Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 6.5x55 swed question

I know the A max is not 'designated' as a hunting round.

How many have used it for hunting?

I'm at a loss to find good 6.5 projectiles for hunting and this is the only one that I can find at the moment.

Am I just totally bonkers for wanting to use it?

Let me know what your experiences with it are.

Your conjecture and what you think and what you've read, are not really important to me, feel free to say it but be prepared to be ignored.

Are you at a loss to find an accurate bullet, or one that kills?

I think the myth of Scenars -and- Amaxes not being suited for hunting has been debunked several times on this site.

I'm at a loss for one to hunt with.

I can get some A max's but not sure if they'll do well for hunting.

I hear/read that "others" use them but no one with first hand usage.

A buddy of mine used one in his 6x47 on deer last year, and was pleasantly surprised from what he relayed to me. I'm not the person who used it, though, so not sure how valuable that info is for you...

Blammer, how heavy are they? Sectional density can be part of the decision when picking a lightly constructed bullet for hunting. I have an A-max load for hunting, and wouldn't hesitate to use it on elk, but it is a 208 grn 30 cal with a .313 SD. I have only shot lightly constructed and 'target' bullets at game the last few years.

At slower speeds A-max are more of a controlled-expansion bullet. That is why guys use them in moderate cartridges at long ranges.

You can't expect them to traverse an animal end to end, but for deer, at moderate speed, picking sane shots, they are just about ideal. Neck shots, high shoulder shots, and ribs shots.

If you're committed to the A max go with it. I've found that 140 Hornadys put stuff down real quick. The accuracy is better than minute of deer at 200 yards.

looking at 140gr, A max

6.5x55 is no barn burner for velocity that's for sure, probably around 2500fps or so.

tddeangelo, at least your info wasn't from a "story" you read.
Trying to avoid those who just relay info that they read somewhere. Thanks.

You are over thinking this! At 2500-2700 fps your favorite cup and core will work just fine. There a plenty of fine .264" bullets out there. Here are some for sale:

http://www.grafs.com/retail/catalog/category/categoryId/916?


Dad shoots a 6.5x55 and has killed deer very dead with 120gr Speers and 140gr GameKings.

I shoot a .260 and use 140gr GameKings. I have no trouble keeping 300yd groups under 2". This bullet kills stuff just fine, including a DRT pass through on an aoudad at 385yds.

Find what your rifle likes and go hunting. The Swede has been getting the job done for a long time.

Blammer, you're set with that bullet. And I've found it's easy to get them to shoot well. Hope you have the same experience. You won't be disappointed in their killing ability.

I'm just trying to use what is available to me.

I'm looking for a decent cup and core, but none are to be had.

I see Sierra HPBT MATCHKING bullets, are available. I'd pose the same question on the Matchking bullets. Would they be suitable for hunting even though the maker suggests otherwise? If they were Gameking's I'd be all over them!

the 120 speers are not in stock and the 140gr gamekings are also not available.

The deer around here are small 150 lbs is a good sized one!
Longest shot will likely be 100yds.

the lighter wt bullets (110gr and less) don't fly as well as the 140's.

I usually buy from Graf's or Natchez. I see Natchez has several hunting bullets in stock. I see you are in NC, is that one of the areas that Natchez will not ship to?

Here is a link:

http://www.natchezss.com/bullets.cf...outOfStock=0&orderBy=&startRow=1

I see Widener's has some Ballistic Tips and Partitions:

https://www.wideners.com/itemview.cfm?dir=278|281|1079|1088|1555

Good hunting,
405wcf

ah, nice, for some reason when I was looking I couldn't find them at Natchez.

got some on the way.

the SST's should work well.

My wife is in NC. Don't ask me where, exactly, as I don't recall. Somewhere near the northern border. I love SST at moderate speeds: they open readily and exit. Good choice! For future reference, don't be afraid to try a heavy for cal A-max for deer. Thousands are doing it.

2500fps? The Swede can do better than that, if you want it to do so. You can reach 2700 without touching 60k for pressure, even with a 22" barrel. I ran IMR7828ssc, a good powder for it, with a 140SST, and left the rather anemic pressure cap untouched. That caps pressure at 55k. You could run it from a modern rifle to the same sensible pressures as other rounds and squeeze a bit more juice from it, if desired, but at 2700, you'd have a pretty nice compromise of speed with low recoil.

The 6.5 is a nice round for NC. I've hunted a bit south of Roanoke Rapids over several years, and the deer body sizes I saw and the deer I killed would have been well handled by the Swede.

Save yourself a some money and head aches, 120 gr Speer SP will be just about right, and if you can find Remington 120 gr 6.5 mm Core locks bulk bullets buy those! Some Reloader 22 and work up a load, around 48 to 50 gr will do the trick, zero and then go shoot deer!

I use Sierra Gamekings and Matchkings in 120 and 140. They work good. Also have some 120 and 130 grain TSX that work very good. It isn't hard to find a 6.5 bullet that kills well and is accurate. Most all of them are.

gmsemel, I was going to run with RL22 for QL, but lately I've found (and others I compare reloading notes with, too) that 7828ssc, while very similar in performance to RL22, is also more consistent/tracks closer to predicted data.

But yes, RL22 is a good on in the Swede, too.

I'm guessing the AMAX would work okay. A friend had really poor results with that bullet out of a 6.5/06 on a few whitetails (LOOOONNNG tracking jobs) but he was pushing them nearly 3000fps.