160gr 6.5x55

david doyle said:
Nothing beats the 156-160 grain bullet in the 6.5x55 at 2450-2600 fps. IMHO the 160 grain bullet makes the swede a top notch killer while the 130 grain ish bullets make it marginal. Shot alot of animals last year with the Nosler offerings at 2900fps and wont go that route again. Right back to what I knew worked 156 grain Norma Alaskans. Too bad about the hornady's being discontinued they always worked well for me.
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So will the 156 grain Norma Alaskan`s work on moose and bear. I have a retailer who can get me a couple of boxes. Not cheap but for 39 a box. But I hear Norma makes great ammo for the 6.5x55.
 
1899 said:
I couldn't get the Hornady 160gr RN to feed in my M1903 Mannlicher-Schoenauer.
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madtrapper143 said:
Hornady made or makes two distinct 6.5 160 round nose bullets. One for the swede and one for the MS. Could we have them confused?

Darryl
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My M-S "project" has been sitting on the shelf for quite a while so I haven't tinkered with it recently. I don't recall having any feeding problems with the bullets I have, which are #2640, 160 gr. RN.

Currently Hornady shows three .264 bullets (129, 140 & 160 gr.) in their Interlock line. The 140's seemed to shoot OK. They also show one .268 dia. for the 6.5 Carcano.

Stuart
 
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pbonura said:
So will the 156 grain Norma Alaskan`s work on moose and bear. I have a retailer who can get me a couple of boxes. Not cheap but for 39 a box. But I hear Norma makes great ammo for the 6.5x55.
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Of course they will! And with gusto. :)
 
madtrapper143 said:
Hornady made or makes two distinct 6.5 160 round nose bullets. One for the swede and one for the MS. Could we have them confused?

Darryl
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I didn't know they made two versions. I have long since sold both the bullets and rifle - but I do remember that I was surprised at how little exposed lead there was on those 160gr RN bullets.
 
The 160 was more or less necessary back in the infancy of jacketed bullets when weight was required in order to ensure penetration even after some loss of mass. Unless you have a rifle that really shoots them well, there is no reason to shoot the 160's with all of the outstanding 120-140's out there that get better velocity and therefore shoot flatter.

I say this as someone who has shot a LOT of stuff small and large with the 6.5x55, mostly with the 100-140 pills, but a fair amount with 156-160...

blake
 
pbonura said:
So will the 156 grain Norma Alaskan`s work on moose and bear. I have a retailer who can get me a couple of boxes. Not cheap but for 39 a box. But I hear Norma makes great ammo for the 6.5x55.
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Great ammo for sure, Norma Oryx, Alaskan and Vulkan all shoot great in my Tikka. Only shot Bear, Moose and Deer with Oryx, all one shot pass through.
 
bcsteve said:
But a 130gr TSX will out penetrate any of them (except for a solid).
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I suspect that the expanded diameter of your 160s was greater than the 130 gr TSXs, and the large expanded diameter combined with the momentum generated by the greater bullet mass resulted in a larger wound volume. This was the magic of the 6.5/160s, 7X57/175s and the .318/250s each of which gained reputations for killing all out of proportion to their size. Now if someone would make a 135-140 gr 6mm and a 150 gr .257, in a flat base round nose style, that magic could be revisited, when fired from fast twist barrels making the popular cartridges of those bore sizes all the more versatile. By the way, a long skinny bullet needs a fast twist barrel to minimize the amount of precession (yaw) on impact, and thus optimize penetration; the faster the twist, the deeper the penetration.
 
mbogo3 said:
That would be me.............42 grs or either N204 or IMR 4350 and a 156-160gr drill bit..........shot many moose and never recovered a bullet yet.......Harold
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I knew it was someone on here! There ya go, you're being quoted from memory, you're becoming a legend!
 
My tikka t3 laminate is becoming my go to gun. I like to run 140 and 160 through it. I will admit I run it a tad hotter than north American standards however having chronied European ammo I am no where near what I can do with it. Not an advocate of long range hunting but I nailed my best buck 176 net at 347 yards with a 160 grain round nose took two steps and keeled over. Performance was terminal with no recovered bullet. During the skinning and gutting the bullet left an amazing amount of dammage so I cannot complain. I cannot lament the 6.5 enough in as much I am really considering taking it to Africa
 
I have a swede and run 130 gr Hornady Spirepoints for deer, if I was hunting moose I would go to a 130 or 140 gr TSX rather than a 160 gr Roundnose.

The 160 gr Roundnose is similar to a 220 gr bullet in a 30-06, it's a product that has been made obsolete by the better penetrating lighter bullets of today.

Why have rainbow trajectory to get penetration when you don't have to?
 
JHC-II said:
My tikka t3 laminate is becoming my go to gun. I like to run 140 and 160 through it. I will admit I run it a tad hotter than north American standards however having chronied European ammo I am no where near what I can do with it. Not an advocate of long range hunting but I nailed my best buck 176 net at 347 yards with a 160 grain round nose took two steps and keeled over. Performance was terminal with no recovered bullet. During the skinning and gutting the bullet left an amazing amount of dammage so I cannot complain. I cannot lament the 6.5 enough in as much I am really considering taking it to Africa
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He ain't lying, I saw this animal hanging in the shack that night....pretty good trajectory too for a 160 at 350y.....and no, no bullet was recovered!!
 
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