6.5 vs. 7.62

[CCooper]

Re: 6.5 vs. 7.62

For me the +'s for the 6.5x47 were:
1) Lapua brass
2) I can seat the bullets out where they should be in the case and not worry about mag length with a short action.
3) It was designed for 300m competition, so this tells me the accuracy potential is huge.
4) Efficiency-no it does'nt have the capacity of the 260, but thats a good thing to me since I can come very close to matching those velocities with less powder.

I'm not knocking the 260, it's a great round, but the 6.5x47 just seemed better to me. Plus loaded ammo availability means nothing to me, I can always do better loading my own.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: 6.5 vs. 7.62

You can talk to manufacturers about making particular firearms until you are blue in the face. The only one they pay attention to is their customer, and retail is not their customer.

Wholesale/distributors buy from the manufacturers, and retailers get their orders from the distributors. If an item is not available, it's because the distributors, in their wisdom, don't think that enough of us want buy it badly enough to make it worth their while to order and stock.

They have dropped the ball majorly where the .260 is concerned. It's a chicken/egg issue. Nobody's buying because nobody's got any to sell, and nobody's got any to sell because nobody's buying any. The market sucks and nobody wants to stick their necks out over the .260.

Gotta hammer the retailers and distributers if you want that stream to run deep again.

Greg

 

[calbearz]

Re: 6.5 vs. 7.62

Love the Swamp Donkey!!! That’s great! You are so right on, so many hunters use more gun than they need.

DocGlenn I'm sure the 6.5 CM is a superb hunting round, try the 130gr Swift Scirocco II I'm shooting nice 0.50 inch groups with them leaving the barrel at 3000 fps. Also the Barnes Tipped TSX bullet would probably work great. I know Berger touts their bullets for hunting but their construction is a match bullet, I'm sure they get spectacular kills when everything goes right, the question you have to ask is are you willing to take responsibility if it doesn’t go right, the bullet comes apart and you lose a wounded animal. This should be every hunter’s worst nightmare. With that in mind I would go with a controlled expansion hunting bullet. If you already have a 6.5 CM enjoy it, if you are still looking for the gun, get a .260 Rem.

Ccooper
1) The issue of Lapua brass is unrelated to the merits of the cartridge, Lapua could make .260 Rem brass just as easily.
2) Where the bullet should be seated is a function of the chamber more than the cartridge. As with all design decisions there is always compromise. My .260 Rem chamber is cut for VLD bullets, so they are in the perfect position when seated to magazine length. Spitzers on the other hand must be seated much deeper. You will find the same compromise with you 6.5x47 if you cut the chamber to have a 140gr VLD just off the lands at mag length then a 95gr V-MAX will be hanging half out of the case to be in the same position in relationship to the lands.
3) The 6.5-08 was developed as a match round too, that what the .260 Rem is. I have not seen any credible evidence that either cartridge has an inherent accuracy advantage to speak of, the quality of you rifle is much more important.
4) You want Efficiency why not use a 6.5 Grendel? Way less powder and it can come close to matching the 6.5x47 velocity? Really your splitting hairs.

Greg Langelius hits the nail on the head. By splitting the demand for a mid size 6.5mm cartridge over 3 different rounds we dilute our buying power. If we all demand one round the river will be much deeper. I ordered my .260 Rem From GA 3 years ago, at that time Midway only had 6-7 loads available, and only Remington made brass. Today I counted 17 .260 Rem loads and both Norma and Nosler are making brass. Maybe the egg has hatched, the stream has become a brook, now lets make it a river!

Zak Smith from demigodllc also in Shotgun news 31 March 2008

“The .260 Remington's main problem for the reloader is lack of high-quality and affordable brass and to date there has only been one factory load produced which was appropriate for serious long-range competition for the non-reloader.”

Do you think he has enough experience to be credible? He clearly states that the 6.5 CM was created to fill a void in component and ammo availability. Not performance of the cartridge its self. The 6.5 CM and 6.5x47 are both great cartridges, but in this day of shortages of brass and other basic components for shooting doesn’t it make sense to avoid spreading things any thinner? Each extra SKU burdens every step of the supply chain a little more.

 

[Greg Langelius *]

Re: 6.5 vs. 7.62

The .260 has one drawback, and mean from a handloader's perspective. The case and LR suitable bullets do not combine to make a cartridge of sufficient brevity to both feed in the mag, and be in the correct reference to the rifling lands.

The 6.5CM's one advantage is that it goes just short enough to correct the shortcoming (longcoming?...).

But I have a simpler approach.

First, when I had my .260 barrels made by L-W, I asked for a shorter throat.

Second, we need to backstep to the days before the 142SMK, 139 Scenar, and 140- A-Max. The Sierra 140gr SMK is shorter, and doesn't give up a ton of performance.

Put the two together, and who needs the CM? I sure don't.

Matching the velocity of the .260 with a smaller chambering is precisely what I <span style="font-style: italic">don't</span> want to do. You gotta whip that pony pretty hard to get it out there neck-n-neck with them bigger hosses. Not what I wanna be doin' to my bores/throats. I'd rather use a bigger chamber, longer barrel, and rein that bigger hoss back a little 'til it's in something a bit more like a cruise mode. Use it, but don't abuse it, sorta like...

Greg

 

[raptor99]

Re: 6.5 vs. 7.62

This is like arguing over Ford vs. Chevy vs Dodge. Pick the one you like and shoot it. You can't go wrong with any of them.

Remington made the 260 in the VLS and they never cought on so they dropped them out of that line. It was a mistake. They never made a match load for it so only reloaders bought it. The VLS in the 260 was to much gun for a varmint round and to heavy of a rifle for a deer rifle.

I remember when I bought one of the first ones that came out and was bragging about how great the round was on Sniper Country and everyone thought I was nuts and the 308s were king and always would be. Now the 6.5s are in and I am on my 4th 260 barrel.

If you don't mind the long action I would go with a 6.5x55. Even at 100+ years old it is one of the best balanced 6.5 rounds out there. The case is large enough to use a slower burning powder and still push the 140s to good velocities giving better barrel life than the other 6.5s. If you use factory match ammo it will go 5000+rds easy. Its deadly accurate to 1000yds and the recoil is still less than the 308s, great brass selection so whats not to love???

If you think the 5000+ rounds is a streach, well, so did I but the guy who talked me into the 260s in the first place was a sniper and highpower shooter from Norway who has put many, many rounds down the barrel of the 6.5s and said that is around the average for what he gets out of his barrels with factory match Lapua ammo.