Which bullet for deer for 6.5CM inside 400 yards?

The heaviest bullet designed for hunting that your rifle can stabilize. If it will stabilize a 140gr. Matchking that is the general direction I would go. Why would you run anything lighter? To what end? No it does not need to be a Sierra product just tossing that out since I have 10X the experience with Sierra products as compared to anything else. Any solidly constructed controlled expansion bullet designed for deer size game on up will be fine it does not matter who makes it so long as it is the heaviest that the rifle will shoot well with and is solidly constructed with hunting deer sized animals on up!

The best short range (500 and closer) that I have found in the 6.5 CM is the Hornady 129 grain SST. Hands down! Every whitetail it hits just drops like the grim reaper himself reached out and touched them.

Never go lighter than you need to in order to get the rifle to properly stabilize the round!!! Going lighter for more velocity is never a good way to go on a critter larger than a coyote or as tough as a pig. That is why people that tried to hunt Elk at long range with a 22/250 back in the day where not very bright! Velocity with out mass is a waste the second you need to get any work done at the receiving end. Penetration is one form of work. That is also why bullets that suffer from jacket separation on target are also a waste of lead, copper, and powder plus they are irresponsible and reckless!

Oh I did not know that Paramedic Jargon had made it's way into hunting. DRT meaning Dead Right There as in no since wasting time with any treatment they are DRT and no amount of treatment will help!

Yes shot placement is paramount very few cartridges used by hunters has the power to drop an animal with bad shot placement right away. Unless you guys are hunting with a 50BMG or something like it then shot placement is the most important thing.

That is one reason I do not like to hunt things more than 600m away given a choice. That is also why I have always laughed at attacking structure ie tacking out the shoulder for example instead of taking a lung shot. If your starving though I can see why one might not be super picky!

As long as you are not using strictly a Varmint bullet. Most any 6.5mm bullet out of the Creedmoor will do wonders on deer 400 yards out and closer.

Bigeclipse said:

I know this is a long range forum but the advice you all give here has been great so I continue to ask my questions here. Which bullet would you use for reloads on deer and smaller critters inside 400 yards? Im thinking something in the 120-140grain range (highly considering the 117gr Hammer sledgehammers and the 130 grain accubond). The 117gr sledgehammers should provide a flat trajectory so I'm leaning towards those but I'm not sure how they perform on game yet.

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Honestly, I think you need to stay with at least a 130 grain bullet. A 140 is better, it carries more energy down range and holds the wind better. A lighter bullet is going to shoot flatter inside 300 yards but it bleeds off very fast and again it holds better in the wind. Use a ballistic Calculator and you will see I'm right on this.

Creedmoor shooter said:

I use the 140 eld-m. At 2800ish fps it's a whitetails worst nightmare. For inside 400 my second pick would be the 129 sst. The 129sst puts a hurting on them when propelled to 3000 fps.

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I'm wondering what length barrel your using and the twist. Those speeds seem high to me. I'm 200 FPS or close to it slower than you. I validate all of my FPS by going long range. Just wondering??

Lpart said:

I am using H4350 with the 124. No good?

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You know I like superformance in my creedmoor, has any of you guys used it.

Harvey Durham said:

I'm wondering what length barrel your using and the twist. Those speeds seem high to me. I'm 200 FPS or close to it slower than you. I validate all of my FPS by going long range. Just wondering??

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My 140s are out of a 26in 8 twist. I can run them alot faster than 2800 but I choose not to. The 129sst was my fathers rifle with a 22in. It was a very hot load with rl-17 and dont reccomend it. He no longer shoots that load but when he did it was a hammer. Maybe the chrono was wrong who knows all I know is it was definitely hot. I wouldn't expect those as realistic speeds from a 22in.

Harvey Durham said:

You know I like superformance in my creedmoor, has any of you guys used it.

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I recently started playing around with it and am very impressed with the results thus far. I'll have to refer back to my notes but I believe I was around 44.5 grains of Superformance with 142 ABLRs and 46ish grains with the 129 ABLRs. I'm going to play around with this powder in a very finicky dirty-thirty in the near future and have high hopes. I've seen this stuff going for as little as $23 a lb and if you hit it at the right time with free hazmat, it's absolutely worth grabbing a few lbs. to play with.

Bigeclipse said:

I know this is a long range forum but the advice you all give here has been great so I continue to ask my questions here. Which bullet would you use for reloads on deer and smaller critters inside 400 yards? Im thinking something in the 120-140grain range (highly considering the 117gr Hammer sledgehammers and the 130 grain accubond). The 117gr sledgehammers should provide a flat trajectory so I'm leaning towards those but I'm not sure how they perform on game yet.

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Swift Scirrocco II. They will mushroom any time. Best bullets I ever shot. Wont use anything else.

Bigeclipse said:

I know this is a long range forum but the advice you all give here has been great so I continue to ask my questions here. Which bullet would you use for reloads on deer and smaller critters inside 400 yards? Im thinking something in the 120-140grain range (highly considering the 117gr Hammer sledgehammers and the 130 grain accubond). The 117gr sledgehammers should provide a flat trajectory so I'm leaning towards those but I'm not sure how they perform on game yet.

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https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/6.5x55.html

Although this is for the sweede the velocities are similar. Very good info on bullet performance.

Harvey Durham said:

I'm wondering what length barrel your using and the twist. Those speeds seem high to me. I'm 200 FPS or close to it slower than you. I validate all of my FPS by going long range. Just wondering??

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I'm getting 2800+ with 140 ELDMs in my 26" bbl Creedmoor, as well......this is factory ammo. It shoots as good as my 140 VLD reloads.....accuracy and velocity!

SilverbulletMAG said:

That is very surprising to hear. I've used accubonds in several calibers and never had one fail to expand. In fact, some people refer to them as "accuBOMBS" due to the explosive nature of this round up close.
I'd be ****ed and move on if I had your experience as well but, that is definitely a flukey thing to have happened on 2 deer. What was your velocity?

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If all they hit is soft tissue over a short track through the body you're not going to get much expansion but you will get some. Of course it's very rare to recover bullets from these types of shots so most of what we have to go on is guesswork and experience looking at exit wounds.