6.5 Creedmoor Proven: How Does It Actually Perform on Big Game?

[titsonritz]

Walter D.M. Bell has become a legend among elephant hunters due to his great success in the ivory trade during the golden age of hunting in East Africa. He is known as "Karamojo" Bell due to his numerous safaris through this remote wilderness area in North Eastern Uganda. He is famous for perfecting the brain shot on elephants, dissecting their skulls and making a careful study of the anatomy of the skull, so he could predict paths of bullet travel from a shot at any angle in order to reach the brain. Using mostly 6.5mm and 7mm caliber rifles, he was an advocate of shot placement over big bore power for killing efficiently.

Modern writers on the internet and in magazine articles have tended to refer to him and his tally of elephants in this vein, "He shot all of his several hundred elephants with a 7x57mm rifle" or words to that effect. In fact, Walter Bell killed 1,011 elephants in the course of his career.
W.D.M. Bell and His Elephants

 

[Stomper]

HTH did he manage to eat and digest that many elephants?!

 

[No_Regerts]

i prefer 308 for deer and 300win mag for elk though i wouldnt NOT shoot an elk with a 308 at a reasonable(to me) distance.

Chew on this for a second. Both 308 and 300 use the same bullets. The 308 carries energy at 350 yards using the same bullet as a 300 does at 500 yards. Numbers and experience suggest the 300 is a viable 500 yard elk cartridge......

So why isn't the 308 at least a 350 yard elk cartridge?

 

[Stomper]

 

[v0lcom13sn0w]

Chew on this for a second. Both 308 and 300 use the same bullets. The 308 carries energy at 350 yards using the same bullet as a 300 does at 500 yards. Numbers and experience suggest the 300 is a viable 500 yard elk cartridge......

So why isn't the 308 at least a 350 yard elk cartridge?

i would shoot at an elk with my 308 from 350. 350 aint that far!

 

[Flatfish]

If you look, it aint hard to figure out how it performs on game. Folks have had very similar cartridge performance for over a century now. Seeing how many critters those chamberings have taken, I see little reason to have concern.

Bullet selection between the new and trendy Creedmoor and the older military designs are a lot different. So long as you choose wisely, and place them well.