"What Would You Do"....Not sure why I am being indecisive on this but as a piggy back onto another thread I wanted to get some opinions from you guys. I currently have .308, 7-08, .243, and .223 bolt guns. I'm going to get a couple customs built by APR and will probably order them this week.

I'm trying to pick my first two calibers....out of 7-08, 6.5 CM, and .243 which two would you guys choose? I was leaning towards 7-08 and .243 but now thinking about 7-08 and 6.5 CM. Are those two too close in caliber size/ballistics to justify having both? I only shoot factory ammo, will probably get 16-18" barrels, only shoot suppressed, and will be for deer/hog hunting mostly. As a consideration I have a little boy who will be old enough to hunt in a few years and was thinking the .243 would be better for him but he could always use the 6.5. I'll be selling two of my current guns because I won't need duplicates.

Decisions, decisions.....would love your input. Thanks

Yes, yes, and/or yes!!! You can not go wrong with either of those 3 choices. I would lean to the 7 and 6.5. I'm not a 6mm fan, but for youngsters it works well.

in a similiar boat. Thinking about an 18-20in rifle (not going to do semi custom). May have to 6.5 just because 7mm-08 get no love lately.

Wish rpr had a 20 in 7mm-08

Since you don't have a 6.5, I would get one.

I should have said I'll sell the duplicate of whatever gun I get.

I would do a 6.5 and the 7-08 out o those options for sure. Anything robert and those guys build will shoot great so your good to go there. Do you reload or will you be shooting factory stuff? If your shooting factory stuff the creedmore is a no brainer. Lots of great factory long range loads for that thing.

Yup. 16" 6.5 is the perfect Texas hunting rifle. Anyone that says otherwise is misinformed.

I shoot a 243, 6.5 Creed, 260, and a couple of 7x57's, all very similar to what you are talking about here.

If you were a reloader, I would say the 243 and 7-08 for sure. Simply because if you got them twisted fast, there really isn't anything you couldn't do with those two, but yet one is lighter end of the scale and one is heavier, as far as bullet weight goes.

243 with light bullets is one heck of a coyote/varmint rifle. With managed recoil loads even a pretty young kid can shoot it just fine. With 90-100 grain bullets it makes a good deer/hog rifle. With an 8 twist and 105+ VLD style bullets it can be a pretty good long range rig, I just don't know how available those type loads (105+ LR bullets) would be in factory ammo. Any of the other loads will be readily available. 20" is getting pretty short for a 243, mine is cut to 21" for calling coyotes (suppressed), and that is about as short as I felt comfortable with since 243 is moderately over-bore.

I love my 6.5 Creedmoor, and if you were saying only one, then I would probably get it. Tons of factory loads to do anything you would ever want to with it, from light bullets to competitive LR match loads, and anything in between. Real pleasant to shoot. Excellent all around choice. My Creedmoor is cut to 22", but it is primarily a LR rifle.

The 7-08 does have the bullet weight advantage over the other two though. If big pigs or heavier exotics might be on the bill someday, that extra bullet weight would be an advantage. The 7-08 made its name with lighter bullets in the 120-140 range. However, with a faster twist, you can step up into some heavy SGK's or Partitions. Heavy 7mm bullets have a reputation for digging deep when they need to. Plus, there are some really nice LR bullets appropriate for the 7-08. Look at the ballistics for the 162 ELD pushed at 7-08 speeds, and you will see it doesn't take a back seat to the 6.5 Creedmoor at distance either. Being slightly less overbore than either of the other two, you can probably get away with a little shorter barrel on this one.

I'm no expert, but that is the way my thought process would work. You can't really go wrong with any of them quite honestly.

Great info, JP. I was just concerned that 7-08 and 6.5 CM are too close in size to justify having both. I don't reload and never will so it looks like the CM ammo I would shoot is the 129 gr SST and the 7-08 ammo I like are 140 gr Winchester Ballistic Tips.

Maybe I'll keep the 243 for now and still get the 7-08 and 6.5CM in different style rifles and sell my current 7-08.

I really want 16.5-18" barrels and it seems the 243 won't perform well in that short of a barrel.

I think my ultimate goal would be to have three nice custom bolt guns out of the following 5 calibers.... .308, 7-08, 6.5, .243, and .223.

You can always get Chad to do your loads, might as well shoot the best with a custom gun. P_102

Since you're not a hand loader, 6.5 Creedmoor is the answer.

I agree with JTP, that the 7-08 does not take a back seat to a 6.5 Creedmoor in distance shooting. I've got both, and love both, but I hand load for each, so I can extract all the performance out of them.

Since you want to run them suppressed, I'd do 308, for multiple options in factory ammo and a heavier bullet. 6.5 Creedmoor for good factory ammo and light recoil for your son. And 223 or 22-250, twisted fast, for the last custom.

I know this isn't the question but if you are going to build two why build two with such similar performance? I'd go with a 6.5 CM and a 300mag or 7mag.

Get all 3 and don't sell anything! "Man can't have too many guns"


You can thank me later.......

Biggest animal I've ever hunted is deer so I don't need something that big. My Dad has a 300 WinMag that I can use if I ever need something bigger.

But your point is the reason I'm second guessing 7-08 and 6.5...they seem too close. Like I said, I'll probably keep my .243 as I really like that caliber.

I think you need your first long action caliber. I'd go 280 rem/280ai and 6.5 cm.

Definitely the creedmoor or 7-08. I lean towards the 6.5 given the factory ammo offerings. The new Hornady Precision Hunter 143 ELD-X is deadly medicine in the creedmoor.

Honestly, if you are shooting deer with factory ammo, at ranges out to 300 yards, there really isn't much practical difference in any of those original 3 cartridges you mentioned (or a whole slew of others, for that matter). 243 is a little lighter, but can still get the job done plenty good. Trying to pick a "better" one out of those, is really academic. Especially between the 6.5 and 7mm.

Now, if you want to get down to 3 of the 5 on that last list you posted, IMO that is much easier. To me, the no-brainer there is the 223. It is kind of the oddball of the bunch, quite a bit smaller and different than the rest. A good little 223 is really fun (and cheap) to shoot for practice. You can throw little light explosive bullets that don't bounce much and are lots safer to shoot out calling coyotes around cattle, things like that. Let the kids shoot skunks, jackrabbits, and other varmints with it. And if I were getting a 223, I would have it in a really nice light, compact rifle like the CZ-527. Chop it to 18" or even 16", and roll. Something like this:



Next I would get the 6.5 Creedmoor because it is middle ground, tons of great factory ammo, and a real dream to shoot. Then I would finish it up with a 308 just to have the good heavy bullet capbility, and once again, tons of ammo choices and availability. 308 does just fine with a barrel cut down to 18" too. Or you could go the .243 and 7mm-08 combo, if you wanted to be a little lighter, but still have some diversity in rifles.