Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Nosler 6.5 142 grain LRAB

Thanks, Fotis.

I get 2956 to 2982 fps with 54 gr H4350 in 6.5-06 24" ratchet rifling 8" twist barrel.

Quickload predicts 2977 fps

My neighbor whom I go on hog safari with almost every evening has acquired a 6.5 Grendel which he mounted on his previous .223 lower. After a little trying we settled on a load with Nosler 129 Accubond LR. The man that butchered the hogs taken with this loading reported them to have disintegrated bullets in them. Is the Nosler Accubond LR unduly frangible at Grendel speeds? I might note that one the hogs in question was hit at close to 300 yards. We don't have a known muzzle velocity but I don't think it could be exceptional with the 18 inch barrel and loaded with 28.5 grains of SRB 118 powder. So far the hogs have been going down pretty quick but I would hope a big game bullet would hold together. Shots on hogs are sometimes not precision and we need them gone so we take shots as they are presented. This week has been a very productive week for hogs after I had recently bragged about how we had just about gotten rid of 'em.

129's do well on deer out of a 6.5 creed and 6.5x47L seated close to the lands.

129's seem easy to tune in several rifles. They are a heck of a lot better bullet than a 130 berger on deer, IF you want penetration with expansion. They are made to expand at long range. They kill the living hell out of anything you shoot.

I have not got to the 142's yet, 6.5/06 is about ready with R#26.

I've been trying to workup a load for my 6.5 SAUM and the 142gn ABLRs.

This rifle will shoot 130gn Berger VLD-H into a nice group, usually under .4 MOA, sometimes as little as .3 MOA at 200m.

The ABLRs have been erratic at best. Finally worked out they like a looong jump of 120thou. At 3030fps the best I've managed is just under .5 MOA, with an average of just under .6 MOA.

Labradar measurements tell me that the G7 BC is .306 from 20 to 100m. A bit less than the advertised numbers and closer to the current revised numbers, but still less than the .315 currently listed.

Any hints for what I should be doing because I'm about out of answers.

Our experience indicated that a longer jump was more accurate with the 129 ABLR. I do not have a measurement on COAL to set the bullet to the lands, but We first went for magazine length and then backed up about 30/1000 which yielded a tighter group. I have not autopsied a wild hog shot with this load, but the man we gave them to reported unusual fragmentation of the bullet which I would not expect of a Nosler ABLR launched at under 2600 fps. I have used .308 caliber Nosler AB that were pretty tough bullets.

LRAB is made to expand at long distances, hence they are not as stout at short range, still dead is dead. I found the same results that the std Accubond is tougher, and this is the way nosler made them. We have never had bad killing experiences from the LRAB in 6.5,7mm, or 30 caliber.


The fact that they open up quickly means very dead stuff, REAL QUICK.


A barrel is going to like what it likes. So, don't get married to a bullet. If OAL to the lands and mag length are killing you,LEARN from this throat geometry with the intention of making changes on your next build. Then change to a different ogive design AFTER you have tried jumping a bullet.

If you can't get the 142's to shoot well, , then change to a 143 eld X. I have had great luck with them in 8T barrels.

I seat the 129 LRAB .005 off the lands, accuracy is excellent at 3/8" in 6.5 creed and 6.5x47 Lapua. A friend is shooting the 129g LRAB on deer in his 26 Nosler, no complaints on deer or accuracy...factory loads.

If you don't have a VLD type of seater stem in your bullet seater, get one.

I'm surprised to hear about fragmentation of the 129 ABLR from a mild round. I had exits on every deer this year, at fairly close range, one at a hard angle taking out a shoulder. These were all from a 6.5 CM.

After a dozen or so deer and hogs, I've only stopped two 129's, and they were on head-on chest shots. Everything else passed through. And like Keith mentions, my 6.5x47L liked them just off the lands (2900fps MV). They kill pretty quickly, on average, with the regular Accubonds indeed being a bit tougher. Haven't caught one of them in 6.5mm.







Weight retention was around 70%.

I bought 20 boxes of the 129's and 10 of the 142's...have not got around to the 142's.

The 129's put the bang flop on a deer and hog.

JPro, could you show a top view picture of the Loaded round in that detachable magazine? Looks like you have "chasing throat geometry" to spare!

Seems like the 129's just might be the least finicky or all of the ABLR line when it comes to accuracy judging from all the posts here and at the Nosler site. I know they shot well in my 260 so I might just need to get some more one day. Ton's of great 6.5 mm bullets around these days though.

Admittedly I am reporting on a small sample that I did not observe the skinning/gutting process on, and the hogs were killed very dead. Since we have over a hundred more of these ABLR 129s and they are very accurate we will keep shooting hogs with them. I would guess since my neighbor and I shoot 150 to 200 hogs a year we'll know more about this bullet before long.

Gerry, the 175g 7mm was easy to tune, also.

Have found the ABLR's relatively easy to "tune" in a good rifle, usually by seating 'em deeper.

They generally retain around 50% of their weight, plus or minus 10%, depending on impact velocity. This is about like some other bullets that are well-respected on the Campfire, such as the Hornady Interlock Spire Point.

But any bullet that loses half its weight does indeed partially "fragment," so am not amazed that some hunters are finding bullet fragments after shooting big game with ABLR's. In fact I'm not amazed when finding "fragments" of just about any expanding bullet, even some that supposedly don't fragment. This is about as astonishing as the fact that fire is hot.

Have also noticed over the years that bullet fragments are generally found in dead animals. The overall trend is the more fragmentation, the quicker the animal dies, as long as the bullet penetrated through vital tissue.

But apparently the "modern" notion is that any fragmentation is bad, and only bullets that retain all their weight, or exit, kill well.

I was making assumptions. I was considering fragmentation more along the line of the "disintegration" originally mentioned in the post, which to me is "there's nothing left but parts of the jacket and no solid core left, even separated"....an assumption on my part. I'd also assumed that the man who did the butchering was a processor who often processed shot game and would have been familiar with the usual bits and pieces left behind by most bullets but that this was different enough for him to comment. .....again, an assumption on my part.

I was talking with Keith about these LRAB bullets and how they fit in short action magazine boxes, so here's a couple of pics to further illustrate the 129gr version. My 6.5x47L was put together by LRI and I believe it was their .123FB reamer. The LRAB is just off the lands with my loads at 2.740". This was originally done to allow maximum latitude in a SA 700 BDL box, but I later moved to a DBM setup, first with a MagPul stock and them with a Bergara HMR take-off stock (which I like far better).

MagPul magazines allow a 2.85"-ish OAL. Here's Hornady 6.5CM 140gr HPBT factory ammo on the left (2.795") and my 6.5x47L handloads on the right (2.740"). Were I building that rifle today, intending to use a DBM setup from the start, I'd go 6.5CM with the shortest throat I could get away with that would allow factory ammo. For a factory mag box, it is tough to beat the 6.5x47L.



Good geometry with the 129gr and a .123 freebore reamer.

.123 FB is what I use on my 6.5x47L also. I believe that a guy could get away with .090 FB shooting this bullet.

The 129 lrab is a bullet worth building a rifle around, depending on the distances you will be shooting. 143 Hornady eldx works great with the .123 freebore also, again with R#26 and a cci 450.

4 year old thread?

That was back when I was young and handsome, and had not killed anything with accubonds yet.

I can't find these in stock (6.5mm 152 ABLRs) - anyone know where to find them? Thanks. Also can't find the 168 gr .30 cal ABLRs, dang it. Not in stock anyhow.

Try 142gr....