I’ve gotten several questions over the past year or so about the 6.5 Creedmore. I guess it is time to lay down a definitive answer.

Should I buy a Creed for deer hunting?

The answer to this is maybe. I’ll try and explain.

What is the 6.5 Creedmore? It is a reworking of the 6.5X55 Swede. It is ballistically identical. You can read nearly everything about a 6.5X55 Swede and apply it to the 6.5 Creedmore. It has been around since the late 19th Century, most notably in the model 96 Mauser. The Swedes have been dropping Moose with it for over a hundred years. Here in the states, it was always an insider’s round. The new incarnation got all kinds of hoopla because of the long-distance craze that started a while back. Folks were looking for an out-of-the-box solution that would provide accuracy at long distances.

So why hop on the Creedmore bandwagon?

I can see a lot of good reasons.

1) Everybody is making rifles chambered in it.
2) Everyone is making ammo for it (if you can find it)
3) It’s got a lot of buzz going, so there is a lot of stuff being written about the chambering

Is it as inherently accurate as folks say?

To answer the question, you have to look at what is being said when you use that term. I put a well-known outdoor writer’s feet to the fire on this, and he said that in the Creed’s case it meant that everyone from the rifle manufacturers to the ammo manufacturers had all teamed up to produce a rifle/round combination that had the best out-of-the-box accuracy ever. I can believe that. Is there a difference between the Creed and other, similar rounds? Not inherently so. What I mean to say is that 6.5X55 Swede or 7mm-08 or for that matter 30-06 can be made to shoot accurately at long distances. It takes someone who knows what they’re doing to match the right load to the right chamber configuration, the right bullet choice and all the rest of it. With the Creed, all that work was done collaboratively with the various players. However, that is a bit of a cheat. Real inherent accuracy, that is where a given chambering has some special qualities that make it more inherently accurate than another chambering is a much-discussed topic going back into the dark ages. The truth is that if you work on it long enough and hard enough any chambering can be made accurate. In the case of 6.5X55 Swede versus 6.5 Creedmore, you’re dealing with over a hundred years’ worth of changes in metallurgy, and generations of use and abuse on old Swedish Mauser actions.

Just before I get off the inherent accuracy point, let me discuss the opposite (inherent inaccuracy). The 270 Winchester acquired that albatross reputation a number of decades ago. The point was that 270 Winchester was great for hunting, but it could never be made into a decent long-distance competition round. As much as I loathe 270 Winchester (for purely illogical and emotional reasons) I know this is false hearsay. The problem with 270 Winchester is that rifle manufacturers and ammo manufacturers never got together and conspired to make a 270 WIN rifle anything but a good hunting platform. Nobody demanded tighter tolerances. There is nothing about the parent case or the 6.8mm bullet that makes it so.

So should I buy a 6.5 Creed deer rifle?

Look, the 6.5 Creed is a great round. Is it the best for whitetail deer? I’d say not. It answers the wrong questions. Mind you, I am not saying it does not kill deer. Just stick with me a bit.

When you start looking at what supposedly makes the 6.5 Creed superior, folks start touting ballistics out beyond 300 yards. My longest shot at a whitetail was 185 yards. More than half of my shots at deer have been inside of 80 yards. Inside 300 yards a larger round like the 7mm-08 offers more flexibility. It also lets you dump more energy into the deer. Look at measurements like Point Blank Range. Is the difference between a 6.5 Creed and other rounds have any substantial difference? Not really. How about accuracy? Nowadays even a moderately priced rifle like a Ruger American or Mossberg Patriot or the TC Compass I just bought will give you out-of-the-box sub-1 MOA accuracy. Inside 200 Yards, what would halving that number do? Not a whit. At our camp, 30-06 is still the overwhelming favorite. I doubt that will change.

So is the 6.5 Creed a flash in the pan?

No. It is probably here to stay. It is not going to be a craze like the WSSSSSSSM thing. You’ll probably be seeing ammo readily available for decades to come. The 6.5X55 was always an excellent performer albeit in a boutique package. The 6.5 Creed just took the concept and made it more standardized and mainstream. It is probably not going to unseat the 30-06, but it could become a reasonable alternative for the 270 Winchester and certainly the 260 Remington.

The bottom line: I am a hunter that shoots and not the other way around. I picked the 7mm-08 last year for that reason and the fact that by reloading I can get more flexibility out of the round than I can with 6.5 Creedmore. On the other hand, if I had been limited to factory ammo and I did more shooting at longer distances, I might have picked the Creed. Honestly, I doubt a buck at 200 yards would notice the difference.

Last Word on 44 Magnum

It is a weird segue to go from 6.5 Creedmore to 44 Magnum, but discussing inherent accuracy vs. inaccuracy made me think about it. I have stopped looking for a replacement for the 44 Magnum Carbine that ate itself last year. I’d thought about buying a lever or bolt gun to replace the Semi, but I finally caught myself and called off the search.

Yes, I really enjoyed taking a deer with Bob’s Model 44 carbine. However, I found out a couple of things. First of these is that I was dealing in a realm of ballistics that did not make sense for me. I thought it did at the time, but I got to rethinking. Here is what it comes down to. I always thought I “needed” a close-in deer gun– something for pussyfooting through cedar thickets or being up in the stand. Yes, a 44 Mag rifle covers all that. However, the first time I shot a buck with the Model 44, it was a shot that turned out to be a hair over 100 yards. Again, the Model 44 and the 44 Mag load did an adequate job. However, the next year, without the Model 44, I went out with the new 7mm-08 and it positively poleaxed a deer at 120 yards. My point here is why limit myself? The Model 44 was not buying me anything extra. I’ve got 2 ’30-’30s that mostly sit idle, and there is no major differences in performance between the two on deer inside 80 yards.

The other aspect of my decision was looking for a 44 Mag replacement. I could have an exact replacement for the Model 44 for maybe $900. I could get the Ruger Lever for maybe twice that. There are Ruger 96/44’s still being made for $800 or so. The point is this: why spend all that money for any of these when the accuracy on any of them is not all that great and the round starts to flag at 100 yards.

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