Pennsylvania Game News - November 2024 - 63

The .25-06 Remington, .240
Weatherby and .257 Weatherby, as well
as the .264 Winchester Magnum, the
6.5x284 and 6.5 Remington Magnum
all came into our discussion, too. But we
agreed their increased powder capacity
and recoil are more for big game.
As one fellow said, " how much
powder do we need to burn for those
dangerous woodchucks around here? "
The .25 WSSM and .243 WSSM
also briefl y came up, but were quickly
dismissed, since they never caught the
attention Winchester hoped for and are
now fading memories.
That brought us to the newer 6.5mm
(.264 caliber) cartridges, starting with the
.260 Remington brought out in 1997. It is
truly an effi cient - and underappreciated
- cartridge. It's basically a 6.5x55
Swedish cartridge in a smaller package.
It makes a pretty-fair competitive
round and a great hunting one, throwing
129- to 140-grain bullets. Its only
drawback is that with its short neck
length and short freebore, today's longer
very low drag (VLD) bullets take up
too much cartridge case space to feed
through short actions. Also, it has a 1-in9-inch
twist that's not fast enough to
stabilize longer VLD match bullets.
Slugs designed for hunting, though
traveling at 2,700 to 2,900 fps, make
excellent fl at-shooting deer cartridges.
Handloaders can push 85- to 100-grain
boattails at 3,200-plus fps. With a 200yard
zero, they drop about 6 inches at
300 yards and 18 inches at 400 yards
to reach those " across the fi eld " critters,
from groundhogs to coyotes. The recoil
is comparable to that of the .257 Roberts.
The newest round that several of
our young guys are hot over is the 6.5
NOVEMBER 2024
Creedmoor.
Introduced in 2007 as a 600-yard
target cartridge, it's made a name for
itself among shooters competing out to
1,000 yards.
Even though its case is a bit shorter
than the .260 Remington, it is a more
effi cient, almost ballistic twin. But due
to its longer neck, 1-in-8-inch twist, and
more freebore, it better accommodates
VLD bullets for match shooting.
My neighbor's son recently bought
a Ruger Precision Rifl e chambered for
6.5 Creedmoor with a top-of-the-line
Burris long-range variable scope. It is
one impressive rifl e that shoots as well
as it looks. With factory 140-grain loads,
it produced sub-minute groups off the
bench at 300 yards.
Most manufacturers today chamber
their short-action rifl es in 6.5 Creedmoor
because it's such a hot seller due to its
light recoil and ability to reach out.
The newer dual-purpose cartridges
- a bit more effi cient in their smaller
packages - are actually " triple purpose, "
great for competitive target shooting as
well as varmint and big game hunting.
I
recently
purchased
a
Ruger
American Predator in 6.5 Creedmoor.
It weighs around 6¼ pounds with a 22inch
barrel, with a green fi ber stock.
To see how it shoots, I temporarily
mounted a Black Hound 4-24X50 (MOA
reticle) scope on it, and found it shot onehalf-
to three-quarter-inch groups at 100
yards, with Hornady ammunition and
selected handloads.
Hitting clay birds and tennis balls at
200 and 300 yards at the range was no
problem.
With that kind of accuracy, and with a
choice of bullets ranging from 90 grains
to 160 grains, this will become my triplepurpose
rifl e.
63
Pennsylvania Game News - November 2024

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