Thread: 6.5x55 bullet options

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?

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

Originally Posted by 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

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?
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.

Originally Posted by 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?

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

Originally Posted by camo wsm

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

Originally Posted by BRADS

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

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.