Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 6.5 Accubond LR 129 gr. question

Does anyone shoot the 6.5mm 129 gr. AccuBond LR in a 9 twist barrel, I have an older 6.5-284 Winchester that I would like to try it in however the Berger twist rate calculator says it will be marginally stable and not realize the full BC potential. Velocity would be approx 2900-2950 COAL 2.88". Was thinking of using the standard 130gr Accubond but it seems from the bullet test I have watched the standard accubond has not performed as well and reliable as the LR version in gel and water tests. This will be mostly for deer hunting in the north east. I was going to use the Hornady Interlock 129gr flatbase but my rifle has a short throat that I would have to extend to use this bullet to its potential. Any advice is appreciated.
Thank you in advance
gdc

I cannot answer your question on the twist issue, other than to say that the calculator is most likely close to being reality.

But I have a really hard time believing that the standard 130 AB wouldn't be waaaaaay more than sufficient for eastern WT deer & except in very unusual circumstances, are you likely to be shooting far enough to take advantage of the BC potential of the ABLR bullet over the standard AB.

AB's usually are a better performing bullet than a standard Interlok, not that there is anything at all wrong with the Hornady bullet. AB's are not usually dramatically different than Partitions, which are still more, or less, a gold standard.

You're splitting hairs that don't need to be split for your apparent use unless I'm missing a whole lot.

MM

My wife has a Kimber Hunter in 6.5 CM. She has shot a few deer with the 129 ABLR, they were all DRT. Not sure of the twist rate but that load shoots sub .5 MOA.
My wife and I have had excellent results with the ABLR, both accuracy and on game performance in the following...
280AI 150/168 gr
308 Win 168 gr
30 Nosler 168 gr
338 RUM 265/300 gr
Almost every deer, and we shoot crop damage deer, have dropped in their tracks with lung shots.
The ABLR is a great all around bullet.

Does the Berger calculator account for the presence (and length of) the plastic tip? I don't recall what program I used to calculate the 129 ABLR's stability at 9" twist and 2500 FPS (Grendel) but it did include the length of the tip and it showed to be plenty stable. Real world shooting has born this out. I think you will be fine at your speeds. This was the first day testing that load at long range - here at 425 yards.


Rex

Guys thanks so much for the information, Im going to give them a try and see how it works out. Unfortunately 200 yards is the furthest distance I will be able to shoot. I am going to look online for additional ballistic calculators as well.
gdc

Use whatever Nosler’s recommendation is. The calculators are just rough models and can be significantly off in either direction. The bigger bullet compansies have software and can tweak bullet design to be stable (ie move center of gravity) that may not match assumptions in the simple calculators. Hornady, for ex, has said this several times in podcasts probably becuase tired of people running a calculator that tells them they need faster twist than what Hornady recommends

Lou