6.5 Creedmoor Ammo Prices
BY Herschel Smith
5 years, 4 months ago
James is also an avid reloader. We had a good chuckle over the latest wonder rifle cartridge, the 6.5 Creedmoor. In 1896 the 6.5 x 55 Swedish Mauser was introduced to the shooting public. It was a smokeless powder cartridge. It became the most popular moose rife in Sweden and probably still is. When the .270 Winchester was introduced to the shooting public the date on the .270 was very close to the 6.5 x 55. In my teen years I wanted to get one but all that was available was war surplus.
Now comes the 6.5 Creedmoor which if you look closely at the 6.5 stats it is very close to the .270. I don’t remember the .270 ever being suggested as a 1,000-yard rifle. Don’t get me wrong, the 6.5 Creedmoor is a welcomed addition to the shooting community, but is the cost of the ammunition worth it? Next time you are at a retailer, check out the price of .270 ammunition compared to 6.5 Creedmoor ammo.
By the way, a friend of mine hunts with a 6.5, loves it, and has taken a monster Maine buck with it. As for me, when I am hunting in a rifle-authorized area, I will continue to use my .270.
There’s nothing wrong with either one, but remember, the 6.5 Creedmoor is a short action cartridge (based on the .308 case) while the .270 is a long action cartridge (based on the .30-06 case). That means the 6.5 Creedmoor is easier to deal with in semi-auto.
At any rate, I think he’s exaggerating the price of the 6.5 Creedmoor. There is a wider variability in prices for the 6.5, so for a 20-round box you can spend less than a dollar a round, but as much as $2 per round. On the other hand, pretty much all of the 6.5 is available for less than $1 per round if you buy in bulk through someone like Lucky Gunner.
On July 19, 2019 at 10:14 am, Drake said:
I’ve been considering a new bolt-action rifle and debating caliber. I’m now leaning towards 6.5 CM. Looking online at places like Grafs and Cheaper Than Dirt – there is lots of cheap .308 available. But comparing actual target / match ammo, they are just about the same now. And cheap plinking 6.5 is starting to show up.
On July 19, 2019 at 3:38 pm, Thomas said:
I love the 6.5 X 55 but I reload so I can make it what I want. Off the shelf ammo many times is tailored for the weaker 95 actions so you don’t get the performance. I also have a 270 on a Mauser 98 action, 24″ Shilen barrel with a little more free-bore so I can set the bullet out a little bit, add a little powder and get near-magnum velocities and shoot very economically. Brass is every where.
On July 21, 2019 at 5:06 am, Roger J said:
I bought a Tikka T3x in 6.5 X 55 rather than 6.5 Creedmoor, because of the lower cost of the brass, and I have no opportunity to shoot longer than 200 yd. I had also heard of short case life on the Creedmoor cases. I am very happy with my choice, as my handloads routinely deliver groups under 1 moa. A million Scandinavian hunters can’t be wrong…
On July 22, 2019 at 7:06 pm, Historian said:
The 6.5 x 55 Swede can certainly be handloaded to meet and even exceed, in more modern actions, the 6.5 Creedmoor’s ballistics, and with a properly fit match grade barrel, can come close to matching the Creed’s OTS accuracy. But that takes time, effort and most importantly, skill, to load that ammo.
You can buy a stick and ammo off the shelf that will deliver sub-MOA performance out to 1200 yards for the same ammo cost as .308 FGMM. No need to spend years learning the skills to load ammo. No need to spend weeks and months developing and testing long range loads. No neck-turning, no primer pocket uniforming, flash-hole reaming, case wall thickness measurements and case weighing. No necksizing and eccentricity measurement. No weighing of charges, or primer lot analyses. For hundreds of rounds, until you find ‘The Load’. No chronograph measurements, no group size comparisons.
That is months of time and hundreds of rounds of barrel life you could have spent developing SHOOTING skills at extreme range, not shooting at shorter distances to find a good load. That is the advantage of the 6.5 Creedmoor. You buy the ammo, the stick, a good optic, and you have an off the shelf system that delivers sub MOA well past 1000 yards, with efficient low drag, low WINDAGE bullets loaded into factory ammo that has the load data right on the box! So given a modicum of skill, you can get even better accuracy from your stick, because you now have fireformed concentric brass. I can’t speak to the quality of the Hornady 6.5 Creed brass; I don’t shoot or load it and I’ve never miked the pickups I have in my ‘to trade’ box, but spending a couple of hours neckturning and weighing brass, then using a load you ALREADY KNOW WORKS, is trivial compared to the work involved in creating ammo that has ES less than 10 fps and SD in the low single digits.
And that sets aside the need for a skilled smith to deliver a stick that will RELIABLY deliver sub-moa performance. Good smiths cost real money, and with sticks being produced now, you will have to be really good before you need more accuracy than you can buy right off the shelf.
If you don’t need that capability, or you have already spent years, or even decades, developing the loading skills to create 1000 yard ammo, fine. Run of the mill loads work fine out to 300 yards; most decent rifles will group into two inches +or – at those distances with little effort, and if you can reliably make a 300 yard shot on deer-sized game, you are already a very competent rifleman, better than most.
But if you are just starting out, and aspire to go past the rifleman’s quarter mile, then the 6.5 Creed system is a huge advantage.
With regard to all who seek the Light,
Historian
On July 26, 2019 at 10:31 am, PAUL B said:
My daughter and son both shoot 6.5×55 Swedes, and they love them. Both have taken mule deer, antelope (125 yards to 443 yards), and Elk, all with excellent shot placement and one-shot kills. We shoot regularly, and all cases are handloaded with 140 Grain Hornady Interlock (antelope ad Deer) and 140 grain Speer Game Kings (elk).
Both rifles are built on Winchester actions with Douglas Heavy Sporter Premium Air-gage barrels. I’ve never purchased factory ammo for these as the handloads have proven to be more then sufficient to the task. I have been hunting with the 6.5 x .284 for almost 15 years and again have never lost an elk but I am considering a change to the 6.5 x 55. I do not see any reason to switch to the Creedmoor as I have already invested in the dies and brass, nor do I see a significant advantage in switching to the Creedmoor.