Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 6.5 Creedmoor on Elk

Good shooting! Does your AFSC require a lot of time in mountains w rifles?

Good on the elk and the cartridge but the dog makes the pic. Looks like quite a hunting partner.

I had great results with my 6.5 on cow elk. I shot her 20 yards and it devastated her vitals. This was a frontal shot. The bullet went in base of neck exited last rib same side. 2 inch entry 4 inch exit. She ran 10 yards

Love that picture. So where did you sleep??

Just curious, what state and is this legal?

Why wouldn’t it be legal? Sounds like they all had tags. The first guy missed he shot and harvested his first elk. He says that in previous posts.

Ahh sorry I miss fired and read his post wrong. My mistake.

I got my cow this year with a 140gr Accubond out of my 6.5 CM Montana. The shot was at 140 yds while she walked by the rock I was perched on broadside. The bullet clipped the lower back side of the scapula going in, took out 2.5" of onside rib and exited. She froze, trotted 30yds and piled up. The rest of the herd of ~75 didn't pick up on what had happened very quickly, it took them a while to scatter and I had to shoo a few bulls out of the way to get to where my cow went down. All in all, quite satisfied with the performance of the round.

Good job! I like to see these results. I am considering carrying mine around a bit, when my cow season re-opens here in a few days. I have killed a lot of elk, but would like to add my 6.5 to list of killers.

I'll be a "shoot off" here shortly between the 140Acc. and the 143 ELD-X as I finalize the load for a post Xmas cow hunt. Good to see the reports coming in.

Seeing as I took the Creedmoor plunge today and I now live in elk country, this thread has been quite informative. Of course since I won’t get to put it to use on elk til next year, I’ve got lots of time to become familiar with it. Haven’t decided whether to run the SWFA 3-9 or the Nightforce SHV 3-10 on it yet, guessing either will work. I’ve never tried killing stuff with target type bullets (Berger,Lapua,Hornady) so it’s interesting reading others results with bullets I wouldn’t normally call adequate for large game. Keep the posts coming.......

Was elk hunting a couple weeks ago with some friends, and one used a 6.5 Creedmoor. He didn't get to unlimber it at long range, instead killing a good 6x7 bull in the timber at 40 yards, with one 140-grain Accubond through the lungs. The bull trotted a little way, then fell over dead--and believe it or not, the bullet exited.

A more common elk killing range than 400 yds, for sure..........

I'd rather have the thrill of sneeking up as close as possible over anything else.

I agree, it gets a lot more interesting fast when you are inside of 100 yds.

Don't know if this will help anybody following the thread, but here are a few pictures I took of my cow while quartering.





Entrance hole in rib cage, with front quarter removed, a few inches higher than I had intended when I pulled the trigger (there wasn't really much blood shot, but the elk died with this side down, so blood from the body cavity kind of pooled here)




Exit

What was the bullet? Nice eating, right there.

140gr Accubond

I have some 140 ABs on the way. What powder(s) worked well for accuracy and velocity? Plan is to start with RL16 and 26.

I've been using RL16 with 127gr LRX, 140gr Accubond, and 143gr ELDx pretty much exclusively. I've put a lot of H4350 through my RPR, and tried it in the Montana, but the accuracy was about the same as RL16 (good) and velocities were lower. My load for the 140gr ABs and 143gr ELDxs is 42.5 gr, I worked up both loads separately, just seems to like that weight.

If you can get Re 26, give it a try. You will be pleased with the accuracy and velocity.