6.5 monolith, experiences, suggestions?

[Karhumies]

I tend to shy away from fragmenting because for me meat is the primary reason i hunt and it is my understanding that those can mess up alot of muscle compared to a mushrooming design. Exept for racoondogs etc but i normally grab the 222 for that. I have a rifle for everything. 308 AK for moose, 30-06 for bear, 222 varmint, 6.5x55 for deer species (opportunistic hare) and a .243 drilling for treetop birding and ocasional mixed hunts (deer, hare, fox with dogs)

But yea thats what i keep telling people with 3 shot groups. Sure its not a definitive result but it can weed out bad loads pretty well. Typically il see vertical strings climbing up, a cluster vertical strings climbing down, cluster etc.

From there on its nessesary to use bigger sample sizes for those. But i never saw the point in shooting another 7 when i have 3 impacts all vertical and at a different elevation than the last and next group.

 

[Mack243]

Anybody tried Norwegian Performance Bullets yet (NPB)? New to the market, and they don’t advertise BC yet.

NPB 6.5 121 grain Hunting Expandable bullet

100% lead-free bullets. Extreme penetration! CNC machined.

www.npb.as

But if you’re in the UK, Livens have a 50% off introductory offer currently. I’ve picked up a box for my 6.5PRC, so will see how they perform in front of VV.

 

[Karhumies]

unfortunately it seems most of their bullets wont work in the CZ550 twist.

 

[Border]

Anybody tried Norwegian Performance Bullets yet (NPB)? New to the market, and they don’t advertise BC yet.

NPB 6.5 121 grain Hunting Expandable bullet

100% lead-free bullets. Extreme penetration! CNC machined.

www.npb.as

But if you’re in the UK, Livens have a 50% off introductory offer currently. I’ve picked up a box for my 6.5PRC, so will see how they perform in front of VV.

I have bought up a good supply of the 120 and 140 grain .308" bullets. They have stopped production for the time being. It seems that they had a deal with Highland Outdoors but not seen anything from them recently. Hoping to try them on roebucks and boar in august.

 

[Karhumies]

Well, i did some seating depth tests, just 3 shot groups. Interesting result. I wont be drawing to many conclusions from group size here. Had a strong crosswind from the right anyway. What is however notable is that POI shifts down when AOL is increased.

i think il just use the 45gr/75.15 (tips pulled) but il dedicate a few more to seeing what happens at 74.85 and 75.9.

where it a match load id go 10rd etc but in the end iam just trying to kill a deer with this and anything beyond that is purely fiddling around.

PS i switched scope last night so POI is different from yesterday

 

[Tralle]

I tend to shy away from fragmenting because for me meat is the primary reason i hunt and it is my understanding that those can mess up alot of muscle compared to a mushrooming design. Exept for racoondogs etc but iIbthink normally grab the 222 for that. I have a rifle for everything. 308 AK for moose, 30-06 for bear, 222 varmint, 6.5x55 for deer species (opportunistic hare) and a .243 drilling for treetop birding and ocasional mixed hunts (deer, hare, fox with dogs)

But yea thats what i keep telling people with 3 shot groups. Sure its not a definitive result but it can weed out bad loads pretty well. Typically il see vertical strings climbing up, a cluster vertical strings climbing down, cluster etc.

From there on its nessesary to use bigger sample sizes for those. But i never saw the point in shooting another 7 when i have 3 impacts all vertical and at a different elevation than the last and next group.

I think theres quite big difference in how destructive the fragmenting design are, I would like to believe they "cut" more than "crush" depending on the construction of course.

I havent found the lehighs to be more destructive than a 180 grain oryx in a 308win.

It is my feeling, but i think there is less risk of the "black blood" between the muscles. Ymmv.
I will gladly trade a little meat to avoid that.

Shot a roe with a rws evo green once, that wasn't pretty.

 

[Benelli201]

I suspect those 139 gn 6.5 Fox are the sort of length of the old 156gn 6.5 lead bullets, if not a bit longer, hence the instability challenges.

The 123 will about the length of the the 140 gn lead bullets that work well in your rifle.

Going back to the Peregrines - they are a very good bullet but seem to have quite a narrow window of load in which they work well. Find the window, they are very good, but outside the groups open up substantially.

The Fox bullets tend to be much more forgiving with a much wider window in which they work.

If somone wants to know fox 123gr, hornady cx 120gr and hornady interlock 139gr

 

[Karhumies]

pure coincidence probably but in all my rifles the fox and up liking The same 1.2mm jump. In other good news, the finnish law has been adjusted in februari (missed that) and lead free have their own requirements. 7.5g and 1900joule/100m so the 6.5x55 is fully back in the moose game

 

[Rutland lad]

I happened to spend yesterday afternoon just checking that my Pulsar C50 and my Z6i were zeroed to the same POI.

Thankfully they both were spot on at 150m.

I then did some real world bullets drop testing with my 6.5x55 load using Fox Classic Hunter 123 grain.
Regardless of the chat by people, these group well enough for me at this distance and at 200/250m the drop was acceptable 9cm and 22 cm respectively.
I’ve used them for the last three years and they drop deer very well.

I then zeroed my .308 barrel using Fox Classic Hunter 150 grain and again I was very pleased with the results at 150m.
For me personally the 150m zero is a good compromise - I might be a bit high at closer ranges but out from 150 - 200m the 9cm drop still means I’m well inside the ‘dinner plate’ killing area of a chest shot.

That’ll do for me.

 

[Karhumies]

i dont know if my load holds up. in the bullseye are shot 1 and 2. then the poi moves. Or is it a rifle issue?