While I'm not real big on wildcatting I've been plotting a 6.5-06 for some time and this fall while hunting I picked up a 270 WSM casing that I found. In comparing it to other 6.5 rounds it appears to be very close in capacity of the 6.5 Rem Mag and larger than the 6.5-.284.

This seems to offer the possibility of .264 Win Mag performance from a short action.....and my M-70 in .260 remington is exactly ripe for such scrutiny.
I suspect there's been a flurry of wildcatting on the WSM case and wonder if there's any experience here.
Any experience to be offered???

Vapodog-

I love my 6.5 WSM; I had it built when there was only .300 WSM brass available. Very accuate; haven't had an opportunity to chronograph it yet.

Check out www.shortmags.org

We/they have their own forum complete with loading information. That was what I was looking for, .264 Win Mag performance in a short action.

If you have any questions, let me know.

The thing about Short Mag. wildcats is that there are not many actions available for them except new ones. If you can get past that hurdle then ok.

There is the 6.5 X 68 Shuler It's no short cartridge though.

I am having doubts about my 260 as well. The 284 case will feed out of my 84M's magazine so....

I have a 6.5 SAUM project in the works at the moment with hopes and expectations of good long range accuracy and velocities beyond 3100 fps with 142 SMK's. Too soon to provide any meaningful feedback obviously but will post when I can on results.

I think either the SAUM or WSM cartridges will be excellent for the 6.5.

One thing to consider is your barrel. If that's a 20" bbl, the WSM case may not give you the increase you like. Even 22". The 260 is sucha a great round... but to each his own. If you dare to put a 25" tube on a 6.5 WSM it would scream, and maybe not so much flame throwing. And you could get insane velocities without high pressures, saving your chamber throat.

Have both a 6.5WSM and a .338WSM switch barrel rifle as does my hunting partner. Both of us had them built on Rem700 short actions (his is right-hand, mine left-hand). Hi Tech Custom of Colorado Springs, CO, did the work. Love the 6.5 and it has become my standard hunting gun.

I remember back in the day that the origional .264 Win. wore 26" bbls. and they got good Velocity. But some gunwriters dissed them for being too long and cumbersome so Win. blinked and put 24" bbls on them and that just made them into sub-calibre .270s. The origional name of the rifle they came chambered in was the Westener if memory serves me (not Whitetail swamp gun ) which to me pretty much denotes wide open spaces and long range shootin. I never understood that move. My brother owned one it was a 22" bbl custom gun with a douglas bbl on it. Man did that rifle ever have wicked muzzle blast! He shot the bbl out in a few hundred rounds. But he killed a pile of Deer and Moose with it in the meanwhile.
I guess what I'm trying to say in a long winded way is don't skimp on bbl length for your 6.5.

What's a good bbl length for a 260? I'm eyeballing the Rem Mtn Rifle in this caliber, and it comes with a 22" bbl. Is this sufficient for the 260? And, could this rifle be rechambered to the 6.5 WSM? I don't know enough about the Rem action to know if this is possible.

I have a 23.5" 6.5 WSM barrel, and I think it's a tad too short for optimum performance. If you wanted to rework a 260 Mtn Rifle, I'd rechamber it to 6.5x284.

What are the water case capacities of:

260 rem?
6.5X284?
6.5 WSM?

I want to do some calculations.

Also, John- what would you feel would be the optimum barrel length for a 6.5 wsm ?

Lefty-

6.5 WSM capacity is 82 grains of water.

Can Lefty
I would go with either 24 or 26" depending on your tolerance for length. If you go shorter there is not much point in having the extra case capacity, might as well go for .260 rem. or 6.5 swede.

I built a 6.5 SAUM. All I wanted was comparable ballistics to the 264 Win Mag with [possibly] a shorter barrel. All accomplished!! 3200fps with a 23" tube and Sierra 140 Gamekings. This is not max but awfully close. Built on a Rem Mod 7 SS action and McGowan SS 23" #1 contour barrel. Rifle weighs right at 6.0 with a 1-4 Leupold scope. Accuracy so far is very good with the best group[so far] being about 3/4". Should do better with load developement and a broken in barrel. Still want to try the 129 Hornady and 125 Nosler bullets. It`ll make a nice all-around elk/deer mountain rifle.

Aloha, Mark

Bohica-

What loads are you using in your 6.5 SAUM?

Thanks in advance.