Was the 6.5 cm really a necessity?

[Dialing Long Distance]

This may be a dumb question, and I don't mean to start any kind of flame wars. Years ago I bought a savage model 12 long range precision in 260 Remington caliber. I had wanted a 260 for quite a while before I was able to get one. I love the round. I had wanted a 6.5 short action caliber, and the 260 foot the bill for me perfectly, something I felt I could hunt anything from coyote, to elk with. I bought the model 12, because I wanted a rifle I could shoot targets with, as well as take out hunting. Since then, I wanted to buy another 6.5 mm caliber short action rifle, that was lighter in weight. I was looking for a cheap accurate 260. I ended up buying another rifle, chambered in 6.5 mm Creedmoor. My question, is, what exactly does the Creedmoor do, that the 260 does not do? As far as I can tell, it appears to me that Remington's marketing completely dropped the ball on this caliber. I am looking at these two cases, curious as to why they Creedmoor is such a hot item, and the 260 has been so overlooked by the masses. I am punching dimes at 100 yards with my 260 pretty consistently, with 140 grain bullets going 2780 feet a second. The Creedmoor appears to be a good caliber, don't get me wrong, also, finding ammunition for the 260, the 6.5 x 55 Swede,or the 6.5 x 47 Lapua, in most stores is hard, to say the least. Creedmoor ammunition is stocked with match ammo ready to go. I just do not understand why the Remington 260 is never taken off like the Creedmoor did. It's like this caliber is been shoved down everybody's throat, to be the new king of the hill, when I can easily think of three other cartridges that would outperform it in the same caliber, and a short action. Am I missing something here?

 

[Schnyd112]

Remintong has a history of killing very capable cartridges. Read up on the 7mm Remington express. (.280).

Creedmoor is a solution to an non-existent problem. Enter Hornady and their marketing team. Billed as a turn key long range cartridge, with Hornady making both good ammo and contracting rifles capable of shooting long range, Hornady took a mostly custom market by storm by offering cheap and EASY entry level rigs. Hornady is not making the rifles, but to think that they didn't have a hand in spec'ing them out is just ignorant.

There is no magic and there are half a dozen other cartridges that will do exactly what the creedmoor will. Wildcats and SAAMI the same, none had the Hornady marketing team driving sales like creedmoor does. They have worked hard to increase their reputation. As far as I can tell, they seem to be doing a pretty good job. With companies like nosler inflating bc numbers Hornady has done their best to be transparent and give honest info on their products.

 

[MudRunner2005]

All they did was reintroduce the already invented wheel, and make people believe they needed it. Like Schnyd said, there was already +/- a half-dozen other cartridges that can do as good or better than the CM, that all fall into the same rough category.

 

[Adikted]

Sub

 

[J E Custom]

This may be a dumb question, and I don't mean to start any kind of flame wars. Years ago I bought a savage model 12 long range precision in 260 Remington caliber. I had wanted a 260 for quite a while before I was able to get one. I love the round. I had wanted a 6.5 short action caliber, and the 260 foot the bill for me perfectly, something I felt I could hunt anything from coyote, to elk with. I bought the model 12, because I wanted a rifle I could shoot targets with, as well as take out hunting. Since then, I wanted to buy another 6.5 mm caliber short action rifle, that was lighter in weight. I was looking for a cheap accurate 260. I ended up buying another rifle, chambered in 6.5 mm Creedmoor. My question, is, what exactly does the Creedmoor do, that the 260 does not do? As far as I can tell, it appears to me that Remington's marketing completely dropped the ball on this caliber. I am looking at these two cases, curious as to why they Creedmoor is such a hot item, and the 260 has been so overlooked by the masses. I am punching dimes at 100 yards with my 260 pretty consistently, with 140 grain bullets going 2780 feet a second. The Creedmoor appears to be a good caliber, don't get me wrong, also, finding ammunition for the 260, the 6.5 x 55 Swede,or the 6.5 x 47 Lapua, in most stores is hard, to say the least. Creedmoor ammunition is stocked with match ammo ready to go. I just do not understand why the Remington 260 is never taken off like the Creedmoor did. It's like this caliber is been shoved down everybody's throat, to be the new king of the hill, when I can easily think of three other cartridges that would outperform it in the same caliber, and a short action. Am I missing something here?

There is nothing wrong with many 6.5s mentioned. The name sells the cartridge in many cases. If you can come up with a catchy name that seems to be important to many. Think about it, compare the name alone, The 6.5 Creedmoore compared to the 260 Rem. if they had called it the 6.5 x 308 It might have been different. Another example of this was the 280 Remington. they later changed it to 280 Remington express . sales still did not improve. so Remington came up with the magic name 7 mm Remington Magnum and sales sky rocked. All the time the people that knew the capabilities of the 280 simply added a 40o shoulder and it performed as well as the 7 magnum and in some cases better. Now it has made a comeback as a 280-AI.

At SAMME pressures the 260 can out perform the Creedmoore in velocity but the Creedmoore has a custom sounding name and there lies the attraction. There are plenty of 6.5s that will outperform both of them but the attraction is in the name.
And if you think about it there is more 308 brass than almost any other that can be turned into the 7/08, 7/08 AI,260 Rem and the 260 Rem AI by simply sizing the 308 down a loading it to what ever caliber you chose. so if anything, the 260 AI is a cut above many of the other 6,5s and if you want a hot 6.5 in a short action,the 6.5 Remington Magnum will achieve that for you with great velocity and accuracy.

Sometimes when a new cartridge comes it was to fill a nitch and do so very well But if they come up with a catchy name then that is a bonus.
Did you ever wonder about the name "300 black out" It has nothing to do with it's performance, but it is very popular. would you rather have a 22x6mm or a Texas trophy hunter (They are the same).

Magnum was the first Designer name and now it is almost a must to give a new cartridge a novel name in order to sell.

Good question, but there is no good answer.

J E CUSTOM

 

[brentc]

It doesn't really matter if the CM was born out of necessity, most new cartridges aren't. The Creedmoor does what it was/is marketed to do and it does it extremely well.

 

[bigngreen]

If the 260 was working then the Creed would have never come to life, fact is it is destroying the 260 in every way, it was done right, right throating, right specs, excellent support with a plethora of very high quality ammo everywhere!!!

 

[Dialing Long Distance]

There is no magic and there are half a dozen other cartridges that will do exactly what the creedmoor will.

All they did was reintroduce the already invented wheel, and make people believe they needed it

I'm pretty much thinking the same thing. Looking at the numbers, it looks like the only real advantage the Creedmoor has on my 260 is better marketing. Good round, don't get me wrong, but remington's Marketing department should be canned imo for letting good rounds like their 6mm Remington, 260, 280 and others just fall off the mainstream.

 

[MudRunner2005]

JE, the .280 Rem/.280 Rem Exp. and the 7mm RemMag are 2 totally different cartridges altogether... One is a standard bolt face, the other is a magnum cartridge.

 

[MudRunner2005]

If the 260 was working then the Creed would have never come to life, fact is it is destroying the 260 in every way, it was done right, right throating, right specs, excellent support with a plethora of very high quality ammo everywhere!!!

Then please explain how it was destroying the .260 Rem, when it's quite well-known that Remington themselves almost destroyed the .260 Remington by lack of support and lack of chambering. The .260 was developed in 1997, and the 6.5CM didn't come about until 2007...A decade later. The .260 Rem was already almost destroyed by Remington long before the Creedmoor ever existed.

 

[MudRunner2005]

I'm pretty much thinking the same thing. Looking at the numbers, it looks like the only real advantage the Creedmoor has on my 260 is better marketing. Good round, don't get me wrong, but remington's Marketing department should be canned imo for letting good rounds like their 6mm Remington, 260, 280 and others just fall off the mainstream.

I'm a big Remington fan...And I agree completely. The idiots who made those calls need to be kicked in the junk repeatedly. Remington has almost killed-off many good rounds.

 

[HARPERC]

.......would you rather have a 22x6mm or a Texas trophy hunter (They are the same).

Make mine a .224 Clark!

Good question, but there is no good answer.........J E CUSTOM

 

[jasonco]

I didn't have a 6.5 anything until December of 2016, that being what it was and wanting to get a 6.5 something, I chose Creedmoor.
I saw a vid that had a comparison of the 260 Rem and the 6.5 Creed, with the only real difference being that the 260 Rem was more for handloaders and the 6.5 Creed was for non-handloaders, because of loaded ammunition availability...I went 6.5 Creedmoor anyway.

 

[Garycrow]

The 6.5 Creedmoor is what the 260 remington should have been. Remington didn't twist the 260 properly and it's too long to fit in a short action magazine box while using long, high B.C. bullets. The Creedmoor fixes those problems.