6.5 Creedmoor

Varmint Loads and Ballistics

- John Haviland

A lazy afternoon is best spent shooting ground squirrels with a 6.5 Creedmoor.

The 6.5 Creedmoor has seen a meteoric rise in popularity the last several years. The majority of that acceptance has been for long-range target shooting and big game hunting. However, there is every reason a Creedmoor rifle should spend at least part of its time in the field pursuing varmints from ground squirrels to coyotes and the occasional fox that comes to a call.

The selection is rather thin for true varmint bullets for the 6.5 Creedmoor. These representative bullets include (from left) the Nosler 90-grain Varmageddon, Hornady 95-grain V-MAX and Speer 90-grain TNT HP.

Selecting a 6.5mm bullet for this shooting means a trade-off. On the one hand, the much faster velocity of a relatively lightweight bullet supplies a flatter trajectory than a longer and heavier bullet carrying a higher ballistic coefficient (BC) fired at a slower speed. That flatter shooting bullet is a great benefit when a coyote comes to a call only to suspiciously halt, and you have only a couple of seconds to estimate range and shoot before it makes a U-turn to head out of the country. On the other hand, bullets carrying a higher BC slip through the air with wind deflection that can be as much as a third less at 500 yards and farther than lighter and faster bullets. That can spell the difference between a hit and miss on the prairie, where the wind only stops to change direction.