6.5 Creedmoor vs 270: From the Firing Line to the Tree Stand (2025)

In 2007, Hornady took the competitive long-range shooting community by storm with the release of the 6.5 Creedmoor. The cartridge has since grown into a household name (within households belonging to members of the shooting community, at least).

The 6.5 Creedmoor won plenty of praise on the competitive firing line immediately after its introduction. It only makes sense that shooters would also want to leverage the round’s famously flat trajectory and low recoil for hunting.

Now that it has become popular for taking large game, the 6.5 Creedmoor is often compared to one of the other great non-.30 caliber hunting cartridges: the 270 Winchester.

Does a competition round like the 6.5 Creedmoor offer any real advantages over the 270 Win, which has proved its worth in the woods time and time again for over a century? Let’s evaluate the 6.5 Creedmoor vs. 270 Win debate so you can understand the differences between the two rounds, and know which is better for your target shooting and/or big game hunting needs.

Cartridge Specs

When evaluating two cartridges, it’s good to gain more knowledge of each by analyzing their physical specifications.

The 270 Winchester (270 Win) received almost instant commercial success upon its release in 1925. The 270 was developed using the 30-06 as a parent case, which was necked down to accept a 0.277″ (7mm, nominally) diameter bullet.

The 6.5 Creedmoor was released in 2007 and quickly became extremely popular in long-range competitive shooting circles. The 6.5 Creedmoor was developed following a gripe session between legendary Service Rifle competitor Dennis DeMille and Dave Emary, senior ballistician for Hornady at the time.

The 6.5 Creedmoor was developed by necking down a 30 Thompson Center case to accept a 0.264″ (6.5mm, nominally) diameter bullet. It was conceived as a long-range target shooting round, but soon became popular among deer hunters for its accuracy, manageable recoil, and undeniably downrange stopping power.

The 6.5 Creedmoor is also called “6.5 CM” or “6.5 Creed.” The latter half of its name is often misspelled as “Creedmore.”

If you place these two rounds next to one another, their size difference becomes obvious at once. The 270 Win has an overall length of 3.34″: more than 0.5″ longer than the 6.5 CM’s 2.825″. The 270’s case is also longer: 2.54″, as opposed to 1.92″ for the 6.5 CM.

Their difference in overall length means the 6.5 CM can fit into a short-action rifle, which is lighter and has a shorter bolt throw. In contrast, the larger 270 Win requires a long action just like the 30-06 Springfield it’s descended from.

Case capacity for the 270 measures 67 grains H₂O. For the 6.5 Creedmoor, it’s 52.5 grains H₂O. In other words, the 270 Win’s larger case has capacity for approximately 15% more powder than the 6.5 Creed. Both rounds have similar maximum pressures per SAAMI specs. The 270 is rated to handle chamber pressures up to 65,000 psi: 4.8% higher than the 6.5 CM at 62,000 psi.

The biggest difference between these rounds are the bullets they fire.

The 270 Win fires wider 0.277″ diameter bullets. Bullet weights for the 270 range between 85 and 180 grains, with 130, 140, and 150 grain projectiles being most popular.

The 6.5 Creedmoor fires a 0.264″ diameter bullet. Its bullets can weigh between 95 and 160 grains, with 120, 130, and 140 grain bullets being most common.

How do these differences in cartridge specification bear on real-world performance? Let’s find out, starting with recoil.

Recoil

Recoil is an important consideration when purchasing a new rifle, as a round with heavy recoil will be more difficult to control and slow your rate of accurate follow-up shots. The potential for flinching is also an issue with cartridges that have heavy recoil.

Felt recoil differs from shooter to shooter, and is dependent on firearm choice, stance, and ammo. Free recoil, on the other hand, is a purely objective measure of how hard a cartridge recoils. It is determined by muzzle velocity, firearm weight, powder charge weight, and bullet weight.

The 6.5 Creedmoor commonly fires a 143 grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,700 fps; the 270 Winchester, a 145 grain bullet and 2,970 fps muzzle velocity. When both of these examples are fired in 6.5-pound Winchester Model 70 Featherweight rifles, the 6.5 CM generates 17.19 ft-lbs of free recoil; the 270 Win, 26.01 ft-lbs. This means the 6.5 Creedmoor has around 50% less recoil than the 270 when loaded with bullets of similar weights.

Its low recoil is a major reason why the 6.5 Creedmoor has been so successful in the long-range target shooting community. It doesn’t precede its flat, accurate trajectory with a powerful kick to the shoulder.

Are those ballistics superior to the 270 Winchester? In the next section, we will compare Hornady 6.5 Creedmoor ballistics to the 270 to see who comes out on top.

Muzzle Velocity, Kinetic Energy, and Trajectory

There’s a lot of hype surrounding the long-range capabilities of the 6.5 Creedmoor – but can the newer cartridge really outperform the 270 Win? Let’s find out by comparing different cartridges. I selected Hornady Superformance 129 grain SST and Hornady Precision Hunter 143 grain ELD-X to represent the 6.5 Creedmoor. For the 270 Winchester, I selected the Hornady Precision Hunter 145 grain ELD-X and Nosler 150 grain AccuBond LR factory loads.

Although a 1,000-yard shot is not typical (or advisable) for big game hunting, it is included in the ballistics table to display the long-range capabilities of these cartridges.

The 143 grain ELD-X 6.5 Creedmoor has the lowest muzzle velocity at 2,700 fps.

Both 270 Win cartridges and the 6.5 CM 130 grain SST load were roughly equivalent in terms of muzzle velocity, being separated by just over 100 fps. Impressively, all four factory loads remained supersonic at 1,000 yards.

The 270 dominates in terms of muzzle energy, holding an advantage of around 300 ft-lbs over both 6.5 Creedmoor rounds. The 270 Win 145 grain ELD-X had the highest muzzle energy at 2,840 ft-lbs, followed closely by the 150 grain AccuBond LR at 2,705 ft-lbs. Both 6.5 Creedmoor loads achieved muzzle energy below 2,500 ft-lbs.

The 150 grain AccuBond LR conserves the most kinetic energy downrange: 830 ft-lbs at 1,000 yards. The 143 grain ELD-X and 145 grain ELD-X came close at around 700 ft-lbs.

Of the four factory loads analyzed, the 270 Win 145 grain ELD-X showed the flattest trajectory. Both 270 Win loads’ bullets shared nearly the same elevation at 1,000 yards.

As much as shooters hype up the 6.5 Creedmoor for its trajectory, the 270 Win had less bullet drop than it at all ranges.

There’s no denying the 270 Win and 6.5 Creedmoor have impressive ballistics. All four examples exhibited impressively flat trajectories, but the 270 Win outshone its competitor thanks to its similarly heavy bullets and significantly higher muzzle velocities.

For these reasons, the 270 Winchester is also the better choice when higher striking power is desired.

This begs the question: Why is the 6.5 Creedmoor so popular? If the 270 Win has higher case capacity, then why don’t we see it flooding the firing lines at F-Class long-range target shooting competitions instead?

The answers to those questions lie in barrel and bullet selection.

Twist Rate and Bullet Selection

Two major upsides of the 6.5 Creedmoor are its barrel’s faster twist rate and wide selection of bullets. Twist rate plays a huge role in which bullet weights a barrel can stabilize. Heavier bullets typically require faster twist rates, whereas lighter bullets prefer slower twist rates. (For reference, a barrel’s twist rate is expressed as 1:X”, where X equals the number of inches a bullet must travel in order to complete one full rotation.)

The 6.5 Creedmoor is designed to fire long, heavy, ballistically efficient 0.264″ diameter bullets. Such bullets require a faster rate of twist to stabilize properly, hence the 6.5 Creedmoor barrel’s standard 1:8″ twist rate.

Continue Reading 6.5 Creedmoor vs 270: From the Firing Line to the Tree Stand here

Source: https://freedombunker.com/2025/05/07/6-5-creedmoor-vs-270/