Advice on Savage 12FV in 6.5 CM

[jmr40]

I just can't see the big deal over the 6.5 CM. For most shooters, it's of questionable advantage.

You're not looking very hard then. It it is fair enough to say that the 6.5 CM offers very little advantage over 260 or 6.5X55. If someone already has one of those and handloads for it the advantages are small. But compared to other calibers all of the 6.5's have a lot going for them.

But for someone starting out the advantages are enough that I simply couldn't recommend 260 or 6.5X55 over 6.5 CM. Especially if buying off the shelf guns and ammo. The older versions need custom rifles and ammo to match what the Creed does with reasonably priced off the shelf gear.

Where the 6.5's shine is shooting 140-147 gr bullets with good velocity, mild recoil and excellent BC's. You'd have to shoot 215-230 gr 30 caliber bullets to match those BC's. Once you go that heavy in 30 caliber you need to launch them from magnum rifles with nearly triple the recoil to get the same speeds and similar trajectories.

If you compare the best 147 gr 6.5 bullet @2700 fps to the best 150 gr .308 bullet @2850 fps the much longer 6.5 bullet will out penetrate it on large game by a wide margin.

Even though the 308 starts 150 fps faster, at 200 yards the 6.5 is faster and the farther down range you go the bigger advantage the 6.5 has. At 500 yards the 6.5 is almost 300 fps faster. It shoots flatter, hits harder, has better accuracy, and about 25% less recoil at any range.