Can someone shed some light on the devastation the 6.5 Creedmoor round provides as far as an exit wound goes in whitetail? I love reduced recoil and the distance the round can provide, but the last thing I want is to shoot something with that round and you have a bullet size entry and exit wound with hardly any blood trail. It seems like the round is too small and too fast to properly expand inside when it hits an animal. Thus, only leaving a small entry and exit hole. I currently shoot a 30-06 and it leaves a massive exit wound with a heavy blood trail.

I know there are multiple factors that are at play here when we are talking about blood trails, but for the sake of argument lets say it is a double lung shot with a 6.5 Creedmoor. What I am trying to avoid is buying a 6.5 and afterwards realizing that it is too light and too fast to be practical for 0-150 yard shots that we typically deal with in Louisiana.

I use the Hornady 143 Gr ELDX Precision Hunter round. Killed a few whitetail with it. All shoulder shots and all but one hit the ground right away. The one that didn’t ran 40 yds. It is a great whitetail round. Very accurate and shoots like a laser.

Ohhh you done messed up now hoss!!!!
Buy a blood trailing dog!!!!!!!!!
Prepare your anus for the chewing you will receive!!
I don’t have one so I can’t really can’t tell you what to expect with most of the ammo that people are using in them (match,boat tail hollow points)
I do have a ton of experience with 130/150 grain bonded or solid copper bullets doing somewhere between 2500-3000 FPS. If you get a 6.5 and shoot solid or bonded 140gr bullets and shoot double lung shots I would just about bet the cost of the rifle that you will be happy with exits and blood trails that you see.

The 6.5 CM is not significantly faster than your 30-06 at practical hunting distances, and it’s slower than a lot of other popular hunting calibers. Speed is not what separates it from the pack, it’s effectively loading and stabilizing very high BC bullets.

A lot of those bullets were made for ringing steel at 1000 yards, not retaining enough energy to punch through the exit. Forget about BC that you will never realize the benefit of and shoot high quality hunting bullets, and it will reliably exit.

It’s not all that fast. It’s a mild round shooting a sleek bullet.
We’ve shot em near and far with our 257 WBYs and have no problems. And they have a bit more giddy up than the Cripplemore.

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Just get a 6.5 PRC and be done with it.

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On my Christmas list.

The bullet construction is what determines how a bullet performs.

If you buy one that is designed to pass through then you will get most likely get a pass through.

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It seems like the round is too small

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Not it's not. It's a 0.264" diameter bullet. For comparison, the venerable 270 Win uses a 0.277" diameter bullet.

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too fast to properly expand inside when it hits an animal.

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It's not really that fast. Look at the ballistic tables yourself instead of listening to the 6.5 CM "experts" (of which there are many) spouting out disinformation. Like someone said, it's actually a moderate velocity round. Ballistically, it's pretty much identical to the 260 Rem and modern 6.5x55 Swede loads.

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Thus, only leaving a small entry and exit hole.

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Any deer hunting load that performs well in the 260 Rem or 6.5 Swede is going to be a good deer hunting round in the 6.5 CM. Honestly, I can't keep up w/ the "new" bullets/loads for the 6.5 CM; it seems like there's a new one every week.

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I currently shoot a 30-06 and it leaves a massive exit wound with a heavy blood trail.

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The 6.5 CM will be an improvement over your 30-06 only in that the recoil will be less and at extreme ranges, certain of it's loads may shoot a little flatter. The wounding characteristic of loads in the modern 6.5x55 and 260 Rem will be similar in the 6.5 CM. I've got a 260 Rem handgun that I really like for deer hunting. Since its 15" barrel doesn't generate as much velocity as that of a rifle, I like the lighter 120 grain bullets. Like the 260 Rem, the 6.5 CM is a fine deer hunting round.....when appropriate bullets are used

Just get a 308 and everything you shoot will die shortly afterwards. It's one the most accurate rounds in history. Easy to get bullets or to reload for.

The faster a round the better the expansion providing the correct bullet is used.

6.5, .308, 30-06, 270, etc are all more than adequate killing large game. Shot placement is everything