Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada 130 gr. Sierra HP GK 1728

I hesitated posting this because I don't want it to turn into a "I hate Sierra game bullets" thread, or worse, why don't you have a 6.5 CM.

This is a bullet query.

I have owned a number of 6.5x55s, and purchased a beautiful 6.5x55mm Husqvarna M38 dirt cheap from Tradeex last fall. It is the best used 6.5x55 rifle I have bought. For $200, it was a steal. I love the look, and it shoots very well. I took a deer with it last fall at 160 yd with a Hornady 123 gr. SST. I have a thread about the purchase somewhere.

At any rate, I have the reloading dies and accessories for this cartridge. I am a practical sort, so a Creedmoor is of no use to me.



Here's the question. I think I know the answer, but will put it out there anyway. Has anyone used this - 130 gr. Sierra HP GK 1728 - in either a 6.5x55 or a 6.5 Grendel? Heck, if you've shot it from a 6.5 CM, but please, post your impressions of the bullet, not the cartridge.

I would like to hear about bullet performance from actual users. What were your impressions? I will be getting a few hundred to try, but would like to hear any stories, good or bad, about this bullet. Hopefully, it will perform, shot from both cartrtidges.



Just doing a little homework.

Steve, it is tougher than the 120g sp, you should do well on deer. The 140g Sierra btsp is a fantastic bullet in terms of accuracy and killing ability, easy to tune, I have shot more of the 140's.

Steve;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope that the day's been a good one for you folks and all is as it should be in your world.

While we didn't use the 130gr Game King, we did use 120gr Sierra - either Game King or Pro Hunter, as well as the 120gr Nosler Solid base in the Swede that I built for my late father, which my eldest daughter now uses.

We shot just one deer with the Sierra and perhaps 2 with the Solid Base before quitting them and going to either 140gr Partitions or Hornady Interlocks. In all cases the penetration wasn't what I wanted to see - as in not far enough in at all and while we recovered the animals they gave me no confidence whatsoever.

If I was going to guess, I'd suggest it's the combination of fast twist with the deep groove military barrels which seems to exacerbate bullet jacket failure in those Swedes. When I've talked to people who used civilian made barrels which were slower twist or perhaps the grooves different as well, it didn't seem they noticed what we did.

Nowadays we've settled on all copper bullets in the Swede military barrels for that reason.

Hopefully that made some sense and was useful sir. All the best to you this fall and good luck on your hunts.

Dwayne

Thanks. I should have better explained that I am looking at this bullet as a good bridge between the Grendel and the Swede. Since it's a Game King and a HP, the jacket has to be thicker. I never used any Sierra 120s, and appreciate the input! I think these should work well. Fingers crossed!



That's why I wanted to stay away from the lighter weight 6.5mm bullets. The 100s especially. If I was only shooting the Swede, I would stick with 140s. I am hoping that this particular bullet will work in both cartridges. All the best.

I have used it in 6.5 Rem Mag. It works and the shape allows you to get close to the rifling in a short magazine. The long range expansion has seemed inconsistent to me. Nice wood on the Husky!

Thanks for the input.

When you say long range, what distance are you talking?

That bullet? No.

The Sierra guy recommended against the 140 when I talked to them
About the 6.5x55. The touted the 120. I already had 140's...so?
Very, very unimpressed. The bullets opened up some, little damage, very
slow kills. Tried 140 B's, similar, but only 1 deer.

Finally tried 120 Pro-hunter.
Success.

No this is Pa deer.
I ribshoot, and I like my hunting to be over with a trigger pull.
One shot, through the ribs should keep a deer within 100 yards, or so.
Most of what I choose will usually do that, if not, it's not chosen.

If that 130 works like the 165 Gk HP in 308, it will be an effective stopper.
But not a deep diver. I rarely found those, but they were in deer and did tremendous
damage.

I've run the 130 AB as my Go To in 6.5.......ran it thru 260s and Swede's, blows thru both shoulders of a mature buck at 100 yds, and expands/kills great from the Swede at 275. Run it in my 47 Lapua.

I'd not try using one bullet for your Grendel and Swede. Very large speed differential. I'd run 100 TTSX and 120 BT in the Grendel.

In the Swede, I'd be happy with the 130 AB and ABLR, and 127 LRX. A 140 Partition or Hornady is tough to beat.

Nice rifle, enjoy, good hunting.

I bought few hundred of the 6.5 130 game changers and really impressed with them on target, hope to kill a buck next month with it

Long range for me is between 300-500 yards. I agree about the 120 Sierra Pro-Hunter..it expands nicely and kills caribou sized game really well. I took about a dozen barren ground caribou with the 120 grain bullet out to 350 yards with all one shot kills. This was back when my 6.5 Rem Mag had a 20" barrel and speeds were down at 3000fps or so. I have since gone to a 23' Pacnor barrel for a bit better speed, and it shoots almost as well as the crazy accurate Remington factory barrel.

The hollow point on the Sierra 130 seems to sometimes bend closed when hitting bone at an angle, ruining good expansion and creating a potentially tumbling bullet that is totally unpredictable. It does seem to work really well when the hollow point fills up with semi-liquid matter, initiating expansion. I switched to 140 boat tail's from Sierra for a while and they were super accurate but Sierra controls expansion by playing with core hardness and jacket thickness and when they try to get penetration up, expansion goes down and vice-versa, They jacket and core often part ways as well but when you get within the velocity parameters of the bullet they tend to work ok.... just a bit unpredictable. I found the 140 a bit unimpressive at long range as expansion was moderate for light animals. I am now using 130 grain Accubonds which seem to expand well as well as hold together, shoot super well and with a great b.c. Started out at 3100fps they do a great job on medium sized animals out to 500 yards or so. The 6.5 can be very effective but good bullets matter more than in a bigger more forgiving bore. If I could get 125 grain Nosler Partitions to shoot well I might stop there for lighter game at reasonable ranges.

N61 - in the extensive 6.5 bullet tests, the 125 partition performance was VERY similar to the 129 Hornady SP, so you might well try those for accuracy. Expand, penetrate, and retention of weight. They tend to shoot accurately, and the bearing surface as I recall is a bit shorter given the weight, and often yields sometimes around 100 fps more than you would expect, closer to a 120.

129 SP were a gold standard long ago, and do very well at modest speeds, given a cup/core design. I had good results in my custom 6.5-308 that I built 6 months prior to the 260 hitting the market.

Thanks for the inputs!

I placed an order for some 120 gr. Sierra SPs and 129 Hornady SPs. Both are flat base. I could not get the 130 gr Sierras from my supplier, but it should be in soon.

I asked Sierra about the 130 gr. HPBT - 1728. This was their response (edited).

...minimum impact velocity for expansion is around 2,000 fps, but it depends on the medium it travels through. It was designed with the 6.5x55 cartridge in mind for work on whitetail/pig sized animals so pushing it through your 6.5 Grendel will slow it down a bit...The projectile will handle any velocity these cartridges can push it to with out any issues, but the faster the impact velocity, the faster it will expand.

If your game is whitetail, I would suggest a broadside, behind the shoulder shot to start with so it can give you a better idea of how it will perform. Most likely, it will still exit but it should expand enough to take vital organs with it.

---

At first blush, the Sierra 130 should be good to about 250 yd, launched from a Grendel, going with Sierra's minimum 2000 fps recommendation. Nothing beats performance on game however.

In the meantime...

Why did I ask? I was hoping to hear from users. When I do a load work up, I like to gather impressions from users. As well, I look at the bullet company recommendations. Certainly, I take the game animal in account, and my expected range of encounter. For the actual assembly, I consider how much of the case is taken up after seating the bullet with a variety of suitable powders.

I am well on my way to determine the experimental loads.

My thanks to all.

For the Canadians:

I placed two orders this afternoon. One was from X-Reload in Beloeil, QC. It's about 30 km or so east of Montreal. They had the order on the way in an hour. That's service!

I had a Ruger in 6.5 Rem Mag that liked the 129 Hornady and I used it a lot. Never failed me...my Remington doesn't like them as much so haven't used them for a while. I love the availability we have for components these days. Good to hear about X-Reload.

Mrs. Tide hunted with a Tikka T3 chambered for the 6.5x55 for a couple of seasons. As a matter of fact, it absolutely loved the Sierra 130 grain BTHP Gameking. She took around 5 or 6 whitetails with it, at ranges from 35 yards to 150 or so. She shoots shoulders, and we got complete penetration in each of those cases. Have no fear shooting deer with that bullet from a Swede.

The order was placed on the 11th - On Friday. It arrived today - Monday.

I have shot deer with a umber of 6.5 cartridges from the 6,5X54MS to the 6.5WSM wildcat with the majority of my bullets being Sierras.
In the Swedes I typically used the big 160 SMP, and witnessed some dramatic 1 shot kills from 120 to 253 yards with them.
In the 6.5X54MS my friend shot a couple with the 129 Hornadys, and I shot two using 120 Seirras, all were down fast if not DRT. That was one in a Mannlicher Schoenauer action and the other in a Krag
With my 6.5X55 express rifle I shot 140 Seirras and the same thing, good accuracy and penetration.
With the 6.5WSM and the 6.5/06 wildcats the 140 Game Kings dropped them in their tracks from just 90 yards to a couple of distances I will not mention, but all were DRT
Both of these were in Jap Highwalls
All of my 6.5X55's BTW were in "weaker" actions, '96, Krag, and the O/U express rifle.
Oh, the 6.5X57 M98,almost forgot!
120 Sierras and really good performance!
A 6.5 Seirra 120 in an accurate rifle will put them down for sure
Cat

Yeah, I only owned one new 6.5x55 rifle. I believe it was a Tikka M65. The rest were M96 rifles or M38s. This latest is an M38. I bought 500 of the Sierra 160 gr bullets, and am down to one box. Sierra doesn't make that bullet anymore. It was a 'do anything' bullet. The Swedes and a recently acquired 6.5 Grendel are the only 6.5s I have owned. For years, especially when I was in the service and bouncing around, those Swedes were orphans. As a result, I sold them off.