Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles bullet for whitetail A-frame, TSX. or partitions

in a 6.5x55 I am having trouble deciding anyone want to chim in

Any of those bullets ought to kill a whitetail .

Biggest whitetail I ever killed I shot with a Speer 130 Bt out of a .280. He was a corn-fed North Missouri buck that ran somewhere over 275 lbs on the hoof.

In my experience...the good cup-and-core bullets -- Hornady, Speer, etc -- work just fine on deer and similar-sized game.

IF you want to go to a higher grade bullet, that, of course, is your privilege .

DN

of those I'd choose the NP if it shoots. Hornady's are great too for that purpose.

geeze,

i didnt know those texas deer where that tough

are you going to handload?
if so i would pick another bullet if you are just targeting whitetail


already have loads worked up?
hunt with the one that shoots the best

all 3 will do a great job, i would personally choose a tsx out of the ones you mentioned

Aframes are quite stiff for a whitetail, The TSX is a lot of bullet as well for Deer. Partitions are the base line of premium bullets on earth and where I start to look for advanced performance over common cup and core bullets.

For me, the Hornady interbond is a softer bonded core bullet that is deadly accurate and opens quite easy. Tey are less expensive the the Partition as well.

The TSX bullet is not to be tossed aside. That is a darn fine projectile ahich offers any angle performance on Deer.

If I were going to hunt whitetails exclusively, I wouldn't probably use any of those premium bullets, unless they were to be moved out the barrel at excessive velocity, or unless they provided an accuracy edge over anything else.

One of my rifles, that I use exclusively for deer and antelope, shoots Barnes TSX bullets, because of both of the above reasons.

Any good conventional bullet ought to work just fine.

I'd shoot the 120 Ballistic Tip outa that Swede! Seen a lot of deer and pronghorn shot with 100-115 ballistic tips out of 6mms and fast 25s... never recovered one, and I can't recall a critter that didn't go down in a big hurry. No need for a 'premium' bullet on a 100-150 pound whitetail. ~JT

In the 6.5x55 I have killed a pile of Texas whitetails and an even bigger pile of feral hogs with both the 129 and 140 grain Hornady Interlocks and also the 125 Nosler partition. As far as performance I really could not tell much difference between the three and have pretty much settled on the 129 Hornady. At 6.5x55 velocitys I personally don't think you really need a "premium" bullet. But if I had to pick from your list I would go with the partition.

Hornady Interlocks, Speer Hot Cors, Nosler Ballistic tips would be on my short list. The lower velocities you are getting out of the Swede does not justify the use of premium bullets. My personal rule for going premium is if impact velocities are over 2800 FPS. The 125 gr Partition would be the one I would pick of the ones you mentioned if you are stuck on having a premium. The 130 Accubond and the 130 Scirroco could be good choices as well.

I've killed a truckload of Texas Whitetails with a Swede....
I used to use a 140 Partition until I had my rifle re-barreled.
It didn't like my old load so I ended up shooting the 120gr. Speer Hot-Cor...I've yet to recover one and they shoot great....

Not trying to pretend that I am an expert, only being some sort of an experienced hunter who has shot a couple head of game during the last 25 years in Austria I would say that generally your choice depends on where you hunt and what you hunt and if you need to bring the animal down immediately or if you can afford to have the animal run a few yards.
In the first case, and thats the most common scenario in the places I hunt (open border to Hungary for example.....) I would always choose a 140 grs. Partition and go for high shoulder shot. Therefor you need a bullet that will penetrate deep to ensure braking eventually the spine and also the bones in the offside shoulder.

In the second case I've had very good results with the 129 grs. Inerlock's, well placed shortly behind the shoulder.

Just my 2 cents....

Nosler Ballistic Tips and Hornady SSTs work really well in the velocity range that you are dealing with. Both are easy to get to shoot accurately. As was pointed out, all you named will work, but are not necessarily needed...

wow thanks everyone. My reason behind the "premium" is well I am handloading so why not??:) and I will be using this load for a very large group of feral hogs that look like small cows last year we shot one 6'6 from nose to tail and I would guess he weighed in at about 2000 lbs!! (well thats what he felt like when I rolled him over to see the exit wound) any way he was big.

[quote=ShootOne]geeze,

i didnt know those texas deer where that tough


Your mamma didnt tell you everything was bigger in Texas

Then your list of bullets makers perfect sense. Any of them will work, except maybe the 100-grain Nosler Partition, and I wouldn't even bet against that. The Partition is designed both to expand rapidly (the front end), which makes a bigger initial hole and helps kill deer-sized game more quickly. Then the rear 2/3 drives on in deeply. It might be the best choice to do dual duty, though I have killed a pile of deer with the 120 X from a 6.5x55.

JB

Sierra...

2000 lbs???

I would love to see a picture of a verified 500lb free ranging boar from Texas. I asked this on another board over a year ago and I haven't seen a picture yet! There might be some, but no pictures so far. To answer your question, I hunt with a 7x57. It's close to the 6.5x55. I use a 150gn Partition for both deer and pigs. I guess that would about equal the 140 in the 6.5. capt david

You didnt notice?? I said he felt like 2000 lbs at 10:00 PM Dec 21st 2005 39 Degrees at the deer camp after a 1" thick angus steak, mashed potatoes, biskets, corn on the cob and 3 glasses of sweet tea

he was probly more in the 250-300 range but there aint no frikin scales at the deer camp its all about how they "feel"

by the way 140 gr partitions here we come thanks everyone for your help