Re: Long Range \'Lite\'
Wapi-T
I have lived with 6.5X300's for 33 years and have 3 of them right now. As a bench type LR rifle by todays standards they are totally outclassed by the big 30's and 338's. They
take a spotter with a lot of experience to spot the hits. Where a big gun causes a small
eruption that most anybody can see, the 6.5 spotter will rely a lot on the bullet wash
and then see a small impact. I'm talking past a thousand yards.
Killing power on deer is adequate as far as I have killed them. Of which my longest one
is 1400 yards. Deer was laying down. 3 shots about 200 yards short to sight in, click up
to the deer, One shot close to get it up on its feet, next shot knocked it down, but it
got back up, next shot was a miss, next shot put it down for good. Deer was dead within 20 feet of its bed, and it turned out the first hit would have handled the job but you can't take the chance.
My longest kill of any thing is a skunk at 1640 yards. I didn't count the shots. Once I
was on him or figured he was in the group so to speak, I just shot until he was unlucky.
Elk is a different story for the 6.5X300. We got dam tired of elk shot behind the shoulder
and dashing 50 to a hundred yards into some blowdown and making us a ton of work. So we started shooting them through the shoulder. The first one I shot through the shoulder was at 325 yards with a .264. There was no way to take a rest, so I had to shoot him offhand. Being the 1981 PA State Champion in Highpower Silhouette helped. I could hold well inside the shoulder, but my spotter said the shot went right over his back. I knew what had happened, because the hold had broke its pattern and went right out the top and went off, I had forced the gun to fire. The dummy never moved and my next hold settled on his shoulder, the gun went off and he went down like he was pole axed. The 140 grain Sierra went through both shoulders and was caught by
the skin on the far side. I figured shooting through the shoulder I would limit the .264 to 500 yards, where I figured it could get through the near shoulder, the lungs and at least into the far shoulder.
Based on this I figured with the 6.5 sporter I could stretch my kill yardage to 600. I made a one shot pole axe kill at 600 and the bullet passed clear through. So I raised my
max distance to 700. The next one I shot was about 500 yards. Another pole axe kill, but the skin caught the bullet on the far side. Go Figure....
Three of us shot my 6.5X300 at the matches at Williamsport in 1969, So it saw a lot of rounds. At around 1400 rounds it quit shooting good on 10 shot groups, but would still group well for 6 or 7 shots. In hindsight, maybe it had some copper fowling that if cleaned by todays standards would have prolonged it.
I bought my first .264 in 1964 and used it for a carry gun until around 1990 when I made it into a 6.5X300 Saddle Gun. Thats almost 30 years of shooting and plinking with a caliber that is supposed to shoot out in a year.
Last fall I sold my last .264 and began the search for a Rem 700 long action to build a 6.5 Gibbs or 6.5/06 improved. I think I can get within a hundred feet a second of my .264 and do it with a lot less powder.
I don't think for a hunting gun the 6.5X284 has any advantage over the 6.5/06 and until recently good brass was impossible to find for it.
Oh and for a little controversy, with the aid of molly coated bullets I have been hunting with a 24in. barreled .264 at 3200 fps and a 26in. 6.5X300 at 3400 fps....Jim Mackey
