I know the owner wishes to keep this forum on the 6.5 Grendel and if this post is not appropriate it can be deleted but I was just curious if there are other folks here that like the 6.5 caliber in any of it's non-Grendel creations.
My bread and butter deer rifle over the years has been a T/C Encore in 6.5X55 Mauser and a new acquisition is a Flaig Ace 264 Win Mag built on a US M1917 action back in the early 60's. Both are extremely accurate and have had me ignoring many of my other rifles because of that alone.
My SOAD 20" AR is fast becoming my favorite because it will do anything.
TC Encore in a 260 Remington is my other 6.5 favorite. It shoots really nice and has a Match Grade Machince barrel on it.
My first 6.5 was a 6.5x55, then a .260, then a 6.5x54MS, then a 6.5 STW and then the Grendel. I currently own a Blaser 93 Attache in 6.5x55, a Kimber Super America .260, several 96 Swedes, and a 48 Swede, the 6.5 STW which is a titanium actioned Remington 700 clone with a Sako extractor, Pacnor 28" barrel, McMillan Ultralight Edge stock, and my newest addition is a Tubb 2K in 6.5 Creedmoor. Oh, and several Grendels.
So, yea I like the 6.5 bore.
Bob
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Being a novice, I'd be curious about folks experience w 260Rem and 6.5 Creedmoor in AR-10 platform. (LR2 already gave me some advice by PM)
Hmmm...confirmed 6.5 junky here.
6.5x284 in Kreiger barreled m700
6.5x284 in Kreiger barreled XP-100
6.5/270 JDJ Encore barrel
6.5JDJ Contender
6.5 Grendel in MGM Encore barrel
And last but not least, 6.5 Grendel/.264 LBC in the AR configuration.
Love my 6.5's...
Three Grendels and one 6.5x47 Lapua w/Krieger barrel, which is the most accurate rifle I have ever owned and easiest to find accurate loads for. Keeping bullet requirements within one caliber also has cost and simplicity advantages to offer, as well.
Ah, good to see so many wise fans of the 6.5. 
Apart from the Grendel, I have 3 x 6.5x47 Lapua rifles (1 x hunter, 1 x varmiter, 1 x target) and am currently building a 6.5/06 on a Ruger No.1.
For hunting in my part of the world, the 6.5 calibre is pretty much ideal.
Ah, I would absolutely love to have a #1 in 6.5 "anything"!
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So, why then do we think the .264WinMag basically died on the vine a half century ago? The standard answers are usually distaste from WWII memories of Japanese/German metric rounds or introduction of the 7mm RemMag. But is our current appreciation for the 6.5mm caliber related to (1) better projectiles and/or (2) a better understanding of BCs and its importance in shooting? Or have the advances in powders and optics now caught up to the intrinsic ballistic advantages of the 6.5? If that is the case, will we see a resurgence in interest in the .264WM?
Just curious for opinions.
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So, why then do we think the .264WinMag basically died on the vine a half century ago? The standard answers are usually distaste from WWII memories of Japanese/German metric rounds or introduction of the 7mm RemMag. But is our current appreciation for the 6.5mm caliber related to (1) better projectiles and/or (2) a better understanding of BCs and its importance in shooting? Or have the advances in powders and optics now caught up to the intrinsic ballistic advantages of the 6.5? If that is the case, will we see a resurgence in interest in the .264WM?
Just curious for opinions.
adrenaline junkie
Unregistered
Due to using a light barrel and people using it for prairie dogs and the like, it earned a reputation for being a severe barrel burner.
My cousin has one, and it's a great gun, I just wouldn't recommend shooting it hundreds times a day.
I think anytime you take a cartridge like a 458 and bneckbit down to a 264 barrels aren't going to last like they would out of a 30-30 etc.
Personally, I have a ruger mk II in 260 rem, and it's a deer killing, tack driving machine.
Lets see,
My first was a 6.5 T/CU that I shot for years in silhouette, then the 6.5-284 Krieger barreled Mauser I built, and last but not least my 18" Grendel that I shoot more that the others anymore.
Greg
Lets see. I still hunt with a sporterised 6.5x55 built before 1900. And a Ruger in 6.5x55. They both are very accurate. An old burnt out 6.5x55 on a Craig action; it's not accurate and I'll have to do something with it eventually. I have a 6.5 06 on a Remington action another in an Encore. The longer actions give me someting to shoot 140-160gr bullets with.
Y85 Wrote:So, why then do we think the .264WinMag basically died on the vine a half century ago? The standard answers are usually distaste from WWII memories of Japanese/German metric rounds or introduction of the 7mm RemMag. But is our current appreciation for the 6.5mm caliber related to (1) better projectiles and/or (2) a better understanding of BCs and its importance in shooting? Or have the advances in powders and optics now caught up to the intrinsic ballistic advantages of the 6.5? If that is the case, will we see a resurgence in interest in the .264WM?
Just curious for opinions. The 6.5 bore diameter has had a rocky path in the US. Most US hunters respond to what they read in the gun press, not actual experience, and the gun press is paid to generate excitement about the latest and greatest, not an overlooked gem from the past.
My 6.5 STW is like a 264 Win Mag on steroids, it burns barrels at an even faster rate. But for hunting is is a laser beam and has dropped every animal I've shot with it on the spot. That includes two Boone and Crocket sheep, a Stone's and a Rocky Mountain. I could have used any caliber I wanted for these once in a lifetime hunts and I chose this caliber. Why, because it does a better job than my 7mm Rem Mag, my .300 Win Mag, or my .300 Weatherby and does it with less recoil, making it much more fun to shoot. I built it for Coues whitetail before there were laser range finders available that worked at extended ranges. It made up for range estimation errors better than any caliber then or now.
Bob
My uncle used the 264 Win Mag to excellent effect in the late '50s and the '60s.
I think there were several factors, starting with anti-metric bias. The rifle also developed a reputation for being a barrel-burner like the .220 Swift.
Probably the biggest blow was the advent of inexpensive chronographs. Folks discovered that Winchester had rounded up the velocity to an uncomfortable degree. The resulting velocities were only slightly higher than the .270 Winchester for the same weight bullets. Tha coincidence coupled nicely with the anti-metric bias.
In truth, having the same muzzle velocity for the same same bullet weight makes the 6.5 superior to the 270. The cartridges with "270-like" game harvesting potential and trajectories are the 260 Remington and the 6.5 Creedmoor.
Agreed. I think the .270 Winchester's popularity in the US pushed the 6.5/.264" aside, with most of the other hunting rifles chambered with .30 bores. My first experience with 6.5mm was shooting one of my Boy Scout Leader's .264 Win Mags in an impact area we infiltrated that was part of the Edwards AFB and China Lake Naval Weapon's Test Center in the High Desert of CA. I remember blasting entirely through the axle of a Deuce-and-a-half truck and feeling the power and penetration of the cartridge. I responded with an "I like it!" reminiscent of Robocop and the Barret (when the crooks were shooting up the streets).
I have a .260 Rem AR10 with a Bartlein barrel done by GA Precision, and my 16" Grendel AR15. I wish my Pre-64 Model 70 .270 Win. was a .264 WM, but a .260 Rem would do. I need 250fps more mv to match .260 Rem trajectory with my .270 Win, and the .260 still has it beat for wind drift. Within 500yds, it's a wash, but the .260 Rem out-gasses the .270 from thereon out.
Americans are definitely re-discovering the 6.5mm since the popularity of the .260 Rem, Grendel, and 6.5 CM have really picked up over the past several years.
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My dad picked up a .264 WM when I was a kid and we have downed many, many critters with it. The flat trajectory and mild recoil makes it a sweet hunting rig.
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I haven't looked lately, any of the big companies selling rifles in 264WM currently? Also, Bob, tell us a little about the 6.5STW -- wildcat? What does it look like ballistically?
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In addition to my Grendels, I also have a 6.5 Creedmoor in the Mega Maten.
Drifter
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