Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 6.5 CM w/ 100 gr bullets

I'm sorry to hear that you're moving to Montana, as I am looking at buying a retirement home in South Fork and that would almost make us neighbors.

I've found this to be true also...

with the 260, I usually load a 100 grain bullet for deer hunting...

either 43.5 gr of 4064

or 30 grains of 4198...

either charge has worked well on deer around here.... Blacktails...

my favorite three 100 grain bullets have been the Ballistic Tips, the 100 gr HP Sierra and the sadly discontinued 100 grain SP Hornady.....

its almost like if a bullet doesn't have a plastic tip on it, no one considers it any good anymore...
except if its a Barnes or some sort of Target bullet for Lapua or Sierra... who's also migrating to Plastic Tips
a lot more...

Nosler does make a partition in 100 grains also, if someone feels the need...

I use a special partition they made or make for a European customer/ manufacturer....
a 105 grain SMP partition.... picked up 500 or 600 or them over in Bend at Nosler's Shooter's Pro Shope
for like 10 cents a piece... so at my age that is more than a lifetime supply...

With a cartridge that does so well with 129-147-grain bullets, I have a hard time seeing the allure of a 100-grain bullet, for anything but varmints. It loses the bc battle pretty quickly and if 100-grain is the preference, why not shoot a 6mm of some type?

I like to punch my tags with 100 grain BTs and Partitions fired from 260s and 6.5 Creedmoors.

They go fast, hit hard, and the Partitions have always penetrated through and through.

In Nebraska, I mostly hunt in creek-bottom cover and the adjacent cut corn and soybean fields where the vast majority of animals are within 200 yards, with most shots presenting themselves in the 75 to 150 yard range. At those ranges, BC numbers don't mean much, nor does the cartridges used, as long as the bullet construction is appropriate for the intended game.

I carry 243s afield also... depends on my mood at the moment...

But since you questioned why a 6.5 mm with a 100 grain ballistic tip, or bullet..

I'll use an example of what I have done twice...

100 GR Ballistic tip...charge of 43.5 grs of 4064, 3350 fps MV.
Using the hood of an old F250 from the early 80s, for a bench rest. Harris Bi Pod
Leupold 3 x 9 on top of a Ruger 77 Mk 2...set on 4 power...Target dot reticle.

both times deer at 300 plus yards walking thru brush at the edge of a clear cut..

both times, deer came thru an opening, after trailing them in the scope..

pulled the trigger with no compensation for distance, scope set at 3.5 inch high from 100 yd zero.

both times, the deer dropped like a sack of potatoes.. and never lost sight picture in the scope during recoil.
watched them go down in the scope...

Several other deer, one was one of the largest blacktail I've taken.. 175 lbs..
150 to 175 yds... rest against a tree, same Ruger Rifle and Scope. both shots, right thru the heart.

after the successes I've had with the 100 grain Ballistic Tip, 100 grain Hornady SP and the 100 grain Sierra HP..... I have seen the need for the extra recoil that would come with a heavier bullet....

yet the same rifle has dropped Blacktails with the 129 grain Horn SP and the 140 grain Horn SP.
Same results, just more recoil that the 129 and 140s...

Same rifle has also had good results with the 120 grain Ballistic Tips, 125 grain Partition...

The less recoil with the 100s, allows me to see the deer drop in the sight picture of the scope..when set on 3 or 4 power...

a Ruger 6.5 x 55 has also produced the same results...with the same bullets.