6.5 calibers for big game hunting question

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Glock4ever

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I have noticed that there is 6.5 seems to be all the craze for long range precision shooting and I have been debating the merits of getting a .260 Rem or 6.5 Creedmoor for long range hunting but I thought I would ask those in the know what the terminal performance is like with these calibers specifically for North American Moose and Elk. Currently, I am running a 300 WSM because I really like how quickly it will put an animal down but the long range ballistic performance of the 140 grainish 6.5 bullets have been calling to me. The question I have is how quickly will this put a moose/elk to sleep? Please note that I am not asking about how well will these bullets fly/trajectory or will it kill a large big game animal as I know they will. My big things is shooting an animal and having it die ASAP not running off and bleeding out. I have been watching youtube videos on the 6.5 kills with smaller deer and I notice that a fair number run off before they die so it does concern me a bit that it may kill too slow for my liking with the bigger game. Any experienced 6.5 hunters out there that can give me the skinny on this round?
 
My wife took her cow Elk this year with a 6.5 06 shooting a 125gn partition at 125 yards. She got it in the neck and it dropped instantly. Not alot of damage to the meat and I would have been interested to see the damage if she would have hit vitals. I am gonna stick with the 300 mag for next year myself after seeing that.
Windy
 
I bought a 6.5 Creed specifically as a Moose rifle.

Not because I take long shots (hunt my moose at less than 100 yards), but mostly because I wanted the "new caliber so I could hang with the cool kids".

I have hunted moose in Northern Ontario for many years stretching back into the 1970's, so it's not like I didn't have experience that I could base my decision on - I am well familiar where and how hard I need to hit a moose to put it down.

When I crunched the numbers I was "personally comfortable" using the 6.5 Creed out to a distance of 300 yards (but no more) with either of a 140 grain Accubond, Partition or A-Frame. Any of them launched with a muzzle velocity of 2700 fps (very doable) would leave enough energy at 300 yards that I would be "more than fine" taking a broadside shot through the vitals on a moose.

What were those deer shot with that "ran off"? A mono bullet that zipped right through leaving a 6.5 mm exit hole?

Moose are not hard to kill unless you hit them wrong - you punch them through the boiler room with a bullet that "reliably expands" and they are going to go down in short order.

I hunt moose in an area that is predominantly peat bogs - if they don't fall down pretty much right away there is better than 50:50 odds that I may not recover it - so I make sure they are in a "recoverable spot" before the trigger is pulled and that the shot is not "iffy". An A-Frame has never failed to put Bullwinkle down (at least since the early 80's when they came on the market - used Partitions before that).

Ultimately the 6.5 stayed in the safe and I opted for a 7.08 for my new moose rifle - although the Creed was ballistically superior and packed more power @ 300 yards, I shoot far shorter distances and the 7.08 was just a rifle better suited to my style of hunting (the Creed was on a heavy barrel varmint platform). The Creed does kick about the same as my 7.08 so that was not a consideration.
 
I shot a 260 for quite some time with a handloaded 130 TSX at 2850 fps as my primary load. It worked on a lot of game - bear, deer and a DRT elk, all at about the 100 m range. I would not hesitate to use it on a moose as long as I had a good broadside presentation and ranges were no farther out than 200 m. On that kind of shot, the 130 TSX would pass through assuming it didn't hit bone perhaps but it would still give good penetration. Moose IMHO are not particularly hard to put down if you hit them in the boiler room.
 
I have been pondering the same question recently. I found a website that may interest you. http://www.ballisticstudies.com/ Take a look through the "knowledgebase" tab. There are a number of write-ups on the terminal effects of different 6.5 bullets. Also, if you look at the 6.5X55 article it discusses a number of different bullets that would be common to the .260 or 6.5 Creed down near the end of the article under "handloads". Good luck on your journey.
 
galamb said:
I bought a 6.5 Creed specifically as a Moose rifle.

Not because I take long shots (hunt my moose at less than 100 yards), but mostly because I wanted the "new caliber so I could hang with the cool kids".

I have hunted moose in Northern Ontario for many years stretching back into the 1970's, so it's not like I didn't have experience that I could base my decision on - I am well familiar where and how hard I need to hit a moose to put it down.

When I crunched the numbers I was "personally comfortable" using the 6.5 Creed out to a distance of 300 yards (but no more) with either of a 140 grain Accubond, Partition or A-Frame. Any of them launched with a muzzle velocity of 2700 fps (very doable) would leave enough energy at 300 yards that I would be "more than fine" taking a broadside shot through the vitals on a moose.

What were those deer shot with that "ran off"? A mono bullet that zipped right through leaving a 6.5 mm exit hole?

Moose are not hard to kill unless you hit them wrong - you punch them through the boiler room with a bullet that "reliably expands" and they are going to go down in short order.

I hunt moose in an area that is predominantly peat bogs - if they don't fall down pretty much right away there is better than 50:50 odds that I may not recover it - so I make sure they are in a "recoverable spot" before the trigger is pulled and that the shot is not "iffy". An A-Frame has never failed to put Bullwinkle down (at least since the early 80's when they came on the market - used Partitions before that).

Ultimately the 6.5 stayed in the safe and I opted for a 7.08 for my new moose rifle - although the Creed was ballistically superior and packed more power @ 300 yards, I shoot far shorter distances and the 7.08 was just a rifle better suited to my style of hunting (the Creed was on a heavy barrel varmint platform). The Creed does kick about the same as my 7.08 so that was not a consideration.
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This is the kind of answer I was looking for... I am watching youtube vids of the 6.5 with what appears to be A-Max bullets and they are killing the deer but many are doing the old jump and run bit. Considering that most are roe deer, I am a bit surprised at the terminal performance but the bullets are not exactly premium either (accubond, partition, etc). The area I am now hunting are further shots - expect anywhere from 2-500 meters further than where I am originally from (so close shots are in the area of about 250 m but distances can go up to 1000m). Stalking closer (i.e. within 200m) is difficult as I am in the foothills and badlands of S Alberta (zero trees grow here) hence why I am considering a switch to a longer range caliber to give me a bit more forgiving shots with distance and wind (it is pretty windy around here). I noticed that a few posts are restricting distances to less than 300m which kind of defeats the purpose of why I am considering the switch. I think I may just stick with the WSM and look for some better long range bullets. I really don't want to switch if it means having an animal run a ways to die.
 
6.5 130gr swift S2 and cow elk this year, impact about 3000fps and twoonie sized hole out other side, did the run 30 yards and wobble like they usually do. Hit a bit high and further back than wanted but very happy with performance.

Been using one of the 6.5's the last 3-4 years and was a little worried the first time pulled the trigger but good since then, just use a good bullet for the game your hunting.
If I was an elk and moose hunter like yourself I'd just use what ya got there probably though.
 
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wapitiwhacker said:
I have been pondering the same question recently. I found a website that may interest you. http://www.ballisticstudies.com/ Take a look through the "knowledgebase" tab. There are a number of write-ups on the terminal effects of different 6.5 bullets. Also, if you look at the 6.5X55 article it discusses a number of different bullets that would be common to the .260 or 6.5 Creed down near the end of the article under "handloads". Good luck on your journey.
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Thanks for the information. I checked out the 6.5 wound ballistics and read the berger one. Some interesting remarks regarding pin hole effects on mountain sheep. The other bullets tested all seem to be impacting above 2500 FPS which indicates to me close in shots and not further shots unless I am misreading this information. I am starting to lose confidence in this caliber for large big game I think the advice of staying with the WSM is probably correct.
 
tuffbuff said:
6.5 130gr swift S2 and cow elk this year, impact about 3000fps and twoonie sized hole out other side, did the run 30 yards and wobble like they usually do. Hit a bit high and further back than wanted but very happy with performance.
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What range is that? It sounds very close if you are at 3000 FPS. Would you shoot further (say +500m) with this cal on an elk?
 
I wouldn't feel "ethical" shooting the 6.5 at distances greater than 300 yards on Moose/Elk sized game.

Out past 300 yards I would want "magnum" somewhere in the caliber that probably started with a 3.

I'm sure that "Bob" knows some guy that took down a bull Elk at 600 yards with a 6.5 Sweede, it just wasn't me or anyone that I would personally hunt with...

And while many guys shoot an A-Max at animals, Hornady engineered it for target shooting. With hundreds of choices out there, what you shoot at deserves a bullet designed to be shot at animals, not paper targets.
 
With the 140gr Partition or 160gr Hornady have killed many moose,deer,elk and bear out of a 6.5x55 Rarely ever recover a bullet.Harold
 
mbogo3 said:
With the 140gr Partition or 160gr Hornady have killed many moose,deer,elk and bear out of a 6.5x55 Rarely ever recover a bullet.Harold
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but he is asking about out beyond 500 yards - I drop deer and black bears all the time with my 243 but wouldn't take a 500 or 600 yard shot at one with that.
 
Had a old sporter 6.5x55 husky 96. Shot great, just to far down the pecking order to go hunting. Now got a 264wm that became my south province rifle, thus not used on Moose and Elk.

Knew a guy in Chetwynd that used a 264, and nosler partitions to good effect on Moose, Elk ....everything. Not at what is called long range today. Makes a huge wound, lots of blood shot on short range animals.

The new craze is Bergers, Amax and other frangible bullets for long range. Typical spitzer bullets for the .264 bore stop about 140gr, the 160's are round nose designed for the military throats of old milsurps. So if you use the frangible bullets in 140, you are left with the dual threat of a large shallow splat wound at short range, and not having much mass in 140gr to create satelite fragments and fast killing at long range.

Course it all comes down to bullet placement. Choosing shots and knowing the limitations of both yourself and the bore/projectile become very important. It really comes down to what size animal is more common with your rifle. If most would be Deer that are sub 300lbs, great choice. If most are Moose and Elk, then probably a bigger bore would be a better choice....YMMV.
 
Glock4ever said:
Thanks for the information. I checked out the 6.5 wound ballistics and read the berger one. Some interesting remarks regarding pin hole effects on mountain sheep. The other bullets tested all seem to be impacting above 2500 FPS which indicates to me close in shots and not further shots unless I am misreading this information. I am starting to lose confidence in this caliber for large big game I think the advice of staying with the WSM is probably correct.
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Came to the same basic conclusion. Wouldn't be comfortable using it on game larger than deer at extended range.
 
mbogo3 said:
With the 140gr Partition or 160gr Hornady have killed many moose,deer,elk and bear out of a 6.5x55 Rarely ever recover a bullet.Harold
Click to expand...

It would be helpful, if you indicated the ranges that you are taking these animals with. As well, are the bullets complete pass throughs or exploded apart? I thought I would buy into the hype for LR hunting but I want to be certain that this actually works. I am confident in bullet placement but I am not a fan of shooting an animal and watching it stumble around as it slowly bleeds out and dies.
 
If you are worried about wind why not just load some higher bc bullets in your 300wsm? Yes they are long bullets and will be seated fairly deeply, but they work. The 230 berger shoots very well in my wsm. I would be the new 190 LRAB would work well in the wsm as well.
 
I shot a large whitetail buck with the 129grain accubond at 300 yards out of a 6.5x55. Velocity was around 3000 fps at the muzzle. Complete pass through both shoulders and the damage was significant. I'm wondering if I would have had a complete pass through on a moose or elk?

I would gladly use this load, the Barnes 127 LRX, swift scirocco II or nosler partition for moose or elk at reasonable ranges (up to 400 meters).

That ballistic studies website is a joke. He says the 6.5x55 is for animals that are 300 lbs max, then goes on to fellate the 270, which is a little quicker but has lower BC bullets in the same weight as the 6.5.

I would say if you're hand loading, the 6.5 matches the 270 (less velocity, higher BC).
 
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