Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 6.5 PRC Bullet Selection

Well folks. Since I have gotten to use the new 6.5 PRC I thought I would shoot out an update. I didn't change my ammo selection and continued shooting the Precision Hunter 143 gr. ELD-X bullets. I harvested 2 elk, 2 whitetails, 1 antelope and my wife also used this setup to kill her first whitetail. With 6 animals down from this setup this is what I have to say..... These bullets are incredibly soft. In fact I would probably classify them as explosive. The elk are obviously very tough and have thick hides, heavy bones and all-in-all they're a beast of an animal. However, on every animal I shot I discovered that the bullet pushed through the hide without opening up but as soon as the bullet gets past the hide it opens up and begins to expand very rapidly. Even the deer and antelope I killed had huge entry wounds. In fact the entry wounds were bigger than the exit wounds because I didn't really have any exit wounds. The bullets didn't exit either elk, only exited one deer and the antelope had a big chunk of shrapnel exit out the backstrap (which I had a downward angle shot that hit behind the shoulder but must have deflected on a rib and threw a chunk of bullet upward toward the backstrap). Now, before someone roasts me for putting this out on the air here I want to clarify something. I am not complaining here. I actually cannot complain at all. I didn't lose a single animal. I didn't have a miserable blood trail. The elk I shot were dead within 10 yards of where I shot them, both shot right behind the shoulder. The antelope dropped in his tracks. My wifes deer ran 40 yards and left a crazy bloodtrail. One deer I shot dropped in its tracks with a high shoulder shot and the other ran a total of about 30 yards. This isn't a pitty party about how terrible the bullets are. My concern is that these super soft bullets might not penetrate enough for me some day. I think an elk hit directly in the shoulder might not allow enough penetration for get into the vitals.

Now, the other thing I've taken into consideration is the speed at which these bullets hit the animals. The bull I killed was at 258, the cow was at 303, wifes deer was at 135, deer one was at 150, deer two was at 220, antelope was at 158. Not only are these bullets soft but they hit these animals at a speed well north of 2500 fps.

My reloading source I mentioned earlier in this thread is going to load me up some Barnes LRX 127 gr. bullets and dial in a load that shoots well for me. The guy is a 6.5 nut so he should be able to help me get this thing dialed and shooting a tougher bullet that I personally feel a bit more comfortable with.

Anyway, thought I would post my findings. For what its worth I figured it wouldnt hurt anything