6.5 Creedmoor/260 for Deer, Elk, and whatever else.....

Pulled a double while riding around the lease. Both were taken using factory 125g deer season XP out of my 16.5 compact 6.5cm. Both were decent shots around 60 yards and DRT.
 

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6.5x55 swede 142g ABLR at 2920fps. From 75yds to 710yds

Small whitetail buck 710yds. High shoulder/base of neck. Passthrough. Bang flop

Mature whitetail 175yds. Mid neck passthrough. Bang flop

Mature muley. 410yds frontal, passthrough in front of rear ham. Bang flop nose dive.

Young 5x4 bull elk 185yds. Broke front leg, heart and exit behind opposite shoulder. Took 3 steps and tipped over sideways.

Many others. Same results
I really like that 142 ABLR. Accurate AF in my 6.5 Creedmoor and kills like the hammer of Thor.
 
It's certainly possible that the temporary wound channel's expansion would have created a pressure differential around the spine; both bucks showed a good amount of damage to their pulmonary tissue though, which would not have happened with an FMJ round. Not sure if Hunter has any stills- I was moving pretty quickly as there were grizzlies in the area.

Edit: Also figured out how to include a clip of the Nosler E Tip kill. As mentioned, this is from a .270, but pertinent to the discussion of copper monos. Range about 215 yards.

Spine hit. Not sure if that was bullet or bone frags, but spine, nonetheless.
 
View attachment 391109Arkansas whitetail taken at 304 yards with 125gr Deer Season factory ammo. Bullet expanded and stayed together with a good wound channel. Stopped in the other side of the hide without exiting. Ran 45 yards but didn’t spill much blood until the last 5.
Those are OUTSTANDING bullets for deer. I've killed a few with them and they provide dramatic DRTs with good placement. Great value!
 
My boys each have a 260 Rem which accounted for 4 WT does and 2 hogs last season. (One hog and one doe were taken by a club members yoing nephew who needed a loaner gun). My oldest also shot a doe with my 6.5-284 which has killed trailers full of deer. Every animal was shot with the 100 gr Nosler PT. The 6.5-284 drives it to stupid velocities and even shot through AR500 due to the high impact velocity.

The smaller (200-ish) hog ran maybe 50 yards from a lung hit. The rest were neck or high shoulder and half dropped, half maybe 15 yards. The giant hog dropped in his tracks.

I’m sold on the PT but as we run low, they’ll transition to 100 or 120 NBT. The 260 was so effective that several men are considering converting.
 

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Good to see this thread come back up occasionally!
I'd love to see a bunch of reports here as fall wears on! Especially wound channel documentation from various bullets.
 
Great info. Been using a 260 for long range prairie dogs and ground hogs for years, but just bought a 6.5cm to play with on some deer. My concern was does the 6.5 maintain enough energy to ethically kill larger game(deer, black bear, maybe a mule deer) at longer ranges. This thread has pretty much convinced me that it does.
 
This thread and the .223 thread have definitely made me rethink my cartridge selection and the need for larger cartridges and calibers. My wife and I both run Creedmoor's. Hoping to add some more real world experience to this thread in the coming months. Thanks for all the information so far.
 
This thread needs a bump…

140 ELDM from 6.5 CM (Copper Creek), 200 yards w/15° declination. Entry just above left shoulder and exited right shoulder breaking it. Bullet fragments caught under hide. DRT.

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Edit: Added pic of cleaned up recovered bullet found under far side hide (there was significant bone fragments alongside bullet remains). Don’t have scale to measure weight:

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Oh my my my….

Every-single-time that someone asks “6.5 for ….” You get the canned response about the 6.5x55 for moose or the 6mm for subsistence hunter…

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I’ve heard that many many times….:never ever seen it though. I’m pretty sure that’s just something old natives say. I’ve also heard the stories about the hundred of moose a guy killed with an open sight 30-06 from a thousand yards.
 
Are you advocating that we don't take real world results into account when making choices?

I don’t care what you do.
You can bet I’m not taking my 6.5 on a $10K+ elk, moose, or whatever hunt.

Edit: Karamojo Bell took many elephants very successfully with the 7x57 (make whatever inference you want with that)


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