John Taffin is rolling over in his grave saying "tell
everybody all those 6.5 Creedmoors didn't come from me!!".
There seems to be a love-hate relationship with the 6.5 CM
During the Plandemic, it seemed that the 6.5 CM was the most available round. I believe that is a big reason why a number of people jumped on the wagon for that round. The other was that some writers pumped it up as better than sliced bread.
It shows the power of marketing, the .260 Remington
the exactly the same, only minor physical differences, not attributed to any performance gains. A good idea, an "American" 6.5x55 er 52mm I guess. I'm a 7mm-08 man myself but the animals won't know the difference.
The idea of shooting animals to the distance the round drops below supersonic is insane. You really don't have business shooting anything alive 800-1000 yards except targets, it's sniping. There are many calibers that go a long ways before going sonic.
The fanciful and memorable name "Creedmore" was artfully used to brand the cartridge. 6.5 sounds more exotic than .264 or .260 as well. The .264 Winchester Magnum is simply the same as the 7mm Mag. with the slightly smaller diameter bullet. It shoots the 6.5 faster so it must be better?! Marketing. It sure was a great way to get rid of a bunch of .30 TC brass.
Personally I think the 280 Ackley improved
Is about the right balance. The belted mags and the PRC burn a lot more powder for a smaller return on velocity. I had a Browning Safari Grade in 7 win mag for a while. It shot well and I enjoyed it but it burned through some power.
The Ackley improved rounds are great, but no one
talks about the actual feeding of them. In a bolt gun, you can make it feed the original round (.280 Remington) or the Improved round smoothly, but not both. It will be a bit of a compromise. I have a 6mm AI on a M98 that was originally 8X57 (the 6mm is actually a 6x57mm), it feeds 6mm slick but AI a little rough. If I modded it to feed AI slick, it might allow the Remington rounds to pop out of the feed rails too early.I do need to go back and mirror polish the frame feed rails. I'm horrified to mess with them to any real extent. It would be welding and re-shaping to put it back.
At least I've not found a modern age 'Smith that knew anything of it, much less had experience. Delicate work from a by-gone era.
There are enough 280AI being built today
That would not be a problem
Yes, real sleepers in the hunting world.
You can see how my more stubby 6 AI has all the taper iron out from original. Feed rails will handle one or the other best, lots of scratching in between, for bolt actions anyway.
![[image]](images/uploaded/2026031217220169b2f63931418.jpg)