Best 6.5 CM for whitetail

Blacklab1 said:

Yes, sorry I meant the xp deer season. I was looking at whitetail Hornady on the net right before I posted.

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Below is my $20 6.5 CM I won from a fund raising raffle.



3-shot group at 200Y.

Good luck on your hunt!

Daughter has used winchester 129gr powerpoints. Long as shot is good, most will work on whitetails. Been working on trying to find a good load for her gun (ruger american 6.5 compact), finally stumbled on one with 130gr tipped gamekings and h4350 for half moa. Need to take her out shooting more for practice, if she sees antlers, she is anxious to shoot, and makes some mistakes.

I handload 120 gr TTSX. and use staball 6.5 instead of varget or h4350. ( I get 3030 fps and it shoots to about .6") Superperformance runs neck and neck with Staball. I know you want to stay with factory loads, but I am mentioning this for the speed consideration. I shoot a sig cross with an 18" barrel. I was getting about 2650 fps with Federal 140 JSP, that shot to less than .75". I killed several deer last year with it. This year, I wanted to maximize trajectory, while still keeping in mind the total range I intend to shoot. I really think a lot of people get hung up on BC, and long range performance (which is great if you are ringing steel or hunting long range! but within the range that 6.5 CM maintains energy, BC is less of a concern. Meaning bullet efficiency takes over as the more important variable than speed, at a certain range. But up until you reach that mark, speed is more important. So if your intended hunting range is less than than the point where BC becomes the more important variable, why chase BC? Speed kills up to that point.) My intended hunting range is up to 500. I dropped down in weight, to increase my speed. I used a faster powder to increase my speed. I'm using a copper bullet, to offset using a lighter bullet (because a 120 copper will still penetrate and hit like a 147 in lead), and since copper is less dense, it takes more copper to equal the same weight in lead, ie a 120 copper will not have the same BC as a lead 147, but it will definitly have more BC than an equal weight 120 lead bullet, because its longer....hope this reasoning makes sense to you. The point of this is that I would suggest you worry less about going to a heavier bullet for whitetails, and instead try a factory copper in 120. For whitetail it's the best way I know to find the best blend of advantages of speed, BC, and still penetrate well within the kind of ranges that you will most likely hunt whitetail.

I have not used the Winchester XPs in 6.5 but in a 30-06 and 270. They shot surprisingly well for the price point, better than several premium brands, and flattened the deer I shot with them. I'd say you are good to go, nothing to fix if you have sighted in already

I shoot 123 eldm's in my depredation 6.5cm in AR10. They do stellar work on deer weighing up to 120lbs which is the size of a mature doe in our area. I shot around 40 with this combo last summer. I have shot the 125 and it does just as well or better. 130s I would think do very well but I keep things simple in the loading room and use 123s for Grendel and Creedmore. My 6.5-06 gets 147s but there is a lot more velocity there. I mainly use it for shots over 500 yards but have killed a few as close as 75 yards and it does a tremendous job. Many folks in my area tried the 143 eldx and were not happy with it shooting behind the shoulder on our smaller deer. Expansion wasn't optimum on behind the shoulder shots on our smaller deer and animals went quite far before expiring. Shoulder shots worked well as there was more resistance for expansion. They backed up to 129-130 class bullets and got the performance they were looking for. If I were to go to the 140 class in the Creedmore the 140 eldm would get my vote.

Nosler has New Ammo that they have just released, just for Deer.
Check out the Nosler web site.

I'm a big fan of the Hornady Precision Hunter 143 ELDX AMMO if you don't handload

liltank said:

We have had very good luck with the Federal Terminal Accent. I really like this bullet. If you like old school, the 140 SBT Sierra worked great in my daughter's 6.5 Swede.

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Could you pm me about the Terminal Accents. I just posted today asking about them. Thank you

You've got lots of good options and suggestions as well as using what you have. I've set up quite a few 6.5 Creeds for youngsters and novice hunters that shot really well with the Berger 135 Classic Hunters. And they do very good terminally as well.

I did not read all of the posts on this thread, but I'll throw in my 10 cents. You'll need to invest in a box of just about everything - weight, manufacturer, style, etc. to find the bullet your setup likes best. It is just part of it. When you find one with some consistency, load it to try and duplicate its performance. I load the ELDX 143 gr. It works great for me. MOst of the time - DRT.

dgpcpa said:

I did not read all of the posts on this thread, but I'll throw in my 10 cents. You'll need to invest in a box of just about everything - weight, manufacturer, style, etc. to find the bullet your setup likes best. It is just part of it. When you find one with some consistency, load it to try and duplicate its performance. I load the ELDX 143 gr. It works great for me. MOst of the time - DRT.

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Care to share your load info?