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

[CJ_BG]

I think the CM really shines with the 130 gr bullets. The heavier 147 and up seem to do well in PRC. Either way, I am sure you would be around 1800 fps or more at 600 with just about any of the 130-147gr 6.5's.

130 TMK/125 partition and a 6.5 creed is a dreamy combo for a lot of stuff

 

[OverInfinite]

First time trying the 143 ELDX. Coues deer with impact velocity of around 2,100 fps. Ever so slightly quartering away to the right. Shot for the offside shoulder. First Pic is the entrance, second is skinning back the hide on the shoulders exit hole. Third picture is what was behind the shoulder when it busted a rib.

 

[HairyScandinavian]

Guys shooting factory ammo - what are you seeing out of 18-20” tikkas? I just acquired a 6.5 creed on a screaming deal locally and while I’m tempted to rebarrel it to 6 creed, I’m wondering if I don’t just chop and thread the 6.5 down and shoot it.

For reference my 20” PRC is shooting factory around 2730. I’d expect closer to 2500 out of creed but maybe not?

I'm late to the party, but my 20" shooting factory 147's is 2535 fps average verified by chrono and shooting.

 

[longrangelead]

Too much!

The buck my wife shot a couple days ago with her 6.5 PRC is now the second buck hit with a 143 ELDX and the damage was excessive to say the least.

2-3 years ago she shot a young muley buck broadside @ 200 yards. I chalked the excessive damage up to being too close.
This year her buck was 475 yards broadside. 2299 fps @ impact. Again, the damage was excessive which surprised me at that range.
Hit in the ribs, the meat under the shoulder was still bloodshot clear to the base of the neck.

I didn't take any pics because at some point pics of tissue is just pics of tissue. it's hard to convey the true extent in a pic.

We eat almost exclusively game meat so the disappointment comes from loosing several pounds of meat after making the effort to hit the ribs to minimize meat loss.

My buck this year was 485 yds. 6.5 Creed/130 ELDM, 2174fps @ impact. The damage was what I would say as adequate and more what I expected.

This has me looking hard at the 25 Creed with its high bc 130 class bullets for the wife and a 6mm for myself going forward.

For context, we've shot a pile of deer/antelope with 156's and 143's, one muley buck with a 153.5 and two cow elk with 143's. All were 100 to 500 yards and not as excessive in damage as these two deer in particular.

 

[NWBLKTAIL]

View attachment 974089645 yards, 2050 fps impact. 6.5cm 130 gr VLD-H. Dropped on the impact, 0.0 steps. Shot prone off of bipod. Hiked 10ish miles, some in fresh snow/ ice, never fell on my gun. After the shot, I looked and I shot on 18x. Zero was perfect after the airlines had their way with my case.

You been happy with those 130VLD-H?

 

[OverInfinite]

Yeah, ive been used to berger classics and VLD, and i would say seeing so much bloodshot on the eldx had me a bit surprised. The VLD was very similar to the eldx when it did come apart. Everytime I use a 6.5 on game it has me thinking of going to the 108ELDM.

 

[HuntHarder]

You been happy with those 130VLD-H?

During my load work up, it grouped better than the tmk and eld-m's. So far I have taken a mature bull elk at 260 yards with great results. Left about a golf ball sized exit. This deer is only my 2nd animal with it. I was aiming for a double shoulder, CNS hit and hit my spot. Deer did not take a step. The guys that I was hunting with, were all impressed. So far, so good.

 

[NWBLKTAIL]

During my load work up, it grouped better than the tmk and eld-m's. So far I have taken a mature bull elk at 260 yards with great results. Left about a golf ball sized exit. This deer is only my 2nd animal with it. I was aiming for a double shoulder, CNS hit and hit my spot. Deer did not rake a step. The guys I was hunting with were all impressed. So far, so good.

Sounds good I’ve been tempted lately to try some bergers out, been mostly using TMKs in my 6.5. Results for 3 animals this year were really good. Bear,Sheep, and Deer.

But I like to test things out

 

[24valve]

Thanks. I'll read through that thread.

I'm pretty new to all of this. I took my 6.5 CM Tikka to a 900 yard range the other day (first time shooting anything past 100 yards), and a guy walked me through how to calculate dope on a Kestrel. It was a blast and I got a first round hit on the 900 plate after confirming zero at 100. I've been messing around with the Applied Ballistics app on my phone since. I'll be taking that rifle on a hunt next week, but I'm not sure any of these variables will make much of a difference at the max 2-300 yard ranges I expect.

But about that, in Applied Ballistics, it looks like Density Altitude auto-updates whenever I click the wifi-looking icons below Temp, Humidity, and Pressure (I assume the app is pulling data from a local weather station).

I just ran 0 ft and 10k ft DA for a 243 and at 300 yards there is only 0.1 mil difference, so I would not worry about atmospheric variables for 2-300 yard shots on your upcoming hunt (good luck!).

I haven't used AB personally, but most ballistic apps can pull local weather data to get approximate atmospherics. However, this also requires to cell service.

So if you're hunting somewhere without any, you can look at the forecast and guess an average, or use a DA chart as described in the thread I posted earlier.