Boddington borrowed a Merkel 6.5x68 to take this Balkan chamois. The 6.5x68 is similar to our .264 Winchester Magnum and is a common choice for long-range work in Europe.

As for additional 6.5s coming down the pike, well, maybe--but I doubt it. When the .300 Winchester Short Magnum was new many of us, including yours truly and editor Scott Rupp (who is also an astute rifle guy) suggested that short, fat case should be necked down to 6.5mm, creating (for lack of a better name) a .264 WSM. Instead we got both .270 and 7mm WSMs as factory cartridges.

Undoubtedly marketing was an issue; there have been just enough failures for manufacturers to be scared to death of the .264-inch bullet diameter. On the other hand, a couple of years later Winchester did introduce the .325 WSM, and it isn't like its .323-inch or 8mm bullet diameter has been a bell-ringing success.

There are a couple of other small issues with the 6.5mm. One, relative to the Winchester Short Magnum case, is that an extra manufacturing step would have been required because .264 inch is just a bit tight for a one-step necking job from the parent case. So manufacturing cost would have been higher than for the .270 WSM case, added risk with no assurance of success.

And then one of the great attributes of the 6.5mm, its long heavy-for-caliber bullets, causes it problems. Remember that the bore diameter started with relatively short cases--6 .5x53, 6.5x54, 6.5x55, 6.5x57--housed in long Mannlicher and Mauser actions. So the overall length created by those pencil-length 156-and 160- grain bullets wasn't a real problem.

However, if you put a 6.5-.284 Norma, 6.5mm Remington Magnum or even a .260 Remington cartridge into a .308-length action you do have concerns about bullets of 140 grains and over intruding into the powder space. And that's another reason we haven't seen, and probably will not see, a factory 6.5mm short magnum.

Although 6.5mms have rarely made the major leagues--and even more rarely managed to stay there--the bullet diameter is the darling of serious rifle nuts, so much so that the choices are legion. With good Norma brass available, the 6.5-.284 is extremely popular. The efficiency of its short, fat case enables it to come very close to .264 Winchester Magnum performance, and it doesn't require a 26-inch barrel to strut its stuff. Rigby has even made one up on a Model 88 Winchester lever action, but this is a classic example of action length interfering with potential performance.

Of the many wildcats, the 6.5-06 is certainly one of the very best options; with modern propellants it's another cartridge that can easily equal the .264 Winchester Magnum.

John Lazzeroni has experimented with 6.5mms in both his short and his long magnum lines. His long magnum, the 6.71 (.264) Blackbird, was based on his Firebird case necked down, and I suppose it pretty much defined "overbore capacity," but in a long barrel the velocity was frightening. His 6.71 (.264) Phantom is part of the short magnum line, pushing a 120-grain bullet at 3,312 fps.

Unfortunately, if you choose any 6.5mm cartridge you are very limited in your choices in factory ammo. There are currently four American factory loads for the .260 Remington, just two for the .264 Winchester Magnum (Winchester and Remington, both 140-grain) and a single 6.5 Remington Magnum load.

To get the most out of almost any 6.5mm you probably should be a handloader. I've played with both the 6.5-06 and the 6.5-.284 a bit. Both are excellent cartridges that come very close to .264 Winchester Magnum performance, as does the 6.5mm Remington Magnum if you add a bit of length to both action and barrel.