I hunt primarily in MT (Where I'm from), and AZ (Coues)
I've been into the Long Range Game since before it was cool, and, primarily because terrain often dictated a longer shot.
I'm a huge fan of the various 6.5's and have found them to be effective on game at distance.
i have extensive experience in field on Game with 4 cartridges of different calibers (these 4 are ones I've used and seen used in my most recent decade of hunting).
6.5 Creedmoor .. great little cartridge but while a great performer ballistically (behaves like a 300 WM out to about 1000 energy aside). If shot placement perfect they drop quickly. If less than perfect (statistically more likely the longer the shot) not so much. I took at 28" Muley with one at 350 yards and it never moved out of its bed, but fortunately I made a perfect kill zone shot that day.
6.5 SAUM... probably my personal favorite deer cartridge. I've shot:
1 Coues 1200 yards — Dropped where it stood
1 Coues 778 yards — same story
1 White Tail -/ 350 Yards - Dead where it Stood
1 Antelope — 300 Yards Same story
All with Berger 140 Gr Target Hybrids
Brass and Ammo readily available GAP & Copper Creek. Extremely efficient cartridge pushing 3150 FPS With 63 Gr Retumbo.
Two of my friends shoot 6.5 PRC's with factory Ammo and my observation is it's a pretty Close 2nd to the SAUM. Especially if want factory Ammo. Think they're getting around 2950 FPS with 143 ELDx's.
300 WM tremendously effective and more so if throat it out for 200 & 215 Bergers. Almost matches performance 300 PRC which out of the box is set up for the 215 & 230 Bergers.
Ive shot many animals out of a custom 300 WM shooting 200 Bergers at 3100 FPS. Devastating Terminal Ballistics out of this combination.
BUT, By a large margin, the best performing cartridge I've used and seen used in recent years is the 28 Nosler. My buddy and I each had a Custom 28 N built off of 2 6.5/300 WBY Mark V accumarks we were less than satisfied with. He put a 7.5" Twist Lilja on his (I did too on mine but it proved a Big Fail on mine when shooting anything other than Bergers for reasons I won't go into here); So I ultimately through a Proof 8.4" twist on mine.
We initially intended to shoot 195 Bergers because of ballistic advantage they provide but had feed issues; so, we shoot 180 Bergers on his and 175 ELDx's on mine. 3150 ish FPS at muzzle 83 Gr N570 or Retumbo.
The empirical evidence from the field is overwhelmingly in favor of the 28's.
Animals drop when hit.
and this is simply due to High SD of bullet combined with down range energy due to to initial high FPS which is retained due High BC Bullet.
Several days ago we were at the range shooting 1" AR500 steel at 500 yards. That day I was shooting 28 and 6.5C no wind so we connected 100% of time when pulled the trigger. I jokingly said as we went down to the target "Wonder if we'll see a difference between the 6.5 C and the 28's?" When we saw the target up close the 6.5 C had left smears. The 28 had literally punched 3/4 way through the steel. Similarly several days later we were at another range chosen to practice shooting in the wind. Wind our position was 12-18 mph from 3 O'Clock, but we were shooting down across an area where 3 gully's came together below us; so consequently the winds were a best guess at 688 yards. We were shooting a large target 20" by 20" because that's what was presented to us. The 6.5 C, 6.5 SAUM, 300 WM all connected 30%. The 28 Nosler 100% over 10 shots each. We'd never seen anything like it. It was a very humbling experience, and we learned a lot about wind. But, more importantly we learned our decision to build 28's was a profoundly good one.
Recoil is quite pronounced from this round and we find it much easier on shoulder and to call own shots if shooting suppressed (you're in CA so no luck for you in this department) or with a good muzzle break. The only muzzle break of the many we've tried to be truly effective and easy to tune is Area 419 Hellfire.
