The 6.5 of the Future

The 6.5 Creedmoor seems well enough established to go with. If supplies get short, your barrel will probably be worn out by then anyhow and you can put on Something Else.

6.5x55 calls for a long action, ammo and data are based on 1940 Swedish GI. Commonly overloaded in "strong modern rifles" but I don't know a source of PV tested +P data.

.260 Remington is a good hunting round/rifle, a friend has one. Target shooters were getting about a 60% yield in brass prep of RP cases. Lapua now makes cases but seems too little, too late.

6.5x47 Lapua seems to have been overtaken by the Creedmoor. I saw a 6x6.5 Lap before I ever saw a rifle for the original.
 
Another issue with the good ole swede, is that rifles so chambered may have a very long leade to the rifling to accommodate 6.5 x 55 cartridges loaded with the 160gr. roundnose bullets. My brother had a Win Featherweight with that issue. A Cerosafe chamber casting revealed why his accuracy with lighter spitzers weren't up to par.

The Creedmoor doesn't have any such issues. The case design makes it very flexible to load with a variety of bullet weights.
 
A writer for outdoor life jim Carmichael I think first made a 260 rem round brought it to a 1000 yd match and placed very high against fire breathing magnums. the idiots from Remington were there and saw fit to adopt then destroy the round. why they morphed into a strictly hunting round after seeing what it did at 1000 yds is insane. if they worked for the govt they would have been promoted. I would stick with the 260 being there are so much brass in 308 7mm etc
 
I vote 6.5 CM! I'm working on adding that to my hunting and/or precision arsenal next.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using Tapatalk
 
The CZ FS series is the best looking rifle on the market at less than double its street price IMO.
You can have a full stock made for other rifles though. Extra cost, but buy once v. cry forever or whatever.
 
"...why they (Rem) morphed into a strictly hunting round after seeing what it (the .260) did at 1000 yds..."

Now that is just silly...

The .260 never was intended or made for "just hunting"...

I see FAR more .260s being used for target shooting than hunting...

T.
 
I've got 5 different 6.5mm offerings.
I built a 6.5 Creedmoor rifle to shoot long range and also hunt with. It is insanely accurate,shooting almost any bullet style/weight.

I purchased a DPMS LR-260H (260 Remington) for a hog huntng rifle. I chose the 260 over the 6.5 CM for this platform for a couple reasons. Hornady 6.5 CM brass used to suck! It wouldn't take the punishment that a gas gun would put out,and since I just neck up 243 Winchester brass for the 260,I don't care if I loose it out in the field when hunting.
Also,the 260's case shoulder angle allows smoother loading out of the magazine in an semi-auto platform.

I then built a 6.5-06 bolt action,because I've always wanted one. I love this rifle!

Back in March of this year,I assembled an AR Performance SIX5 (6.5x6.8) AR-15 upper. It's just a 6.8 SPC case necked down to 6.5mm,and then trimmed .060". I wanted a light weight hunting AR,and it fit the bill. I shoot 100 & 120 grain bullets out of it suppressed. I still haven't figured out the powder charges for it yet,6.8mm brass sucks worse than 6.5 CM brass,it's really weak brass.

At Shilen's Open House earlier this year,I picked up a Select Match 6.5 CM and 260 AI barrel cheap. The 260 AI barrel is a 5.5 contour,so I had my machinist cut it to 20",thread it for my suppressors,and re-crown it. I still need to buy a barrel nut,recoil lug from Northland to finish it,but then I'll have to buy another scope. It'll have to wait for a while. I do have a brand new box of Lapua brass for it,just waiting to be fire formed.
Some may wonder why I chopped the barrel to 20". I'll still get the fps of a 24" 260 Remington,and won't have a 5 ft long rifle with a suppressor screwed on the barrel.

For the OP,If I was buying/building a new bolt action rifle,I'd choose the 6.5 Creedmoor if you're wanting a factory offering.
Factory ammo for both hunting/target shooting are easily obtained. Reloading for it is just as good as the 260 Remington since Lapua announced that it will be producing brass for the Creedmoor in 2017,plus it will use small rifle primers. Nosler makes 6.5 CM brass,and it's very good brass.
 
Interesting observations on Hornady's brass for Creedmoor--that's principally what I use and I've found it to be very tough stuff.
 
> Grendel has effective, even if not technical, reliability issues in standard equipment.

Works just fine in Avtomat Kalashnikov.
 
Whats your intended use of the rifle? For a hunting or even long range paper punching its hard to beat 6.5-06 if you reload if not you would be better off 6.5 creedmoore. If you want something over the top to play with and dont care about a shorter barrell life 6.5-300wby can send those high bc bullets at staggering speeds.
 
how this round took off is beyond me which is 99.9999% like the 260 rem
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Except they're not the same - the .260 has a large population of slow twist guns, so ammo manufacturers will never make ammo for it that requires a 1:8" twist. All interesting 6.5mm ammo is going to need a 1:8" twist, so that pretty much means .260 is doomed. The .260 also has its shoulder too far forward, so you can't load heavy low drag bullets and stay within magazine length.

That's two very sound engineering reasons why the .260 needed a replacement. 6.5 Creedmoor solves both problems.
 
I think you should also be considering the 6.5 Grendel. It's an up and coming trend.
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More like a mis-engineered failure. Neither "flavor" works correctly (one breaks bolts, the other extractors) and the only way you can get acceptable performance it to push bolt thrust massively beyond what the platform is designed for.

If you want the same performance, cheaper, without the design mistakes then shoot 6x45.
 
OP is talking about a bolt gun , not an autoloader.
6.5 Grendel is a poor choice for a bolt gun when compared to other chamberings. Optimized for the AR platform and its case size constraints.

Extractor issues...broke one long ago, but not anything I'd call an issue. Talked to Bill Alexander and built it something like seven years ago before most had even heard of it.
Other than short range SD/hunting/suppressed applications I wouldn't own an AR in anything else but never in a bolt gun.
 
6.5s I have owned and no longer do...6.5x55 Bolt, 25-06 Bolt (Kind of), 6.5Grendel AR15, .260Rem AR10.

6.5s I own now....260Rem Bolt, 6.5PCC AR15.

In all honesty, if I did not have a Custom .260 I was invested in, with brass and dies, etc. I would not buy another.

6.5CM is the one I would choose due to the popularity, slight AR10 benefits (which means more ammo) and adoption into several factory offerings if I wanted a 6.5.

If someone offered to buy all of my 6mm and 6.5mm firearms, brass, dies and 6.5mm bullets today, I would buy two 6CM bolt guns: one like the Ruger AM Predator for hunting and one heavy for matches and an 18" barreled 6x45 AR15 set up as a DMR.
 
Keep posting these threads, I love them. :rolleyes:
Americans are doing what they do best , reinventing the wheel !:eek:
My custom 6.5x55 M98 on the first group gave me less than 1 inch with iron sights . Lots of venison over the years .:p
 
I think 6.5 Creedmoor is the 6.5 of the future, meaning it will continue to grow in popularity, find more guns chambered in the cartridge, and become more and more common place until it is an industry classic like .308 or .270 (just my opinion - we all know how things can change).

However, I am also a huge CZ fan and I am a fan of the European Mannlicher style of hunting rifles. The 550 FS is one of my wish guns (even better a left handed 7X57) and the 6.5X55 is a classic fine hunting or sporting round. If that is the one you want, I don't think it will disappoint you and the round is very capable as well. It should be a fine and smooth shooter.

If you really want the 6.5 Creedmoor, you could always get the .308 version of the 550 FS and have it rebarreled ($$$$), start from an action and have a custom stock made, or any number of expensive options. I don't really know what you'd gain by the extra cost taken on by all that, but it is an option if it's a rifle you really want.
 
Just my personal preference, but I would never build myself a bolt action in 6.5 CM. The 6.5 CM is a perfect answer to the question "how do I get heavy VLD .264 to work in my military stye auto loader"? I would go with the 260, or the 6.5X55 Swede.

The problem with the 260 Rem in an auto using NATO length mags is that the heavy VLD bullet can't be seated deep enough to clear the magazine and still hold concentric in the case neck. The 6.5 CM was developed for that exact reason

However if I wanted to fire those bullets in a bolt action I would want to use a Mauser length (7X57 or 8X57) or a 30-06 length action so I could seat the bullet out of the case neck far enough in the 260 Remington.
That is how the US Army approaches the 308 in their M24s, and in my opinion it is a better all-around rig then the our Marnie Corp M40. The M-40 is a short action and the M24 is a long action. So the M-24 can be used with longer cartridges then the USMC rifle.

Same things would apply to the 260 VS the 6.5CM if you are using a bolt action.

Now the only exception I can think of would be using the Mossberg MVP or the Ruger Precision Rifle because both of them use military 7.62X52 NATO mags and therefore the CM would be a better option in those 2 rifles, but if you are building a target rifle and you have no need for 10 or 20 round detachable mags, I believe the3 260 is a better over-all round.
 
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