[IthacaDS]

I have seen that a lot of long range shooters are moving towards the 6.5 caliber and was wondering the pros and cons. Plus, would the 6.5x47 lapua be a decent deer/coyote caliber?

 

[shane256]

From the information, it should be fine. However, you may need to be a reloader to do much with it. The .260 Remington (which I have) and the 6.5x55SE are both very good deer rifles and also work well at fairly long ranges and factory ammo isn't too terribly hard to come by. Also, for the .260, you can simply neck any of the other .308 brass to fit (.243, 7mm-08, .308) if you're a reloader so there should be no problems getting your hands on brass.

 

[broom_jm]

You might find some interesting reading on 6.5mm cartridges, here:

http://demigodllc.com/articles/6.5-shootout-260-6.5x47-6.5-creedmoor/?p=1

The 6.5 Lapua is completely adequate for coyote at any reasonable range and deer out to probably 300 yards. If you handload, it's a great cartridge; if not, save yourself a lot of money and get its ballistic twin, the 260 Remington. The 264WM, while a fine cartridge, take a lot more powder, and makes a lot more noise, to accomplish the same things, albeit at increased ranges. Personally, if I needed "more gun" than a 260 Remington, I would step up in caliber, not case length or pressure.

 

[Colohunter]

The Zak Smith articles are very good info on the subject. As mentioned above you will really really have to look into ammo cost and/or component cost if you reload. You can find ammo from Remington in the 260 as well as Black Hills, Corbon, Federal, HSM and Nosler (according to midwayusa).

As far as I am aware the 6.5x47 is only available from Lapua. Very high quality, but prices are about $55-59.00/20 (again on midway). Of course once you had the brass the bullets would be the same and they would be virtually the same cost to reload.

 

[264WM]

If you want 6.5 then the 264 WM is the one that has it all and reloading will give you a good slection of bullets from 85 gr to 165gr with a flat shooting long range round that is able to reach 3800fps with the 85 and 95 gr bullets.