# Firearms and Shooting > Reloading and Ballistics >  6.5x55 bullet options

## Hunt4life

I was surfing through the forum and read a few different threads on various bullet types and I've ended up quite confused, so hoping some of you ballistic genius types can help me out with your experience. 
I guess I'm also hoping that some of the newbies to hunting might benefit from this discussion too and it might help them make better choices when buying ammo so they lose fewer animals than perhaps the rest of us have, before we figured some stuff out.  
When "ballistic tip" or polymer tip ammo started being marketed and we were all told how animals would fall over dead just by the sight of these bullets, I accepted this as truth and bought a pack of Hornady Superformance (blah, blah). Unfortunately, as they had quite a different POI to my Federal ammo, I shelved them. Then one day, after losing a Sika stag (which I'm sure I hit well in the HILAR), got pissed off and decided it was time to re-zero my rifle with these new Hornady SST whiz bang things... With disappointing results!

Here's a couple of photos of the Federal Powershock 140gr, showing entry and exit at 75m.


I thought I had matching photos of the Hornady SST trial, but couldn't find them. But I can say that the damage on exit was far less compelling with exit hole less than half the size and very little cracking or distortion of the other pumpkin (bloody good fun shooting pumpkins btw!! :-D)
A mate shoots .25-06 with SSTs and nailed a huge Sika stag last year at about 80metres, hitting him perfectly through the centre of both 3rd ribs, yet very little expansion of the bullet, so he ran quite some distance before he realised he was dead (:-P). The exit wound was only twice the size of the entry hole. 
So, I've had a mate reload some brass with Sierra SPBTs and slowed down the charge a bit to 2560fps MV, which I haven't tried on either pumpkins or deer yet, but they're consistently very accurate on paper. When I've dug some of my Sierra pills out of the clay, they seem to have very little lead left and just a mangled copper jacket remaining (?!)
Reading many comments about "plastic tip shite" or "old school 1960's" "anaemic" bullets leaves a guy feeling like its all too techno and hard, so we just shoot whatever we get and hope for the best.
Perhaps a few of you could enlighten us with exactly how these bullets are supposed to work in different situations?
And why we might choose one over the other? I'm not asking for a full science lesson in bullet aerodynamics or anything, but more about the speed vs distance vs mushroom effect. 
Thoughts?

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## Toby

Try 140amax or 120 nosler bt. Thats if you reload. I havent used the amaxs in 6.5 but the noslers are mean. I have used speer hot cor 140s which im sure are what federal use anyway

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## Hunt4life

Cheers Toby. Have you tried the heavy Nosler 156gn?
Why 120gn as opposed to the standard 140?

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## Toby

Nah never tried anything over 140. I grabbed the 120's cause that was all that was there. They seem to expand well when they hit bone. Im no pro just what I have noticed on the goats

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## PerazziSC3

Ok heres my 2c haha
I havent had any experience with 6.5x55 but as a general rule
The faster you push a projectile the more explody it gets. This can be bad if the projectile doesnt penetrate far enough into the vitals

Barnes are solid copper projectiles as are hornady GMX and a few others, these need to be pushed fast for reliable/any expansion. Note the GMX has a plastic tip. These bullets open up a bit and look like a nice mushroom but nearly always exit the animal

The next step is a bonded core bullet like the nosler accubond (these also have a plastic tip) but are designed to be pushed fast and will create a nice mushroom and still retain like 90% of there weight, i have only ever recovered one accubond and that was out of my wsm, they are devastating killers up close and a reliable projectile

Then you get the likes of the hornady SST and nosler BT (both have plastic tip) they are quite soft in comparision to the barnes and accubonds and will explode a bit and create pretty massive damage internally, they can however explode up close and the animal will end up with a gruesome surface wound (hasnt happened to me but does supposedly happen) 

Then you get the hornday AMAX like toby says which is also very soft and will expand down to pretty low velocities which is why its a common projectile for long range.

Powershok or federal blue box seems to get pretty good reps and if you have confidence in it use it

Some people like explody projectiles that act like a grenade inside the animal (e.g sst bt amax) others like bonded projectiles that will stay together and create an even wound channel through the animal and exit the other side usually creating a better blood trail (e.g barnes, GMX and accubonds)

Personal preference

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## Neckshot

I personally would struggle to find a better killing projectile than a 140amax doing 2750fps out of my 260AIits going slower than normal but its still stoning them.Iit has everything you need high bc and it expands exactly like it should.When I hit and animal I try to always neckshoot them and they drop instantly as you would expect with neckshot's however I shot a stag at 300 good body size and it was a vital organ shot and he hit the deck as hard as any neckshot ive done I found the projectile under the skin on the otherside mushroomed perfectly.Lucky shot maybe but either way I could'nt personlay fault that projectile myself and wouldn't change as they are well priced and suit me just fine.

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## R93

Yup. At 6.5 x 55 speeds I don't think you could go past the 140 Amax.
The Scirocco swift is the best killing bullet I have used in 6.5 but up around 3000fps mv so not sure how they would go starting a bit slower.
My experience with them is mainly on thar as I have body shot only a handful of animals with them. Got a mate that just loves them since he changed a few years ago. He uses them starting over 3000 as well but has flattened everything he has shot since. If I suggest trying anything else he just laughs.
Plenty of x55 users will chime in I'm sure.

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## 7mmsaum

The swift scirrocco is definitely harder than the amax and needs higher impact speeds to perform.(ie bush hunting)

A few years ago when some were reticent to try the amax for LR the scirrocco was meant to be the bees knees, but it wasn't  :Have A Nice Day: 

To give the scirrocco some credit it was never as bad as the 160g 7mm Accubond.

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## Beavis

The differance in bullet performance can be pretty substantial, zipping through soft tissue vs hitting bone.

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## BRADS

I'm about to try the 130 Accubond in the 6.5saum going around 3150 should do the bizzo, how have people found them on deer?

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## R93

> The swift scirrocco is definitely harder than the amax and needs higher impact speeds to perform.(ie bush hunting)
> 
> A few years ago when some were reticent to try the amax for LR the scirrocco was meant to be the bees knees, but it wasn't 
> 
> To give the scirrocco some credit it was never as bad as the 160g 7mm Accubond.


I have a 130gr 6.5 projectile on my bench that was pulled out of a bull shot just over 400yds It was a picture perfect mushroom and was 119grs. Photo on here somewhere. Nanny thar are reasonably soft and I have seen one pole-axed with a swift at 800yrds.
Couple that with a few stags I have seen thumped at distance and their accuracy in a few rifles I have played with, I highly rate them. They unfortunately do not like the 6.5 barrel I am using now otherwise I would be using them exclusively. 
Maybe those wee sika, like most everything up there, are just a bit stay puff soft Andrew? :Grin: 
In saying that, they started out at around 3000fps. Apart from a few shots at distance that have obviously slow impact speeds, results so far, could be misleading and need more kills to form an accurate opinion.

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## camo wsm

> I'm about to try the 130 Accubond in the 6.5saum going around 3150 should do the bizzo, how have people found them on deer?


Never tried them in the WSM but the 130 swifts used to bend them up well, keen to hear how your 6.5 saum goes as I was considering this when getting my 7 done

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## BRADS

> Never tried them in the WSM but the 130 swifts used to bend them up well, keen to hear how your 6.5 saum goes as I was considering this when getting my 7 done


Yeah mate ill keep posted, you where pushing your pills a shit load faster then me thow in your wsm :Thumbsup:

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## camo wsm

> Yeah mate ill keep posted, you where pushing your pills a shit load faster then me thow in your wsm


Haha only slightly lol apparently the 6.5 saum is doing really well in the states especially in regards to barrel life which is interesting

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## Neckshot

If targex made a 6.5 projectile you would be considering them aswell,he's working on them I hope.Dont get caught up in speed for a hunting projectile either as they don't have to be fast just accurate.All the fun is in finding animals to test your projectiles on and measure the diffrences and judge yourself.

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## Tahr

I haven't struck a bad  bullet in my 6.5x55. 140 grn SST, AMax and Sierra have all worked well. I prefer the SST to the AMax.

Projectiles are just a lump of lead and copper striking an animal with thousands of variables at play, so performance can be a bit unpredictable. They all have fails, but I expect that it is seldom the bullet design at fault. We worry too much.

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## BRADS

> If targex made a 6.5 projectile you would be considering them aswell,he's working on them I hope.Dont get caught up in speed for a hunting projectile either as they don't have to be fast just accurate.All the fun is in finding animals to test your projectiles on and measure the diffrences and judge yourself.


Here what your saying there mate but keep in mind the projectiles that Cam and I where talking about work a lot better at speed :Have A Nice Day: 
You cant drive them as fast, hence you enjoy the amax.
Not trying to turn this into a whose got the fastest pill thread :Have A Nice Day: 
Just saying more speed does help some pills.

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## Timmay

Every animal I've found (50m to 250) seems to disagree with a 140 Amax @ ~2730fps.

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## Sidney

Pretty sure you missed the point.... the amax works well in the standard 6.5x55 because you are under 2800 fps... using a cal that spits them out a bit faster and you might want something a little more stoutly constructed for close up work..

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## Tahr

There is one very important point that Hunt4life alluded to that everyone is missing.

_Every_ pumpkin should be shot on sight.

They are terrible things.

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## scoped

140 berger vld here. Another family member swears by highland factory 139gr and he shoots a lot of deer

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## 260hunter

120 gr Sierra prohunter, 129 gr Hornady interloct or 127 gr Barnes LRX. All are equally effective and you can rely on them all up close or out far.

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## Neckshot

> There is one very important point that Hunt4life alluded to that everyone is missing.
> 
> _Every_ pumpkin should be shot on sight.
> 
> They are terrible things.


There piss easy to stalk up on to!. if one snaps you out stalking it then hang up ya hunting boots boys :Have A Nice Day:

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## Wirehunt

I swear by the 120gr BT doing around 2950-3000.  Shit doesn't move after it's hit, and shot placement within reason isn't critical.

This year I lost a deer, did a dumb thing and changed bullets to the barnes.  Fucking idiot. (me that is) why fuck with what hasn't failed before?   To much reading BS on forums.....

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## Toby

> I swear by the 120gr BT doing around 2950-3000.  Shit doesn't move after it's hit, and shot placement within reason isn't critical.
> 
> This year I lost a deer, did a dumb thing and changed bullets to the barnes.  Fucking idiot. (me that is) why fuck with what hasn't failed before?   To much reading BS on forums.....


Do they expand fast did you notice? On this baby goat I shot it had a pretty big exit would it was only about 5cm wide seems like the open fast hitting bone. Nut they were mean killers

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## R93

> There piss easy to stalk up on to!. if one snaps you out stalking it then hang up ya hunting boots boys


F$%k! Anyone want some cheap boots?

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## Tahr

> I swear by the 120gr BT doing around 2950-3000.  Shit doesn't move after it's hit, and shot placement within reason isn't critical.
> 
> This year I lost a deer, did a dumb thing and changed bullets to the barnes.  Fucking idiot. (me that is) why fuck with what hasn't failed before?   To much reading BS on forums.....


Exactly  :Thumbsup: 

I recall now that I used the 6.5 120 BT for a while. They were fine.

For no particular reason, here's a victim. 21 years ago. The BT has been around for a while. So have I.

The rifle was a worn out brno 270 re-barreled to 6.5x55. I remember this shot as being about 300 yards, and the bullet went right through it. In the Ruahines up behind Rangi. Carted the thing out for the trade. That's what I was doing at that time of my life. I sure as hell wasn't at home fretting about bullet performance  :Have A Nice Day:

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## 260rem

I use plain old Hornady 129gn interloc bullets in my 260 and have found them great on animals and they group well in both my 6.5mm rifles

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## Speill

> 120 gr Sierra prohunter, 129 gr Hornady interloct or 127 gr Barnes LRX. All are equally effective and you can rely on them all up close or out far.


What speed are you driving the LRX's?  And how far out are you getting kills?

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## Neckshot

> Exactly 
> 
> I recall now that I used the 6.5 120 BT for a while. They were fine.
> 
> For no particular reason, here's a victim. 21 years ago. The BT has been around for a while. So have I.
> 
> The rifle was a worn out brno 270 re-barreled to 6.5x55. I remember this shot as being about 300 yards, and the bullet went right through it. In the Ruahines up behind Rangi. Carted the thing out for the trade. That's what I was doing at that time of my life. I sure as hell wasn't at home fretting about bullet performance


that pic explains everything!!!!!!!.........................In knew you were perverted by flopping your old fulla out onto that spikers head like that.It also explains while your still a fit bugger Tahr :Have A Nice Day:

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## Tahr

Yes, its an old meat hunters' tradition that has pretty much died out now.To get a pic like that nowadays I would need to use viagra just to get the thing out of its cage and into sight of the camera.  :Have A Nice Day:

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## Neckshot

> Yes, its an old meat hunters' tradition that has pretty much died out now.To get a pic like that nowadays I would need to use viagra just to get the thing out of its cage and into sight of the camera.


Bwaaaa ha ha ha ha hahhah haha rolling on the floor ha ha ha ha.Watch out for all the girls on the forum now your in for some pm action!!

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## on2it

For another example of pumpkins put to good use see "Zen and the art of pumpkin bombing" and 332 golden orbs recycled just for fun

Zen And The Art Of Pumpkin Bombing - AVweb Features Article

"How the hell are we gonna top that next year?" But this is Iowa, where idle minds are never truly at rest."

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## Ohutumeats

I use 45grn of 2209 doing 2725fps using 140grn amax they go real well!!

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## sneeze

> Yes, its an old meat hunters' tradition that has pretty much died out now.To get a pic like that nowadays I would need to use viagra just to get the thing out of its cage and into sight of the camera.


Ha reminded me of one of the few jokes dad used to be able to tell without putting the punch line first..

An old fulla gets up in the morning and anounces to his wife 
I think Ill go and see the doctor today, get some of that viagra stuff"
 The wife replies "well Im going to come with you'
Husband asks" what do you want at the doctors ?"
Wife replies " if you are going to get that rusty old thing out then I'm going to need a tetnus shot."

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## 7mmsaum

> Ha reminded me of one of the few jokes dad used to be able to tell without putting the punch line first..
> 
> An old fulla gets up in the morning and anounces to his wife 
> I think Ill go and see the doctor today, get some of that viagra stuff"
>  The wife replies "well Im going to come with you'
> Husband asks" what do you want at the doctors ?"
> Wife replies " if you are going to get that rusty old thing out then I'm going to need a tetnus shot."


Funniest ever !

Typical farmers wife, so practical   :Have A Nice Day:

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## 260hunter

> What speed are you driving the LRX's?  And how far out are you getting kills?


I am about to put the LRX over the chrony in the next week so will put the results up. I suspect they will be 2850 -2900 fps.  The last tahr shot with this bullet would have been just on 500 I reckon. The guy that took the shot reckons he aimed about a foot above its head as it climbed up the bluff. 

It impacted about midway down the back and exited just behind the front leg low on the chest. The destruction inside was quite surprising as half the liver was gone and the lungs were just soup. The beastie just took a step out into space and slid all the way down to within a hundred metres of us. It was all rather spectacular. A bloody good shot that wasn't a fluke as he had dropped another a couple of second earlier at the same sort of range.

I reckon the bullet would be doing about 1900 fps when it impacted so all round great performance which is what you would expect at about $1.50 each.

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## Happy

About to load some 6.5 x 55 rounds. Have AMAX 140s and AR2209 been told 44 gr max will produce 2620 fps. This is taken off ADI web site I think.
Is this similar to what everyone else does with this round when loading for it ?

Cheers Happy

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## Tahr

> About to load some 6.5 x 55 rounds. Have AMAX 140s and AR2209 been told 44 gr max will produce 2620 fps. This is taken off ADI web site I think.
> Is this similar to what everyone else does with this round when loading for it ?
> 
> Cheers Happy


What is the make of your rifle? It makes a difference, 'cos you don't want to push the old Swedes too much. If its a modern action it opens up the possibilities for you using a high energy powder like N560, or a bit more 2209. Travel safe though.

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## K95

I get about that with 44gr of 2209. Could go another half grain but have but slight ejector shine showing up.thats in a howa with 140 amax

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## Happy

It's a newish SS gun not had a hiding at all under 80 rounds through it  Ruger and I know some don't rate them but something different .

Cheers Happy

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## Happy

> I get about that with 44gr of 2209. Could go another half grain but have but slight ejector shine showing up.thats in a howa with 140 amax


Thanks for that  Sounds like good place to start from I will get head space guage eventually to play with but just want to sight in and have a play with it

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## Toby

> Thanks for that  Sounds like good place to start from I will get head space guage eventually to play with but just want to sight in and have a play with it


I'd say good luck but 6.5's are mean so you'll be right

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## Neckshot

140 A-max 6.5 left projectile @200 yards in the neck ,right projectile @300yards vitals shot pulled out from skin on other side shoulder.

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## Hunt4life

[QUOTE=Neckshot;151778]140 A-max 6.5 left projectile @200 yards in the neck ,right projectile @300yards vitals shot pulled out from skin on other side shoulder.

Brilliant Neckshot. Thanks for that. Red deer? I'm guessing you're spitting them out around 2600fps, so slowed down a lot by 300yrd? Sounds like I should try the amax for comparison

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## Hunt4life

Just read your previous post Neckshot... MV 2750fps. Nice one. Thanks for your comments

Cheers

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## Uplandstalker

I find the SST results interesting. I've been shooting 140gr SST in my 270WSM for a while and have found them real good on Tahr, deer and chamois - from a distance. Up close, maybe a bonded or softpoint might be better. I've collected a few SST's from animals, this one from a nice 10 point stag at 375 yards and I have another one somewhere from a 12.25" Tahr at 520yards(the second shot in this animal when straight through). They go OK at these ranges, but I reckon that they may either fly to bits or go straight through up close.

Finding the prefect "all ranges" projectile could be fun project! There isn't an a-max for 270 so have recent changed to the 150gr BergerVLD

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## 260hunter

> I find the SST results interesting. I've been shooting 140gr SST in my 270WSM for a while and have found them real good on Tahr, deer and chamois - from a distance. Up close, maybe a bonded or softpoint might be better. I've collected a few SST's from animals, this one from a nice 10 point stag at 375 yards and I have another one somewhere from a 12.25" Tahr at 520yards(the second shot in this animal when straight through). They go OK at these ranges, but I reckon that they may either fly to bits or go straight through up close.Attachment 13549
> 
> Finding the prefect "all ranges" projectile could be fun project! There isn't an a-max for 270 so have recent changed to the 150gr BergerVLD


Project finished. The perfect all ranges projectile is called a Hornady Interloct. :Thumbsup:

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## puku

I tried some 140gn SST's in my 270wsm also.  About three years ago or so, and had a few of them fly to bits.  So I changed to 140 accubonds which grouped a lot better.  But i've been using the 140 gn Accubonds along with 150gn Berger Hunting VLD.

And then yesterday I had some 150 LR AB's arrive.  So will give them a hoon

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## Uplandstalker

Matt2308 is using the new LRAB's in his 270WSM. Doing 3100fps and track really nice - only tried out to 860 yards. Took a nice Chamois at 720 with them, DOA!




> I tried some 140gn SST's in my 270wsm also.  About three years ago or so, and had a few of them fly to bits.  So I changed to 140 accubonds which grouped a lot better.  But i've been using the 140 gn Accubonds along with 150gn Berger Hunting VLD.
> 
> And then yesterday I had some 150 LR AB's arrive.  So will give them a hoon

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## 260hunter

> I am about to put the LRX over the chrony in the next week so will put the results up. I suspect they will be 2850 -2900 fps.  The last tahr shot with this bullet would have been just on 500 I reckon. The guy that took the shot reckons he aimed about a foot above its head as it climbed up the bluff. 
> 
> It impacted about midway down the back and exited just behind the front leg low on the chest. The destruction inside was quite surprising as half the liver was gone and the lungs were just soup. The beastie just took a step out into space and slid all the way down to within a hundred metres of us. It was all rather spectacular. A bloody good shot that wasn't a fluke as he had dropped another a couple of second earlier at the same sort of range.
> 
> I reckon the bullet would be doing about 1900 fps when it impacted so all round great performance which is what you would expect at about $1.50 each.


I cronied the load at 2698 which was a bit slower than I thought so maybe I will have to jazz it up a bit. Will try to get 2800 out of it. That shouldn't be too hard I hope.

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## SIKAHUNTER

> Project finished. The perfect all ranges projectile is called a Hornady Interloct.


+1 the interloct

Sent from my LT25i using Tapatalk 2

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## Steveh054

> Project finished. The perfect all ranges projectile is called a Hornady Interloct.


Yep .... I agree but if you are from Auckland they are not expensive enough so are no bloody good. I use them in .270, 308, 30/06, 300wsm, 7mm saum, 280 rem etc, they are cheaper than most, shoot as well as most and kill shit just as dead

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## Tahr

> Yep .... I agree but if you are from Auckland they are not expensive enough so are no bloody good. I use them in .270, 308, 30/06, 300wsm, 7mm saum, 280 rem etc, they are cheaper than most, shoot as well as most and kill shit just as dead


You obviously aren't basing this opinion on _real_ experience.

I find that with them the hole in the target paper isn't quite perfectly round when viewed through a magnify glass. I think that its caused by the canelure around them. 

Since I found that, I've never used them again.

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## Neckshot

> You obviously aren't basing this opinion on _real_ experience.
> 
> I find that with them the hole in the target paper isn't quite perfectly round when viewed through a magnify glass. I think that its caused buy the canelure around them. 
> 
> Since I found that, I've never used them again.


I also have found that the ring on a gong hit isn't quite the same :Grin:

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