While the 6.5 Creedmoor is revered as an elite precision shooting cartridge, it's also an effective hunting round.
You'll hear a lot of marksmen debate between 6.5 Creedmoor and .308 Winchester, as each has an impressive track record in the competitive shooting arena. How does each caliber fare in a hunting environment? The debate opens up again.
Hunters have been using .308 Win. for years, as the combination of long-range capabilities and knockdown power offers hunting opportunities on a wide variety of wild game. However, only recently has the 6.5 Creedmoor become more popular among hunters, and earned its own faction of adopters who wouldn't use anything else.
To examine this, we decided look at the new Savage 110 Ultralite, which could double as both a precision and a hunting rifle. Why is it that the 6.5 Creedmoor has won over so many accuracy-obsessed shooters? We'll use the 110 Ultralite as the basis for trying to find out.
The Cartridge
Comparable in size to a .260 Remington, a 6.5mm (.264-inch) bullet has proven big enough to take down a deer, a hog or a coyote. In actuality, certain 6.5 Creedmoor cartridges can duplicate the muzzle velocity of a .300 Winchester Magnum.
With such high speeds, 6.5 Creedmoor-chambered rifles are capable of reaching seriously impressive shooting distances, which can in turn benefit big-game hunters.
The 6.5 Creedmoor is loaded into a wide variety of different ammo, so ballistics can be a little scattered. We decided to focus on three popular options on the market: the 120-grain GMX Superformance, the Hornady 129-grain SST and the Hornady 140-grain ELD Match.
Since the 6.5 Creedmoor's claim to fame is long-distance shooting, we're going to zero in on its performance at 400 yards.
The 120-grain GMX travels at 2,300 feet per second with 1,410 foot-pounds of energy and -18.3 inches of arc. The 129-grain SST travels at 2,223 feet per second with 1,415 foot-pounds of energy and -19.7 inches of arc. And, the 140-grain ELD Match travels at 2,184 feet per second with 1,482 foot-pounds of energy and -22 inches of arc.
For reference, a 125-grain, .308 Spitzer travels has a muzzle velocity of 3,100 feet per second with 2,668 foot-pounds of energy, whereas the aforementioned 120-grain GMX Superformance has a muzzle velocity of 3,020 feet per second while delivering 2,430 foot-pounds of energy.
The ballistic coefficient of a 6.5 Creedmoor torches the majority of popular hunting cartridges without sacrificing lethality, which could ultimately make it one of the most popular options among hunters around the globe.
If you've ever stalked a pronghorn through the prairies of Wyoming, you know the benefit to having a rifle that can easily reach past 400 yards. Similarly, if you're hunting hogs or coyotes at night in Texas, the last thing you want to worry about is air resistance caused by wind, temperature and inclement weather.
To put it simply, the 6.5 Creedmoor is becoming one of the Swiss Army knives of long-range cartridges, offering top-tier performance for precision shooting and hunting. Not only is it effective on taking down big game, but it's effective at a wide array of ranges.
The Rifle
Using Savage's famous 110 action, this innovative hunting rifle will pass any sportsman's test. It also features an adjustable comb height, length of pull, and and a 1.5- to 4-pound under-adjustable AccuTrigger, which all come together to deliver the most precise performance at the range and in the field.
The customization capabilities make the 110 Ultralite an excellent, accurate-shooting rifle (you can't shoot a gun well if it doesn't fit), as do the factory-blueprinted action, the carbon fiber-wrapped stainless steel barrel, and a threaded muzzle.
It also utilizes a spiral-fluted bolt and a skeletonized melonite receiver made of stainless steel, which significantly help keep the weight down. The 110 Ultralite in 6.5 Creedmoor is only 5.8 pounds, among the lightest firearms chambered for the round available. That alone makes the case for giving this firearm some strong consideration.
Although the rifle undoubtedly carries the Savage legacy, the caliber may be less familiar to hunters. As such, it comes down to needing an understanding of what the 6.5 Creedmoor can do.
To put it simply, the 6.5 Creedmoor is becoming one of the Swiss Army knives of long-range cartridges, offering top-tier performance for precision shooting and hunting. Not only is it effective on taking down big game, but it's effective at a wide array of ranges.
NEXT: SAVAGE ACCUFIT CAN HELP AVOID HUNTING BLUNDERS
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