@LoonWulf is correct - I referrenced walmart availability not because I recommend anyone shop there, nor recommend anyone use Walmart inventories as a determinant factor in selecting a cartridge. But inventory at the common man’s second favorite store is indicative of market interest, and it’s just a fact - the 6.5 creedmoor is the highest selling new rifle chambering every year for a handful of years now. If the 6.5 Creedmoor is a “fad,” then it’s a bigger fad than the 270 or 243win ever were. It’s really a remarkable study in our current economy - most trends are flash-in-the-pan due to fickle consumerism, but the Creedmoor has enjoyed higher popularity and longer sustainment in popularity than any other cartridge introduced in the last 50yrs.
Never did I recommend the 6 Dasher for the OP. I was asked - individually - what I use in the way of 6mm’s. So I answered. I did, however, recommend the 243win and 6 creed, knowing the OP is a reloader, but and recommended a pathway to great brass life and great brass quality whether any 308 based cartridge were selected.
An entire generation of shooters fell victim to “speed kills,” so we saw rounds like 7mm RM 243win, 260rem, 22-250, and 270win get pumped out with most of them pushing light-for-capacity bullets very fast. Then came along even smaller cases which use less powder, but with appropriate twists for the tasks at hand, and they gained footing. The 223rem has been a crowd favorite among colony varminters and coyote hunters over the 22-250 for decades, despite giving up a couple hundred feet per second. Why? Because it is more versatile. A guy can run less powder and kill coyotes just as well, just as far, or even farther with the right bullet, with better barrel life. Where’s the downside? Complaining about a tenth mil difference in arch height between 0 and 300? Ok... But that battle happened many moons ago, so folks are still happy to complain about the SAME IMPROVEMENTS being made over the 243win or 260rem/6.5x55.
If a handful of companies would have simply brought out a series of fast twist 243win and 260 Rem rifles 20 years ago, and managed their way around length restrictions with appropriate chamber and mag boxes, we likely wouldn’t have had any interest in the 6.5 or 6 creed. But we’ve been building custom rifles in 243AI, 6 SLR, fast twist 243win, 6mm Comp Match (not to be confused with 6mm CreedMoor), etc for as long as the 243win has been around. Why is that? Why put in so much effort to make those changes? Because the 243win is VERY close to VERY good, but it does have drawbacks which limit its efficacy in multiple arenas. We’ve been begging it to manage heavier bullets for decades. Now, the begging can stop, because a turn-key solution is on the market.
A guy can cry on behalf of new buyers who are picking the new round and “missing out” on older, great cartridges like 6.5x55, 7-08, 257roberts, 7mm Mauser, 6mm Rem, etc. But a guy can also cry on behalf of the old curmudgeons who are so insulted that someone prefers a new model more than their old model that they can’t bring themselves to acknowledge the advancement and try something different.