Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Hunting the 6.5 Creedmoor

Over the last 10-12 years we have seen more hunters switch from what ever they were using? to the 6.5 CM when I ask why? their answers are about the same, less recoil, more accurate, lighter rifle, threaded barrel,good factory ammo supply, or they just wanted to try something new. 99% of these hunters are not gun nuts, and what ever bullet comes in their ammo box is good enough for them.
The 6.5 CM has taken a hold of the Fudd's as well as the Loony's, no man bun required. Rio7

Hi BSA. I was out at our Thursday morning practice today and noticed that I had a 600 yard 5 shot group stored in my Silver Mountain E Target memory. I normally shoot at least 10 shot groups as they are more revealing, but on that day I was just firing some foulers the day before our state Mid range Championships began. Here is the 600 yard group you requested. All shooting done with my 12.5 pound iron sighted .308, prone with sling.







Since they were all saved a sighters, the system does display a group size, but you can see the X,Y coordinates of the outer shots in the 3 images... 2.51 inches on center.

1000 Yard Groups:





Let's see some 1k groups, 15 shot min.

Looks like the 308 still has it.

🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗🦗

It can hang pretty well to 1000...

Like Bear Spray.

It works great... until it doesn't.

Have a 6.5x55mm - but it's not my only rifle.




GR

MikeS, Next time i run into a Big Bad bear in S.Texas i'll let you know how it turns out. Rio7

We’ve killed a bunch of whitetail with the 147gr ELDM bullets, though Hornady’s factory TAP ammunition. This is a duty round for our department’s precision rifles. Once a year for for about 10 years we’ve done a team hunt where we test our duty rounds, testing for terminal ballistics. We’ve used the Federal Gold Medal Match 308 win. 168gr MK, the Hornady TAP 168gr ELDM and now for the past 5 years we’ve used the 6.5 Creedmoor loaded with the 147 ELDM bullets. The hunt is more of a cull hunt where we average 7 deer a year. Each shooter is given a particular point on the body to aim at such as high shoulder, middle shoulder, heart, lung, neck, etc. Using the .308 win. Federal GMM 168gr. Sierra Matchkings we lost several animals. Although the Federal 168gr. GMM round is extremely accurate its terminal ballistics are not good, living up to the old adage that match bullets aren’t good for hunting. Many years ago I hunted with the Hornady A-Max bullets which always worked great, so I had faith the Hornady ELDM’s would closely mimic the A-MAX. Once we switched to the Hornady TAP in either .308 or the 6.5 creedmoor, we haven’t lost an animal yet. Many of the animals have gone down directly but some have run, few have gone farther than just a few yards. My only complaint with the 147 ELDM’s have been through the TAP they’re not moving as fast as I think they should or could. Sometimes the bullets didn’t completely pass through but when they didn’t we would normally find a well uniformed opened up bullet in the offside hide. Internal damage was always pretty devastating and if the shoulders were hit the meat would be bloodshot. Most of these shots were taken at 100 to 300 yards on South Texas whitetail.

Garandimal may be more interested than me.

MikeS, My mistake Rio7

For the Great State of Louisiana, and SE Texas, the 6.5x55mm works just fine.




GR

Garandimal, Won't you feel unarmed without your Bear Spray?? Rio7

Now you're just bein' silly.

Don't have any bear spray, just rifles.

Thought that was obvious.




GR

YEP!! Rio7

Unusual for BSA to miss a chance to post pictures... hope he's OK.

3-- 147-ELD-M 1200 Yards



5 --147-ELD-M 1800 yards

Rio7

Nice!

Hey BSA, haven't seen any 1k targets posted by you yet. What's up with that?

Here are my 1000 yard targets from this morning. The good the bad and the ugly. .308 155 grain Sierras, iron sights and sling.

String one felt good. Dialed 3 minutes right wind for shot 1 and just clipped a 10. Went ahead and converted that sighter to score and continued on. 3.5 right to .5 left wind range on this string. You can see what happens when you miss a let off with shot 5.



Let the barrel cool a little and started with 1 minute right wind. Bad call as the direction had shifted. More vertical on this string which may reflect some barrel mirage. Need to bring mirage band next time.



Let the barrel cool more this time but in spite of adding a click or 2 of right wind every other shot I was behind the curve as the group center shows. Except for that pesky let off at the end of course! 3 right to 1 right on this string



That was every shot fired this morning. Still looking forward to your targets.

Still waiting for your promised targets BSA.

Tick Tock...