Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Anyone Using 6.5 120's or 130's on Deer?

Looking at different rounds for the 6.5 CM and was thinking there are some damn good bulltes in 120-130gr for 6.5. Will the 6.5CM push the 120gr ttsx fast enough to be effective?

120gr NBT work well at deer killing velocities?

129 ABLR has worked really well for me over the past 2 years.

Sure will. So will the 125 Partition and 129 Interlock.

I did pick up a box of Hornady American Whitetail, which are 129 interlocks.

When I handloaded, I only used Hornady Interlocks for deer. I bought the Hornady American Whitetail 129s for my 6.5CM and it shoots .75", probably better in more capable hands. Always had good luck with that bullet.

I really like the 125 grain Partition and the 130 grain Accubond.

130g Accubond is my go to bullet in several 6.5's. Accurate and works very well.

I've used 120 BT, and 140 AB but really didn't notice any difference in the dead deer. Shot several with 143 eld x and they died also but neck shots are deadly anyway.
I shoot what's accurate and the 120 bt is fast and extremely accurate.

120 nbt and 129 hornady interlock sp from my 260 are excellent deer killers.

My wife has used both the 120g Speer and Sierra quite effectively on deer out of her 6.5x55.

All but one of the last 10-15 deer and antelope I have taken have been with 123 Scenar's out of 260 AI or 130 JLK out of a 6.5 SAUM. I've found them very effective.

T- The 120 grain BT is an outstanding bullet for deer or antelope in 6.5's. We have used it for decades with nary a hiccup. As a matter of fact, before I got out of the 6.5 business, it was the only bullet I used for deer.

Excellent.

And thank you to the rest of you as well. I appreciate it.

I’ve taken dozens of whitetail deer with the Nosler 120 grain Ballistic Tip in the now obsolete (😉) .260 Remington over the last 20 some odd years - it has worked wonderfully for me.

PennDog

Five or six big blacktail bucks with the American Whitetail 129 IL in my 6.5 CM.
Two cow elk with the same 129 Hornady handloaded in my .260 Rem Low Wall (80 yds and 257 yds)
Inexpensive, accurate and great terminal performance...... they’re always a good pick.

Tom,

I'm partial to the 130 AB but in this category it's harder to find a wrong answer than the right one. And I haven't seen a bullet mentioned in this thread that wouldn't be up-to-snuff.
Regarding your 120 TTSX inquiry, and, being reasonably familiar with how/where you hunt, heck yes, that's a good choice as well.

Not me, but my pard shot the 120 grain Sierra on several deer, never heard him complain of how they worked.

Not sure why he moved on, he even made mention of them yesterday and said he should have kept the rifle he was shooting them from and still be shooting the same bullet.

Thanks Scott. The 130 AB is on the short list to try as well.

Thanks again to the rest of you. These deer will be shot at from 10yds to 400.

Totally agree here. I've used the 130 VLD, 120 NBT, 129 ABLR, along with others. All have proven effective. Either it's tough to pick a bad 6.5 bullet or deer are just easy to kill.

My dad shoots the 100 grain TTSX in his 260 Rem. and absolutely loves them. I believe his furthest shot using them was pushing 300 yards. FWIW

I've never shot a deer with either bullet at ranges over +/- 300 yards, but all of the deer that I've shot with them have died promptly.

I think that the 130 grain AB offers a nice balance of accuracy, penetration, and velocity potential when compared to any of the other currently available 6.5mm component bullet suitable for shooting medium game. It has become my preferred bullet for use in medium case capacity cartridges like the 256 Newton, 260 REM, and 6.5 CM. Since I don't shoot anything except pdogs at ranges over a quarter mile, I don't need to shoot VLD style of bullets.

That said, over the past 25 or so years I've shot a bunch of deer with a variety of 6.5mm component bullets running in weight and style from the 95 grain VMax to the 140 grain Partition. Tags were punched every time.a rifle was fired and a bullet passed into or through the pleural cavity.