Thread: Amax terminal performance

Bought a T3 6.5x55 a while back to get the scope off it then onsell, but had it out a time or two, have decided to keep it, so far it has slotted a pig, a couple of Tahr and a large bodied red.

The load developed for it before me, was 120gn NBT, not a bullet that appealed to me (regular users of it in 6.5 feel free to comment) so I developed my own loads, which happen to work really well:
120gn TTSX and 140gn VLD and/or 140gn SST. But, I have a bunch of 120gn Amax and 140gn Amax and have discovered the rifle really likes them, good velocity considering the barrel length, the numbers look quite good, but for punching animals rather than paper, I would like to hear from those using the Amax in 6.5 over a number of animals to have an accurate read on performance, close and far, 50yds/500yds, tough and dense game, light framed game ect. Rather like the 120gn Amax, but........?

All four bullets are very accurate in my 6.5,120gr, 123gr and 140gr Amax's and 120gr Nosler BT.
Never shot anything bigger than a wallaby with the 120 and 123gr amax
Shot a decent sized tahr at 400 plus yards with the 140, that was a good kill
I also found the 120gr Nosler very accurate in both 6.5's I have.
Once again never shot anything bigger than a wallaby with the 120gr NBT.
Found the 120-123 amax gave better terminal performance on the smaller game than the 120bt
often the 120Bt would sail right though which suggests it would be better on bigger game.
The smaller Amax's rarely did that.

Yeah, I've used the 140 AMax on Thar and Reds. Big and small. A mixture of about 50 odd animals. Haven't had any problems near and far-ish (50yds to 500). Never lost one apart from the odd Tahr I couldn't get to. Sometimes they will pass right through, and sometimes the penetration is just adequate. No real pattern to it.
2800 fps.

I've got no reason not to use them. They are cheap-ish and great BC.

Hay mate got a 260 that shoots 140 amax at 2750 odd and puts shit dead at all ranges best to date is a billy goat at 600odd yards but shot a red spiker the other week at 30 yards and few fallow but manly head shoot or neck shoot fallow as you don't really want to waste to much. But will be heading for some tahr next month with the 260.

Hornady's own ballistic testing. Note how the Amax compares to the other bullets. Basically only Vmax and GMX that looks any different.