I will be getting a new hunting rifle this year and have been going back and forth between the 6.5 cm and 7mm-08. I normally hunt Midwest white tail. I would love your opinion on which round is better.
In my experience both are great calibers for whitetail. They really do overlap ballistically very closely. I think the 7mm -08 has an slight edge on larger game. The 7mm will have a little bit more frontal diameter, the 6.5 is a little more efficient with slightly less recoil. Honestly it’s so close though I don’t believe you or the deer will know the difference. My advice would be to find a rifle you really like and let the available chamberings make the decision for you. Almost all new factory rifles are chambered for the 6.5 creed and less so in 7mm-08. Jim has done a bunch of rifle comparison videos at different price points and I have found them to very accurate reviews. I don’t believe you can make a wrong choice between the two for caliber so focus instead on getting the best rifle and optic combo your budget will allow and have fun!
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I only have my own data to back it up but there is lots out there. I have a 6.5cm that makes ragged holes at 100. I was at a local sight in service the gun club uses for a fund raiser. The bench guy was all why have a 6.5, and on and on. First two shots he says I don’t see your second hole. Third shot touched those. I calmly said that is why I own a 6.5 cm. He had to agree.
Now having said this I still hunt with my 300 WM for blacktails which are smaller than whitetails by a fair margin. But a well placed shot is just that and I use barnes coppers so no explosion of lead into
meat if I am off a bit. Sure there is meat loss but that happens with most any caliber. I have also killed deer with 280 Rem which is a big bro to 7mm-08. Love that gun - stainless Ruger M77 with a 20 in barrel.
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I lot is going to come down to what you value. In most cases they are about the same but you’re going to gain about an extra 100fps with a 140 grain 7mm-08 cartridge over the 6.5CM. If elk is a possibility the 7mm-08 would at least make you legal in Eastern states assuming that you don’t want to buy a lot of different rifles. Neither would be my first choice on elk but the 6.5CM isn’t one at all for in in many Eastern states.
Factory loadings are going to be more readily available for the 6.5 right now. For handloaders there’s a wider selection of 7mm bullets. There are folks that will go up to a 160gr class bullet in a 7mm-08 and get a bullet in the 2550-2650fps range. With the 6.5 CM you’ll top out in a 150 gr class bullet… and those bullets are better left to a larger cartridge case with either.
Personally I chose the 7mm-08 but I do have 6mm CM for my switch barrel build… and honestly the 25 CM is an ideal competition/thin skinned game crossover cartridge IMO.
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7mm08 for me. It’s a great round and better for a little bigger animals if pressed into service because it’s what you have in your hand.
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This is excellent advice and exactly how I ended up with my Tikka CTR in 6.5 CM–it was the caliber that was available in the package that I wanted–stainless steel, threaded, 20" barrel… I picked based on the most important attributes for me. Originally, I was thinking I would aim for a .308 or 7mm-08 for this rifle, but I got what I got based on what I could obtain at the time. It is now my favorite rifle that I own. Not because of caliber but just because I stuck to the attributes that mattered most to me.