldn't add much to what they can do. If someone wants to shoot beyond 2000 yards that is where the 300 and 338 magnums start taking over.

As a hunting round bullets perform best when they impact between 1800 and about 2800 fps. The fast 6.5's are moving too fast up close and often result in poor bullet performance whereas the slower 6.5's with 140 gr bullets start at about 2700 fps and still remain above 1800 well past 500 yards. Which is farther than 95% of shooters have any business taking a shot.
 
The 6.5 Rem magnum was a dismal failure. It's like hitting your thumb with a hammer again just to see if the first really hurt as much as you thought it did.
 
Take a look at the 6.5-06. I had mine throated for 140 Sierras seated to base of neck. I get 2935 from 24" with a lot less powder.
 
There have been numerous attempts to develop a really fast 6.5 over the years.
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Yes, but you can only push so much burning gas down that itsy-bitsy teeny little hole. Try to push more through that tiny hole and the metal in the throat starts to evaporate. Hence the 6.5 Creedmore rather than the 264 Win Mag.
Take a look at the 6.5-06. I had mine throated for 140 Sierras seated to base of neck. I get 2935 from 24" with a lot less powder.
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Yes. I had a 6.5-06 30 years ago. It would launch 140s at 3,000, 130s at 3,100. But it had as much recoil as a 270 Win ( Well Duh! Same bullet weight at the same velocity out of the same case!).

Shooters today seem to be looking for a cartridge that defies the laws of physics: super fast, shoots as flat as a string, no recoil, never misses. And they want to split hairs: yes, cartridge X starts out faster and shoots flatter, but mine is still supersonic at a mile and passes cartridge X at 2 miles. Or even better: my BC is .641, yours is only .639.

:rolleyes: The only thing that matters in the long run is bullets on target. Before you start telling me how much better one is over another, remember there are still records standing that were set with the 45-70 over 100 years ago.
 
It looks like Hornady is getting serious about the 6.5 PRC. Once a few mainstream gun manufacturers jump on board I'd expect it to start doing well. At 200 FPS faster than the Creedmoor and still pleasantly mild it makes more sense for hunters, especially those wanting to stretch things out.

The 6.5x284 is still alive. It's a darned good chambering.
 
I had just recieved a magazine with an article about the 300 SAUM necked to 6.5mm. Writer seemed to like it.

As far as speed goes there is the 6.5-300 Weatherby, and the whole Lazzeroni line.
Intended for hunting only as barrels go south 500-700 rounds.

Mobuck,
6.5mm Rem Mag is a decent round, Rem effed up putting it in such a short gun. Was the original short mag, along with the 350 Rem.
When i get around to it was planning on building rifle for 6.5mm Rem Mag. Have the dies already.
 
Shooters today seem to be looking for a cartridge that defies the laws of physics: super fast, shoots as flat as a string, no recoil, never misses. And they want to split hairs: yes, cartridge X starts out faster and shoots flatter, but mine is still supersonic at a mile and passes cartridge X at 2 miles. Or even better: my BC is .641, yours is only .639.
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Truth.

...and they'll drop some serious cash in search of this Chimera ....

....what they will not do, by and large, is work to improve upon the weakest part of the system and the one most susceptible to degradation with disuse: skills ..... that takes time .... which, if one has to work all the time to afford chasing the Next Big Thing, is hard to come by.
 
I think the problem with the 6.5 Rem mag was the rifle they put it in. 660 mag was a laminate stock with a action that wouldn't allow bullet's longer than 120gr to be loaded out. I think the only commercial bullet's loaded for it were all 120gr. Kind of tied it's hands! The 600 was a short or standard action but the long action was just a bit to long! But the long action would have been much better, get those bullet's out of the powder space! That standard action usually find's the 6mm Rem also I think. The 6mm I had was not much as because of the magazine length I couldn't get bullet's out where I wanted them. If I was going to build something like that, there's a european company that make's five different action lengths and I'd bet one on them might work. Other wise an older Savage. The Savage was a longer action but to accomidate shorter cartridge's it had the magazine well and the action designed to work better. Then to it might need opened bit to allow you to seat out the bullet's.
 
I think the problem with the 6.5 Rem mag was the rifle they put it in. 660 mag was a laminate stock with a action that wouldn't allow bullet's longer than 120gr to be loaded out. I think the only commercial bullet's loaded for it were all 120gr. Kind of tied it's hands! The 600 was a short or standard action but the long action was just a bit to long! But the long action would have been much better, get those bullet's out of the powder space! That standard action usually find's the 6mm Rem also I think. The 6mm I had was not much as because of the magazine length I couldn't get bullet's out where I wanted them. If I was going to build something like that, there's a european company that make's five different action lengths and I'd bet one on them might work. Other wise an older Savage. The Savage was a longer action but to accomidate shorter cartridge's it had the magazine well and the action designed to work better. Then to it might need opened bit to allow you to seat out the bullet's.
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It wasn't just the action that doomed it, Don: The factory rifles were made with 18 1/2" barrels that could not make good (useful- I'm sure it made an impressive fireball and very loud bang!) advantage of the powder capacity gained by using the shorter bullets. The 660 added 1.5" of barrel, but that isn't enough to matter .... given room in the case, it has more useful case capacity than the .270 WIN .... neutering it with a carbine barrel is just stupidity .....

....but Remington of the mid 1960's seemed to be do quite a lot of really dumb stuff.....
 
Remington wasn't alone.
Had Winchester chambered their 284 in a bolt gun instead of an autoloader things may have been different.
 
6.5 WSM has been around a long time. Dies and reamers available everywhere. Its basically a 264 Win Mag. If you have a need to duplicate the velocity of the .264 Win Mag in a short action, it will do it. For my 2 cents, the .270 WSM is just too close to .264 size to be worth wildcatting. .270 bullet selection is as good now as .264.
 
I think the problem with the 6.5 Rem mag was the rifle they put it in.
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I agree! The 600/660 rifle killed several cartridges, the 6.5 Rem Mag, the 350 Rem Mag, and the 6mm Rem. The rifle was too light for the 6.5 Rem Mag and the 350 Rem Mag, and the action was not quite long enough for the 6mm Rem. I remember the first time I fired a 350 Rem Mag, it was a WOW! experience! Didn't want to try again, that was for sure!
 
The nice thing about the RSAUM wildcats such as 6.5 and 25 is that they are just slightly less overbore than the WSM wildcats, and so just a little more "ideal".
 
But some of us don't want/like the 270, Pathfinder.

While there is nothing wrong (aside from bullet selection) with the 270, i removed my barrel and put on a 284 Win barrel.

I have a 6.5mm Rem Mag build planned.
 
Of course, std7mag, I understand that. But the fact remains that you would be better served with a 270 Winchester. You still have to go your own way because you will lay awake at night obsessing about it until you do. In the end, you will have a rifle that does about the same job as a 270 while sacrificing magazine capacity at a cost that would make a Winchester model 70 Supergrade look like a great bargain. But there are serious health consequences to insomnia, so you have to consider it an investment in your well-being. Then you can proceed in the full confidence of knowing that it is money and time well spent in spite of anything that would indicate otherwise. I know how it works.....;)
 
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