I was thinking of buying my 14 year old granddaughter a deer hunting rifle. She shot two deer this year with a borrowed 243. I want to buy a rifle for her in either 6MM or 6.5 Creedmoor. She can handle the recoil of the 243 she borrowed this year. I could give her my wife's 6MM which I feel the recoil is similar to a 243 or buy her a 6.5 Creedmoor. What is your opinion regarding recoil?

Do you reload? Or buy factory? If you reload then I wouldn't worry about recoil as you can dial down your load to make it manageable for about anyone. I would say pick whichever gun you think would be best and put a nice recoil pad on it and have here practice with it. Let us know what you decide.

I'm gonna say that there would be very little difference between the two, and that the stock/style of the gun you buy will make a bigger difference.

I have several doubles and triples of several calibers and some will "kick" harder than another just because of the style of stock.

There should be very little difference in recoil. In fact, there may be even slightly less in the Creed? As it is slightly smaller case capacity

6.5 bigger bullets 243 more common 6.5 will work for larger game better

buy a rifle with a threaded barrel , put a AR-stoner 7.62 muzzle break on it 25 dollars from Midway USA and 308 , 7mm-08 , 6.5 creed , 243 will all be about half the recoil

just put one on my 308 about 2 months ago and now I watch the bullet impact the target through the scope. easily 50% less recoil

maybe I should add I ran up till I started flattening primers very near max load with 180gr bullets then backed down a touch and it still has hardly any recoil now with the muzzle break.

if she handled the 243 she can handle any of those short action cartridges with the brake and take any game in North America using full power ammo.

guns to look at that are both budget , good and threaded from the factory TC Compass , Mossberg Patriot predator or MVP predator , Ruger All American Predator.

the MVP 7.62 has a laminate stock it costs a bit more but after a glass bedding they are nice , you can more easily adjust length of pull on the wood stock than on the plastic stocks 308 certainly makes for easy finding ammo and plenty of bullet weight for any game.

they just started offering it is 6.5 also that should be very good the 180s need to be loaded a little short in the 7.62 to make them fit the 2.9" mag length but the 6.5 is a shortend case to make mag length easier with long bullets.

A friend of mine bought the Ruger in 6.5 Creedmoor. He loves the rifle and said a muzzle brake can be added. He bought the rifle for around $400 which isn't bad.

I do reload for my revolvers, 38 Spl, 357, and 44 Mag. Rifles 6MM, 30-06, 22-250, and 223. Adding dies for the 6.5 isn't that big of a deal.

She may need a compact rifle with a shorter length of pull. 6.5 recoil is very close to the .243. I agree that the individual gun will make a bigger difference.

I agree, and would add, I dont think there is a noticable difference to 99% of the shooters between the two calibers.

I raised 4 kids up deer hunting on the .243 low recoil and just a great caliber!. The bigger question is IF ammo ever gets limited or har to find, when you walk in to buy- which will be more readily. Available. New and unusual are fun and cool, but I limit my calibers to those standards.

Same wgt gun. 243 with 80gr bullets will have noticeably less recoil than 6.5 with 120-140gr bullets. (E=MC squared). Approx. 7ft# vs 12ft#

Does it matter if they're launched at different speeds?

Same recoil with the same amount powder and the same weight bullet. Adjust to fit.

yes , for a very direct comparison my 5.56 AR and my 300 blackout AR have nearly identical components the barrel is different and the gas tube is shorter on the 300 blackout same buffer , same BCG

the 5.56 launches launches a .224" 55gr projectile at 3200fps and the 300bo a .308" 110gr projectile at 2168fps

the 300 actiually has less felt recoil , not just because it is moving 1000fps slower , the 300bo burns all the powder int he the 16 inch barrel , the 5.56 does not

much of recoil is the expanding gasses pushing back on the muzzle

burn up all the powder in the barrel and you have only the push of the bullet and not the rapidly expanding gasses

use a blowgun on an air compressor air pushing on air does have a recoil effect , same at the car wash water pushing on air has a recoil effect

this is why if you have extra gas at the muzzle the brake works so well to reduce recoil it redirects it up and back significantly reducing the pressure pushing back on the muzzle from the front

if I ran the same bullet in the same gun at the same speed but used a powder that burned before the 1/2 way point in the barrel vs one that was not done burning when it exited the barrel , you would also see a recoil difference. we would have to use a fast and a very slow powder and accept lower velocity than possible but we could see the difference.

we want max accurate velocity to get greater range so we generally have powder being burned right to the muzzle causing a pressure wave of expanding gasses in some cases a fire ball if shot in the dark.

if recoil was just a function of velocity X mass

110 X 2168 =238,480
55 X 3200 = 176,000

the 5.56 should have only 73% of the recoil of the 300bo but the 300 actually has less felt recoil from the same everything else , why it is using a powder that burns in <16 inches

think about engines what gives a greater push a high octane fuel that gives a push over longer time component or a very low octane fuel that explodes and has a very short time componenet engine the same more octane = longer power stroke = more energy to the crank shaft

with a short pulse of power the rifle can't move till it overcomes the inertia of the rifle , with a longer push the inertia is overcome then the additional force is added

also why having a properly fitting stock to shoulder fit reduces felt recoil , the gun is stopped from moving before it can start , but a sloppy shoulder fit the gun has time to get moving then hit the shoulder. like placing your fist with your arm bent a little against some one shoulder then pushing like your punching vs punching where you have time to build up velocity velocity kills at both ends.

What I suggest is a threaded barreled rifle. I prefer the Savage tactical. https://www.savagearms.com/firearms/centerfire/model-110/110-tactical. Put a break on it. Then look at a chassis system. I went with MDT and love it. It allows you to but a M-4 adjustable stock on it which works with my 10 year old so he enjoys shooting now. https://mdttac.com/ The chassis that I have will work on my 223, 243, or 308 since they are all short actions and only require different mages. It also turns my internal blind box mag into an external magazine.