So....Yall school me on this 6.5...Was talking to an old boy the other night and he said he had one in the ruger american.He was telling me that he had never seen a caliber hit so hard.Ive looked at the ballistics and while there is a little difference once you get out past 250 yards its not that much better according to what i saw.I guess im asking if you got a 308 whats the 6.5 gonna do that the 308 wont.

As far as hitting hard, that's subjective and opinionated. Ballistically it won't have anymore energy at hunting distances than 308. It's the long range ballistics due to its high BC and low recoil that make it so popular. Like 1000 yard accurate long range type of cartridge. The 6.5 won't do anything different on deer compared to 308. 308 will leave a bigger hole.

Thats what i was thinking also.Just fun to talk about it.its always a hoot to hear someone say such and such round is the hardest hitting round i have ever seen..I have heard the recoil was really mild that could have alot to do with people being able to be accurate with it.I have shot some 308 rifles that buck pretty good.

I love my 308's they are certified deer droppers.

A lot of the 6.5 hoopla is hype & the newness factor with performance backing it up.

Bullets in the 6, 6.5 & 7MM range do for the most part have the best ballistics/sectional density.
The 6.5 Creed has had the success largely because it's had some marketing genius behind it.
Just about every "relevant" manufacture chambers rifles in it from my cheap Howa 1500 up to rifles costing several thousand.
They've also huge success to get companies on board producing ammo, even sleepy old last to show up Remington now has 6.5 Creedmoor ammo.

I think it might just be the perfect female/younger shooter caliber with the lower recoil but nicely thumping. Little more than the 243 & a little less than the 7MM08.
I've been pleased with mine, I believe the popularity of the 6.5Creedmoor will only continue to grow.

Marketing hype, mostly.

6.5 Creedmoor won't do anything hunting related that the 7mm-08 doesn't do just a little better. 7mm-08 carries more energy and drops less with hunting ammunition, regardless of yardage. .260 Remington is the equal of 6.5 CM with hunting ammo and at distances less than 400 yards.

With strictly target ammunition, loaded with special target bullets, it is marginally better than the 7mm-08 at distances greater than 800 yards.

If you are looking for light recoil hunting rifles for less than 400 yards, the .257 Roberts and .25-06 both recoil less and kill plenty good.

Most off the shelf rifles intended for females/young shooters are not offered in the 25's. Rifles in general in 257Roberts are hard to come by.

I disagree.

Between 300 and 400 yards the 6.5 creedmoor begins to carry more velocity and retain more energy than 7mm-08. Both using 120 grain Barnes bullets, loaded by Barnes. These are hunting rounds.

In my opinion 25-06 kicks more than 6.5 creedmoor, which I think is supported by recoil tables. And 25-06 is a long action, and not popular for ammo choices. In other words, not all that convenient these days. 257 Roberts? Even worse.

Ol WDM Bell used 6.5's and .318's on elephants. Anything from .25 up works well on deer.

At 400 yards, the Barnes 120 grain loads are equal (2 ft/bs difference). At 400 yards, the Nosler 140 grain loads show the 7mm-08 ahead by almost 300 ft/lbs, and it's stll 110 ft/lbs ahead at 800. I wouldn't take either of these for 400+ yard shots on deer.

Kimber has several excellent rifles chambered in .257 Roberts, and Tikka offers the .25-06.

Hornady and Nosler both offer a variety of hunting loads for both the .25-06 and the .257 Roberts. You won't find them at walmart or Ace Hardware, but Midway, Cabelas, Bass Pro, and many others carry them online, and Academy had both the last time I was in there.

Midway shows 12 varieties for .257 Roberts, and 29 for .25-06. They have about that same number of hunting loads for the 6.5 CM, and more for the 7mm-08.

You really only need one for the Roberts, though. The 110 grain Nosler Accubond.

Kimbers are awesome rifles but priced beyond what quite a few can/want to spend on a rifle for a child and additionally, they're full sized rifles and I don't believe they even offer scaled-down dimension rifles.
The Tikka while priced more modestly than the Kimber is not offered in 25-06 in the Compact model.

Off the shelf, readily accessible intended to be used by children & female rifles ARE NOT offered in the 25s. End of story.
They're in 243-308 almost exclusively. Tikka Compact, Ruger American Compact, Weatherby Vanguard Camilla, Howa 1500 Compact.

Bet you don't have a Yeti sticker on your truck either, do you?????
If you have to ask this question, you just wouldn't understand

Marketing Hype? Maybe, but it seems to be working. It hasn't been an overnight success, as the 6.5 Creedmoor was introduced 10 years ago and has only hit it's stride in the past 2 - 3 years. The short magnums were fast sellers when introduced, but today, only the 270 and 300 WSM's are still being chambered and are waaay down on the yearly sales lists.. I was at Simmons Sporting Goods in Bessemer today and the Manager told me that 6.5 Creedmoor rifles were their best selling rifles last year and he expects that to continue this year.

To argue whether the 6.5 CM, 7-08, or 308 is better than the other is just rifle looney talk. High BC match type bullets are also excellent deer killers in any of the guns, which might give a slight edge at distances over 600 yards to the Creed. I've seen a video of a bull elk dropped in it's tracks at over 600 yards with a 6.5 CM shooting 140 Bergers. With the right loads, all will do the job equally well out to 600 yards, which is farther than 99% of the deer killed in Alabama.

Also, a 100 grain Nosler Partition is the cat's meow in the 257 Bob.

No Yeti sticker, but I do have several high end coolers. Comes in handy to haul large amounts of venison cross-country home to GA.

Kimber rifles aren't much more than the average rifle, if you buy the Hunter model. Gunbroker shows several in the low $700 range. And that's for a stainless, detachable magazine, bolt action rifle that doesn't have a noodle stock that needs to be upgraded to have decent accuracy. Also offers a three position safety.

Also - I never said anything bad about the 7mm-08 or the .243. I keep one of each in short trim for young/small shooters to use.

Never really said anything bad about the 6.5 cm either, just that it's not the universal solution that it is advertised to be. Other older cartridges equal or exceed it.

The 6.5 has been around for over 120 years.. just in a cartridge that most folks have forgotten about. The 6.5x55 swede has been killing Scandinavian moose and men for a long time. The only issue with the swede, is that ammo companies have to produce rounds to fire in the early 1900s era military rifles, as well as the more modern receivers. The result is a mild pressured round producing a mid-2000 ft/sec velocity that offers nearly nothing but nostalgia. To handloaders that are making rounds for modern (stronger actions) the swede can and will do everything that a 260 or a CM will do. If you do your homework, you'll see what I'm talking about. I'm loading for a model 70 in the swede, and even though I'm way over the 'book' values for even the modern firearms, I'm getting ZERO pressure signs on the brass. I'm going to the range next weekend to see what my clover-leaf group recipies are producing (velocity wise) pushing 143 gr. ELDX pills.

I also own a Remmy Varmint 308 that is my 1000 yard gun. But I shoot both rifles with equal enthusiasm, and I suspect their effect on game would be very similar out a really long ways.

After reviewing my post I realized that I didn't address the CM as was asked in the original question. I didn't, because if you look at the range cards and ballistic tables for the CM, 260, and customized (HOT) swede, they are all very similar. I haven't met one yet that didn't have an 8-twist barrel, so they should shoot the longer and heavier (high BC) bullets just as easily as the lighter ones. Similar case capacity, with the same bullets, means the performance of the bullets should be very close. For the average deer hunter 300 yards and in, the difference would be negligible (and to me, the 308 would be right in that same ballpark too at those distances). Target shooters out to 1000 and past, maybe one 6.5 would edge out the other, depending on how hot you could get customized rounds going in each... but that is an individual rifle characteristic more so than anything else. Sorry for my rambling.

You are 100% correct on the 6.5 swede and I just had a long discussion with a gunsmith friend of mine about the CM, 260 and swede. We both agree that theres not much difference in the loads for modern firearms when comparing these rounds

I like them both

The 6.5x284 will outdo both of these.

The 6.5x55 is a real sweetheart. It's a shorter long action round, so you don't have to worry about magazine clearance if you customize your bullet seating depth like in the SA 260.

I tend not to go with the crowd, and when I found that model 70, I had to have it. I smile when people ruffle their feathers about the CM being around for 10 years, arguing that its not a fad. How about owning the original 6.5... the swede ... a cartridge that has been time tested for over 125 years.

This round is much like 257wbymag's favorite 6.5. Loaded ammo is not on every shelf, and when you do find it, often it's expensive. And the swede factory loads leave a lot to be desired (see my explanation above) with performance. But if you roll your own, in a strong modern action, you can send bullets downrange at similar velocities as those neophyte 6.5's can, and every time you pull the trigger you're participating in a rich and storied history.