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

I bought a box of Hornady Whitetail ammo loaded with the 129gn Hornady SP. I shot two fallow does with it and both bullets exited. Not a very fancy bullet but the good old Hornady Interlocks are still a very good cup and core bullet. The damn factory ammo has still shot the smallest group in my Creedmoor rifle. The closest handload was with the same 129gn IL. The 130gn Sierra Gamechanger shot under 1/2 an inch as well at 100m.

When I got my Fieldcraft 6.5 CM, I proceeded to test for accuracy with as many hunting bullets as I could find locally. The most accurate, listed in order, were the 120 gr. Ballistic Tip, the 129 gr. Interlock, the 130 gr. Gamechanger and the 143 gr. ELDX. All gave me groups measuring less than an inch at 100 yds. The 120 gr. Ballistic Tip killed a nice doe with complete passthrough, but blood trail was not needed. Distance was about 75 yds. My load is 39.5 gr. of Varget, F210M primer in of course Hornady brass for a velocity of 2905 fps. Work up!

Thanks folks,
I plan to do about the same thing as last round and do a field test to see what my Kimber shoots best.
I have the following and will report back when I get some range time:
Hornady: American Gunner, American Whitetail, Outfitter GMX.
Federal: Non-Typical, Buckmasters (Academy Outdoors)
Barnes Vortex: TTSX
Sig: Elite Hunter Tipped

I hope to be able to try FP Nosler Accubond and Fusion as well.

Out of the above I am sure I will find two or three that make me happy.

Thanks!s

I’ve used the 129 grain hornady out of the Swede, outstanding bullet.

Anyone use the 100gr NBT or Barnes on deer from a Creed?

Gents:
Tell me why my Tikka T3X 6.5 Creedmoor will not shoot Horn match 120 gr worth a flip ( 3 " ) groups and shoots Horn ELD -X Hunter 143 gr into a 1/2" or better? Just doesn't make sense to me. This is all factory ammo. I know " just shoot the 143's and be done " but I would think it would shoot the lighter 120's quite a bit better than 3 or so inches. Educate me please.

Thanks

There's a ton of stuff that goes into why bullets don't shoot out of one particular gun, but presuming your bedding is solid, it could be the interaction with the shape of the chamber and the bullet, the length of the throat being more (or more rarely but possibly less) than what that bullet likes, and also sometimes bullets with longer bearing surfaces just shoot better. Possibly those 143 gr bullets are a tad longer and are maybe sitting further into the throat and have less jump to the rifling. Or they just make sweeter love to however that chamber was cut (reamers wear and also chambers sometimes get cut slightly off center). Or the 120s just exit the barrel at a strange time for that barrel's harmonics.

If you hand loaded the 120's, prob the first thing I'd mess with is seating depth/ the jump to the rifling. Might be as simple as that.

It's all about what your rifle likes. All my Tikka rifles are very accurate but......they don't like Hornady factory 147's at all. My brother has a Savage and a Bergara that'll shoot the 147's into an 1" at 300 yds....

We shoot a couple 6.5x47's for deer and use the 130 AB in them. They have performed very well and we have no reason to change.

120 bt and 125 portion from nosler will be just the thing.

No, sir. Just a strong recommendation from VT F&G.

Hugh W2,
Did you find a load that worked?

Doug,

I hope to get to the range over Christmas time off. I will definitely follow up.
Thanks.
Everyone have a great Christmas!

Some of the NP loads interest me. I'm hoping to work on a few loads for my M70 EW here over the Christmas break.

Conversely, I never find any DRT concerning. Those are all 100% successes.

Different strokes.

I've used those two in a 6.5/284 with "awesome" results on deer and exotics! I am just getting started on the Creedmoor, so will have to report back on it, but right now I pland to start with the 120 ELDM and the 139 Scenar. Later on I'll work up a good load with the Barnes 120TTSX. for "me"...when I want to "know for sure" my bullet will work, I go with a Barnes. If too tough to open right, I drop down in weight. Speed is you friend with monos ! Its all so much fun, all we need is "more time and more money" (plus opportunity) Merry Christmas guys!

Logic and physics up to a point, snake oil after that...

Sometimes there is no answer, just go with what the gun likes.

That's what I do.

DF

It was crazy accurate in the Mesa I used to own as well.

Same here. Bought a cheap backup gun (Winchester XPR) and used this Winchester Deer Season XP 125 essentially to foul the barrel and break it in. First three shots out of the rifle went 0.74” off of sandbags! I’ve since done better than that with a proper rest.

It shot so well I used it for the first two deer and both were bang/flop. Great factory ammo, as far as I’m concerned.

People wonder about the Creed success. The combo of cheap, accurate rifles and cheap accurate ammo is hard to beat.

What's not to like.

And it is a great round, one of the easiest to reload. Mine seems to shoot about any combo pretty good, some, like this load, really great.

DF

Shown this before.