Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Highest b/c 6.5 good hunting bullet for 260 1/8 twist?

gerry,

I always love statements about "the real world" during these discussions.

In the real world, where 99% of deer are killed at 200 yards or less, a .30-30 with 150-grain factory loads will do just as well as a super-accurate 6.5.

In the real world, 99% of the big game hunters could do anything they desire with a .30-06.

In the real world, I bet you haven't been using a .260 (with whatever bullet) all your hunting life.

In the real world, the 6.5 Creedmoor now has every advantage over the .260 for the average hunter, because it's chambered in so many affordable, super-accurate rifles, and affordable, super-accurate ammunition is available in so many stores. The .260 isn't dead, by any means, but in the real world it lags behind.

In the real world, I haven't yet gotten the 140 Ballistic Tip to shoot quite as well as the 129 ABLR in my rifles chambered in the .260, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5x55, 6.5 PRC and 26 Nosler. But then, I generally spend more time experimenting than the average handloader, because that's part of my job.

In the real world, the major advancements involving hunting rifles have been the invention of rifling itself around 500 years ago, the development of practical smokeless rifle powders in the 1880's (smokeless handgun and shotgun powders already existed), the jacketed spitzer bullets that appeared soon after smokeless powder, a vast improvement in sights, and the laser rangefinder. The other advancements have been much smaller, but that doesn't mean they're not real, at least for some hunters and hunting.

And no, I am not one of those hunters who only shoots the latest advancements. The last two rifles I've acquired have been a custom 6.5 PRC and a "trapdoor" 1866 Springfield .50-70, and I plan to hunt with both this coming fall.

shoots4fun,

No, I didn't think you were badgering me! Thanks for your feedback, and glad you like our writing.

As for 6.5 Creedmoor veloicities, I'm getting 2750 with 143 Hornady ELD-X's in a 22" RAR Predator, and 2800 in a 24" Franchi Momentum, using IMR4451 with published data.

I suspect a LOT of handloader go after all the muzzle velocity they can, even though higher-BC will make more difference at longer ranges, because that's what handloaders have done since the development of smokeless powder. One of my good friends is typical: He spends a lot of time squeezing every last fps out of all his rifles, even though a lot of the bullets he uses have pretty low BC's. Yet he "knows" the 6.5 Creedmoor can't work as an open-country hunting rifle because the muzzle velocities are "too slow."

Cool we have bunched panties now

One of the interesting side-effects of the "long range" phenomenon: Several years ago I killed pretty nice whitetail buck with a 6.5x55 and a 140-grain Partition.

Posted it somewhere on the Internet (maybe here) and somebody asked: "What was the range?"

I posted: "About 35 yards."

He posted: "Only 35 yards? Not much of a hunter, are you?"

One of the interesting side-effects of the "long range" phenomenon: Several years ago I killed pretty nice whitetail buck with a 6.5x55 and a 140-grain Partition.

Posted it somewhere on the Internet (maybe here) and somebody asked: "What was the range?"

I posted: "About 35 yards."

He posted: "Only 35 yards? Not much of a hunter, are you?"

Aha! Yeah, there are some real trout in that river.

While I have never done the 20/20 thing, Eileen came pretty close to it on the Bighorn one year. She saw spotted a trout sipping along the edge-line of a shallow riffle. She cast a #20 dry fly (I can't remember exactly what it was) above the sips and the rainbow took off down stream, showing its side while it turned, obviously bigger than the typical 16-18 inch Bighorn fish. She had never hooked a trout nearly that big on a fly rod before, though had caught much larger "silvers" in Alaska on a spinning rod, and actually tried to hand the rod to me, afraid she'd lose the fish, but I refused, saying she'd get it done. It took a while, and some following of the fish downstream (we were out of the boat and wading), but she did land it.

I am thinking it is harder to find a bad 6.5mm bullet than if you randomly selected just about anything over 120 grains and it should work fine. My short list of questionable bullets is 160 Hornaday RN this based on reports by others, 120 gr. Hertenberger this bullet was designed for Roe Bok and Capercaille so good for Turkey and Coyotes, SST verdict is still out but good for practice as a match to the AB & ABLR. Have not used anything less than 120 grains yet so no telling which are game bullets and which are varmint ones.

130 AB vs 129 ABLR depends on price and availability mostly to me. The 129 is a soft bullet but still holds together well enough for shorter ranges. But for all around use for larger game I would pick the AB as it has not let me down and may destroy less meat. It also retains more weight up to 60% as opposed to the ABLR down to 30% but difficult to say as both usually punch through so nothing to compare is left.

JB: That comment on your hunting ability was like when I told a friend that I had landed my first rainbow over 10lbs from the lower 48 and he said "did you get him on a dry fly?" Fact is It was on a #28 nymph so I broke into the 20-20 club too, a trout over 20" on a fly smaller than #20 but it was unsporting since it wansn't a floating fly.

Heck, for my needs a 140gr 6.5mm Partition is a good hunting bullet in any of my 6.5 Swedes, but I'm not a good enough shot to feel comfortable shooting at big game much beyond 400 yards.