i am planning on getting an encore barrel in 6.5mm. any suggestions on which one (6.5-284, 6.5-06, 6.5x55 etc)? what barrel length (20, 22 or 24")? why ?? i will be using it to hunt varmint, deer and maybe elk.

Since they all shoot the same diameter bullet, I would choose based on 2 considerations, accuracy and, may not be important to you, availability of factory ammo.

This leads me to recommend either the 6.5x55 or the 6.5-.284 if you really plan on using it for elk and don't mind reloading all of your ammo.

It might be informative for you to read the Nov 02 issue of Precision Shooting where Dave Whitford had a really good short overview of almost all of the currently popular .22s, 6s, 6.5s and 7s, titled "Strange Stuff on Butner's Range 4."

If you are going to hunt big game with it, I would go for a longer barrel length, any of the 6.5s need all the help they can get for larger animals IMO and 20 as compared with 24 inches would probably be cutting your MV by at least a 100fps and maybe more.

[ 11-28-2002, 18:03: Message edited by: Gatogordo ]

Ex,
In my country tha max. caliber allowed without having a special authorization is the 6,5.
So I've good reports from the 6,5-06 for everything !!
A friend of mine use one in Southern Argentina for red stags (huge animals) with great sucess and I read that one of the best smith's from that country (F. Tagle) use also a 6,5- 06 for all his red stags hunts.
LG

problem is with a 6.5 you need a faster twist with heavier bullets. For elk gettin smoke I'd go with a 6.5 STW or even 6.5x300 mag weatherby or winchester.....other than that I'd go 6.5-284 1in9 with a 24" tube. 125 partitions will do the job on any deer sized game.