6.5 Sherman Build =)

[bigngreen]

Wilkup, definitely hope you don't take anything I said wrong, bummer deal all round and I hope you don't get down about it though it sucks!
Not every hit on every animal will leave a blood trail immediately or even at all, from what I've seen on bear is their fur can hold a lot of blood and a shoulder hit you may honestly only be getting blood from the cuts not from large arteries like a hit behind the shoulder.
I think it's happened to everyone that you know you hit an animal and can't find it for one reason or another, two years ago I found an elk by smell that another guy knew he hit hard, she didn't make it a hundred yards and there was half a dozen of us gridding the area for half a day and almost all of us had to have walked within a few yards of her. He put his TSX exactly where he said he did and by all rights we should have found her. I dropped a mule deer buck on a sage brush flat one day and my buddy and I were down to walking a grid nearly shoulder to shoulder trying to find that stupid thing for over half a day and when we found him we literally stepped on him.
Recovery is one of the nice things about getting some distance on game where you can see them go down and take time to mark the spot and plan to get there, every long range animal I've killed I've walked right up to.

 

[Cold Trigger Finger]

. Ok. Thank you. I didn't know about the other thread. . . A 120 TTSX at that velocity would have done a lot more than just break 1 leg bone tho. Not saying the bear would have been recovered but there probably would have been a good exit hole.
I too have lost deer that I shot. I almost lost a nice forked horn Sitka Blacktail I shot at right about 100 yards away with a 200 gr 338 X bullet. M V 2900 fps. A friend and I looked for over half an hour and we never would have found it but for Divine assistance. There was a good blood trail across the muskeg and it didn't go 100 yards. Heart shot. I found the ball of the front leg bone laying on the heather then found the deer close by. The heart was tattered but that deer still had run in it immediately after the shot.

 

[bigngreen]

A 120 TTSX at that velocity would have done a lot more than just break 1 leg bone tho. Not saying the bear would have been recovered but there probably would have been a good exit hole.

HUH, I though I read it broke both shoulders

 

[wilkup]

. A 120 TTSX at that velocity would have done a lot more than just break 1 leg bone tho. Not saying the bear would have been recovered but there probably would have been a good exit hole.

CTF - I actually broke both shoulders and had the bullet exit, I just didn't get any hint of a blood trail. I'm wondering if this was just some sort of fluke because Rich showed me pics of a deer hit at 440yd and the impact of the round. It was nothing short of impressive and completely devastating and the exit would've surely provided a MASSIVE blood trail! (baseball-size exit hole)
I've used the TTSX in the past and found they worked very well, but I love the high BC and accuracy advantage of these Matrix rounds. If I have this problem again, I'll probably be switching to the Barnes and giving up the long range advantage.

 

[elkaholic]

CTF - I actually broke both shoulders and had the bullet exit, I just didn't get any hint of a blood trail. I'm wondering if this was just some sort of fluke because Rich showed me pics of a deer hit at 440yd and the impact of the round. It was nothing short of impressive and completely devastating and the exit would've surely provided a MASSIVE blood trail! (baseball-size exit hole)
I've used the TTSX in the past and found they worked very well, but I love the high BC and accuracy advantage of these Matrix rounds. If I have this problem again, I'll probably be switching to the Barnes and giving up the long range advantage.

Wil.....I just got in from a trip to Ut. so am going through my LRH stuff now. First of all, do not feel badly, it has happened to all of us who have hunted very long. Second, I was the one who thought the bullet blew up on brush after you describing the situation on the ground. I knew you had looked for hours, and it seemed like the most plausible as I have had this happen. As far as bullet performance, it sounds to me like the bullet performed very well, in fact I was pleased to hear that at 3100' impact velocity, it penetrated a LOT of mass and did its job very well, especially for a long range bullet. That is where that high s.d. comes in. Another thing that folks are overlooking is bears will often not bleed as much as say, a deer, because of all the fat that they have. I have seen them bleed only out the mouth when lung shot because the fat plugs the holes. If this one had made it much farther than 40', I suspect he would have been blowing a bunch of blood. He didn't because he was KO'd! If anything, I think you have proven the usefulness of the 150 Matrix......Rich

 

[Cold Trigger Finger]

I hadn't researched the Matrix bullets much. My bad.
Are all the Matrix 6.5 bullets bonded core or just the FB + RBT. ? The 140 gr rbt looks good! Over. 5 bc and a bonded core.
If the long range boat tails are also then that would be a super, all around bullet. But the 140 rbt looks very good also.
The lack of a high bc has me bummed about Barnes bullets also.

 

[Pdvdh]

I had a black bear run ~110yds before piling up once, after a bullet from a .338 Win Mag blew (or sucked) the heart out the far side of the animal. There was no heart found inside the chest cavity when I recovered the bear.

This bear hunt story is a good example of why animal recovery and examination is so important, prior to forming conclusions on terminal performance of bullets. The only bullets I know have failed to perform on game (they generally have not expanded, rather than exploded on impact), were on animals that were recovered and examined. Most often, additional shots were required.

Most every animal that's not recovered and examined involves too much guesstimation for confident conclusions. There are a myriad of possibilities on animals that aren't recovered.

 

[elkaholic]

I hadn't researched the Matrix bullets much. My bad.
Are all the Matrix 6.5 bullets bonded core or just the FB + RBT. ? The 140 gr rbt looks good! Over. 5 bc and a bonded core.
If the long range boat tails are also then that would be a super, all around bullet. But the 140 rbt looks very good also.
The lack of a high bc has me bummed about Barnes bullets also.

The 150 and 160 Matrix are not bonded, and IMO, they don't need to be. So far, the performance looks good at 40 and 440 yards with the 150's. I have also tested them down to 1700' in media with good looking results. We still need more long range data, but so far so good......rich

 

[Cold Trigger Finger]

gun)

The 140 rbt looks like the bullet I need to try. It would be great if it printed in the same place as my 144 gr Lapua load.
With the 32k jacket and bonded core it would hold up to moose leg bones.

 

[waspocrew]

For those of you with the 6.5 Sherman, how many of you are running brakes on them? I've been tossing around the idea of a short 2 port brake for mine. I'm thinking it'd be nice to be able to spot shots.

Does the 6.5 really need it?

 

[wilkup]

I would say the brake is not necessary but makes spotting shots easy, even at 100 yards. It definitely makes it WAY louder though!

 

[reeldawg]

I put a Defensive Edge brake on mine. It doesn't need a brake, but now there almost no recoil.


Jay

 

[BEEMAN]

I like the brake on mine. Recoil is light and you can spot your hits. I'd brake it if it were me.

 

[dogdinger]

I just read thru this thread, mostly because i am a fan of the 6.5 diameter cartridge but didnt know what a 6.5 sherman is. From what i have gleaned it is just the .270 winchester necked to 6.5? Please advise if this is wrong.

.....and i certainly would not stir the pot on purpose, but if i wanted to i would question this hunters tracking skills instead of this bullets performance......brings to mind the old saying that "he couldnt find a dead skunk in a phone booth" AJ