Hey everyone. Been considering a fast 6.5. I hunt a pipeline that can offer long shots. I have been looking at the 6.5-300 wby and nosler 26 for a much flatter shooting cartridge over my 270 or creedmoor. You don’t have time to dial typically so thinking that a real flat round would help provide quicker adjustments. Would love to hear from folks who own these and what they think.

I won a 5.6-300 Wby at an RMEF Dinner and sold it asap.
I've been told it's a race horse one of the fastest out there. Also been told it doesn't take a lot to burn up a barrel, ammo is expensive if you can find it and brass is hard to come by. Just repeating what people more knowledgeable than me have shared.
Good luck

I have the 6.5-300 Wby. In a Mark 5 Accumark. It is obnoxiously loud, and expensive to shoot if you don’t load your own. Mine will shoot .75” at 200 yds with handloads, and the Wby. Factory ammo will do 2” or so at 200. With all that being said, I do like it for what it is, and it does shoot flat, I like fast cars as novelty items too. Prepare for a barrel swap around 700 rounds, it won’t last long. I have taken Gemsbok, Whitetail, hogs, Barasingha, and a few other species, and they died just like they should have.

How long of a shot are you comfortable with? You may be better off using MPBR or simply holding with a mil or MOA reticle.

Learn to use a Mil or MOA scope, then you learn the term "flat shooting" is false. And it opens up so many more choices for you. Mil scopes are all that I own.

26 Nosler is an over bore, I would expect the 6.5-300 to be the same. Whole lot of powder under not enough bullet. Very high MV but does not shoot all that tight. The best thing to happen to the 26 Nosler was necking it up to 7mm and calling it the 28 Nosler. Loaded with a 195 gr Berger Elite Hunter and it is one of the most potent combinations we have available today.

How far are you wanting to be able to effectively kill a large animal?

I hunt on an ETX pipeline out to 600, not that I want to shoot that far. Deer cross quickly, not giving you a lot of time. I’ve taken deer at 390 and 350 range with 7mag in past. Had it zeroed at 300. I do have an athlon ares ffp on my 270 so I could learn to be better and faster at dialing. Thought maybe a fast 6.5 sighted at 300 would give faster holdover option. On these pipelines, you have just enough time to recognize deer, laser then get on him. My gun is already out window on bags and a shelf for rear support, to help get on them faster. Hmmm might consider a weekend trip after season for some dialing training, see how quickly I can get it down.

Not trying to start any sort of argument. Shooting ‘flat’ is a relative term. My 220 Swift sends a 55 gr bullet at 3850, and that’s pretty flat shooting. If on at 200, the drops are about 5” at 300, 15” at 400, and (going on memory) 35” at 500. So, that’s flat, but not really flat when you get out past 400 or so. If you want to shoot past 400, then dialing is your friend. I don’t know the ballistics on that Weatherby, but it won’t be hotter than my Swift though it will have a much better BC, so about 400 or less is probably your max hold-over distance for deer sized game. Personally, with my 270, I considered my real max range to be about 300 yards. And these days I dial for over 300 yards if there’s enough time, and if there isn’t time, I don’t shoot. Logic being that at 400 I can’t be precise enough with bullet placement and don’t want to track a poorly wounded deer. I will, however shoot a pig or coyote at 400 yards.

If you want to shoot ‘em at 500 yards or more, you need the scope and knowledge the long range guys on here can give you.

No dialing needed with mil or MOA.

You do not have to dial. You can still hold, but your holds are precise. I've killed more animals making a hold than dialing. Like you've said, you don't always have time to dial. Practicing it on my range, the fastest I've ran was 200 to 800 yards, hitting every hundred yards in 45 seconds.

My 7 Rem Mag



A customer's .308 Win



Look at the numbers, clearly the 7 Rem Mag does not drop as much as the .308 that is a 16" barrel. But it doesn't matter, go down the reticle the prescribed amount and squeeze the trigger.

Have you considered pre-ranging permanent objects, or placing markers? Big rocks, large pieces of a tree trunk, etc work well for markers you may need to place. Know the distance to these, and you'll know the range of your deer relative to the pre-ranged objects and you eliminate a step, saving several seconds that you can save for getting on your target. I have a similar set up on a high hill looking down onto a salt cedar, mesquite river bottom. I can see for miles and have done this out to about 500 yards that I dial for. Or, get the right reticle and eliminate two steps. Doing it this way, it takes no more time to make an ethical kill with one caliber over another as long as you've established DOPE.

And if you draw a picture of it, that is called a "Range Card".

I have been in other people's blinds before and drawn on the walls, and wrote down ranges. Those guys all thanked me for it.

Feeder, 120,south bank, 220, north bank 430, cover west, 210, Cedar east 330..........I spend a lot of time up there.

Here's a different cartridge and load. This is a 6.5 Creedmoor with a 140 gr, 2800 fps MV

200 yards .4
300 yards .8
400 yards 1.8
500 yards 2.6

Dialing is great and the most precise but not the fastest option. You can be within minute of deer chest vitals at distance with a good MIL or MOA reticle without dialing (not as exact but works).

Long range stands/places I hunt regularly the distances are marked or known before the deer steps out that way there is no time wasted ranging them.

Training from someone that does that is the way to go, learning it yourself can be done but takes longer and more ammo to get there. My longest shots on game are a bit over 500 yards using a 3X9 scope standard duplex. I got comfortable to 600 yards with that through burning lots time and ammo burned. I have the dial scopes now and they are a lot easier to be more exact with the shots.

The wind is the biggest challenge with long range, drop is constant the wine rarely ever is, though on a pipeline through the wood the trees do subdue it some.

Yep make a range card. It’s a life saver

How much point blank range can you gain with a super fast bullet like that? I love new guns so don’t miss understand me. There usually is not enough time to dial but investing a scope with a good reticle and learning your holds will get you way further down the road than a faster bullet.

Yep, I've had one on my 25-06 for years, its never wrong.

Appreciate all the insight. I will plan to visit you after season J.G. for some instruction. I’ll look up your website and reach out in advance, so I can make I have everything needed for training. I’m sure I will learn a ton. You contribute a lot to this forum so you are the one I want to learn more from.

I've got four different Mil/Mil scopes you can borrow. As long as your rifle has a 20 MOA picatinny rail on the action, it is 5 minutes to move a scope to your rifle, bore sight and zero. A whole lot of the day is learning how to make these scopes do everything they are capable of. Once you learn how easy it is to zero, then dial and hold elevation and wind most everyone is a solid believer.

After that, it is no guessing. Laser something, make the corrections and hit it.

As was said before, wind holds is the trick. And getting good at reading wind and then properly correcting for it just takes lots of rounds fired. Practice, practice, practice when it comes to dealing with wind.

@exoticbob


def. invest in a good MIL scope.
talk to J.G. before you buy... he can let you know good ones & so-so ones (as my buddy found out recently, LOL)
he can also provide valuable insight on ammo selection.

you wont be disappointed in J.G.'s instruction.
we were just up at his place recently, it is well worth the time

i'm sold on MIL scopes now. i will be selling off a few scopes to obtain another good MIL scope & just move it around as needed.


pre-ranging as suggested above will certainly give you the needed edge to get on target quicker.

I have an athlon ares btr ffp mil. It’s been a good scope so far but it’s never gone thru a bunch of dialing. I did track tests and that was good. Told my wife today to get me a shooting day with JG for my Christmas gift this year. Looking forward to it.

Thank you sir!

I will absolutely second the recommendation to attend JG's class-- absolute game changer.

But-- as far as a rifle for east Texas pipeline deer-- I think you will hate the cost and scarcity of 26N and 6.5x300 ammo-- so go buy a .257bee!!

But seriously-- If you have a 7mag and a 270win, instead of buying a new rifle I would spend the money on damn good ammo and explore different bullet options-- again- refer to JG--(NOTE: he does love heavy for caliber bullets)-- but I have no doubt he could get a 7mag with a 140 class bullet moving extremely fast and flat (at least for the first few hundred yards) and the same with the 270.

Get 200 cases- have JG work you up a load and then go shoot em and learn that rifle inside and out to 800 yards!!

I'd seriously consider Hammer Bullets-- very accurate out of my 7saum and the light for caliber options will give you laser beam trajectories and great penetration because they are a Mono.

Examples:
257wby, 92gr Hammer Hunter guys are seeing 3600-3800fps
270win, 117gr Hammer Hunter (only 10% lighter than normal factory ammo), guys are seeing 3300+fps
7 Rem Mag, 143gr Hammer Hunter, 3200+ fps

If you can accept +or- 4” for max pbr, the 6.5-300 is every bit of 400 yards max pbr with less wind drift than almost anything else out there, except for a few super mag .338’s and etc. But the guys on here that know better have told me it’s not accurate enough to play that game, highest and lowest impacts well over/under 4” from poi

I’m definitely not experienced by any means but I’ve been intrigued by 6.5-300 from the start, i geeked out over it and I still want one. Have asked and posted about it a lot. I bet you could coax the most and best out of it with careful hand loading but it might take a lot of trial and error.

Still if I could have any one this would be it!