No, we don’t mean Apollo Creed, the band Creed or Creed Bratton, we mean the Creedmoor family of long-range rifle cartridges.
Merriam-Webster defines family as “a group of things related by common characteristics,” or “a group regarded as deriving from a common stock.” You could say the family of Creedmoor cartridges are both. The latter three Creedmoor cartridges descended from the first Creedmoor—the 6.5 Creedmoor—and all four cartridges are ideally adapted for long-range application.
Throughout history there have been some noteworthy cartridge families. Though you its lineage can be traced back to the 1888 8 mm Patrone 88 cartridge, the “aught-six”—.30-’06 Sprg.—family contains popular cartridges like the .270 Win. and .25-’06 Rem. With prevalent members like the .243 Win., .260 Rem. and 7 mm-08 Rem., the .308 Win. cartridge family is also well known. The .30 Thompson/Center (TC) also belongs to the .308 Win. family and oddly, even though it was a commercial flop, it fathered the first Creedmoor cartridge. Hornady’s Dave Emary recognized the potential of the .30 TC case and, partnering with Dennis DeMille of Creedmoor Sports, the 6.5 Creedmoor was born.
6.5 Creedmoor
By using the shorter case of the .30 TC and necking it down to work with a .264-caliber (6.5 mm) bullet, the 6.5 Creedmoor is compatible with long bullets that have a high ballistic coefficient (BC), and they’ll work within the box-magazine constraints of a short-action, bolt-action rifle like the Remington 700. When Hornady submitted the 6.5 Creedmoor to the Sporting Arms & Ammunition Manufacturer’s Institute (SAAMI), it smartly specified a 1:8-inch rifling twist rate. This made the cartridge ballistically superior to the .260 Rem., which was based on the .308 Win. case, but has a slower twist.
Except for those interested in long-range competitive shooting, when Hornady introduced the 6.5 Creedmoor in 2008, few cared. It really wasn’t until after the 2014 movie “American Sniper” that your average shooter began noticing it. Now it’s one of the most popular centerfire-rifle cartridges for long-range precision shooting and hunting. Currently there are more than 100 factory 6.5 Creedmoor loads from which to choose.
6 mm Creedmoor
This first SAAMI-approved offspring of the 6.5 Creedmoor originated to gain an edge in Precision Rifle Series (PRS) competition. Ballistically it’s very similar to .243 Win., but as with the 6.5 Creedmoor and the .260 Rem., the 6 mm Creedmoor has a SAAMI-specified rifling-twist rate of 1:7.5-inch compared with the .243 Win.’s 1:10-inch twist. In conjunction with its father, the 6 mm and 6.5 Creedmoor set the fast-twist standard of the Creedmoor family and founded the current trend of faster twists that has dominated new-rifle-cartridge introduction ever since.
Outdoor writer John Snow was one of the first to neck the 6.5 Creedmoor down to 6 mm. His initial work, later expanded upon by George Gardner of GA Precision—and eventually Hornady—led to the introduction of the 6 mm Creedmoor in 2017. It enjoys use in competition, but for hunting applications, the .243 Win. remains more popular. Shooters who prefer the 6 mm Creedmoor have about 25 factory loads from which to choose.
22 Creedmoor
Dave Ratcliff, of Horizon Firearms in Texas, built the first 22 Creedmoor in 2013. He was looking for a cartridge that could outperform the .22-250 Rem. at extended range, specifically for coyote hunting. In 2024, SAAMI approved the cartridge, and—along with the 6 mm Creedmoor—it is also a necked-down version of the 6.5 Creedmoor.
The 22 Creedmoor will push an 80-grain bullet, which it can stabilize due to its fast 1:8-inch twist, to around 3,250 fps. With similar bullet weights, the .22-250 Rem. and 22 Creedmoor are ballistically comparable, but the 22 Creedmoor’s advantage is the same advantage all Creedmoor cartridges enjoy: the ability to work with higher BC bullets. Currently, manufacturers offer fewer than 10 factory loads for the 22 Creedmoor.
25 Creedmoor
It’s unclear how long the 25 Creedmoor has been around as a wildcat cartridge. I necked the 6.5 Creedmoor down to .257-caliber in 2015, and Hornady supplied me with custom dies. Partly to make fun of those who name a cartridge after themselves with hopes of fame and glory, I called my .25-caliber Creedmoor the 2Fity-Hillbilly. But I also gave it that name because of two West Virginians who helped me with the work. In 2016, I urged Hornady to legitimize my .25, but the company was too starry eyed with its soon-to-be-released 6 mm Creedmoor to care. Now, a decade later, I guess Hornady has seen the light, and it will be offering a new .25 Creedmoor for 2025. With its 1:7.5-inch twist, Hornady’s newest Creedmoor is—ballistically—just a shade behind the .25-06 Rem. Initially Hornady will be offering two loads that include a 134-grain ELD Match load and a 128-grain ELD-X Precision Hunter load, both with muzzle velocities of about 2,800 fps.
The 25 Creedmoor has been making a bit of news in competitions using the 131-grain Ace projectile from Blackjack Bullets. And now, with the two factory Hornady loads and the 138-grain A-Tip component bullet with a G1 BC of .695, the cartridge should become reasonably popular, especially if other ammo manufacturers get on board with their own high-ballistic-coefficient match and hunting bullets. From the standpoints of trajectory and wind-drift, the 25 Creedmoor will perform like the 6.5 Creedmoor, but with a tad less recoil due to its lighter-weight bullets. However, I think the cartridge’s primary appeal is as a dual purpose—varmint and deer—cartridge, which is why I wildcatted it a decade ago.
More Creeds?
With the four current Creedmoor cartridges covering rifle calibers between .224 and .264, it’s doubtful we will see another one. There’s nothing to gain by necking the 6.5 Creedmoor case up, at least as it relates to long-range application, and that’s what the Creedmoor family is all about. With the long-action aught-six family of cartridges falling out of favor, and with the slow-twist, .308 Win. family of cartridges’ inability to hold up at distance, the fast-twist Creedmoor cartridges, with their high BC bullets have forever changed the design and performance of rifle cartridges forever—to say nothing of our expectations.
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