Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 156 gr 6.5 Lapua Mega or Norma Oryx bullets

I've read Mule Deer's Handloader Magazine article that talks a bit about the Megas out of the 6.5 Creedmoor, but was wondering if anyone has used either of these bullets and would relate their experience with them.
Thanks!

I’ve never used the Megas however I have used the Oryx at 2450fps in a 6.5 Swede. These are great bullets for any angle shots. I’ve yet to catch one. 1 cow Elk, 6 wild pigs and 3 average sized Mule deer. Mostly behind the near shoulder through the opposing shoulder shots. Good luck and enjoy! Tom

I have shot both out of a 6.5x55. The Mega, factory Lapua load, took a whitetail at about 100 yds. Hit her just behind the shoulder and she dropped and kicked once. Lungs trashed, heart damaged. I never found either the bullet or an exit wound. The Oryx, again factory load, took a nice 11 pt this year at about 100 yards. Quartering to me a bit, hit just above the back of the knee, trashed the lungs and exited just behind the diaphragm. He went 70 yards but most of that was downhill into a deep gully. I did not realize when I shot how much he was quartering to me, probably should have put it up into the plexus but worked fine.

My sense is the Mega is a little softer but neither hit any big bones. Both did the job, I suspect from my limited experience the Mega might be a bit better on whitetails, the Oryx a bit better on larger animals. I have some Sake deerslayer rounds that are next up to bat for whitetails.

RAS

My experience with with 180 Oryx is that it is quite soft.

I've had excellent results out of the Alaska and Oryx from Norma. I've played with the Mega enough that I would have no issue running it on elk and moose...I think I have a few boxes of them around somewhere. I also killed an elk with the now discontinued 160 grain sierra Semi-point before I got on the internet and found such things impossible. All of that experience was with a short barreled 6.5x55.

I bought a creedmoor last week and am intrigued by the S&B 156 soft point and suspect it would be excellent for elk and moose if your gun likes them.

Thank you all for the responses.

Would like to hear your definition of "soft."

Mule Deer, I was just thinking the same thing regarding the statement by dennisinaz. I guess if a feller shoots 180 grain solids, then yes, by comparison a Norma Oryx would probably be considered "soft."

I've a pile of 156 gr. Oryx and 160 gr. Weldcore. I've managed to collect 3 lbs of N555 and going to see how they perform together.

Massive expansion, lots of missing pieces. All were factory ammo in 308 Winchester

Most bonded bullets expand a lot, which is why they make big holes.

I've used Oryxes in both North America and Africa in several calibers from 6.5mm up. The few recovered have averaged right around 90% retained weight.

What barrel twist rate does it take to stabilize 156 grain and 160 grain bullets in a 6.5x55 SE?

I don't doubt that. My only concern is that the massive expansion seemed to limit penetration .
Again. My only experience is with 180 grain 308 Factory ammo.

Yes, frontal expansion has at least as much effect on penetration as weight retention. This has been demonstrated many times. But wider frontal expansion also makes a bigger hole through the vitals, which tends to kill quicker.

If penetration was the major "killing" criteria for big game bullets, then we'd be using solids for everything.

Never had an Oryx fail to penetrate sufficiently to kill game, which is why those I've recovered all came from dead animals. One good example was a wildebeest bull shot frontally at around 250 with a 156 started at around 2650 from a 7x57. The bull went about 35-40 yards.

I cannot tell you absolutely what rate it takes but from experience with 156g bullets in my 2 6.5x55s (a Ruger No 1 RSI & a Steyr Mountain Rifle) 1:8 twist does a fine job with the 156g Oryx or Mega I mentioned previously. I have put a fair number (>20) of each into targets and one Mega from the Steyr and one Oryx from the Ruger into live game, and all sure shot where aimed and none exhibited any indicia of instability.

RAS