.243 or 6 Creedmoor for my daughters first rifle

[pburton]

Still a good choice, you cant go wrong either way.Cant wait to hear how she likes it.

I will post updates as this project progresses.

 

[Barrelnut]

I would've gone with 243 but you know what they say if it says 6.5 creedmoor it must be magical death Ray that'll kill every animal on the planet!

The 6.5 creeds death ray only works thru a Vortex scope though.

 

[Vortex!]

Well, a vortex would make it look better and shoot better.

 

[pburton]

Well I guess it won't look or shoot very good

 

[Vortex!]

I guess that depends if you wear skinny jeans, a man bun, and ride a small trike!

 

[257 Blackjack]

Thank you for all of the responses. In the end I am going a different direction. I decided to buy a different barrel and go with a 6.5 Creedmoor. The reason for the change is that it will give her better bullet selection, a bit more versatile round, and I already have plenty of brass and bullets on hand. Pretty much the same set up though. Although I am having it threaded for a brake. This will make practice much more comfortable for her. I am sending the parts off to LRI tomorrow. Thanks again for all of the input.

I think you'll enjoy the increased barrel life over the time of you owning the rifle. 6's are a lot of fun but not so much when you toast them. : )

I don't like to practice slow lol

 

[tim_w]

The 6.5 is a great choice and you are right tons of hunting and LR bullet choices all with good range of SD. A bit more recoil but nothing even a small framed child could to handle let alone an adult. You can take that to almost nothing with a good brake if it were a need.

You will also get a good jump in barrel duty cycle. Thats one of the reasons I like to find cartridge designs and caliber that allows me to get the performance I want but using the cooler burning powders H1000 N165 N160 etc. I can always hot rod it up if I want by switching to a HE/DB powders but with this combo I tend to get better barrel life than a combo of smaller case capacity that can reach the same vel but with those hotter powder such as Rl17,26,33 N500 series Varget etc. Doing that I can usually get 50%-100% increase in duty cycle/barrel.

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

Thank you for all of the responses. In the end I am going a different direction. I decided to buy a different barrel and go with a 6.5 Creedmoor. The reason for the change is that it will give her better bullet selection, a bit more versatile round, and I already have plenty of brass and bullets on hand. Pretty much the same set up though. Although I am having it threaded for a brake. This will make practice much more comfortable for her. I am sending the parts off to LRI tomorrow. Thanks again for all of the input.

Welcome to the dark side.... I think you'll like the 6.5 better than a 6mm as a hunting round in general. Alot more useable deer hunting weight bullets out there. We've been killing deer with the 6.5 creed for a number of years now and it does a fantastic job. My little sister(shot her first deer at 9 and her second at 10) used my dad's 6.5 and she did an excellent job.

 

[Vortex!]

I was just poking fun with my previous comments. I have to to say the 6.5 caliber is amazing but I would probably go for a different cartridge.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

I think your choice for the 6.5 Creed is a good one. Don't worry about the metro man stigma, I know how it feels. We have a Subaru Outback, I just don't put all the lefty stickers all over it.

As far as the 6mm, I just set up a Ruger American for myself in the 6mm Creed for an upcoming trophy muley hunt in the high country. This will be a straight up backpack hunt and I did not relish the idea of packing my 13lb 338 lap imp. I set this rifle up with the 88g Hammer Hunter with Hornady brass, wlmr, h4350. This is giving and average vel of 3326fps with an sd of 5.9. At 5000' elev this will carry 1800fps out to 800y. Well past my usable distance of 500y for judging a quality trophy. At 500y it will have an impact vel of almost 2300fps. With the Hammer Bullet having no trouble with getting through shoulders I feel good about anchoring a big muley in the rocky cliffs that we will be hunting. In fact I am thinking that I may just carry this same rifle for elk this year for the sake of getting small caliber data on elk. After seeing what our 25cal bullet did on large plains game in Africa, my normal thinking of "That is not a big enough caliber", is no longer the consideration that it once was. The capability of the bullet is a more limiting factor than the caliber.

That said, there still is no replacement for displacement. Bigger bullets driven just as fast hit harder. Don't sell your small cal rifles short, they have capabilities that may not have been tapped before.

Steve

 

[TX Badger]

Thank you for all of the responses. In the end I am going a different direction. I decided to buy a different barrel and go with a 6.5 Creedmoor. The reason for the change is that it will give her better bullet selection, a bit more versatile round, and I already have plenty of brass and bullets on hand. Pretty much the same set up though. Although I am having it threaded for a brake. This will make practice much more comfortable for her. I am sending the parts off to LRI tomorrow. Thanks again for all of the input.

That's a great option too and you can do most of what I was suggesting with the 25-06. If you reload or have a friend that does you can still run a 100 gr partition at 3200+ fps. That shouldn't kick much and be pretty wicked deer medicine at the ranges a less experienced hunter should be shooting. And if she can handle more, you can step up to heavier/ higher performance loads. This is much better option than being capped at 115gr. with 6mm.

 

[Kerryt38]

I'd see if Creedmoor ammo is available locally to help with that decision.

 

[Aoudad shooter1975]

I started with a 25-06...this is a long range forum so everyone seems to talk BC and beyond 600 yards..but I tell ya' a fast 25 is pretty hard to beat inside 450 yards. I made a pretty darn long shot with a 25-06 on a little buck when I was 13 110 grain bullet and a Little windage with a Duplex retical and I made a 446 yard shot—before fancy reticals, rangefinders and dialing—this is what fast 25s did—they took guess work out of ranging. I still break out a 257 Weatherby—and it still is one of the flattest things out to 500.. I would not hesitate suggesting a 25-06 or to a lesser extent 257 Weatherby (the Weatherby has a bit of bark—but not much bite)

 

[pburton]

I'd see if Creedmoor ammo is available locally to help with that decision.

I'm my area Creedmoor factory ammo is plentiful. Should not be a problem.