Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 6.5 CM for white tails. What load?

I see a lot of love for the 6.5 CM here n campfire. I always thought of it as a long range target and hunting round.
Do any of you have experience with it on timber or close range whitetails? If so what are your preferred factory loads.
I want an exit and a nice blood trail. I was thinking Federal Fusion, Federal Premium with Accubond or Barnes TSX.

Barnes 127 lrx ammo is worth looking at

125 grain Winchester/Olin Deer Season XP

129 grain Winchester/Olin Power Point

129 grain Hornady American Whitetail

I like my deer to fall over dead or, at worse, die with 20 yards of the point of impact.

Most of the 6.5 Creedmoor deer that I've shot have died on the spot or within 20' of the point of impact.

The 125 grain Deer Season XP is the least expensive factory load that I've found, about $19 at Walmart.

Thanks for heads up!

I’ve used the above listed 125 Deer Season XP load by Winchester with good results in close range shots here this season out of my Kimber. $19 at Walmart locally.

I load 120 Barnes TTSX for mine.

+1


Had good luck with that.

That’s a good price. Might need to get some of that. How is your kimber trigger holding up in the rain? Mine wouldn’t cock until I worked it a bunch.

Calvin- Did you lower the trigger pull any? Can’t say I’ve ever had issues with Kimber triggers unless I adjusted them too low.
Only maintenance I do is squirt the whole works down with Corrosion-X at the end of season.

Been a heck of a run of rain lately. Punched my final tag a few days ago...still feeling like I should hunt with a snorkel on.

I've used it ballistic twin in the 6.5x47 Lapua with 130 gr Nos AB successfully from 20-300 yards on WT and Muledeer. All have been one-shot kills with good blood and organ trauma.

I killed two with 129 Hornady whitetail ammo last season. One at 120 yards the other at 10 yards. Exits on both. The one at 120 yards ran about 30 yards and left a heavy blood trail. Don't know if the one shot at 10 yards would've left a good blood trail cuz it dropped in a heap.

I've used 140gr Federal Fusion and 143gr Hornady Precision Hunter with success.

I’ve used 100 gr Nosler BTs and 120 gr BTs. They work great. I’ve had exits on all deer, but not on all hogs. Great bullets.

Didn’t adjust the trigger.

Haven’t pulled the trigger yet. It’s been tough over here where I hunt. Deer are still very nocturnal. Tons in the headlights, not very responsive in the daytime. Had my best rut ever last year, sucking hard this year.

we use the 143 eldx, no exit holes, but massive internal damage. Want to switch but they just keep dropping. my sons 8 pt from last year and his youth weekend 6pt buck from saturday. He shoots a christensen ridgeline w/ a vx-3

Creedmoor’s are fun to shoot, not near the recoil as my cannons, kills just as well!

Thanks everyone for your input! I have plenty of experimentation ahead!

I’ve used the ELD-x. Like you say massive damage. I shoot behing the shoulder. Jellies the inside. But the still run. Farther than i like.
Had better results with the 127lrx.

Do you have long range shot opportunities where you hunt?

I loaded 34 gr’s IMR 4320 in my 6.5 JDJ. With its 14” barrel a 120 Partition would run 2400 fps. My feeder was set at 185 yards & that load never failed to lay them down beyond 20 yards. That single shot Contender was a Whitetail killing machine.