6.5 Creedmoor vs 6.5x55 Swede

Ok forum here’s the question. Is the new 6.5 creedmoor that much better than the 120 year old 6.5x55 Swede? I have two rifles in the 6.5 x 55, so is the creedmoor really worth buying since I have two 6.5’s already.

The only thing you'll get from the Creedmoor is the ability to load long bullets without encroaching on the powder space. You'll also get more ammo/reloading brass support. Otherwise, same/same. If Id have already had a sweede when I bought my creedmoor, I probably wouldn't have bought it.

If you already have 6.5x55, no need for the Creedmoor. I assume you have at least one Swedish Mauser with the fast twist that can handle long heavy bullets no problem. If you're going to get another 6.5, PRC would probably more worth your while as far as a performance upgrade. Which 6.5x55s do you have? I'd like to get a Husqvarna M38 and a Ljungman at some point.

I was a 6.5x55 long before the 6.5cm existed, so I too already have rifles for the Swedish version.

If you buy your ammo, a lot of 6.5 swede is downloaded for older rifles. If your mostly a typical 100 yard deer stand hunter that would be no big deal and might even be desirable.
If you buy your ammo, for 6.5 Swede there is a lot less variety of choices and you may have trouble finding it on a store shelf. 6.5cm has a great variety, available just about everywhere that sells ammo, and cheaper.
If you reload, you can probably do as much or more than you can with the 6.5cm. If you don't reload, the better hunting and target 6.5 Swede loads get expensive if you need something different than your typical 100 yard deer stand load.
6.5 Swede can't be used in a short action. 6.5cm is meant for a short action.
Accuracy, not enough difference for a shooter to care with comparable loads and gear.

I stick with my Swedes because I have them and happy with them. There is not enough benefit to change. But if I were a new hunter or starting over, I would buy the 6.5cm over ammo availability and cost. I think the popularity and availability of the two cartridges will. only fall further and further apart from each other over the coming years.

I have a Swede and it does what I need. Doubt that I would ever buy the Creedmoor

Another Swede owner here. No real need/interest in another 6.5, especially one that so closely mimics the Swede (with hand loads) in performance.

But, if someone interested in buying a new rifle were to ask me what I'd recommend, a 6.5 mm Creedmoor would be on the short list.

I think the real genius in the 6.5 Creedmoor is that it is originally specked with a fast twist barrel while the Swede cartridge is not. Other than that there's not a performance difference between the two assuming you hand load.

Most 6.5x55 rifles have a 1x7.87" twist rate in order to shoot the 156 grain original military load which is a hair faster twist rate than most 6.5 Creedmoors. 7x57 is also faster twist than say 7mm-08 for the same reason, and 6.5 Carcano with gain twist rifling ends up very fast, all because they're shooting very long heavy bullets. It's come full circle back to the 1890s. 7.5x55 is the same way, built around 174 grain bullet which is why it is outstanding at long range.

Genuis behind the Creedmoor is a little shorter case more efficient case for todays long ogive bullets to seat into, as well as marketing. I have said before there is very little difference between the 6.5 Ballistic Triplets for most people in actual use. You could make the case for the 6.5X47 to be added to that list as well.

I only have one Swede and it is an M70 and I thought that it had a 1/9.25 twist. Have had a few Mausers over the years but did not know that they had a fast twist barrel. Once 6.5x55 surplus ammo dried up I got rid of the rifles.

NO

That's it^^

In 1997, Remington released the .260 Remington. But then they did their norm. They failed to support it with good factory ammo, and failed to market it. Hornady did the exact opposite.

Hand loads:
.260 Rem, 140 gr, 2800 fps from a 24" barrel.
6.5 Creedmoor, 140 gr, 2800 fps from a 24" barrel.

The Creedmoor does it with a grain less powder.

6.5 X 47 is not typically going to make that 2800 fps. But, even if it's at 2720 fps, it's going to be an extremely consistent shooting round. I have had friends send me chronograph numbers. Five shot group, with an ES of 0 to 8 fps.

6.5 X 55, I have not loaded yet. I have the dies, and there will come a day someone drops one off for load development. It will get all the chances any rifle gets. And I have no doubt it will shoot consistent and be "plenty fast". Provided it is a well built rifle.

I'm honestly very surprised at the number of 65-55 rifles owned by you guys. I never heard of the cartridge (or just a passing note) before it was mentioned on this site. I grew up reading both NRA mags (hunting, shooting) in the 80s and 90s and a lot of other rags and books. Nary a mention, it was all 300WM, 7mag, '06, 308, big African mags, and similar. A few articles about 7x57.

Did it's popularity quietly rise sometime beginning in the mid 90s?

The Swede's been a staple for over a century, more so in Europe. Not sure how you missed it.

A modern 6.5x55 will outrun the 6.5 CM and 260 Rem rounds. Modern, meaning current rifles and pushing the round to it's max. I've already shot and loaded for a few, and it's a great round.

I get that, as it was a war cartridge dating waaaay back, and there were a ton of surplus rifles. But America was slow to adopt metric cartridges for a variety of reasons. Being in deer camps around TX it was always 270, '06, .243, 30-30 or even 12ga slug gun. I frequented gunshows and shops and don't ever remember seeing an American-produced hunting rifle in that caliber. I used to read ammo boxes for fun and don't remember any major mfg making it.

Just funny to me that I missed it and it seems (from the numbers here) to be quite a thing.

You didn't miss anything. 98% of the hunting public has missed it as well, at least for the last 20 years or so.

The 6.5X55 has been offered at times from several manufactures, Remington 700, Winchester M70, Sako, Tikka, Ruger M77, Howa Legacy to name a few. Not offered all the time but they are out there. Load any of those to their potential and they will beat the Creedmoor and 260 velocity wise. The original rifles for it were between what we call long and short actions and the length of it requires a long action. Built like that with proper throat you can seat the long high BC bullets out long to not intrude on its powder space which is more than the Creedmoor or 260.

If you plan to shoot factory ammunition there are more choices available for the creedmoor. If you handload, the creedmoor can not quite match the performance of 6.5x55 sweede. The creedmoor is a tiny bit more efficient but I’ve never heard any of my buddies sitting around the table at the deer camp get excited about leaving performance on the table in the name of efficiency. In my opinion they are both really good without enough difference to make either clearly superior.

How many camps, or hunts have you been on where a Swede was present? I can't remember a single one in 53 years.

I have not counted camps. Among old reloaders it has been well respected for a very long time. It was designed to shoot long heavy bullets before it was fashionable. You don’t hear much talk about sectional density on this forum. Penetration on big deer like Elk, Moose, and Caribou with out much recoil is what made the 6.5x55 so well respected among hunters in the know. That is why you see so many here that like the sweede. My comment about leaving performance on the table is universal to all hunting cartridges. It was not meant to be directed at a popularity contest. The sweede is a handloaders cartridge in the U.S.

Edit to add: the sweede was designed around 157 grain bullets, with a little faster twist than the creedmoor, in an action long enough to seat the bullet long. Before SAAMI got ahold of the specs they were proof tested to 73,000 psi.
You leave performance on the table when you step down to a 6.5 creedmoor.

A swede is the last rifle I still want. I have zero need for it...but I waunt it. I need to reduce some others.

I think there was a spike in interest in the late 90s/early 00s in military surplus between Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Enemy at the Gates etc. Milsurps became collectibles instead of sporterizing fodder. There are several good brands of rear sight scope mounts or in the case of the K31 the Swiss Products thumb groove mount that allow you to easily mount a scope without modifying the rifle which has also helped revitalize them. Some need scout scopes, but Kar98ks, Yugo M48s, Swedish M38s, K31s, and Lee Enfields can be used with regular scopes. There is nothing more fun than nailing a hog at 300 yards with a scout scoped M96 though. 6.5x55 ammo is relatively cheap online, less than 20$ a box which is better than a lot of more modern calibers. 6.5x55 was used in combat by some Finnish coastal infantry units in WWII, and also by the Swedish Army during the Congo Crisis where they were in some pretty tough stuff. If you loook up Swedish Army Congo pictures, you'll see them toting around Ljungman battle rifles as well as their Mauser sniper rifles which were still in service at the time.

Well it appears I started some very interesting comments on the old 6.5 calibers. Thank all you guys for the great input. As for buying a creedmoor, I think I’ll stick with the two 6.5x55 rifles I already own. An old 115 year old Swedish Mauser and a newer tikka T3 in the 6.5x55. Both of the rifles shoot very accurate and the Mauser has taken a few hog along the way.

I have, but I am sure I only noticed because I had one myself. And they were Winchesters. I never encountered another Remington. Winchester made some in the 90s. My Remington Classic was a single 1994 year. I did an even trade with a guy from Maine. My Rem 700 30 06 for his in 6.5x55. He decided his new rifle was not adequate for bear and I felt a 6.5x55 would be better for Texas whitetail. I did have a few friends who also had C&R FFLs like me who sportered Swedish Mausers into hunting rifles during the good old days of cheap imports. I still have swedish mausers in storage that I pulled out of the box only to inspect when I received them and have never opened them again. I once bought some civilian target M96 Mausers with altered stocks and the aftermarket sights removed as "u fix em"s at 4 for $100 from one of the importers. There were a lot of people building 6.5x55 sporters for hunting during those years.

Talking about twist, Both my Remington 700 and the Baikal in 6.5x55 are 1/8. And another issue from the past on 6.5x55 ammo and rifles design was that some American made ammo and brass was based off a 3006 case, .473. The swede case head is .480. Or something close to that. It may no longer be that way. I don't know. I have long since forgot which size case Remington cut their bolt face for, but in 1994 I bet it was for 3006 based American Brass for what was available and cost cutting. For my deer stand hunting, it would not have mattered anyway and I only used original surplus swedish ammo in my Sniper rifle. But for a serious reloader with a swede, it would be worth paying attention to it.

You just taught me to measure the bolt face if ever one comes my way.

Thank you.

One of my favorite 6.5s is another old military round 6.5X54MS. Not as powerful but also has a history of killing critters way beyond what many would consider it acceptable for today. Bell used a 6.5X54 for lots of elephants and it is about equal to the 30-30 in energy but long heavy for caliber military solids would reach what he needed to make the kills.

It will always amaze me how a military cartridge from 1891 can be Americanized into a short action and become the new great thing almost over night. It has always been there for the taking.

I think the creedmoor wins for ammo availability, that just makes it more practical. I just like the swedish mauser better. Don’t ask me why. I likes what i likes.

Ain’t a thing wrong with liking something just because. Most of the guns I have are “just because” purchases.

The 6.5 CM is the easy button. I’ve bought three of them (Ruger, Savage, Tikka), and all were ridiculously accurate with factory ammo. And I am 100% certain I could go find a box of ammo locally within 20 minutes if I needed to. For those that don’t handload, ammo availability would be high on the list of must haves.

The first one I saw (made me want one) was a sporterized Swedish Mauser in a Bell and Carlson stock. I love those rifles. Sniper John’s comments about having some still in the box makes me want one all over again…

Like the others have said, the 6.5 CM won't give you anything over what you have. If you really like 6.5s, add a 6.5 PRC in the mix. Alternately, use the brass you already have to fireform and get about the same performance out of the 6.5x55mm Bob Jourdan Ackley Improved (BJAI).

^100% agree.

I only know one guy that shoots one. Very, very casual hunter. He’s the only guy I know who has one.


Everyone and their cousin now has a 6.5 cm.

People finally figured out you don’t need much horsepower as originally thought to kill a whitetail. Even the tried and true .270 is much more than needed when you get down to it.

The 6.5 cm fills a good gap between .243/.257 Robert’s and a .270/.308/.30-06.

Honestly I’m shocked that the .25-06 didn’t garner much more attention, but then again, it’s a Remington round so not all that surprising

264 Win Mag...6.5 in a 7 mag case...smokes em.all!

Actually the 7mm Remington mag is a 7mm bullet in a 264 Winchester case since all Remington did was expand the mouth .02 inches and call it a 7mm Remington Magnum and overtook the 264 Win Mag in sales very quickly.

Including the barrel!

Speed costs ..How fast you want to go?

I waunt them all

If all you're worried about is muzzle velocity.

and the 6.5 -300 wby makes the 264 WM anemic

I had never heard of the 6.5 x 55 at all before this site. But then again, I wasn't into hunting or even shooting at all really. That was 10-15 years ago.

The genius of the Hornady 6.5CM wasn't ballistics - it was support. The idea of long range precision shooting was so out of touch for most shooters 15 years ago. But Hornady came out with a round that was incredibly accurate with readily available factory ammo up to and beyond 1000 yards. It worked well for hunting or paper punching with available factory loads, and had very manageable recoil, and to top it off, it was an easy cartridge to reload for if a shooter later decided they wanted to get into reloading. Really smart overall approach by Hornady.

For folks that already reloaded and had been shooting for a hundred years, it didn't do a ton that other cartridges didn't already do. For folks new to the game or for hunters who wanted to get into long range without having to spend a fortune in time or money figuring it out, it was an absolute game-changer.

6.5CM smoked 2 big boars with ease this past week.

I started out with surplus Swedes more than 40 years ago; my brother still has the one I gave him. That said, the Creedmoor is just crazy simple to get to perform and it is so pleasant to shoot that your kids can shoot it -- and shoot it very well.