Tikka 6.5 PRC & bullet selection

[BigGameJames87]

I've been using Norma's 143 gr Bondstrike for hunting in my 6.5 PRC X-Bolt and I'm very pleased with the performance. I've taken 7 deer so far and all have died quickly. There's been good expansion with an exit wound in each case. Most dropped within a few yards but one managed to make it about 20 yards into a thick tree row so the exit and resulting blood trail made it much easier to find her.

So far I have been using factory ammo but they do offer component bullets. I have some to load once my factory stash runs out.

 

[KenLee]

Tikka rifle coming tomorrow in 6.5 PRC. I have shunned the CM in the past, but the PRC has me intrigued. I reload for several calibers, and already have what I need for this project, except for powder and bullets. I have heard that the 6.5 cm sometimes passes through without enough tissue damage and exit hole to leave a good blood trail, and definitely want to avoid that scenario. I am looking at the Berger EOL 156 for an all purpose, and the 130 Accubond for hunting, probably with some H-1000. My favorite deer load is a 7-08 loaded with 139 SST’s. I seldom get an exit wound, but I never have to track a deer. I usually sacrifice a shoulder, which I can live with. It has worked for me for 20 plus years. I have ZERO experience with the 6.5 caliber, and would like to start off right.
I am open to your suggestions. I am listening.

Suggestion: stay with the 7mm-08 and 139gr sst if you have 100% confidence in dead right there.

 

[ssgjpd]

I run 140 Elite Hunters

 

[WDE]

I've been shooting the 135 gr berger hybrid hunters in my 6.5 cm the last few seasons and they kill deer very quick. Multiple DRT and the ones that have run haven't made it far. Exit wounds with good blood trails. Shoots have been anywhere from 30 to 200yds. Massive internal soft tissue damage. The EOLs should do well for you out of the PRC.

 

[WDE]

This was the latest 6.5 exit wound shooting Bergers. Dropped in his tracks.

 

[Yung6ix]

I'd give the Hornady 147gr ELD-M factory ammo a go and see how it shoots for you. Generally, that particular ammo shoots extremely well in the 6.5 PRC's.

 

[CJ_BG]

Not sure if this helps, but functionally the 6.5 prc is a modern 270 winchester. The 270 has built a darn good reputation on putting whitetails down with cheap 130gr soft points from basically every company. I would pick literally and 130+ lead core bullet. You could easily go with SSTs again too, the 140 is potent deer medicine. As others have said, the 147 eld-m is basically a higher bc version.

For what it's worth too, I shot a couple of my deer this year with 110 vmax in a 270 at 30 and 40yds. Impact velocities of almost 3300fps and penetration was not an issue, just keep that in mind if anyone tells you that those other bullets are too soft for deer.

 

[sololearn9]

Man, I love the PRC cartridges.

I have a 300 prc and want to build a 6.5....but I am super nervous it will turn into a reload only cartridge and defeat the purpose of it.

Bench

 

[Macintosh]

@sololearn9 What are you seeing that leads you to think it wont be supported in the future?

Just a quick look at the cabelas website, they offer 102 different cartridges in 678 different options. 6.5prc is tied for 13th most options in any cartridge...it's not a perfect measure but a major big box retailers # of sku's offered is a reasonable measure of relative demand, ime, as they tend to buy based on number-driven metrics across the country. It has more than double the options of your 300 PRC just for instance. Not being a high-volume shooting cartridge it means there has to be a large number of rifles out there using the cartridge, and those rifles really dont have an expiration date, ie there wont be less of them in the future. And there are PLENTY of cartridges that dont seem to be going away with fewer options offered to customers. Hornady seems to do an exceptionally good job in general of building support for their cartridges, ex the 6.5cm is among the most popular rifle cartridges in the US now, only less than 20 years after its intro. This is just one admittedly imperfect measure, but I'm curious why you think it might not be supported in the future.
This is the number of different sku's offered per cartridge on cabelas website right now both in stock and out of stock, just the top 30 or so cartridges out of the 100+ cartridges they offer.