7-08 vs 6.5 cm for 16-18" barrel

[Jeremy45]

Hello everyone,

I'm wanting a short barrel for my AT for hunting deer and hogs inside 400yds and shooting paper/steel occasionally 600/1000 but mostly 600.

Between the two cartridges which would you go with and why? I've just started playing with numbers in JBM and it looks like 6.5cm has better ballistics but it's hard to come by good numbers on short 7-08 rifles.

Looking forward to hearing from everyone,
Jeremy

 

[DAVETOOLEY]

Six of one half dozen of the other. Better bullet selection in 6.5.

 

[BurnOut]

I have a 7mm-08 with an 18" barrel, and I saw an average of around 2650 FPS running factory Hornady Precision Hunter ammo (150 gr ELD-X) over 20 rounds.

Accuracy was for shit, but at this point I'm certainly not blaming the ammo (too many other variables coupled with a small sample size).

 

[Jeremy45]

Six of one half dozen of the other. Better bullet selection in 6.5.

That is a good way to look at it. Thanks for the help.. bullet selection and factory ammo availability kind of makes it a no brainer huh!

 

[Jeremy45]

I have a 7mm-08 with an 18" barrel, and I saw an average of around 2650 FPS running factory Hornady Precision Hunter ammo (150 gr ELD-X) over 20 rounds.

Accuracy was for shit, but at this point I'm certainly not blaming the ammo (too many other variables coupled with a small sample size).

That's pushes me toward 6.5 CM as well. Thanks for the input.

 

[lawofsavage]

Six of one half dozen of the other. Better bullet selection in 6.5.

Couldn’t agree more. Growing up as a kid, my hunting rifle was a youth model Remington 700 7mm08 with a short barrel around 16” or so. Last year I hunted with a 17” 6.5 Creed. Both of them were good medicine for white tail deer and feral hogs. I didn’t really notice a big performance difference one way or the other as far as how far I had to track them.

What makes a bigger difference to me is quality and cost of factory ammo and 6.5 Creed has a huge advantage there especially if it’s going to also be used for training classes and range time but that may not be a huge deal if it’s going to be mostly a hunting barrel that’s not shot much.