Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Mule Deer - easiest 6.5 bullet to get to shoot?

.........I second the motion. At least in 6.5x55.

120 gr. Gameking works for me in all my 6.5s.

140 Partition or Ballistic Tip have both worked well for me.

Although the 125 gr Partition is my favorite for my .264 Win Mag And has worked well on a couple of big Mulies and several Antelope and numerous TX Whitetails. Not to mention countless feral hogs here at the Ranch.

Many great 6.5 bullets. 140gr SSTs are doing great out of a Swede and 260 for me.

About 10 years ago I bought a T3 Swede and not ever having shot or loaded for one I picked up one of the One Caliber spiral bound loading guides...and using the Sierra guide page in 120gr ProHunters with the "accuracy load", got the fastest teeny tiny groups I ever shot with anything during the abbreviated scope sight in, and it was bang/flop on the Texas sized does & spikes I was allowed to take where I was hunting.. 1st one dropped with her head folded over backwards in mid stride like lightning had hit her, and bounced when she hit the ground. Still got the booklet and just bought another T3 Swede ...might gonna have to try some other bullets & powder loads this time just for funsies.
Ron

140 ELD match for me. All of my creeds love that bullet..

I am looking forward to testing the new Berger 156-grain EOL Elite Hunter.

https://bergerbullets.com/new-berger-6-5mm-156-grain-eol-elite-hunter/

rb

Me three.

Strange, my Creedmoor hated them but shot the 120 ballistic tip incredibly well. Each rifle is a rule unto itself. I’ve had very good luck with other Hornady bullets.

Old70

With my Tikka 260rem I have great results with the Nosler 130gr accubond with the 140gr partition close behind.

120 BT, and 140 AB both are great shooters.

Nosler 130gr Accubond---H 4350---one ragged hole.

I have had good luck with all of them that I have shot. Toughest to tune was probably the 125g Partiton.

My hunting is 400 and under, shooting lanes cut through a jungle.

100g nosler ballistic tip
100g Partition- does not stop in deer
120-all of them
123's-all of them
129g sst is a great explosive coyote bullet, 129 hornady sp is great short range and poor mans partition, 129g Nosler long range accubond is easy to tune, seat close to lands
130g accubond is a one hole bullet if you know how to tune a rifle, and the 130g berger vld hunting is pure magic, but does not always penetrate deer 100 yds and closer.
140g Sierra btsp is easy to tune in any rifle, great short range killing bullet, 140g Long range accubond...wicked ugly on deer, massive damage, 140g Berger vld hunting is like shooting a laser
Ballistic tips are ungodly accurate and brother they kill deer and hogs. 140g Hornady btsp is a tough bullet, too tough for smallish white tails.

Worth a note that the 127g Barnes long range was real easy to tune in any case we wanted to shoot it in.....050 jump and never played with any other seating depth.

6.5x47 Lapua-129g Nosler long range accubond my favorite- deer drop-shoot them on the shoulder and you throw away the front half-
6.5 creed- "
260-130g accubond
264 WM -127g Barnes long range & 140g Berger vld hunting
6.5/06- 127g Barnes long range & 129g Nosler long range accubond

Seems like there was some guy on this site that had a quirky saying that has proved to be dead nuts on working up a load, cant remember who, but it stuck in my mind

Kiss

Find Pressure

Rock on

[bleep] ain't hard to kill

Since the OP didn't say hunting bullets specifically I'll agree with scenars and add in the 140 Berger Hybrid.

Well, they kill stuff whether designated hunting or not.

I shoot critters with such bullets. No complaints, me or the critters.

DF

Keith,

Interesting.

Among other differences from your experience, I've had the 129 ABLR shoot better more often when seated well off the lands, in both the 6.5 PRC and SAUM. But it's one of the 6.5 bullets I try when looking for extreme accuracy. Even in my 6.5x57R Sauer drilling it will put five shots inside an inch at 100 yards, with a 4x scope. Dunno if you've shot many drillings, but that is pretty good. (Should add that the 129 Hornady Interlock does almost as well--as does the 125 Partition.)

Have had the 140 Partition shoot more accurately in a number of rifles than the 140 AccuBond, even after dinking considerably with powders and seating depth with the AB. But when the 140 AB perks, it really perks!

Have found the 130 Berger Hunting VLD shoot well in a number of rifles, but not overall as well as the 140.

A more general comment is that a lot of what works depends on the particular lot of bullets, as I know you know. Once had a big lot of 165-grain .30-caliber Nosler Partitions that shot like match bullets. Had a Juenke machine back then and that batch tested out as well as most match bullets, and not only shot little-bitty groups in my NULA .30-06 but a bunch of others rifles....

With a good barrel I have not found the 6.5 caliber medium sized rounds finicky at all. I have limited experience with cartridges .264 magnum and above so these may be a different story. Loaded several 129-130 grain bullets in my 6.5x55 Forbes rifle and they all did well. Ended up hunting with the 129 Hornadays and Nosler ABLR.

Another nice thing about these well rounded cartridges is I can shoot multiple bullets in this range with no sight changes.

I even had good accuracy from bargain PPU bullets, they were not that far behind the Berger 130s.

In both my 6.5-.284 and .260 Rem the 140gr Berger VLD has shot the best out of the half dozen or so that I tried.
I would like to try the 139 Scenar but I'm pretty happy with the VLD's with both accuracy and performance on game.

I've used and like both the 140 VLD hunting and the 139 Scenar. They both kill, both shoot very well.

I've read that the Scenar doesn't fragment quite as much as the VLD.

Would appreciate input on that.

DF

It doesn’t sound like there’s a bad one ( right twist anyway).