Factory Bullet Recommendations for 6.5 Creedmoor

[ARlife4me]

It's almost comical that many on here disavow fmj's, but use target bullets when companies state "not for use in hunting" (or something like that or too the effect). So, if it works, it works!

 

[catch 22]

My favorite 6.5 bullet is the 125 Nosler Partition followed by the 129 SST, and honorable mention goes to the 140 Grand Slam. Hornady American Whitetail is about as good as any "hunting" factory ammo.

 

[redneckbmxer24]

I was surprised to see it took til page 5 to see the ELD-M's mentioned. Given they perform similarly to my beloved Bergers and tend to shoot great out of many rifles, I expected to see it as a front runner.

I've been thinking of trying the LRX in my 300WM. It's seen almost exclusively TTSX but I just finished getting a reload setup together and was thinking of keeping it a Barnes bullets gun.

OP- I'd recommend trying a few of the different recommendations and seeing what groups best in your gun. All should work well for deer and smaller. I'd look to the heavier options if elk is a consideration.

The LRX has a considerably lower minimum expansion velocity than the TTSX. Even if you cut your shots off where you'd never dip below the minimum with the TTSX the LRX is still going to expand significantly more than the TTSX at that same speed. Both of them have pretty minimal expansion once you get down to the bottom of the threshold and you really need to be about 300fps above it to achieve full expansion. IMO that's the biggest advantage to them, the BC increase isn't significant.

I wouldn't be surprised if the CX becomes my new favorite though, it has an even lower minimum expansion than the LRX and in the heavier 7mm variety their 160gr has a higher BC than the 168gr LRX at .596 vs .550. In the 6.5's the 127gr LRX (.468) and 130gr CX (.489) are close enough that it's likely a wash in real world use.

 

[Mickp7]

The LRX has a considerably lower minimum expansion velocity than the TTSX. Even if you cut your shots off where you'd never dip below the minimum with the TTSX the LRX is still going to expand significantly more than the TTSX at that same speed. Both of them have pretty minimal expansion once you get down to the bottom of the threshold and you really need to be about 300fps above it to achieve full expansion. IMO that's the biggest advantage to them, the BC increase isn't significant.

I wouldn't be surprised if the CX becomes my new favorite though, it has an even lower minimum expansion than the LRX and in the heavier 7mm variety their 160gr has a higher BC than the 168gr LRX at .596 vs .550. In the 6.5's the 127gr LRX (.468) and 130gr CX (.489) are close enough that it's likely a wash in real world use.

Appreciate the information!

 

[redneckbmxer24]

It's almost comical that many on here disavow fmj's, but use target bullets when companies state "not for use in hunting" (or something like that or too the effect). So, if it works, it works!

That's not a fair comparison at all. There's a vast difference in the wound channel and lethality of a match bullet even if it starts fragmenting instantly vs an FMJ even if it tumbles which is the best case scenario. Unless that FMJ is .5" or **** close to it I'll take the match bullet every time if I want something to die. I'll even take a SMK that in my experience it one of the worst performing match bullets as far as terminal performance because at least it will usually expand or fragment 50% of the time.

FMJ's have no business being shot at anything but a steel plate or paper in applications where accuracy isn't paramount. I wouldn't even use them for hunting groundhogs because I'm had more of them crawl away with 55gr FMJ's than 22LR with hollow points.

 

[FEENIX]

The 1500ftlbs thing is basically fuddlore at this point unless you're still using 50 year old bullet technology, it really isn't applicable to modern bullet designs at all. There's some good info on this stuff out there from ballisticians that know way more than random people on the internet. Hornady has some really good podcasts that touch on this and what actually kills.

That's why I clearly noted it as "my" unwritten rule. Nowhere did I try to convince anyone to do the same.

 

[ARlife4me]

That's not a fair comparison at all. There's a vast difference in the wound channel and lethality of a match bullet even if it starts fragmenting instantly vs an FMJ even if it tumbles which is the best case scenario. Unless that FMJ is .5" or **** close to it I'll take the match bullet every time if I want something to die. I'll even take a SMK that in my experience it one of the worst performing match bullets as far as terminal performance because at least it will usually expand or fragment 50% of the time.

FMJ's have no business being shot at anything but a steel plate or paper in applications where accuracy isn't paramount. I wouldn't even use them for hunting groundhogs because I'm had more of them crawl away with 55gr FMJ's than 22LR with hollow points.

State's why shot placement is paramount, but even that doesn't mean it will kill! Plenty of stories on this forum and others stat will back this up! The largest hog I killed weighed around 300# and was dropped and killed with 1 shot of m193. So, no lecture about fmj's lethality!

 

[redneckbmxer24]

State's why shot placement is paramount, but even that doesn't mean it will kill! Plenty of stories on this forum and others stat will back this up! The largest hog I killed weighed around 300# and was dropped and killed with 1 shot of m193. So, no lecture about fmj's lethality!

And it was probably a CNS shot which is irrelevant outside of scenarios where that is possible. Yeah if you take a CNS shot like is common at short range on hogs anything will work. That's not what's being discussed here and this is a long range hunting website and it would be completely unethical to take a shot like that on a big game animal beyond a few hundred yards. I've night hunted hogs with plenty of people shooting them with FMJ enough times to know that vital shots with FMJ's almost always results in the animal not being found whereas the people shooting expanding or fragmenting bullets result in a hog DRT, flopping on the ground and dead in a fed seconds, or run but dead in 20-50 yards.

 

[ARlife4me]

And it was probably a CNS shot which is irrelevant outside of scenarios where that is possible. Yeah if you take a CNS shot like is common at short range on hogs anything will work. That's not what's being discussed here and this is a long range hunting website and it would be completely unethical to take a shot like that on a big game animal beyond a few hundred yards. I've night hunted hogs with plenty of people shooting them with FMJ enough times to know that vital shots with FMJ's almost always results in the animal not being found whereas the people shooting expanding or fragmenting bullets result in a hog DRT, flopping on the ground and dead in a fed seconds, or run but dead in 20-50 yards.

I've seem to found the all might all knowing Oz. Send all pm's to this member and all correct answers will made......................yikes


what other skills and knowledge do you possess for us unskilled and less knowledgeable members here that know what works for us individually

 

[redneckbmxer24]

I've seem to found the all might all knowing Oz. Send all pm's to this member and all correct answers will made......................yikes


what other skills and knowledge do you possess for us unskilled and less knowledgeable members here that know what works for us individually

What a weird response, you literally started talking about 556 FMJ use in a thread about 6.5mm bullets. Your individual beliefs do not change facts and the facts are that FMJ bullets are not as lethal as other bullet designs. I mean you can just look at geneva convention prohibiting use of expanding bullets because of their lethality and it's the main reason behind FMJ's use case.

Why don't you start a thread about hunting with FMJ bullets or at least find a thread about .22 cal bullets to tell people how good FMJ bullets are for hunting if you want to go there?

 

[SSG Graybush]

Hello,
I was wondering if anyone had some good bullet recommendations for 6.5 creedmoor? I am going to start to use a rifle in that caliber to hunt with and don't have a ton of experience with that caliber. The main three options that I am looking at right now are:

Nosler Accubond 140 grain
Berger EOL Elite Hunter 156 grain
Hornady ELD-X Precision Hunter 143 grain

I have shot both the accubond's and ELD-X's in different calibers, though I have had more experience with accubonds and have been pleased with the results they have given me. I would be mainly hunting pronghorn, sheep/goats, and mule deer with this rifle. And maybe even elk at some point but the other species are the main targets for this rifle setup. Please let me know what you think and if you have a completely different choice of bullet, please share that as well. Any and all info is welcome and appreciated. Thank you!

I would use a Barnes ttsx or lrx or a Nosler AB or BT unless I was gonna shoot alot past 500 then I'd use a Berger.

 

[skipglo]

IMHO Hornady 143 eld-x.....throw the rest away...! Singularly the most accurate factory ammunition I've had the pleasure to shoot or have seen shot....could be just us! I wouldn't even reload these if it wasn't for the price difference! Love em.

 

[lancetkenyon]

Negative! My point, as noted, is "Whichever bullet choice you choose, know its limitations at POI for the game you will hunt." My unwritten rule is 1500 FT-LBS and greater than the minimum recommended velocity (>1600 FPS) for the bullet to expand effectively at POI—for instance, Berger's 6.5 CM factory ammo with 156 Berger.
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At my altitude.
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So, per my unwritten rule, my POI is 550Y. Even though the velocity is still >1600 FPS at 1000Y, the 1500 FT-LBS threshold is 550Y.

With those numbers, I would consider that load an 840ish yard deer/pronghorn cartridge. 1800fps & 1000ft/lbs minimum. For elk, the 1500ft/lbs makes tons of sense.

 

[ARlife4me]

What a weird response, you literally started talking about 556 FMJ use in a thread about 6.5mm bullets. Your individual beliefs do not change facts and the facts are that FMJ bullets are not as lethal as other bullet designs. I mean you can just look at geneva convention prohibiting use of expanding bullets because of their lethality and it's the main reason behind FMJ's use case.

Why don't you start a thread about hunting with FMJ bullets or at least find a thread about .22 cal bullets to tell people how good FMJ bullets are for hunting if you want to go there?

At the time it was the only firearm that I shot was chambered for it. Now I have fmj/tmj's in these calibers (22, 24, 26, 28, 30 & 33) of rifle only. I've read about why fmj's are used per military stand point, but not limited too as hp's are also used.