6.5 x 55 as the "one" rifle???

Definately a case of the bigger and more importantly the heavier the bullet the better. The larger the calibre the more energy and therefore the larger the margin for error in shot placement, especially if talking about driven wild boar! In Britain if you can get an FLO to specify wild boar on a 6.5 then most of your shooting will be from a high seat - where shot placement shouldn't be an issue. I personanlly don't know if FLO's are allowing 6.5's for boar in Britain though?

Tom
 
Yep but these are the people that advise the police and subsequently the police are the people that condition our certificates!!

Dave
 
Thanks guy's - really appreciate all of the comments and the huge knowledge and experience that comes across.

I will go with the .308 - more choice and does the job well by the sounds of it

Will get a decent rifle and moderator and then forget about anything else other than getting better and more accurate and enjoying controlling deer.

Thanks again

Rich
 
FWIW having read this thread if you are going ONLY to use factory ammun ition I'd really urge the 7mm-08 and not the 308. Simply because my thought is that for what you want a 140 grain bullet in a 7mm will be better than a 150 grain bullet in a 308.

It might seem like hair splitting but practically it is better suited. If you might have pig? Then really a 30-06 would be better with a 180 grain bullet.
 
I've used a .270, .308, 6.5x55 & 7mm-08 - I'd recommend the last two, but now just shoot a 7mm-08....does the job on everything from muntjac to reds. Factory ammunition is getting easier to find, but you still might have to pre-order.
 
I use factory ammo , with all my rifles , and
Stalk mainly Red and Roe . Happy hunting .
Cheers Jock 2481

Hi Jock, am interested to see you use factory ammo. Is there a wide range of factory ammo available for the 6.5x55 in your area.
 
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Whilst its great fun spending someone elses money for them, can I be the first one to suggest that you simply stick with your .243 Win for a while, get to know it, get a 50-80 deer under your belt, get out stalking and take mental notes on what others use.

Forget trajectories etc, zero spot on at 100m and shoot halfway up everything you aim at from 20 to 200m.

KISS principal all the way.

If you want to shoot a highland stag and feel undergunned just use an estate rifle.

A couple of years down the line you will be in a much better position to decide which rifle/calibre to get as a second rifle. (don't get rid of the .243, you will regret that) If you want to feel that you are working towards getting the second rifle, open a building society account and put away £20-£30 a month, by the time you are ready to buy you will have the funds to get a high quality Sako and nice scope etc without having to trade in other kit.

Just my thoughts.
JC
 
Whilst its great fun spending someone elses money for them, can I be the first one to suggest that you simply stick with your .243 Win for a while, get to know it, get a 50-80 deer under your belt, get out stalking and take mental notes on what others use.

Forget trajectories etc, zero spot on at 100m and shoot halfway up everything you aim at from 20 to 200m.

KISS principal all the way.

If you want to shoot a highland stag and feel undergunned just use an estate rifle.

A couple of years down the line you will be in a much better position to decide which rifle/calibre to get as a second rifle. (don't get rid of the .243, you will regret that) If you want to feel that you are working towards getting the second rifle, open a building society account and put away £20-£30 a month, by the time you are ready to buy you will have the funds to get a high quality Sako and nice scope etc without having to trade in other kit.

Just my thoughts.
JC

Sound advice.
 
You simply cannot properly cover the ground you mention with one rifle.

Your current option may be the best, combine the 243 with a 30 cal and call it good.

However, a 6.5 is never a bad choice, go with a single 6.5 if you only intend to hunt deer in the UK. But, if you ever intend to hunt boar, you will be under gunned. Boar rifles start at 308 and go on and up from there.....
 
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Hi JC - it is indeed sound advice; I guess I am not likely to shoot a Red Stag until the back end of the year now and I really just need to get some Deer under my belt.

Mmmmm food for thought

Many thanks again

Rich
 
In response too HOWA 243 question ,to be honest, no mate , i use Norma ammo. Expensive yes , but i haven,t got the time for reloading.
 
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In response too HOWA 243 question ,to be honest, no mate , i use Norma ammo. Expensive yes , but i haven,t got the time for reloading.

I am the same mate. One of the reasons that I run the calibres that I do is the ease of getting a wide range of factory ammo. Not sure I would have put the 6.5x55 into that category.
 
I would follow JC275 advice - stick with the 243. Thaw what I started off with and still have. Accurate easy shooting calibre and provided you stck with a good 100 g soft point bullet and put it in the right place it is more than enough for any deer species. No it does n't have the energy of 270, 308 etc and doesn't have the penetration to go straight through both shoulder blades on a big stag, but get into 100 yds and it will do the job.

Using an estate rifle does give you the chance to try out different rifles / scopes - nothing like using something on the hill to work out what you do and don't want. I once lugged a Sako 270, heavy Barreled rifle with mod etc for a day - fine if you are 20 and very fit from being in the hills all day, but not for me.

I finally got a bigger rifle, a 7mm 18 months ago. Does it do anything the 243 won't do - don't think so, does it kill any quicker - not convinced. My experience with the 243 is with heart / lung shot most take off in a fast run for 20 / 30 yds before tumbling dead. The 7mm takes them off their feet and the kick for 30 seconds before they bleed out.
 
I have stayed out of this thread for lack of much to say but since I own each caliber mentioned (well, a 7x57 instead of a 7-08, but I have owned 7-08's in the past) I got to thinking. I like the 243 but for the game that frequents my area, it would be a little light. All others I could make due with. More specifically, to the original title of the post, if I had to shoot a 6.5x55 for the rest of my days, for all of my big game hunting, I would do fine. I might want other cartridges at some times, but that's nothing new; We always seem to find ourselves in a situation where a different round/rifle would make the task easier. That's where our brains, skill, and ingenuity become the proper tool for the job.~Muir
 
...... if I had to shoot a 6.5x55 for the rest of my days, for all of my big game hunting, I would do fine. I might want other cartridges at some times, but that's nothing new; We always seem to find ourselves in a situation where a different round/rifle would make the task easier. That's where our brains, skill, and ingenuity become the proper tool for the job.~Muir


Well said Muir. I found my .243 with Norma 100g softpoints were satisfactory with red stags, but far from 'ideal', that said, upgrading to 100g nosler partitions 'beefs up' the .243 significantly by offering better penetration and more controlled expansion, turning it into a perfectly acceptable 'red stag' rifle - as long as your're not going much further than 200 yards, which is where the partition starts get a little under-expanded for my liking (because the bottom half doesn't expand, there's 'less potential' material to create expanded volume).

That said, I'm planning to be using a .308Win for the red's starting this year, probably with Accubonds, but that's not due to me being unsatisfied with the .243/partition combination, just because I want a dedicated roe rifle (.243), and a dedicated red rifle (.308), with different loads, optic abilities, etc.
 
There are many different calibers out there and I doubt there is very much difference in them when it comes to drop from zero. If you play around with some of the free ballistics software you will see exactly what I mean. When you realize that at normal hunting ranges the caliber doesn't make that much difference, but shot placement does you will then start to think more about costs involved.

If you get an accurate drop chart it doesn't matter if you dial in 10MOA or 11MOA does it really ???

An if you hand load you have the variety of bullet weights from 100-240 grains..... now that is pretty awesome in itself.

I am not a betting man, but I would like to place a 50p bet that the .308cal round has dropped more deer sized game than just about any other calibers at all ranges up to and including 800yds.

If you don't agree try asking here >>>> http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/

And as for accuracy, just check out what calibers the 1000yd guys use and have done for many years.

.308..... accurate, cheap, effective, but unfashionable at this minute in time !!!
 
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Muir - PKL Your points are totaly valid - and I'd say that everyone makes their point from where they stand and what their realities are.

For instance, many of the guests and clients I stalked-for, had their own rifles, or borrowed those from the 'Big House', or borrowed the stalkers' rifles.

Their own rifles ranged through .308, .270, 7X57mm and several others. Those of the 'Big House' were 7X57mm, and the stalkers' rifles were .243.

The different cartridges used were in most cases not a problem because the emphasis of the day was STALKING followed by the shot, so many of the stags were shot within 100 yards, and certainly seldom over 150 yards with a few out to 200 yards.

Thus the calibre of the cartridge was largely academic as long as the bukllets in question were known to be effective; as the .243 were in this case. There was more likelihood in problems from guests' unknown ammo brands, as in an earlier Federal .308 which lacked the punch at 100 yards but would expand and seat inside the far skin, or a .270 Winchester which passed clean through without expanding.

At the same range, our .243 Speer roundnose 105 grain bullets would knock a hole the size of a fist out the far side of a stag's chest and he got maybe three paces before he was on the ground.

My 6.5 X 57mm would certainly kill, but I considered it as a 'loners rifle'. The beast would run then drop after between twenty to fifty yards. (120 grain Sierra pro-hunters), and that was fine, but not fast enough a kill if I was in the presence of a shooting partner who required faster results in order to complete the decided-upon animals required from any deer parcel for the cull.
In this instance, it is largely a matter of up to thirty seconds of a wait - but that's much too long.

I had to get out early one morning above a crofting area on the peninsula in order to deal with some marauding deer. The dire threat by the irate small farmer who had just had his potatoes raided was that the Deer Commission Scotland would be called in if I did not act, and I had stag clients to cater-for that day.

With the Sako .270 mag full and one up the spout, and a handy pocket with more loose cartridges, (130 gameking Sierra bullets), I stalked in during the oncoming light and emptied the rifle then single-fed another six before the job was done. It took as long as I could reload and aim.

The young boss insisted on coming out with me to help get the argocat loaded in time before I organised the clients out to the hill, so I bit my tongue and got on with things, but he was alarmed and astonished when he exlaimed "Twelve hinds and calves !"
This would have been more difficult to achieve if the animals moved about - dying - after they were shot.
 
Hi Howa , yep 6.5x55 ammo seems to be like rocking horse **** to get a hold of . Gunshop i use
have only NORMA , PRIVI in that cal . There is £20 difference in the price between the two , going
too try some PRIVI this week , hope good grouping with it , save some dosh mate lol :lol:.

What cals do you shoot ?? The Norma ammo great in 6.5 , with my new rifle Rws Titan 6 .

Cheers Jock
 
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