Years ago, when I switched exclusively to a 6.5 Something, it was a Swede. Not knowing what ammo I should use for it, I picked up a few boxes of Remington loaded with 140 grain CoreLokts. They worked the first time, so that was all I ever shot deer with with that rifle/caliber combination.
Since then I've alternated between a couple of 6.5 Creedmoors and a .260. The .260 Encore barrel I bought came to me with an armload of Remington 140 CoreLokts, so that's all I use with it. The Creedmoors have been fed 140 grain A-Maxs, 130 grain Berger AR Hybrids and something else I can't remember.
I shot deer exclusively with the Swede. (And rocks. I shot a lot of rocks.) Those factory Remingtons were going just shy of 2600 out of my 22" barreled Ruger. Many deer for many years fell where they were hit. I never recovered a single bullet.
With the .260 and its 26" barrel, the velocity was a bit higher, although I never Chronyed it. Again, every deer dropped in place. A couple of antelope made it about 60 yards, but it was open country and they were looking at me crawling like a dog on his belly across the cactus studded Wyoming landscape for a quarter of a mile before I got my 40 yard shot at them. They were a little more wary . . . But they did stay around to watch the show. My estimate was that the Encore spits 140 grain factory Remingtons out at around 2700fps.
One of my Creedmoors has an 18" barrel. I shoot deer with it using my carefully hoarded stash of factory loaded Hornady 140 grain A-Maxs. Again, without Chronying this load, my estimate is that they begin flight at just under 2600 fps. Last year I shot one deer at about 50 yards. Never took a step.
The next deer was at 285 yards and she was hit tight in, just behind her left shoulder, she died on the spot.
Last year's third deer was the largest doe in about ten years. 420 yards from the muzzle of my 18" barreled Ruger, she died in her bed from a single 140 grain A-Max.
I feed my long range rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor 130 grain Berger AR Hybrids. They run at (Chronyed) 2840 fps out of my Kreiger 27.5" barrel. Again, they drop where they're hit at that speed with that bullet.
When I started using the Hybrids for competition I did an experiment on a deer to see if the bullet was tough enough. A mature doe walked out into a baled hayfield where I was sitting next to a bale. Quartering toward me, she stopped to look at me at about 80 yards. I put the Berger perfectly into the left front knuckle joint of her shoulder. DRT. Upon examination, after shattering the joint, the bullet travelled back into right rear quarter. Tough enough for me.
I'm no scientist, but I believe that most of the deer I've shot with these rifles have dropped in their tracks for two reasons:
I hunt by myself and a little differently than most, so the deer rarely, if ever, know that I am there. They are relaxed, etc., and not overly wary. The ones that have gone any distance after being shot were coming to see what was hiding in the tall grass, so they were a little more alert.
The other reason is shot placement. I try to shoot them where it will stop them. (I'm pretty buggered up, physically, so I can't do what the young guys do. This year I won't even hunt for fear of becoming wormfood on the hunting grounds.) A slower bullet doesn't wreck as much meat, so I have zero aversion to a high shoulder shot, which pulls the earth out from under their feet as fast as anything I've ever seen.
A more frangible bullet than an A-Max or CoreLokt to the lungs of an unwary deer will jellify them and drop them as fast - as long as it isn't agitated before the shot.
That's my experience. I'm aware of other solutions to the DRT dream and I know some use 30-30s(My wife) and 45-70s to good effect, but like I said, I hunt a little differently. They usually don't know I'm there.
Long winded again. Sorry.
