Olde NE Hunter

As I have neither the 6.5 CM nor the .260 I will relate a story my neighbor told me about his 6.5 CM.

He bought the rifle and took a class in long range shooting. At the end of the day he was banging steel at 1000 yards with factory ammo.
He didn't say what brand but he did say he didn't thing he would reload as the factory stuff and his rifle were already so accurate.

Even with that story I haven't bought one (yet).

As others have said the 6.5 CM does what it is advertised to do.

Gm54-120

Yet its still wildly popular across the pond. Almost bought a Fieldcraft in 6.5 swede. Still kicking myself for not jumping on one i saw on sale. I have a old Ljungman in great shape i dont shoot and ammo to go with it. So i wanted a nice light 6.5 Swede rifle.

Now i think i will just get a Grendel in a mini action and save a ton of cash. The lighter bullets are fine for deer within the ranges im capable of shooting in the field.

Nomercy448

I tend to say often these days, if I ever need more than ~30-40 grains of powder and 100-130 grains of bullet to hunt deer on my property, I’m probably doing something I shouldn’t. The Grendel and its offspring, the 6 ARC fit perfectly in my “whitetail window.”

I just wish someone would build proper rifles for mini-length cartridges, finally.

Regarding the 6.5 Swede’s popularity in the EU… eh… twice as many people in Europe own in total less than 1/5th of the firearms. Spending time abroad (even living in Europe full time for a while) and working with international groups for the majority of my career, I’m comfortable dismissing market popularity of a continent which effectively doesn’t own firearms.

Gm54-120

Killed a buttload of deer with a 25-06 with smaller bullets but i never loved the caliber. Old InterArms Mark X. Sold it ages ago and its still knocking the snot out of deer. The Grendel though is right up my alley in a mini action. 6.5 in general is just a well thought out size for deer size game and other uses like military.

Ridge Runner

own and hunt with a grendel, a creed, a 7mm/08, and a few others in that class, my favorite is the 6mm rem.

Bocajnala

I don't know what magazine it was in. I used to get recycled hunting and shooting magazines from the uncle's.


But, at some point as a kid I read an article on the .25-06..... Keep in mind that grandpa and uncles and dad were all .30-06 devotees.... And I decided that the .25-06 was the perfect whitetail medicine.

Surprisingly I still haven't owned one. And it's not part of the 20 or so rounds I've taken game with. One reason for that is I've never found a "good" deal on a .25-06. They always seem to bring higher prices.

Someday I'll grab one up and shoot something with it.

-Jake

Gm54-120

The deal for me is.....I just dont need or want the added size/weight of a long action. After being spoiled with a Ultra Light Arms model 20, i put a high value on easy to carry. I got a friend that wacks a deer each year with a 243 and the 80gr GMX bullet. He aint no long range shooter either. Within 200 yards he will drop them just as good as most can because he can put that little bullet right where it needs to go. That mini Howa is fairly affordable. A Grendel uses so little powder with performance good enough in a 22" im pretty confident it would do exactly what i want without the $4000 price tag of a NULA. My ULA is a ML, no longer offered. It can shoot a 275gr bullet over 2400fps so you can imagine the recoil is not a whole lot of fun if shooting for recreation. A nice little 6.5 even a feather weight would be a hoot by comparison.