Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Long Range Hunting Which 6.5 bullet for deer/elk....

Which 6.5 bullet do you veteran hunters like for mule deer and elk in a 6.5 Creed out to 500-600 yards (yes, I know. A bit long for elk for that cartridge).

I was wondering about the 127LRX. Asked a question regarding accuracy in another thread, but get the usual 1 shot is all you need response. If its only about that first shot, theres a lot of guys missing, especially at the ranges you are asking about. Stupid fu cks dont even have a clue.

Pat would probably say 139 Scenar.

My Creed likes the 123 gr. I’d go with the heavier one for bigger stuff, the 123 is fine for our local WT’s.

Lots of choices, lots of good choices.

DF

My lowly Ruger American stacks the 127 Lrx over 4350 1/4 Moa if I’m having a decent day. I even took an antelope this year farther than I should have.

Has anyone tried GS Custom bullets? Looking for high BC. Swift Scirroco II also looks promising----when you can find them.

Shot this guy in New Mexico with my 6.5 PRC and 139 gr Lapua Scenar. Great performance and super accurate

127 LRX or 124 Absolute hammer

Any bullet around 140 grains or heavier will kill just fine if you know how to shoot. The tried-and-true bullets will continue to work, and others won't look at you funny if you use them.

Berger 140 vld works great. Elk, big black bear, big mule deer, whitetails, antelope, mountain goat for kids and me in last 10 years of using it almost exclusively.

I am trying either the 139 Scenar or the 135 A-TIP next. Maybe the 143 ELD-X.
The 140 berger and 147 ELD-M are out, for me.

I miss the 140 AMAX. RIP.

Isn't the 140 ELD-M pretty close to the 140 AMAX?

Maybe a better plastic in the tip?

DF

Pretty much

The 139 GR. SCENAR , is your Huckleberry, Rio7

hmmmmm.....I didn't know that. B/C of .646 or .326 (G7), looks good to me.

I may have to give them a try.
Thanks!

I'm pulling from remote memory (could be dangerous).

IIRC, the plastic AMAX plastic tip was shown on high def photography to be melting before it hit the target. The new version, reportedly, has a better plastic that doesn't do that.

That may be the only difference. If someone knows otherwise, I would appreciate that info.

DF

I use these on deer and pigs. No elk in MS.

Less than 300 yards. I don’t have a long shot where i hunt.

I’ve used the TTSX for several years, but like the larger ( 127vs 120 ) biker for the lrx

127 LRX for still hunting and 147 ELD for long shots.

Probably not great anecdotal evidence, but I finally got to shoot something with my new 26 Nosler last Thursday. Loaded the 140 Grain Nosler Accubond and I was very impressed with my sample of one spike elk. Bullet went through both shoulder blades, a rib on each side, and clipped the spine along the way and we found the perfectly mushroomed bullet under the hide on the far side. Elk dropped in his tracks and didn't even twitch... Hardly any meat lost- probably about a cup or so and no tracking required.... my kind of bullet....

Bob

If I was to hunt elk with the Creed, my first choice for elk would be a Partition, or one of the Barnes. That being said, I have loaded some 140 Speer Gold Dot bullets that I have killed several deer with and there is no doubt in my mind that they would work well on elk. Another real contender is the 140 Interlock. I would not feel under-equipped with any of these, but since I have two seven mags, I would probably not use my Creeds, nor .260s.

If that is the cartridge that you have, then use it, but it would not be the one to get the main nod out of my safe.

ELDM is a very good choice. kills like the amax did

RL-26? Just curious of your load...

Sounds about part for that excellent 140. How far was the bull?

Congrats on him as well. I use the same bullet in my 264 and it’s been excellent as well.

It was only about 125 yards , so it was smoking along pretty good. Had to shoot through a tiny little opening in some dead tree branches about the size of a coke bottle about 20 feet in front of me... interesting shot but it worked so I'm a happy camper....

Bob

They have been great Bullets for us as well. Accubonds are pretty tough to beat in most cases.

About any 140 grainers....

My hunting bud loves the 140 NAB in his 26 Nos, kills stuff with authority. I have been loading those for him with 869 powder.

I have been shooting 120 TTSX and E-Tips in mine with good results, also with 869.

My latest 26 Nosler load is the 156 EOL over Vv N-170 at around 3K fps. Have not killed anything yet, but that's an impressive bullet on paper, shoots great out of my Shilen M-700. Check out the specs on that bullet. I had resisted VLD's in my Nos because I didn't have faith in them holding together at high speeds, especially after a Berger Tech told me they didn't recommend pushing their VLD Hunting bullets over 3,200 fps. Well, the 156 EOL maxes out around 3K fps, so it should be OK on critters. With its high B.C. it should perform pretty well at long range.

N-170 isn't as slow burning as 869, but out performs it with the 156 EOL. It's a high energy powder, probably harder on barrels than 869, but I don't shoot my Nos that much. It's a very coarse stick, won't flow thru my Uniflow RCBS powder measure, stacks up. I remove the drop tube, dump a load in a scale pan, tweak load to the desired weight. Slower, but I don't shoot a volume of those loads.

DF

This year in camp 5 cow elk taken with the 143 gr. ELD-X. Distances ranged from ~170 - ~260 yards. 2 taken with factory ammo, 3 with handloads. All one shot kills, all exited.

Man, that's good to hear, I loaned my 6.5 swede to a buddy, set him up with a good rangefinder and dope card, went out West for antelope, got his two, then loaned the rifle out to others in camp, a total of 6 antelope fell to the 6.5 Swede and 147gr Hornady ELD's, no bullet recoveries, longest shot was 564 yards, damn glad to know they'll work on cow elk too, said old rancher that owns the land out there has some monster muleys on it, they'll be after those tags next year, I need to see if I can tag along too.

But, but, sputter, sputter, that's a target bullet....

So is the 139 Scenar. Tell that to Pat...



DF

You are talking the the ELDM, not the ELDX. The ELDM is a target bullet and not specifically designed for hunting. They have killed many animals, but don't confuse the two. The X is designed as a hunting bullet. I have killed quite a few deer and a couple antelope with the 147 ELDM and they work fine for that. I, personally, would not shoot an elk with one, but it has been done a bunch.

How you gonna convince Pat (Scenarshooter) that the 139 Scenar (basically a target bullet) isn’t adequate to kill an elk?

That could be hard, based on his rather extensive portfolio of dead elk photos.

DF

H4831 gives me 3050 fps with 24" barrel and the 139 Scenars

Pat's Deceased by Scenar thread is the reason I tried them......very pleased so far!

Yeah, they work.

DF

Yeah, the 139 scenar works

LOL DF, I been hearin' that............... ; ]

SBH, Thanks for the clarification, back when I was getting the rifle built I had a thread on the subject, iirc Hondo, Josh303, Cowboy Hunstman and Aalf all said they have or would run a 147gr Horn into an elk, if I also remember correctly one spoke of 4 or 5 feet of penetration on an elk or moose, not to mention Pat's kills with the lighter Scenar, I'm happy my rifle got to kill some antelope for these men, I havenet hit a thing with it 'cept paper and steel ; ]

BTW DF, yesterday afternoon I got a text with a tracking number from the Buddy I loaned the rifle too, his cousin is a high dollar world traveler welder, he'd heard about me setting his cousin up with rifle, range finder and dope card, Buds cousin ask for my address, Bud gave it to him, he didn't think I'd mind, tracking number is for a package coming with 5 boxes of 147gr Hornady ELD's, Buds cousin is sending them to me from his personal stash as thanks, I believe I'm set with the little Swede for awhile.

My old Buddy is a shooter, but had to sell off all his stuff because leukemia is trying to take his life, we've already been through the whole MD Anderson treatment/marrow deal, he was pale and had already lost his hair due to the chemo when he came to get the rifle, so as you can see, this wasn't just a regular antelope hunt, I hope my friend lives long enough to chase mule deer at the same place out West next year.

That’s darned good of you Gunner. Glad the rifle got to do something so special.

That sorta stuff comes around.

Quite a story there, gunner. Happy you and your Swede were able to be there for him.

And, if and when we get to feeling sorry for ourselves, we just have to look around and be thankful for what we have (or don't have). We live each day by the Grace of God; we have no lease on life...

Working with my bud's new Mauser-18 Creed, it shot factory 147 ELD-M and 140 ELD-M into the same POI. I had some factory Winchester 140 target, used them for sight in, but they showed some pressure in this gun. Don't remember ever seeing pressure, as in stiff bolt opening, shiny case heads, etc with factory fodder. Well, I pulled those 140's, seated 130 NAB's, which shot 3/4" into the same POI. Typical Creed.

He just killed a cull buck, good exit, obliterated heart, messed up lungs, 60 yd. death run. He's very pleased with the gun and load. He's the one who did so well with PG in Africa with his 7RM Sendero with 160 NAB's over RL-26, so he's a big Accubond fan to begin with. This just reinforced his NAB fetish.

I let him know how well the ELD-M's work on WT's and such. But, doubt he gets off the 130 NAB's until he runs out of them. I just pulled another box of Win Target 140's, replaced with 130 NAB's. That takes care of all my factory Creed ammo. For my personal Creed, it's all hand loads, currently with 136L Scenars. The Creed is one of the easiest to load for, almost everything shoots good or great. The Swede's no slouch, Creed's just easier,

Just got a text, he's staying with the 130 NAB's, gonna save the factory 140 and 147 ELD-M's I gave him...

Do I know him or what....

DF

130 AB here. Devastating performance in my .264

You're a good man, Gunner. Good things should happen to good men more often.

That has turned into a very special rifle. Blessings to you gunner.

Sample of one but I took a large adult cow at just over 200 yards with my 22” barrel 6.5 Creedmoor using the 142 Nosler ABLR coming out at 2700. She was feeding, angled ever so slightly away. Slipped it in the crease on an uphill angle, bullet took out heart, lungs, destroyed the offside scapula and left about a quarter size exit wound.

She flipped, landed on her back and slid down the snowy hill about 50’, and was probably dead before she stopped sliding. There was a big streak of blood down her slide path. Dramatic DRT.

Based on that performance, I’d have absolutely no reservations about putting that same bullet through any elk out to your stated max of 600 yards with my 6.5 Creedmoor.

I just saw the buck my bud killed. Even in the Creed, the 130 NAB is deadly, expanded well, good exit. Deer was gutted and skinned, hanging in the cooler.

Bud said the lungs were messed up, heart pretty well destroyed. He saved all the meat.

DF.

The thing I like best about most of the Nosler bullets I shoot, especially now that I'm using the Accubond more- is that they have a very wide and forgiving performance envelope.... It doesn't surprise me that the 140 grain bullets would work great at my 26 Nosler and at Creed velocities at any reasonable distances....

Yep, reportedly designed that way, to have terminal performance much like a Partition but with a sleeker profile.

They work and as you note, perform well at a wide range of velocities.

My hunting bud used the 160 NAB in his 7RM on African PG, uses the 140 NAB in his 26 Nos and the 130 NAB in his 6.5 Creed on WT’s. He’s an Accubond fan and with good reason.

DF

darn hard to beat 130gr NAB in the 6.5 creedmoor near or far. deadly on deer & are deer are pretty good size.

Light enough to be relatively fast, heavy enough to be impressively lethal.

DF

What powder/load? Swede performance.

As DF and others......the 130 NAB has been my go to in 6.5 for years, no complaints, accurate, deadly.

Thanks for all the kind comments Men, i'll pass em along to my old Friend, DF, sounds like your Bud has it lined out with the Accubonds, never a bad choice imho, and yes, you have him 'blueprinted' ; ]

I personally have never killed an elk with any 6.5MM. But I have killed about 15 deer and antelope with 2 6.5 Swede rifles and one 6.5X54 Mannlicher.

I have also seen a bunch of deer and antelope killed with 260s Swedes, 6.5 Grendels and a few now with 6.5 Creedmoors.

Of all the elk I have seen killed with 6.5s, (those I can remember here and now as I type this)
6 killed with 6.5X55s.
1 with a 264 Win Mag.
5 with 260 Remingtons
3 killed with 6.5 CM

Various bullet have been used. Ranging from very poor to OK, to excellent.
If I were to pick just one as a deer and elk bullet to "marry a rifle to for all hunting" it would be the 140 grain Nosler Partition. Information strongly suggests to me that the AccuBonds may be just as good, but I have not had enough experience with 6.5MM AccuBonds to swear to that yet

The Partition, as the one they all want to compare to, the Accubond compares very well.

I use the Partition when it's the best shooting bullet in a particular rifle, am never disappointed when that happens.

Overall, the NAB is a great bullet and does what it was designed to do.

DF

Good post, S. I have not, nor probably will not hunt elk with my Creeds, or .260s. That being said, I have seen bullet performance on LOTS of deer and I would not feel handicapped at all with a 6.5. I, also, believe that the Partition is at the top of the list, but Hornady Interlocks, Speer Gold Dots and of course the coppers can be added to the list.

In my 6.5x55 I got started with 129-130 grain bullets and stayed there, this is on deer and pigs, nothing bigger yet. I used Nosler Accubonds, Barnes TSX, Hornaday IB & AB& ELD-X, Berger, and maybe some others I forgot. All of them did well, personally I don't care for the amount of lead and blood shot meat from the Bergers at closer ranges, but they are effective at putting things down. I will give the LRX and the Scenars a try at some point.

The ELD-X is closer to the A-Max in construction. The ELD-M has a thicker more tapered jacket. I liked the A-Max in 70 gr. .223 and 105 in 243, but I think I like the ELD-M better.and will put some to the test shortly I hope.

I have had very good success on deer with Berger 140 gr Hunting VLDs in my .260 Rem and 6.5 -.284.

I like to hit elk harder, 230 gr Berger OTM, .300 WM.

hornady 143 eld x

I've only used the 140 Amax outta the Creed..... Only the 147 gr ELDM outta the PRC, 130 Berger hybrids and 130 AB's outta the 264 mag, and 120 BT's and 130 TSX's and 120 TTSX's from the 260.

I have killed deer and antelope with 6.5 Nosler Ballistic Tip 140 gr
I have killed deer and antelope with 6.5 Nosler Accubond 140 gr

The ballistic tip always worked better.

Posted this before but 130gr Sierra Gamechangers have been solid and consistent performers for me at 260 speeds.

Bull elk @ 527yds - 2 shots behind shoulder (1 pass through and 2nd under offside hide w nice mushroom) bull made it 10ft
Muley buck @ 490yds - pass through, drt
Muley buck @ 248yds - pass through, made it 20yds
Large boar black bear @ 75yds -broke on-side shoulder and pass through, 20yds
Doe antelope @ 350ish - pass through, drt
Doe antelope @ 300 - pass through, drt

Most accurate and consistent on game performance I’ve ever had out of a bullet. Acts like an AccuBond with a better BC.

I use Hammer Shock Hammer 130 grainers for deer, elk, pigs, and anything else I find in the lower forty-eight. Exits from any angle.

Having killed and seen killed quite few critters I tend to like the 6.5MM 130gr Berger VLDs in various forms such as Hybrid, AR Hybrid and just plain old VLD when running the lower speed Creedmoor.

Nice ones.

I know you like VLD's, especially for LR work.

How do they compare with the 139 Scenar and 130 NAB, both of which work well for me?

BTW, I like and use VLD's, mostly the 140 Hunting in my 6.5-284. No complaints there. Haven't tried VLD's in my Creed, the Scenars are just so accurate, I quit shopping.

Just curious, your thinking on that subject.

DF

Edited to add, I've loaded some 156 EOL's in my 26 Nosler over Vv n-570. No blood yet, but they shoot great.

I've had a Berger tech tell me they don't like their Hunting VLD's shot over 3,100 fps, so I quit working with them (140's, etc.) in the Nosler. The 156 EOL runs smoothly at 3K in that gun, which is within their velocity window..

Your thoughts, comments..

I have never used the Scenar nor the 130gr NAB so I don't have a frame of reference.

I can say the the 130gr VLD has always worked great in the Creedmoor so I am not really shoppin for a different bullet.

You are probably on the right path with your 26 Nos.

I get 3250fps from my .264 Win Mag but it has a very smooth throat still and the 140gr VLD holds up even with close impacts.

When running the VLD hard the condition of the throat/barrel can affect terminal performance.

For the 26 Nos, the Berger tech suggested target VLD’s as a sub for the hunting VLD. But I just moved on. Target VLD with slightly thicker jacket may have worked. Now, the 156 EOL could be interesting. We’ll see.

DF

My PRC shoots the 143 ELDX’s and 147 ELDM’s pretty well but it’s a friggin tack driver with the 139 Scenars. When I have zero doubt about where the bullet is going to hit it’s a pretty special feeling. I shot a buck a few weeks ago that was standing quartering mostly away and in the oak brush the only thing I had an unobstructed shot at was his head and neck looking back at me. With the CWD testing going on here in Colorado I knew they don’t want head shots , so I just aimed high in the neck where the spine would meet up and at 200 yards hit exactly where I wanted to. Bullet destroyed the spine and kept going. I have several hundred 139 Scenars and see no reason to chase a little BC with the way my rifle shoots them.

Unless I’ve missed it I see no mention of the 100gr Partition. Anyone used that bullet on whitetail? Seems to me a 3300fps Partition would be good place to be.

I've used light for caliber Partitions in high speed rounds before (7 mag, 25-06) and the meat damage was unreal. I went back to the heavy for caliber Partitions and the meat damage is more acceptable....

My 6.5 Creedmoor shoots the 130 AB and 129 ABLR into same POI and both under an inch. 2,760 FPS at the muzzle. I think the 129 ABLR is perfect for deer and has held up well on bone, but I still use the 130 AB on elk for piece of mind. Actually, it is my kids' elk rifle up until they can shoot something a little bigger.

My son put a couple of the 130 ABs into an elk a couple weeks ago at about 100 yds. The first was far back and broke the spine and dropped the elk. It went through the spine and exited (nickel sized), but only had to go through about 8-10 inches of elk. His second was behind the front shoulder and was caught in offside (no exit). Kill shot blew through head with nickel sized exit.

Next year I will load up some 140 ABs or partitions with a stiff load of RL26 for elk. I will limit him to 300 yds. Other bullets may be better for longer range. I think the 6.5 Creedmoor is adequate for elk in the hands of an experienced shooter than can place shots very well, but is pretty marginal for the average hunter for elk duty.

156 Berger! I shot two bull elk last year with this bullet out of my 6.5 GAP4S (150 and 250 yards).

Loaded those in my 26 Nos. No blood yet.

What’s terminal performance like?

DF

140 partition

I’ve used the 130 AB to kill 3 elk with my Creedmoor and several deer. One of those elk was shot at 504 yards with 2 pass throughs. I’m at the point of having complete confidence in this bullet to get the job done. Works great on deer and antelope as well, so it’s the perfect all around bullet in my opinion.

out of a 260 Remington... yeah, it worked just fine...

Didn't see any meat damage with it, that Mr Heister mentions....

But I did the same thing, with a 100 grain ballistic tip at 300 yds.....

boy he wasn't kidding on lost meat on the oft side...a good 20 plus pounds of lost meat...

If you just want something DEAD, use the ballistic tip then....

I haven't seen the 143 ELD-X listed anywhere either as a component or a factory round. Did I just miss seeing it or is it still around.

140gr Nosler Partition and don’t look back. I’ve killed mule deer, antelope, black bear, and elk with that bullet and the only way to to gain anything is to step up to at least a .308 200gr partition. 😎

Here is a 129 ABLR we pulled from the offside hide of a cow elk last weekend, shot from a 6.5 Creedmoor. 240 yds and about 2,400 FPS impact velocity. I didn't weight it, but it is probably 40-50%.

I think there are better elk bullets out there, but this one performed just fine.

That’s a great recovery. They do expand nicely.

Interesting....thanks for posting that.

It was an angled shot a little far back, and traveled through quite a bit of elk. I didn't see if it took out ribs on either side. Also did gutless so didn't get to see wound trauma either. It was getting dark and we had to make quick time.

130-143 at that distance, though that's a ways for a creed. You'd be better served with a 6.5 PRC at those distances, using 140 to 160s. Good luck

Is the eldm a reliable choice for hunting? Ive always thought the match bullets didnt expand enough. I have however killed a truckload of deer with the 162 amax in 7mm. And as far as im concerned that little pkastic tip doesnt mean crap if it melts. Every one of mine is deformed from jamming a long bullet in a short magazine and ive not noticed a difference out to 500

Pretty much nobody makes a bullet these days that isn't suitable for deer, unless it is marketed as a varmint bullet.

I've killed a couple elk and a couple antelope with 147's. Pretty significant expansion, killed them dead. 139 Scenar is still my favorite 6.5 hunting bullet.

In hornadys precision hunter ammo. But 6.5 creed amd 6.5prc.