You guys are shooting some nice 6.5MM's !
Flags ,I love the mannlicher, cool as all heck!
RR...Holy Cr@P!!!!! That's a work of art ! So how do the 6.5's stack up to the 7's ?
I've heard that Remington has expanded the 260 into their line. Maybe an upsurge in 6.5MM ?

I started shooting a 7mm Rem Mag when I was 13 so that would have been 1976 or there abouts. My grandfather, father and brother all shot them as well. I've hauled the old 7mm all over the world and have taken about 40 species of game with it including zebra and wildebeest. I've also played with an old 7x57 Mauser that a buddy owns in Africa. I've taken a few impala and warthogs with it. 7mm is a great caliber for game up to about moose, which for me would be the biggest game I'd personally use it on.

That being said, once I started shooting the 6.5s I found I rarely take the old 7mm out of the gun cabinet. My 7mm is most accurate with 160 gr bullets and I can get bullets of that weight for the 6.5 and it has an even better sectional density than the 7mm does. I haven't seen much difference in performance on game until the range gets somewhat long. That would probably be negated if I used a hotter 6.5 than the Swede or the Mannlicher. For me and the hunting I do now, the 6.5s give me virtually the same level of performance with less recoil and burn less powder to do it.

That doesn't mean I'll never use the 7mm again. If I ever draw another bighorn or goat tag, I'll take the 7mm. Plus, I've been trying to draw a unit 2 bull elk tag in CO for 20 years. That is pretty open country with sagebrush flats and cedar ridges and the shots run long, perfect for the 7mm Mag. In the end, you can't really go wrong with either a 6.5 or a 7mm in whatever cartridge turns you on.

I shoot several 7mm's 7mm/08, 7 STW, and the mother of all the 7's the 7mm Allen Magnum, the 7 AM runs a 160 accubond at 3575 fps launched by 110 gr of very slow burning powder, the BC of the accubond figures out to .62, the 140 berger figures around .7 the trajectories between the 7mm AM and the 6.5 Gibbs are earily simular till you reach 800 yards. and the gibbs burns roughly 1/2 the powder of the big 7 AM.
The good thing about the 6.5 is that the high BC/SD bullets in the 264 can be fired with about any standard twist 6.5 barrel, to get into the really good 7mm bullets such as the 200 gr wildcat (BC of around .84) you need a specialized twist unless your shooting a large enough capacity case to get velocity to make up for the lack of spin.
RR

Gun porn! :cool2:

I don't have any 6.5's in my safe.....yet!...but this may be the year. I too have been researching which one it will be...been leaning toward the 6.5 Creedmoor but have yet to make any decisions. I am anxiously awaiting Nosler's reveal of the the 26 Nosler at SHOT this week. I really like the SD/BC of the 6.5's and not sure why I don't have one yet....I currently have 3 7mm's....a 7mm Mag, a 7/08 and a 7x57....I hunted one year with the 7 Mag and just found it unpleasant to shoot when considering the benefit...in my opinion my 308, 270 and 270WSM would all do everything I was asking of my 7 Mag does with less recoil. I recently acquired the 7/08 and load development looks promising, but I haven't hunted with it. The 7x57 is a right handed rifle that was passed down and I've never shot it, but have friends that really enjoy them.

EMT, my advice is a 6.5/06 AI best bang for the buck in my opinion, easiest wildcat there is to make brass for and will give you 98% of the 264 winny, the 26 nosler has a case capacity of around 92 gr. of water, thats almost 6.5 stw capacity, so it would be a throat burner.
RR

As always, thanks for the input RR...I hadn't even been able to find anything on the 26 Nosler besides a press release (but I hadn't looked to harf yet either)....I will certainly consider the 6.5/06 AI....I have a couple of friends who rave about their 6.5/06.

Here's my 6.5x284. I shoot either a 140 Accubond or 140 Berger. Whacked a whitetail at 400 this year with the Accubond.

Rem 700 long action, .010 oversized, blueprinted.
27" Pac-Nor super match
Bobby Hart stock

I have reloaded for a long time, but never any wildcats. What cartridges do you use to form the brass for your gibbs and 6.5/06 (the 6.5-06 I'm assuming 30-06 brass) Where can the dies be found at? I dont know anything about wildcat loading. When you say throat burner how many round down the pipe before accuracy start to suffer. I realize that the overheating a barrel expedites burnout as well as super hot loads, but if its taken care of how long will it last?
Thanks Greg

I've owned three 6.5s, a M96 in 6.5x55, a CZ 550 FS in 6.5x55 and a Remington M673 in 6.5 Rem mag. Only one I still have is the M673 and to be honest, it's still not been bloodied. I've hunted with it, but never saw something I wanted to hang a tag on when using it. Shown below (scoped) with another M673 in .308. Those two, along with my 673s in .300SAUM & .350 RM complete my set of 673s. I really need to get that 6.5 out more, I reckon :D