Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Tell us about your 6.5-06

I agree on this fight is pooping me out. I used to think if a max load was good... a little more was a little better. Maybe I was just pushing the bullets to fast and hitting at to close range. ANY WAY I want to wish everybody a happy new year and hope you get all the draw tags you can afford. Like I said earlier, my son lives in Anchorage and the last of May I am heading up there for a boat hunt on Prince William sound for black bear and if we tag out soon enuf one of his buddies has had a brown bear hanging around his place for a couple of years. Be tooooo cool to get both bears. As long as he packs everything out for the old man. Stay safe.

M1Garand,

I rather think our experiences are more alike than opposite. Your experience with the 270 at the velocities you loaded is much like my experience with other bullets loaded to that velocity level. One very important thing I neglected to mention in my post is that back in those early days, I loaded my ammo hot. As long as I could open the bolt by hand I kept adding powder until I got CHE over 5 tenths or sooty primers, then backed down a half grain and finished the batch. I never chronographed those loads, but given the ejector marks on the headstamps and the loose, sooty primer pockets, it would not surprise me to find out that those 130gr Sierras were traveling 3200 fps or more.

I like to think I have learned a few things since those days. Most importantly, I no longer load "hot" (along with a few other stupid things I no longer do). I also learned, by experience and by listening to experts, that bullet terminal performance is determined by three main factors: 1- Bullet parameters, chiefly construction; 2- Impact velocity, and; 3- Target density, or "toughness." We can stretch one of these factors occasionally and probably get by with very few failures. But push all three past the limit and we're gonna get burned. By shooting a buck square in the shoulders with a lightly-constructed bullet at over 3000 fps, I definitely stretched all three factors, and I got burned. Fortunately, my buck was "sick" enough from having his front shoulder destroyed that he laid down within a few hundred yards and let me find him and finish the deal.

You know, when we all express our individual experiences truthfully and without excess emotion and embellishment, it appears that all our experiences are similar. The truth always rings out. It's just sometimes hard to distinguish from all the emotion (humerous posts aside, of course).

M1Garand
I live in S.E. Iowa. The largest part of the 200 fell to shotgun slugs. Till a few years ago we couldn't use rifles here. Now we have a short season in January we can shoot does with rifles. My son got me into bows about 10 years ago and I kind of got away from the guns and am just now getting back into them . The rifle kills were hunting in other states hunting with family and friends... Mo, Wy, Id,SD and the like. Had alot of fun over the years. Now it is about impossible to find a place to hunt unless you own or rent the ground. I have Lee and Tiffany Lacoski right across the road on 1800 acres. Talk about a bad dream. The first deer I killed with the bow, I can almost see the tree I was sitting in from my front deck. Now it is off limits. That buck is on my wall and measured 170 3/8 gross. Main frame 10 with some trash making him a 14 point. Now I am surrounded by outfitters with food plots and big wallets. As soon as the crops come off our ground the deer move and we rarly see much after that.

Feel your pain . I started deer hunting Iowa in 1990.Most farmers would let you hunt. I always brought salmon, sausage, booze as a gift for allowing us to hunt. About 5 years ago the word out with all of the celebutards, hunting shows. Lost the lease to one of these idiots. Real shame now a deer hunt runs around 4-5 K.

Now that's some irony...

Ribca
YA and if you can keep them off your property and stealing your tree stands. They had to cross their own NO TRESSPASSING sign to steal my climber. I went and got it back. They said they didn't think it needed to be there. A guy I work with was sitting in his own stand on his own property and he kept hearing a weird noise. After 2 hours of it he got down and went to see what was going on. There were dryer sheets on the fence by every post and a guy was walking up and down the fence banging on trees with a pan to keep the deer from crossing on to his property. They have land by my dad and they hired 2 people to patrol the fence line on 4 wheelers. Was @ the bow shop last year and a guy in there said he got video of them stealing his stand. Can you say GREED !!

ackley33806, I feel your pain to an extent. Texas has some small national forests in east texas other than that it is deer lease only and those are getting ridiculous. Before long if you aren't a suit you won't hunt. IMHO

ackley33806,

Are you saying that the Lakoskys are responsible for stealing your treestand, and for harassing your work friend while he was hunting?

I commented on what the OP was asking about at the start of this thread, but had not looked at it for some time. After clicking on it this morning and reading it from where I last left off until here, I felt the need to comment further.

I totally agree with Bob and John's oft-quoted comments. They are spot-on. There is not much wiggle room, if any. I have shot a lot of deer and antelope with a number of 270's over the years with all of the bullets listed earlier. I have not lost a single deer that I can recall, but the majority were taken with a Partition. I have also taken a number of deer and antelope with the three different 6.5-06's with the same results as the 270. And I have taken deer with the 6.5x55 Swede. Same results. I do not think a single animal taken with these three cartridges would have died any quicker by using one or the other of the three. Properly hit, the results were the same. However, any marginal hit resulted in needing to use tracking skills for varying distances. Our family group shoots primarily 270's with the same exact results I have witnessed on a personal level.

Lakoskys them selves did not steel my tree stand . Their hired man that puts in their food plots and such did it.... BUT they hired him and the other people too. They have no trespassing signs on trees about every 50 yards. One of the guys at work went to the IA whitetail classic and sat in on their little class. Someone asked them how many trail cams they had and how many were too many. Lee said they had like 250 and were buying more. He said he catches alot of people trespassing and was proud of his antics. I understand in his business you have to protect yourself but when it gets to the point of them trespassing to steal other peoples property, something is wrong with his thinking. About 1/2 half mile from my house, they had a guy just park and sit in a drive way to a field for all of early shotgun season. It is business but if you think about it, all the land the hord is land some kid can't go squirrel hunting on. I don't think they shoot does and you should drive by their massive food plots and see the does. We counted over 150 in one field while we sat in one spot along the road

BR, I should clarify, I meant that I'd had all of my shots pass through on deer and never recovered a bullet. I agree with your other points.

Just to catch up,I'll play with bullet seating a bit,but this load was a hummer!Four groups under an inch...!!

Cocadori,

Below is an image of my latest 6.5-06 from Roger...



Enjoy! Targets later.

Can't keep deer from runnin off with a 270.....lol
This lil feller(not so lil now) had no issues. Course he does shoot well

Yeah, exactly. I don't like the .270. I don't have any reason, I just don't like it. (Pay no attention to the four in my safe.) A 6.5-06 or .280 are much better, because I said so.

So there.



I am in the initial stages of getting a .264 Whelen put together... R700 ADL, probably a 24" fluted Benchmark tube, Mickey KS stock, Timney or Shilen trigger, S&K or Talley mounts, depending on what scope I decide to use (the S&B Summit is out, because of BobinNH and JGRaider pimping it so much the price went up $500 )

Just go mine yesterday!

pert near the same rifle!
Spoke with Roger this morning! Says you've had great results!
Looking forward to trippin' the trigger on mine!

ya know J once these guys figure out the 270 can't keep pace with the 6.5-06 we might have to wait longer for our next rifle with roger...laffin'

Yours sports a Shilen mine has a Rock.

While you Laddy O's are doing bunny hugs over trying to beat one of the world's greatest BG cartridges with an obscure invention that ain't seent the light of day as a factory cartridge....can you guys do me a favor,since I suck at math?

Sure looks to me like those lovely 6.5/06 rifles have barrels with faster twists than 98% of the 270's out there(twisted 10 since 1925);and the barrels sure look to me like 26" jobs,as compared to most 270's being 22".And I bet your comparisons might be based on 6.5 bullets with BC's in the .600's as compared to 270 slugs in the .400's or there abouts,and which have proved so woefully ineffective the past 87 years?

Well, since we should really level the playing field,it occurs to me you guys might be a bit out of date,it being 2012 and all.....so.... what has applied as generally true up until now, may no longer apply...Mmmm.

Wondering if you (or someone) might be good enough to run the numbers for a 26" 270 Winchester twisted 8 or 9 (whatever it takes to stabilize))and a 270 caliber 165 Matrix with a static BC of .7381? (BTW I don't know anything about all that G1,G2 stuff so you might wanna explain that as well?)

I could not find load data but suspect 2850-2900 might be doable from a 26" tube in 270 Winchester.....but hey, as long as we're gonna compare we might as well make those barrels even,huh? (I do recall an old very experienced rifleman/BG hunter who used to get hard on to 2900 with a 160 gr Partition and WW II H4831,from a barnacle encrusted pre 64 M70 270 with 24" tube.....but he only killed most of this continents BG with it, including a grand slam of sheep and an couple of grizzlies and alaskan brown bear......,so what the hell did he know about killing big game? )

Of course we could also talk about a 175 gr Matrix 270 with a BC of .7828,but that might need a magnum hull to move it fast and that would not really be fair, now.................. would it?

I would expect the 140 from a 6.5/06 to have a slight velocity edge, but that said the numbers may even out by the time we hit 1000 yards....no? Not to mention of course a 25-35 gr weight advantage for the 270,which really can't hurt anything,I guess...but who knows?

I did not take a look at the new Berger bullets in 270,but maybe we want to throw those into the mix as well...?

Let me know how the "numbers" work out when you're done....if incorrect I stand humbled, but got a funny feeling you boys may be well behind the times.The "differences" may be a lot less than you think.....

Meanwhile I'll pour a Scotch and try to ignore the several million world wide BG animals amassed by the 270 Winchester despite such overwhelming "handicaps",while the 6.5/06 has struggled for even a modicum of recognition in the world's BG fields.....it sure does seem to do well on the Innanet, though....

I have a 9 twist Brux going on a M70 action as we speak so this will all be of enormous assistance to me,for which I thank you, kindly...

Be fair in the comparisons now, no deck stacking cause I will call my pal Jordan in from Alberta to check the numbers....I may be a dunce at math, but he isn't....

Aww common Bobby settle down...



Nope 24"



well yeah but it isn't my fault you can't find or the high BC 270's are hard to find. Which really sorta solidifies my comment no?



Oh joy "A" person makes "A" bullet for the 270 that has a high BC..better send back my stick and re-barrel. sure hope my rifle barrel likes "THAT" bullet.




hmmm...... but no 26" load data? A 6.5-06 will do 3000 fps all day long and more if you so choose.



not gonna happen with a 270 hull and were are talking about comparing the same hulls just different calibers ...right...?



cause most 270 guys hunt AT 1000 yards + right?



looking at comparable post counts ..you seem to have this time to run numbers. So could you do it then post and then I'll check em... only seems fair...


This is all in jest bobby... and a comment made by me because it is my opinion.... but unbunch your panties as it make the banter and jesting more pleasurable for ya...

jus' sayin'.. laffin

Cocadori,
I'd like to see the numbers as well. At least if you're going to be biased, you should back it up.