Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Your 6.5x55 Swede deer loads

Getting ready to load for my new Tikka T3 6.5x55 for the first time. Please tell me what you recommend for deer hunting.....

1. Your best 120 grain bullet, powder and charge, accuracy

2. Your best 129/130 grain bullet, powder and charge, accuracy

3. Your best 140 grain bullet, powder and charge, accuracy

4. Your overall favorite load for deer hunting

5. Effectiveness, ranges?

Thank you in advance.

This will be a good thread for me to check back on. I have a Swede to load for also. Good luck.

These are from my wife's Tikka T3 6.5x55


1. 120 gr Ballistic Tip - 46 gr H 4350 groups well under an inch most of the time, when it is over that it's because I screwed up.

2. Haven't worked with 130's much but in my 260 the 130 gr Accubond is my favourite.

3. 140 gr Partition or Ballistic Tip - 47 gr IMR 4955 groups under 1 inch. Substitute the 140 gr Hornady SST with 44 gr H 4350 for another great load.

4. The bullet I like best is the 130 gr Accubond for any size deer that walks. For the smaller deer we normally shoot the 120 gr Ballistic Tip has done very well for my wife, I really like the 140 gr Ballistic Tip too.

5. We have only shot them up to around 200 yards so far but there have been no complaints with any of these loads.

I killed two deer with the 6.5x5 using the Rem. 140 gr. pspcl at about 2650 fps, two with the Hornady 160 round nose ,and one with the Hornady 140 psp. All bullets went through bone and continued on all the way through the deer. None were over 150 yards away. The 160's were traveling at 2500 fps at the muzzle.

Just worked up a 1904 Carl Gustav model 96. Shoots half inch, three quarter inch groups with Hornady factory 140 grain loads. Want to see what it does with 140 grain Noslers and always heard RL-22 was the real deal. I'll be giving it a try today.

All shot out of a Tikka T3 lite:


140 gr Accubond 51.5 gr H1000, BR2 primer, 2673 FPS, ES 3 FPS, 1/2" accuracy favorite elk load

120 Ballistic Tip, 44.5 gr RL17, BR2primer, 2800 fps, ES not recorded, 5/8" accuracy, favorite deer load

Have any of you used Hornady 123 Amax on deer? I have a bunch of them on hand.

and speaking of Blue Dot.

and if 30/30 speeds will work for ya... with 100, 120 or 129 grain bullets...

20 to 24 grains ( work up) of Blue Dot will do the trick...

30 grains of IMR 4198 or RL 7 will also work real well at those ranges ( and beyond)
with minimal recoil for ladies or kids...

I hunt wooded areas, so I have a habit of carrying a load like that in my 1919 Carl Gustav Swede...
with its 29 inch barrel...

i've used the 129 Hornady SP for a bunch of deer and though I don't have my notes in front of me I know it was a near maximum load of RL-22. I've used the 140 Hornady SP and A-Max for deer, again with a maximum load of RL-22. These all worked perfectly. I switched 5 or so years ago to 139 Scenars and have put them through moose, which are technically deer. I've tried a number of powders and normally return to RL-22 or N560 for my Swede loads.

Tikka T3 Lite SS 6.5x55 with Zeiss Diavari 3-9x36
120g NBT over 49.0g R-19 0.4" @ 100yds. Haven't chrono'ed it yet.
This is 0.5g over book max.

My 1895 shoots inch groups with 130gr NAB,
48gr H4831sc,
Win Brass
and WMRP.

That's with iron sights.
Scoped Tikka's like this load as well.

M70 action with 22" Pac-Nor barrel

125 grn Nosler Partition
48.5 R19
Win Brass
Fed 210 primer

5 shot mean 2838 fps