Question on caliber AVAILABILITY in crisis/SHTF.

I'm deciding on 308 vs 6.5CM for a crossover rifle; a Tikka CTR to be exact. The 6.5CM is clearly ballistically superior beyond 500yds, but I'm concerned that in a prolonged ammo crisis like we're experiencing, or a larger SHTF situation, 6.5CM just isn't going to be as available as 308. I'm not talking on the shelves—nothing will be on the shelf in SHTF—but among the population for trades, person-to-person purchases, etc. A friend of mine says that more people have 6.5CM in their safes than 308 now and it's a better SHTF round, but I have a hard time believing ten years of 6.5CM has erased 50+ years of 308 dominance.

This is a factor for me because for where I live and the distances I'll *regularly* be able to shoot at, the two cartridges are pretty much a tossup.

Thoughts?

6.5 creedmoore is here to stay. Calibers ebb and flow over time.  308/762 is not going anywhere in the near future but I see it going the way of 3006.

6.5CM is obviously popular now, and has been for a few years, but there is so much .308 out in circulation that it would be very hard to convince me that there is more Creedmore out there.  People have been stacking .308 deep for years and I'd guess that the only rifle ammo that's stocked up on more would be .223/5.56 and .22LR.

Get both and then you dont have to worry

Yeah it's this surplus ammo that's got me thinking. Hunters don't generally stash a ton of ammo anyway, but there's a lot of non-match 308 ammo laying around. None of that exists for 6.5.

Sure, even a precision bolt gun won't shoot surplus very well but it's better than nothing and should at least shoot as well as any other rifle!




That's the spirit!

I don't think the .mil has 6.5cm in their mini guns.

Dag is good stuff. Socked away a pretty good pile of it. That being said, 6.5 creed is all over the place. Nearly everyone in my area is a gun owner, and nearly every one I know of has one.

When the big runs on ammo happened with the shops local to me, both of the 6.5's G & C were still not moving, especially the Hornady bulk cans. Meanwhile, 308 got wiped out along with some AR10's because people caught on when there was no more 223 or 5.56 left. But as soon as 308 became wiped, that's when they finally caught on and wiped out both of the wonder 6.5's.

So with that said, I gauge caliber availability and popularity not by the internet but by what I am seeing in real life. YMMV of course.

This exactly 223/556, 308 and 9 go first along with 22lr and 45. Shortly thereafter 40cal, 10mm, and 762x39 started to disappear.

I still see 1 or 2 boxes of 6.5 along with other less common rounds but those are starting to get hit now as well. I think people are buying ammo for stuff they don't have now honestly.

It might be easier to get 6.5 right now but chances are 308 will pop up as there are billions of rounds stacked in basements around the country.

They are both pretty much sold out, but it took 6.5CM a lot longer to sell out with the panic. 6mm CM was in stock at Cabelas until I bought the last two boxes off of the shelf on my last visit. There were about 30 boxes on the shelf last weekend, so a few people must have bought a rifle just so they could get ammo, any ammo. 6.5 CM is easy mode for shooting. .308 will stick around for a long time. There are a lot of guns in that caliber and they are not going anywhere.

In a pinch, can you shoot 6.5 out of a 308? I know 243 and 7mm-08 can be.

Yes you can, all you need to do that is to swap barrels or make a dedicated upper in 6.5 so your '10 can shoot both.

That's crazy. No more possible than shooting 45 out of your 9mm.

Interesting thoughts. And interesting that all the standard military calibers went out of stock before 6.5CM.





Yeah this confirms my thoughts on surplus. Yeah it's not gonna beat match ammo, but it's better than nothing.