6.5 Creedmoor

I have a few big Weatherby's. Accumark's great rifles, no doubt. My 338-378 has murdered elk and moose. One shot with the Barnes X. The LRX is a good bullet as well.
 
barnes X, is the best, for weight retention, and destrustion.
Weight retention yes, destruction not so much. Its pretty hard to retain 100% of the weight of a bullet and cause mass trauma without hitting bone. Kinda like the several deer I shot in the lungs with a 140 ttsx in 7 mag. Looked like bow shot deer with a nice x through the lungs and ran 200 yds. The sd of that bullet is too dense for deer,elk maybe. In a low sd 35 caliber bullet I've had good results with the tsx. Imo barnes bullet performance can vary greatly due to the weight and sd of the bullet.
 
I will have to take some picks of the bullets I have dug out of elk and moose. Absolutely perfect. A regular Barnes165 gr. bt 30 cal. weatherby is awesome. But yes to some of your response. Shot placement is always best.
 
Just purchased a 6.5 Creedmoor for my 12 yr old son to hunt whitetails with. I wanted something lightweight, and so wanted least amount of recoil. I bought a browning xbolt composite stalker. It Will be used in woods primarily, mixed with some farm country hunting. Expected shots under 200 yards. Which bullet kills the best from this caliber? I was planning on using 143 eldx. But saw some comments where guys weren't happy with them. Should I go lighter and get impact velocity up? Or just pick a different bullet?
It shouldn't be too hard to find a bullet to meet those criteria. I would go with a 100gn monolithic type, like anything that says Barnes. They are unforgiving bullets and will absolutely put a hole through something. The Triple-shocks were a step in the right direction from the original X-bullet and they have only gotten better.
Another good 100gn choice in 6.5mm would be the Nosler Partition. At that range they would be plenty accurate for any North American deer and they are deer killers.
If I were to go with any of the poly carbonate tip bullets, or cup/core soft-point bullets, I would step up to 120gns. Back when my youngest started deer hunting, I got him a R700 Mountain rifle in .260Rem and with 120gn Ballistic Tips he killed everything he pointed that little rifle at.
 
Last edited:
I'm going to suggest the 130/140gr accubond myself, shoot them at CM velocities in a 260. Have yet to see a deer make more than a jump or two........most are DRT. Used 140gr partitions before the AB and they worked fine as well but the lead noses can deform in the magazine from loading /unloading and from recoil as well. I like the price a little better on the AB's also :) For my uses where a long shot would be 150-200yd's and most of the shots happen at 15-100yd's in thick woods, you would look long and hard to find a more reliable bullet. They break shoulder bones but also expand nicely thru the ribcage, never a problem with head-on or hard angle quartering shots either.

I was trying to remember when a deer ran out of my sight after a hit, it was 1997 and I was using the factory remington core loc's. Shot a large buck head-on and he ran quite a ways, bullet went to pieces (no exit or blood trail) and I looked for about a 1/2 hour to find him. Should be called core loss, started reloading right after that and have stuck with nosler partitions and then accubonds. It's not that I shoot better or different but the bullets anchor them quickly and always exit. Started my son with partitions and now AB in his 308, like the hammer of thor, he don't know what its like to have a deer run.
 
My son and I took 2 hogs at 270 yards with both of us shooting Rem. 260's with Hornady 140gr ELD-M bullets. His hog was broadside and mine was quartering away. Each of us shot at the same time and both hogs fell where they stood. I didn't recover either bullet but knowing how tough hogs can be I was impressed with the performance of this bullet.

View attachment 229865
You call those pigs? Just kidding, you got the eating size!!
 
You call those pigs? Just kidding, you got the eating size!!
Most of the hogs were shielded behind a large tree between us and them. You can see them in the photo taken through the 8x binoculars. We were quickly loosing daylight and took the first two that came out into the clear. There are plenty of hogs, in the second photo is one of two areas they've been rooting in.

While taking photos the herd came back and we shot one more.

This is my dads farm but sadly he passed away and we'll be selling it. My son and I have taken several deer, turkey, hogs, and quail off this place over the years.

Tree.JPG


Rooting.JPG
 
Most of the hogs were shielded behind a large tree between us and them. You can see them in the photo taken through the 8x binoculars. We were quickly loosing daylight and took the first two that came out into the clear. There are plenty of hogs, in the second photo is one of two areas they've been rooting in.

While taking photos the herd came back and we shot one more.

This is my dads farm but sadly he passed away and we'll be selling it. My son and I have taken several deer, turkey, hogs, and quail off this place over the years.

View attachment 231930

View attachment 231931
Oklahoma? Kansas? Texas?
 
Well, I used the 143 ELD-X yesterday. Bergara B-14 Ridge, Vortex Viper HS, SIlencerCo Omega 300.

Regrettably it was a neck shot on a fawn at 110 yards. Went in to the top of the spine, I'm assuming shrapnel/ bone fragments is what tore the bottom half of the neck out, but enough of some part of the bullet held together to take out the joint on the front left leg on the pass through. He dropped straight down and never moved.

It was a tough deal, someone previously shot out the right front leg just above the joint and it was flopping around terribly as he moved. Never stayed still a second. I was trying to get a cleaner head shot but caught him quartering in just as he dropped his head. It stayed attached but there was no bone connection left at all. The wound on the right leg 100% looked like a bullet wound, and the ranch owner was not happy when he saw it up close. It's a high fenced ranch so he knows who was shooting where the last few days... wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of the talking-to someone is about to get.

I was using a fairly mild load of 41.4gr of Superperformance at Hornady book COL 2.800". I loaded up a mid-range load (93% of max per Hornady 10th, not the min because of their goofy tables) just to check the powder, shot 9 rounds under 1MOA at 200 yards on the first try, so I used it for this trip.

I also used one of my last Nosler 140gr Partition loads to drop a nice 8 pointer. Hit a rib going in and a rib going out, the exit hole was about twice the size of the entrance hole on the inside of the chest wall. Hit, dashed a dozen steps up a hill, piled up and rolled back down. Nothing really left of his lungs.
 
Last edited:
Just purchased a 6.5 Creedmoor for my 12 yr old son to hunt whitetails with. I wanted something lightweight, and so wanted least amount of recoil. I bought a browning xbolt composite stalker. It Will be used in woods primarily, mixed with some farm country hunting. Expected shots under 200 yards. Which bullet kills the best from this caliber? I was planning on using 143 eldx. But saw some comments where guys weren't happy with them. Should I go lighter and get impact velocity up? Or just pick a different bullet?
All bullets that people have mentioned are great. If I were you I would shoot a few of them and see what shoots best out of your particular rifle.
 
Warning! This thread is more than 4 years ago old.
It's likely that no further discussion is required, in which case we recommend starting a new thread. If however you feel your response is required you can still do so.

Recent Posts

Top