6.5CM and monos: Your experiences? Your favorites?

[Igloo]

Yep, I know that other bullets kill better

Now that we have that out of the way! What have your experiences been with the 6.5 CM and monolithic bullets? Do you have a favorite? If you had to track/follow up, how was it?

I've only ever hit deer in the CNS from quite close and we all know what happens there. Have not pushed one farther or at bigger game yet.

 

[Dbevans]

Not 6.5 but my gf got a moose at 350 yards in 7mm mag last year and this year. Factory barnes 140 ttsx. I like them and I got a few moose with that bullet too. Closer ranges usually has more expansion

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[FB Trout]

Only 2 big game animals with 127 Barnes LRX; cow elk, shot once wobbled on feet for a few seconds, hit again and down. Bull bison, shot once and stumbled, hit again, and he hit his knees and had head up for a minute or so and hit a third time to finish, which wasn’t needed. I chose the monolithic bullet for the bison as I didn’t have any control on processing the meat and wanted to be sure I preserved as much meat as possible. No tracking required with either animal.

 

[SkiParkGuy]

I shoot a 308 and use Barnes 130gr TTSX. I've killed two blacktails, a mule deer, and a Mt Lion with them. For whatever reason my Christensen Mesa really likes that weight and shoots it much better than the 150s 0r heavier. My buddy shoots a 6.5cm with 120gr TTSX with much the same results. He just killed a decent sized Muley at a bit over 300 yards with them. Only one animal went more than ten steps (bad shot on my part), so if lead kills better I guess you don't even have to hit the animal? Also I've only recovered one bullet. It was a quartering towards shot and ended up in the hind leg from the front shoulder. That was under 100 yards though. Anyway, that's been my experience.

 

[Jason Snyder]

I’ve killed a lot of critters with monos. Currently I’m loading 124 Hammer Hunters in my 6.5 CM. Killed a pile of stuff with a 136 Hammer in my .280 Remington. Killed a pile of stuff with my .243 and. Barnes 85 TSX.

Blood trails with the Hammers have been fantastic.

 

[AZ_Hunter]

My only experience is I was there when a friend shot a cow elk at 300 with the 127 LRX. First shot was a little high and dropped the back legs, second shot boiler room. DRT. I don’t remember which shot we recovered the bullet in the offside hide. Looked like a typical Barnes.

The funny thing was his 6.5 was his backup rifle. His primary was a 300WSM that he dropped and lost its magazine, so he switched to the 6.5. He was paranoid “it wasn’t enough”, but I kept telling him he will be fine, just put the bullets in the right spot. He stoked on the results and was like: why do I even need my 300?… I said: you don’t.

 

[Igloo]

I’ve killed a lot of critters with monos. Currently I’m loading 124 Hammer Hunters in my 6.5 CM. Killed a pile of stuff with a 136 Hammer in my .280 Remington. Killed a pile of stuff with my .243 and. Barnes 85 TSX.

Blood trails with the Hammers have been fantastic.

Oh thats interesting! I would have thought they wouldn't let much blood out since the exit wound made by the shank of the bullet is kinda caliber sized.

Shows what happens when you ass-ume.

 

[Laramie]

If the sample size is large enough, you will find and hear plenty of pros and cons. Any bullet will kill if placed properly. They do what they are intended to do, hold together and penetrate. As a result, the wound channels are narrower than a bullet that expands more rapidly. Random comments beyond that don't mean a lot imo.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

My 6.5 creedmoor was used to shoot 2 large cow moose 2 winters ago, they were probably the biggest cows I’ve seen.

The round was my handloads with the 124g hammer hunter, I think there was 39 or 40g varget and they were chronographs a bit over 2900fps out of a tikka t3x.

Both moose died fairly quickly with one shot each one of them didn’t even take a step, just wobbled for a few seconds and tipped.