6.5x55 or 6.5 PRC

[S-3 ranch]

I love the 6.5x55 and would repeat with a tikka
But buying a 6.5-284 Norma or 264 win mag has the extra cool factor and speed advantage
A 26inch Winchester M70 .264 is a super nice hunting rifle, but if target shooting is your thing the 6.5CM will have longer barrel life

 

[NWBLKTAIL]

I have grown to love the 6.5x55 I load for 2 of them for my father in law and they shoot well (the tikka really good), But with you not hand loading and sticking with factory on paper the 6.5prc makes sense for you wanting to "step up". The creedmoor may be a lateral move but I don't regret a single thing about getting mine.

good luck a lot of good options out there.

 

[CMP70306]

I love it when a cartridge over 100 years older still does anything Hornady’s Profit Reaping Cartridge can, and the choice only comes down to factory ammo availability.

The 264 win mag spanks them both with an old fashioned belted case - old grandpa cartridge. Lol

Depends on your definition of “anything”. If by anything you mean “reach a specific velocity” then yeah we pretty much had that base covered by the 60’s.

However I can’t find a factory rifle with a 20” threaded 8 twist barrel in .264 Win Mag nor can I find factory ammo loaded with the 147 ELD-M or 156 Berger Hybrid to take advantage of the newer technology. Then on top of that the average box of ammo costs $100 and is generally limited to a handful of soft point loads.

So unless you buy, build or assemble custom rifles and handload your own ammo the 6.5 PRC is the better cartridge for the vast majority of people.

And I say this as someone who was using a .300 Win Mag in a custom rifle to replicate the performance of the 212gr and 225gr 300 PRC loads before it existed. I can already duplicate the cartridge with what I have and see no reason to change what I’m doing but that doesn’t suddenly make the 300 PRC a bad cartridge.

 

[wind gypsy]

I'm pretty sure 6.5 creedmoor factory ammo typically out performs or is on par with 6.5x55 factory ammo because of pressures both are loaded to. The swede will outperform the Creed if handloaded and is in pretty good spot as far as case capacity IMO for offering good performance without burning a bunch powder and creating a lot of recoil.

For the OP's application, 6.5 creed>6.5 PRC>6.5x55 IMO.

 

[The Guide]

Not a bad deal but still expensive for an ammo.

Where are you finding a magnum cartridge with a premium bullet in loaded ammo for sub $40 a box? If you want basic ammo for the 6.5 PRC you can get Norma Whitetail as low as $28 a box. The cheapest premium 223 ammo (73eldm Hornady Match) is still $24 for a box of 20.

Jay

 

[TaperPin]

Depends on your definition of “anything”. If by anything you mean “reach a specific velocity” then yeah we pretty much had that base covered by the 60’s.

However I can’t find a factory rifle with a 20” threaded 8 twist barrel in .264 Win Mag nor can I find factory ammo loaded with the 147 ELD-M or 156 Berger Hybrid to take advantage of the newer technology. Then on top of that the average box of ammo costs $100 and is generally limited to a handful of soft point loads.

So unless you buy, build or assemble custom rifles and handload your own ammo the 6.5 PRC is the better cartridge for the vast majority of people.

And I say this as someone who was using a .300 Win Mag in a custom rifle to replicate the performance of the 212gr and 225gr 300 PRC loads before it existed. I can already duplicate the cartridge with what I have and see no reason to change what I’m doing but that doesn’t suddenly make the 300 PRC a bad cartridge.

It’s a new generation and everyone wants a rifle they can buy off the shelf - I get it, heated seats in a new car seem strangely satisfying, and following GPS through streets that make no sense is a small price to pay for the benefits. It’s literally the dumbing down of America. Every year I meet hunters that can’t read a map if the phone dies, don’t even own a compass, have little understanding of survival skills, can’t sharpen a knife, stay home if a tag isn’t drawn, only shoot prone or not at all, think all game is shot at 500+ yards, don’t understand wind unless it’s read off a Kestrel, can’t judge distance if their LRF goes tits up, and are dead in the water if every town doesn’t stock their brand of ammo.

Just a few decades ago everyone I know reloaded and simply had a barrel installed in whatever cartridge and spec they wanted. The idea of buying off the shelf barrels or shooting factory ammo was (and is) a second rate solution. A good barrel on a cheap receiver and you could outshoot every factory rifle on the market. Hornady, more than any other company, has marketed the idea of dumbing down shooters so they want to buy factory ammo for guns already chambered in Hornady cartridges. It doesn’t make a better rifle if it’s bought off the shelf, and factory ammo is not the best solution. I don’t hunt with average guys, or go to the range with average shooters - the idea of “these things work best for the average shooter” isn’t a high bar and mediocrity shouldn’t be something to strive for in a community like we have here.

You aren’t wrong that people want these things, hell even our kids want the latest flashy high dollar rifle, with some funky weird fluting, weird stock that can’t be hand carried, and matching knife with color changing handle. I want to tell them it’s stupid, but simply bringing out a custom barreled 1962 rifle and spanking them with a vintage cartridge says it for me.

 

[oregoner]

I like a lot of what you’re saying there TaperPin, but I don’t associate using factory ammo with woodsmanship. If anything, folk I grew up with were on the poorer/worked too hard end, and reloading was a luxury. I spent my entire childhood in the woods, mostly alone. Using factory .22 and .410 ammo. Pretty grateful for that.

Here’s the little Swede that’s getting back burnered:

 

[Southern Lights]

I have a couple 6.5x55s but I reload. There are some decent factory loads, but mostly reloading is best if you want best performance. Velocity wise, they are ballistically identical to 6.5 Creedmoor shooting about 2700-2750fps with identical bullets. Accuracy with this round has always been exceptional for me.

I know a couple guys now that have burned out their PRC barrels in under a 1000 rounds. So if you are shooting a lot it's something to consider. The 6.5 Creedmoor is probably the better choice if you want a 6.5 and want factory ammo and are not banging steel at 1000 yards all the time.

 

[Steve300xcw]

I ended up with a tikka in the swede a while back. Were I to do it over I would go for the creedmoor. Just for whats available in factory ammo and price per round.

 

[CMP70306]

It’s a new generation and everyone wants a rifle they can buy off the shelf - I get it, heated seats in a new car seem strangely satisfying, and following GPS through streets that make no sense is a small price to pay for the benefits. It’s literally the dumbing down of America. Every year I meet hunters that can’t read a map if the phone dies, don’t even own a compass, have little understanding of survival skills, can’t sharpen a knife, stay home if a tag isn’t drawn, only shoot prone or not at all, think all game is shot at 500+ yards, don’t understand wind unless it’s read off a Kestrel, can’t judge distance if their LRF goes tits up, and are dead in the water if every town doesn’t stock their brand of ammo.

Just a few decades ago everyone I know reloaded and simply had a barrel installed in whatever cartridge and spec they wanted. The idea of buying off the shelf barrels or shooting factory ammo was (and is) a second rate solution. A good barrel on a cheap receiver and you could outshoot every factory rifle on the market. Hornady, more than any other company, has marketed the idea of dumbing down shooters so they want to buy factory ammo for guns already chambered in Hornady cartridges. It doesn’t make a better rifle if it’s bought off the shelf, and factory ammo is not the best solution. I don’t hunt with average guys, or go to the range with average shooters - the idea of “these things work best for the average shooter” isn’t a high bar and mediocrity shouldn’t be something to strive for in a community like we have here.

You aren’t wrong that people want these things, hell even our kids want the latest flashy high dollar rifle, with some funky weird fluting, weird stock that can’t be hand carried, and matching knife with color changing handle. I want to tell them it’s stupid, but simply bringing out a custom barreled 1962 rifle and spanking them with a vintage cartridge says it for me.

I started hunting in 2004, at the time everyone in our group carried a Remington 760 or 7600 in either .270 or 30-06 that they bought in the 70’s or 80’s. They shot Remington green box until they switched to the Hornady light magnums. That was all they needed to kill deer here in the ridges of PA. It worked for them for almost 40 years, custom barrels and wildcat chamberings were expensive and not even up for consideration when your average shot was under 100 yards.

It wasn’t until I got into long range shooting, loading my own ammo and assembling rifles that anybody started branching out and the main reason for that was suppressors. None of our rifles could take suppressors so we either had to build or buy new guns to use them. Once I started using them my brother and then my Dad also became interested in using them.

However neither of them was interested in reloading so they wanted factory chamberings that they could buy ammo for if I couldn’t load it for them. That lead to their rifles in .223, .22-250, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5 PRC, 7 PRC, 30-06 and .300 Win Mag.

If I chose not to hunt with everybody in my life that was an “average hunter” because they shot factory ammo and factory rifles I’d be awfully lonely in the woods by myself.