Bullets Pencilling Through

[MagnumManiac]

I don't use Hornady bullets, but I will say that differing weights in 6.5 appear to have different construction and hardness.
Accubonds tend not to have large exits, ABLR on the other hand do, Sierra do sometimes while other times not.
I shoot several 6.5's, 6.5x47, 260AI, 264WM & 6.5-300 Weatherby. Light bullets in the magnums, lighter than 130g tend to be bombs, except the Barnes 127g LRX.
Heavy bullets, 140/142/150/156g tend to expand normally.
I really like how the 140g Partition works on game, I used those on Moose in Sweden, fantastic 1 shot kills every time.
Honestly, you need to choose your bullets to match your cartridges performance. I wouldn't use 100g bullets out of 6.5-300 Bee, but I would with a 6.5 Creed.
Maybe not penciling through, just not expanding fully…

Cheers.

 

[Victor3Ranger1]

I prefer no exit, I want all the energy expended inside.

 

[birddog 68]

Use the eldm instead. Apparently it works wonders at creedmoor velocity.

 

[bill123]

If the bullets didn't expand and just "penciled through", I'd expect those deer to go a alot farther than "less than 50yds". Small exit holes don't necessarily mean that the bullets didn't properly expand. Nosler Partition bullets often leave small exit holes, and they normally shed their noses off completely.

What did the deer's lungs (or whatever you hit) look like when the deer was field dressed?

Decent amount of internal damage. I'm just concerned about the size of the exit wound and zero blood trail.

 

[bill123]

I prefer to see at least a golf ball sized exit hole. But you need velocity to get expansion like that. I've noticed that bullets perform better once you get somewhere around 2800. Always get good exit hole with my 270 WSM at 3080 fps.

That probably explains why my handloads seemed to leave a better blood trail.