Advice, or talk some sense into me please

[MudRunner2005]

Never been a fan myself either..... much rather shoot 7mm or 6.5mm. Never really got the point of the 27 cal or even the 25cal for that matter. I guess just adds some variety to the shooting world

I like the 1/4-bores. I love my .25-06 AI. If someone like Berger would make some heavy cup & core VLD or Hybrid LR bullets for the .257's it might actually breathe some life back into them, as far as the market is concerned.

My caliber jump goes .224, .257, 6.5mm, 7mm, .308.

 

[toddc]

Never been a fan myself either..... much rather shoot 7mm or 6.5mm. Never really got the point of the 27 cal or even the 25cal for that matter. I guess just adds some variety to the shooting world

There was no point in the 277 UNTIL the 170 EOL. And there STILL is no point in the 257 UNTIL someone spins us up some .6+BC bullets.
LRH is all about the BC.

The 277 with heavies will be a great rig for people who want a LR hammer with less weight and recoil than a 7mm. Just as the 7mm is great for those who don't want a 30 with its weight and recoil.

A big 257 will be a great alternative to the 6.5 IF anyone ever builds bullets for it in a MAJOR manner. Sorry to Hammer, Matrix and others, if Berger, Sierra and Hornady aren't building bullets I will wait.

 

[jpfrog]

To the OP,

I hope you've made a wise decision despite where this thread has gone to at this time and sorry to be part of it. gun)

Cheers!

No worries- I got the .300wm many posts ago, and a new Vortex Razor to sit on top. This direction the thread has taken has been very informative. I've learned that I'm still just as confused on 6.5 as I was before, my .308 and .300wm are for old farts, and my .270 win rebarreled with a Shillen match barrel on an old 1971 R700 action is a crappy in between caliber that is pretty much useless (even though it shoots less than 1/2 MOA at 100 with 130gr Core-Lok, and is only used for north Texas deer).

I have a bare SA 700 action that I'm going to build into either a .243 or a 6.5 something at some point, but I'll leave it in the safe for a year or so while I get better at my old fart cartridges (I'm only 36!) and keep the freezer full with my .270win. gun)

 

[WildRose]

Haha! I have never cared much for the .277 bore, simply because I've always shot 7mm's, and if you own a .284 bore, theres really no point in owning a .277, because they're so close in diameter. Just my opinion.

If my family had been dedicated Winchester fans my first "deer rifle" would have almost certainly been a .270win. Dad, and Granddad before him were Remington dealers so instead of the .270, my first was a 7mm RM.

I've never been a fan of the .270 either, mostly because it's just an underpowered, underperforming almost a 7mm mag but also because for most of it's life there were just not many quality bullets and the .264wm in most ways is ballistically superior to it because of the bullets available.

My love affair with the Model 70 didn't start until somewhere around 90 when I just flat got fed up, sick and tired with the endless problems of that first 700bdl, 7mm RM.

I'd always been attracted to it just because of the big ole Mauser extractor but by the time I was old enough to start buying my own rifles Winchester decided to try the push feed to save money and it never has held any appeal to me. I did however pick up a used .225win that had been rechambered to .220 Swift cheap while I was in college and loved it until one day an overloaded round blew the bolt apart and damned near cost me my sight.

I fixed it, sold it, and put the money towards another Ruger No. 1 220 Swift. A guy could still get 75.00 or more for a coyote hide and anywhere from 250.00-400.00 for a good Bobcat pelt and even 5.00-10.00 for a coon's hide and that went a long ways towards helping me work my way through college.

Today I continue picking up M70 Classic Stainless models whenever I have a few extra bucks for future projects. Eventually I'll probably give all of my Remingtons to my little brothers and their kids and end up with a room full of M70's.

Of course when I'm dead and gone they'll get to arm wrestle of the M70's. HA!

 

[WildRose]

6.5x55 doesn't fit in AI mags or SA 700s. It's a medium length cartridge and like most of em, that's an Achilles heel here in the US.

Does anyone chamber a 6.5x47 for mass production in the US? How much does a box of Lapua match cost?

260 match ammo is Prime (bad hunting bullets) or HSM (not match grade), neither compete with the price or accuracy of the Hornady Creedmoor stuff.

Hornady 6.5- g1 BC of .7 @2750fps in a mag fed SA for twenty couple bucks a box, and they're awesome hunting bullets. Shooters are competing at national levels with $24 a box ammo. No surprise it's popular, take your $300 6x SWFA, mount it to your $350 SS Ruger American Rifle, buy 100 rds of match ammo, your banging steel out to 1k on your first day, and ready for hunting season too, all for under $700. There isn't another cartridge that gives someone all of that. The 260 and others CAN, but, as lamented throughout these last pages, they don't and prolly won't.

Match Ammo isn't intended to be hunting ammo and there's plenty of it available. There's also plenty of .260 factory ammo loaded with premium hunting bullets.

Anyone who's very serious about their shooting is going to be handloading anyhow so it makes little to no difference.

You claim that the available match ammo for the .260 can't keep up with Hornady for accuracy has no foundation in fact.

Yes the 6.5 Swede will work in AICS single stack mag's with slight alteration to the feed lips.

Can you find cheaper factory ammo for the CM vs the Remington or Lapua? Sure you can, right now at least but then nothing is static in the firearms or ammunition industries in this country for long. Whenever there is a demand someone steps up to the plate.

For a while there were limited offerings for the .260Rem after big green stopped producing it but that was quickly solved. The last time I did a search there were at least 8 different manufacturers producing .260 ammo and another good company is soon to be added to the list when Silver State Armory .260 Rem ammo hits the shelves in the next few months.

In reality the CM is one more good 6.5 offering and as long as Hornady stays behind it, it will do well but it doesn't outperform either the Swede nor the Remington and doesn't gain much over the Lapua.

 

[WildRose]

No worries- I got the .300wm many posts ago, and a new Vortex Razor to sit on top. This direction the thread has taken has been very informative. I've learned that I'm still just as confused on 6.5 as I was before, my .308 and .300wm are for old farts, and my .270 win rebarreled with a Shillen match barrel on an old 1971 R700 action is a crappy in between caliber that is pretty much useless (even though it shoots less than 1/2 MOA at 100 with 130gr Core-Lok, and is only used for north Texas deer).

I have a bare SA 700 action that I'm going to build into either a .243 or a 6.5 something at some point, but I'll leave it in the safe for a year or so while I get better at my old fart cartridges (I'm only 36!) and keep the freezer full with my .270win. gun)

When you get to the point you're ready for the 6.5 you'll be in for a whole lot of fun.

I never considered the .260 to be adequate for big hogs but proved beyond any doubt that it's plenty as long as you have the right bullet.

At my age there's a limited number of "pleasant surprises" to be had but the .260's have certainly been just that for me this season.

I'm not about to give up on the 7mm STW as my all time favorite but for an all around rifle that can do it all from predators and varmints to medium and large game AND be both economical and enjoyable to shoot the .260 is hard to beat and a very pleasant surprise.