6mm /.243 hunting success on Big Game

[ACHILLES]

The last 12 or so months has been a real let down on quality and consistency in factory ammo.

I’ve gone back to mainly shooting hand loads other than factory black hills 77 TMK.

Lot to lot or within the same lot?

 

[Cantharellus]

My truck/trailer is a mobile meat processor and I’m also able to live/camp out of it if needed. I have very large coolers and seemingly endless frozen one gallon water jugs as ice blocks. This setup can hold deboned meat or even quarters for days or weeks if needed. I also have a generator and small chest freezer setup to be able to freeze meat hard and re-freeze the ice blocks.

I’m also lucky to have spots/folks where I can borrow freezer space as needed as well.

Landowners, family members, friends in other states all benefit from the kills with meat if desired. Usually half or more of the meat stays in the home state of the animal.

That's awesome. Thank you for the info! I too would love to see the truck and trailer rig.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

Lot to lot or within the same lot?

Yes to both.

 

[HUNT JR]

I can add to this thread. Seekins 20 inch barrel with Berger factory 108 elite hunters. Going about 2750 at the barrel.
Deer #1 - 100 yards. Absolutely jellied her vitals. Bullet performed excellent.
Deer #2 - 180 yards. Jellied vitals again - poorer shooting on my part and had one go back and put a good size hole that had his intestines hanging out. My fault but bullet did some damage.
Deer #3 350 yards or so - Internals jelly again - 3 shots to the vitals. 2 went all the way through and 1 was in the offside hide. Great performance again. I didn't need to shoot him again but I have a thing when they are still on their feet.

I didn't take any pictures unfortunately.

 

[Tack Driver]

Exit side scapula continued:
View attachment 789768







After the second chest shot, I put the next one in the neck to stop the bull- he did the rhino slide at that.

Exit:
View attachment 789770

View attachment 789771



Conclusion:


In one bull elk, there is medium, low, and high impact velocity results. One poor “worst case” placement, one “acceptable but not ideal” placement, two “perfect” placements, and one anchor shot. Other than the stomach raking shot, all bullets exited.


Later we found out that this bull had been with a group that had been shot at, and hunters had chased this one, which is why he was running. Heavily stressed animals often take an incredible amount of damage without much sign of injury- and this one did exactly that.


Bullet performance:

6mm 95gr TMK’s cause horrific wounds. The first shot was at medium impact velocity yet caused a massive wound channel and more damage to the stomach than any other bullet or caliber that I have seen- from .22cal to very large .338’s.

The second shot was at the lower side of impact velocity, struck no bone at the very back of the lungs, and created a 2.5 to 3 inch wide hole the entire way through.


The two shots at high impact velocity to both scapulas caused extreme tissue damage and the total destruction of both scapulas. While close examination could distinguish the general outline/separation of each respective bullet path, the wounds were 5-6” wide each.

It is hard to describe the damage caused by the stomach impact and the two scapula shots- pictures in no way show the true measure.

Just out of curiosity, what would cause the pics you attached reduce themselves to little PDF icons, when other pics in the thread are still loading?


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[Wrench]

I fed a whitetail a 106 tap today from one of my XC's and was very impressed with the bullet performance. Impact velo about 2750. I couldn't get pics as it was raining like god was mad at me.

I'm loving the folder. I rattled this NX8 in my atv rack and missed 2 bucks Friday. I ended up with almost 4" of zero shift at 80 yards. Once it settled back in I vowed to never let it ride in the rack again. I hoped the Nightforce was going to be able to ride in the rack....but this is the second time I've lost zero and one time it rattled the guts out of my scope.

 

[Bigwilly556]

Northwoods Michigan whitetail. 12.5" 6mm ARC with Berger 95 classic hunters. 148 yards with roughly 2200 fps impact velocity. Slightly quartering away double lung. Went 40 yards. Lungs were soup, golf ball size exit, and medium blood trail. No bones hit.

 

[TxLite]

I fed a whitetail a 106 tap today from one of my XC's and was very impressed with the bullet performance. Impact velo about 2750. I couldn't get pics as it was raining like god was mad at me.

I'm loving the folder. I rattled this NX8 in my atv rack and missed 2 bucks Friday. I ended up with almost 4" of zero shift at 80 yards. Once it settled back in I vowed to never let it ride in the rack again. I hoped the Nightforce was going to be able to ride in the rack....but this is the second time I've lost zero and one time it rattled the guts out of my scope.View attachment 972178

The nx8 is pretty stout so I’m surprised. What rings?

 

[Wrench]

The nx8 is pretty stout so I’m surprised. What rings?

Backcountrys.

 

[ezwy]

I fed a whitetail a 106 tap today from one of my XC's and was very impressed with the bullet performance. Impact velo about 2750. I couldn't get pics as it was raining like god was mad at me.

I'm loving the folder. I rattled this NX8 in my atv rack and missed 2 bucks Friday. I ended up with almost 4" of zero shift at 80 yards. Once it settled back in I vowed to never let it ride in the rack again. I hoped the Nightforce was going to be able to ride in the rack....but this is the second time I've lost zero and one time it rattled the guts out of my scope.View attachment 972178

Is that the manners folder

 

[Wrench]

Is that the manners folder

Yes

 

[JollyRoger]

Backcountrys.

I’d definitely try the UM rings, or a pic rail with the NF rings to see if that solves it.

 

[Wrench]

I’d definitely try the UM rings, or a pic rail with the NF rings to see if that solves it.

Ive killed the same scope in hawkins on a rail....it's not the rings. This rifle is a lilja tubed trued action with nothing spared.

When a gun shoots off paper and comes back to home by just firing half a dozen shots....it's the scope. Besides that....the rings are bedded.

 

[MT_Wyatt]

6 creed, 108 ELDM, 18” prefit and action from @hereinaz. Dropped in bastion stock, with Swfa 3-15. Only 45 rounds down the barrel, loving it so far - remarkable how much more practice you can get in with these 6mms.

~100-120 yards, impact 2600ish fps. Quartering towards, shot off backpack seated, put bullet through front of onside, wound through chest cavity and bloodshot on far shoulder. Photo is taking off far shoulder. Lungs and heart devastated so I’m happy - probably will try ELDX in future just to see how that fares?

 

[hereinaz]

Nice buck!

 

[Chris in TN]

@Wrench is the 106 TAP available in factory form or as a component projectile?

I've never heard it mentioned but remember back int he day when 5.56 TAP was highly sought after. I still have most of a case of it in 5.56.

The factory specs on their 6arc load - a .580BC at 2625' from an 18" - would be hard to beat, I'd think.

 

[ktm450]

Updated: I am processing my Deer and got pics. The shoulders had a lot of blood meat, so I took them off immediately and was able to use them with no meat loss. .243, 103 ELDX, 100 yards, 2950fps straight down hill.

Photo 1 = entry
Photo 2 = exit

Explosive innards to a degree I have not seen before.

 

[clperry]

6 creed, 108 ELDM, 18” prefit and action from @hereinaz. Dropped in bastion stock, with Swfa 3-15. Only 45 rounds down the barrel, loving it so far - remarkable how much more practice you can get in with these 6mms.

~100-120 yards, impact 2600ish fps. Quartering towards, shot off backpack seated, put bullet through front of onside, wound through chest cavity and bloodshot on far shoulder. Photo is taking off far shoulder. Lungs and heart devastated so I’m happy - probably will try ELDX in future just to see how that fares?
View attachment 972282View attachment 972283View attachment 972284

What stock is that?


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[Wrench]

@Wrench is the 106 TAP available in factory form or as a component projectile?

I've never heard it mentioned but remember back int he day when 5.56 TAP was highly sought after. I still have most of a case of it in 5.56.

The factory specs on their 6arc load - a .580BC at 2625' from an 18" - would be hard to beat, I'd think.

I bought them as seconds from midway. I ended up with enough to wear out 5 barrels.....I really like them.

 

[Chris in TN]

I bought them as seconds from midway. I ended up with enough to wear out 5 barrels.....I really like them.

Neat.

I'm asking 6mm question because I'm toying with the idea of building.....ehhh, something between 6ARC on the low end and 6mmCM on the high end. Just trying to sort of build a file in my head of what my options are.