Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule deer, 6.5x55 enough gun for Large Canadian Whitetails?

Anyone have any field experience with the 140 Gamekings? They shoot well in my rifle as do the 155 Mega. The mega worked great about 2 weeks ago on a nice whitetail at 150 yards. Gamekings shoot well in my rifle and I think they would be great for longer shots.

They work just fine. Any cup and core does with the Swede. I prefer the Speed Hot Core or the Hornady Interlock. My personal favorite is the Nosler partition. I do think the Gameking is the softest of the lot, but they work fine.

I wish they still made the 140 Hot Cors.

In fact, I prefer the 140 Sierras for deer. IME, they do more damage that either Speer Hot Cors or Hornady Spire Points, which leads me to believe they tend to expand a bit more/easier. Modest velocity loads is where the Sierra bullets shine. According to the loading manuals, my 140 grain loads from my 6.5x55s are supposedly going a bit less than 2600 fps.

I use both the GKs and Interlocks, 140s and have found them both excellent at 2700 or 2750. They really put a deer down as well as giving good accuracy.

This Canadian uses a 22/250 and 257Roberts for deer. The 375s are for moose and tactical Sasquatch defence.

I'm thinkin' you'll be golden with your 6.5.

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I have never owned nor shot a 6.5x55 but have used the 7/08 and 7x57 which are similar....I'd just stick a 125 Partition in the 6.5 and happily hunt any Canadian whitetail with it.

They may be big,but IME they drop to a 270 as well as they do a 300 magnum, and I see no reason the 6.5 shouldn't work as well.

Sounds like a good practical choice for them to me.

I shoot 140 SGK's as well with RE22 out of a Tikka T3 6.5 Swede with barrel twist 1-8". I agree 100% with OldRooster, very accurate and great terminal performance on deer and hogs.

Scott, Another bullet to consider for longer range shots (if your gun is 1-8" twist) is the 140 Berger Hunting VLD. These shoot a ragged cloverleaf at 100yds in my Tikka. I've harvested several hogs out to 200yds with this bullet in factory ammo produced by HSM ammo. They sell direct on the web and through MidwayUSA. Performance on game has been excellent.

Mine is 1-9" twist. I emailed Berger a few weeks ago and they told me the 130 Hunting VLD would barely stabilize in a 1-9" twist. Maybe I will try the 130s when they are back in stock.

no kidding....I can't do that with legit half minute rifles