The 6.5 Creedmoor gets nocked around today by some gun writers but it is still standing because it delivers a big game bullet weight at long distances with mild recoil. As a boy and young hunter in the 1960’s,I read many of the articles Professor Jack O’Connor had written for Outdoor Life magazine, about the .270 Winchester and his beloved mild recoiling 130 grain bullet hand loaded with IMR 4350 or H4831 on deer, bear and moose. As I recall velocities at the muzzle were 3100 fps or even 3200 fps.
After all is said and done, Jack, I recall, always reiterated that shot placement was key. That meant that the hunter was capable, under rifle recoil, of placing the bullet in the so called “boiler room” of the lungs often clipping the heart in the process.
Part of Jack’s art of story telling, imbedded that threaded thought of less recoil to increase accuracy. And that stuck in my mind as it did for thousands of hunters.
My first purchased rifle was a used Savage .270. It was a great rifle. I killed my first 8 point buck with it in Southern NH back in 1975 and I hand loaded the bullets recalling they were Sierra 150 grain bullets loaded with IMR 4350 and traveling modestly around 2720fps out of the muzzle. I sold the .270 Winchester rifle years ago for a new Compound Bow instead. Yes, I have a life long love affair with recurves and compound bows too. Another Story!
Later I purchased a Ruger .338 Win Mag for a future African Hunt. I had trained myself to handle heavy recoil! And more recently, in 2012 bought the Ruger M77 African in .375 Ruger. I love it for really big game like big Bull Moose. Ok, I digress, back to the Creedmoor.
Today, my Weatherby Vanguard in 6.5 Creedmoor can shoot a hand loaded 160 grain bullet at muzzle velocities at 2635 fps and 150 grain bullets at the same velocity as when I hand loaded the .270 Win so many years ago. If Jack were alive today he would still love his .270 Winchester but acknowledge that shot placement was key.
Jack was a hunter, not a target shooter. But it was the target shooters that created the 6.5 Creedmoor because it had less recoil yet could still shoot accurately at distances out to 1000 yards and hit steel at 1500 yards, and not punish the shooter, taking multiple shots yet do so with hunting weight bullets of 130 and 142 grains just like the .270 Winchester.
I recall that Speer offered a .270 Win 170 grain round nose bullet but was later dropped as sales soared for long range spitzer bullets just as they are today.
The long range craze is still evident but I suggest common sense prevail and keep shots where the hunter is confident of a kill. Sure, practice at long range in different terrain but remember that your body adrenaline and excitement are not as present shooting targets. Someone said, run 100 yards as fast as you can then shoot, so you can mimic the adrenaline rush. As a young man, I often had adrenaline rushes just in expectation of seeing big game. I often think to myself, “love the adrenaline rush, but learn to control it too.”
Often missed by some hunters who buy a new rifle, is having a state-of-the-art recoil pad to absorb as much as 50% or more of the felt recoil.
Well, I believe today we have the .270 with a metric name instead, as the 6.8mm but with a different twist rate than the .270.
If I had a walnut stocked custom .270 Winchester from years ago, I would likely still have it and hunt with it and protect it as I do for the Creedmoor for its mild recoil and terrific delivered energy.
Good Shooting!
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