6.5 BlowMore

[oldblinddog]

Remington put a lot of 10 twist barrels on the 260's. A 10 twist is too slow for 140's and 9 is marginal. I believe the VLS was a 9 twist but should have been 8 twist.

The VLS and SPS 260's are 1-8 and are so marked on the barrel.

[beemer]

M-Tecs , it was 1-9 I measured it, I do think that was part of the problem. I don't think mine was marked on the barrel.

vzerone, I thought about the 244-6mm thing while writing the first post.

Dave

[vzerone]

Yes beemer Remington sure missed the boat on giving that 244 the wrong rifling twist when they came out with it. Then when they changed they even went tighter then Winchester with a 9 twist. Wonder why thought it would never be used for a deer rifle?

[mcdaniel.mac]

i love the guys that say "X caliber shoots so flat"

do they even know what that means? i can still hit 1k with my .308 and they cant because they have nowhere to shoot 1k and they dont practice even if they did...

imho all these calibers are answers to questions that either shouldn't have been asked or are a solution looking for a problem

I tend to look for a long MPBR for hunting cartridges, and even for 600yd shooting a like something a little flatter than a .223 Rem, but bucking the wind becomes more important IMO. That's where the 6.5 chamberings tend to shine.

[M-Tecs]

They are also trying to tell everyone that the .224 Valkyrie is the latest and greatest round for long range shooting. Even better that the 6.5 creedmoor. My opinion, To each their own.

Looks interesting for a standard AR15 based rifle
http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2...-calibers-025/

The .224 Valkyrie looks to be designed for the Tactical Precision Rifle Series competitions on TV since an AR15 sized rifle with the claimed low recoil and performance is ideal for that game. If they get the same publicity that the 6.5 Creedmoor got it will become very popular. It will be interesting to see if the recoil will be low enough to see bullet impacts??

[Hannibal]

I tend to look for a long MPBR for hunting cartridges, and even for 600yd shooting a like something a little flatter than a .223 Rem, but bucking the wind becomes more important IMO. That's where the 6.5 chamberings tend to shine.

I agree. The 300 Win Mag is often cited for down range energy and relatively flat shooting. Yet curiously, the .260 Rem gets over-looked. And that is a mistake.

[charlie b]

I can still remember as a kid going through all the cartridges for my first gun. Had to be the hottest thing out there. Read articles about all of them. Poured over ballistics tables. Searched through bullet catalogs. Finally decided that the .22-250 was the way to go. It was the varmint cartridge of the day. 'Flat shooting', 'huge impact on targets', 'reaches out there'. Yep, compared to the .220 Swift it was a little slow, but, it didn't 'burn through barrels in a few hundred rounds' like the Swift. Never bought one.

Now we have seen many such cartridges come and go. 6mmPPC was big for a while due to bench rest shooting. 7mm's were all the rage back in the 80's. Then came the gulf wars and long range military sniper cartridges like the .338 Lapua became popular. Now it seems we are back to lighter stuff.

As stated above, there are just so many cartridges available you have a choice of half dozen or more for any job your want to do. And for any one you pick you'll get many who will say it's a horrible round and just as many who say it is magic.

[Lloyd Smale]

same can be said of about any cartridge. All have advantages and disadvantages. Take the 270 for instance. Its a big seller and why? Because some gun writers convinced the world that it was a game changer when in truth they were just trying to sell what they wrote to a magazine. Truth be told it didn't do anything the 06 didn't do just as well for years before its introduction. truth be told theres lots of great rounds that never sell well and lots a big selling rounds that's popularity don't make sense.

[rockrat]

I will say that the 6.5 c'moor I built has shot the smallest 5 shot group I have ever shot. And this was with the second load I tried. Not counting the fireforming rounds as I was using 22-250 brass

I hunt with a 6.5 Swede in a Ruger

[dragon813gt]

truth be told theres lots of great rounds that never sell well and lots a big selling rounds that's popularity don't make sense.

A whole lot of truth right there. Lots of great cartridges have gone away due to lack of popularity. And it's a shame because there were some great ones. Gun manufacturers need "new" and "improved" to sell more guns. I'm the opposite. I'm trying to only buy guns chambered for cartridges based on the 308 case.

I looked at a nice Bergara chambered in 6.5 Creedmoore yesterday. It was a target stock which made the rifle worthless to me. I did consider buying it until I started adding up the cost for dies, components, molds, sizers, expanders.....Was an easy decision to not buy it.

[Geezer in NH]

Most new calibers are made for one reason only. To sell more new guns period. Just look at the latest lo of short and super short magnums, brass is becoming non-existent as we write.

[Earlwb]

I tend to agree, most of these new cartridges are mainly hype from the gun manufacturer. The different gun companies are famous for coming up with more and more new calibers or cartridges to compete with each other. Sometimes they even just create a new name for the same cartridge that another company is using too. The 6.5 Creedmore is just another example of that. But it appears to work quite well though. But I sort of think it is the rifle more than anything that makes it look good.

[largom]

I never saw anything wrong with the 260 Remington!

I love my 260 Remington, my 6.5 Swede and my 6.5-06. I am amazed at the range and effectiveness of the 6.5-06 on deer.

[tazman]

I have 4 rifle cartridges that I load for. 223, 243, 308, and 30-06. Three of them will do long range easily and well in the proper rifle. I don't need a new cartridge/rifle combination that will only give me marginal improvement if any.

[Texas by God]

My "long range" deer rifle is a 25-06. No one uses the .25 caliber for competition because apparently .007" of bullet diameter is the Grand Canyon of bullet performance. Perhaps a faster twist and match grade bullets would elevate the .25 cal to the Next Hot Thing? Nah.
Pontificating aside, I think the Grendel is the best you can do in the AR15 platform (almost .250 Savage) and the Creedmore is a great target cartridge- just like it was intended to be.
Thanks, Vezerone!

[flounderman]

If I could only have one caliber, and one bullet weight, it would be a .260, with 120 grain bullets. I have a long list of 6.5s and since I built a little light weight, short barreled .260, that has been about all that I have used for hunting, for years. It has killed a stack of deer, doesn't destroy a lot of meat, cheap empties, low recoil, accurate, and flat shooting.

[vzerone]

If I could only have one caliber, and one bullet weight, it would be a .260, with 120 grain bullets. I have a long list of 6.5s and since I built a little light weight, short barreled .260, that has been about all that I have used for hunting, for years. It has killed a stack of deer, doesn't destroy a lot of meat, cheap empties, low recoil, accurate, and flat shooting.

You know a 260 isn't much different then a 243 in the things you states. A 6.5 bullet is better for the larger big game such as elk and moose.

[vzerone]

My "long range" deer rifle is a 25-06. No one uses the .25 caliber for competition because apparently .007" of bullet diameter is the Grand Canyon of bullet performance. Perhaps a faster twist and match grade bullets would elevate the .25 cal to the Next Hot Thing? Nah.
Pontificating aside, I think the Grendel is the best you can do in the AR15 platform (almost .250 Savage) and the Creedmore is a great target cartridge- just like it was intended to be.
Thanks, Vezerone!

Wow! My name seems to have picked up a Spanish accent. LOL Hey the 25-06 is a really excellent cartridge. The forgotten 257 Roberts is a good one too.

[vzerone]

Speaking of the 6.5 Grendel, what Alexander Arms should have done if they wanted to make their rifle proprietary (and they did too!) was make a hybrid AR15, that is with a larger bolt head and slightly longer magazine, but still retain the AR15 dimensions and other componants. Then the 6.5 Grendel could recognize it's full potential. That new 9310 bolt steet is just a "fix". I believe the Remington 30 RAR kind of done something like that.

On another note of all the old 6.5 cartridges the Japanese 6.5 is a real sleeper.

[rockrat]

I think the reason you don't see the 25-06 in competition is the lack of suitable target bullets or maybe I should say the lack of such a great selection of target bullets. I think thats why the 6.5s and 7mm's are so popular.

I built my 6.5 creedmoor for varmint silhouette shoots. The same with a 6.5 TCU I am trying out.