Come to think of it, out to 500 yards you are right in the wheelhouse of 130-class bullets in the 6.5 Creedmoor. They will be faster and a bit flatter-shooting than the 140+ plus bullets at those distances which will keep them comfortably within impact velocity windows.
Excellent bullets such as the 127 LRX, 129 ABLR, 129 BXR, 129 SST, 130 AB, 130 Bergers, 130 Gamechanger, 130 Scirocco II, 130 TBT and 130 Terminal Ascent are all loaded commercially to very high quality, and all will do everything you’re asking very well.
That is ten different outstanding choices in factory ammo at 130-class alone. There are at least that many more at both 120-class and 140-class in 6.5 Creedmoor. You will find nothing that even remotely approaches that in 6.5 PRC.
A few examples of high-quality, very effective factory ammo for the 6.5 Creedmoor: L-R Hornady 147 ELD-M, Winchester Expedition 142 ABLR (one elk DRT @ 208), Browning 129 BXR (one Muley DRT @ 265), Winchester 125 Deer Season XP (three deer all DRT @ 125 - 220). All the above are sub-MOA in my rifle.
Even with above success, I’m planning on developing a load for the 129 ABLR once the current “troubles” in availability die down. I have a buddy who has two 6.5 Creedmoor rifles, one each for him and his kid. Together they have piled up a rollaway dumpster load of elk, deer and pronghorn out to 650 yards with those rifles and they only shoot the 129 ABLR out of both. No issues, either, with all animals falling where hit or within a very short distance of same.
EDIT: Adding that I’d look at the Browning X-Bolt Stainless, Winchester M70 Extreme Weather, Winchester M70 Featherweight Stainless and Weatherby Vanguard Stainless if I wanted a reasonably-priced factory stainless rifle that I could be reasonably sure would shoot right out of the box and that I’d be reasonably sure I’d actually like the rifle. The M70 FWT would get my vote.
