Looking for suggestions between a 6.5 Creedmoor or 7mm-08 for 600 yards and in. Looking for something a little easier to shoot for my wife. Other lower recoil calibers welcomed, but interested in the two mentioned above.
My wife has both and they are so similar it’s a toss up. She can’t tell the difference in recoil and shoots the 7 much more. Do you reload? If not, I would say the 6.5 CM might be slightly better but I personally like the 7-08 better. Very wide range of bullet weights is nice, very versatile.
Im using a 16" suppressed 6.5 CM for this purpose right now. Will probably end up rebarreled to a 22 or 6 CM later tho. Or add another complete rifle since the kids are coming up. I reload but if you don't 6.5 CM is far easier to keep fed with a wide variety of factory ammo. I'd suggest a 6 but they are all far more similar than they are different.
Looking for suggestions between a 6.5 Creedmoor or 7mm-08 for 600 yards and in. Looking for something a little easier to shoot for my wife. Other lower recoil calibers welcomed, but interested in the two mentioned above.
I have a Remington 700 ADL in 6.5 Creedmoor (very basic rifle) for eastern whitetail, shooting Hornady American Whitetail 129 grain rounds.
Using Hornady’s ballistics app, the rounds out of that gun start having pretty large drops starting at 350 yards with a 200 yard zero (14 inches) and almost 24 inches of drop at 400 yards.
It’s definitely a nice shooter but I wouldn’t shoot anything large really far with it.
Other better 6.5 creedmoor rifles and rounds may do better.
I’m not a western hunter or a ballistics guy so just my two cents.
I would do the 6 creed if you are buying ammo. You can find plenty to order online. It’s the modern .243, which has been the go to for smaller hunters.
Have both, the only difference would be if Elk were on the menu I would lean towards heavier bullet selection for rhe 7-08. For deer sized game, they are too alike to differentiate between performance other than as stated by others factory ammo is much easier to obtain in 6.5 creed than 7-08.
If you shoot factory ammo then 6.5 creedmoor by a mile.
If you handload, there isn't much difference between the two. I've shot a bunch of both and you are splitting hairs on game. For the 7-08 to compete with the drop/drift of the 6.5 creedmoor it will take more bullet weight and powder so recoil will be a little more brisk.