Bullet choice

stuartp

Well-Known Member
I am about to order up my first batch of bullets for reloading, so I thought I would ask you lads what you use, and why?

Having spent some time browsing I have provisionally settled on Sierra Gamekings - any comments on these?

FYI the calibre is 6.5x55, and I will be using 140grns.
 
Well, for my 6.5 I use Hornady Interlock's. For the past few years I have stuck exclusively to the 129 grain version. I got lucky these were the first I tried in mine and they proved to be very accurate and effective on deer. I have recently loaded some 140 and 160 grain again Hornady, but as yet have not tried them.

I think you will find though, that it is more difficult to find an unsuitable manufacturer or head for the wonderfully forgiving 6.5.

John
 
I load both hornady sp 100grns and speer btsp in 100grns for my .243 The speers are devistating, have shot three Roe doe's with them so far and two of them collapsed on the spot with a massive wound channel through the deer the third roe doe made 20 yds and collapsed.

I've shot roe with the sierra game king in fedral ammo from my 30-06 as well and they cetanly drops them in rapid way.
 
bullets

I normally load .243 with speer 105gr spitzers but i am not getting the groups i want so i am going to load some 95grain partitions. The 105s do kill roe very well though, it might be worth trying them.

the .30-06 i load with 150grain spitzers from speer (2023) but i am going to try some sierra btsp gamekings in 150gr.


swampy
 
You will find reloading is like fly fishing eg the flies are designed to catch the fisherrman as well as the fish al i can say is there are no bad bullets'but i use mainly Hornady with good results. :)
 
Have started using 100grain speer spbt. so far they have been devestating. Roe just collapse on the spot don't even move a muscle. You might have problems tryingt o shoot good groups with 105 grain bullets unless your rifle has a twist rate of 1in 8.

150 grn Sierra game kings are excellent use them in my 30-06 to good effect they do a fair amount of damage though.
 
stuartp said:
I am about to order up my first batch of bullets for reloading, so I thought I would ask you lads what you use, and why?

Having spent some time browsing I have provisionally settled on Sierra Gamekings - any comments on these?

FYI the calibre is 6.5x55, and I will be using 140grns.
My current choice, pushed by 45 grains of N160 out of sako 691. Accurate,capable choice on red and roe.
 
That's also good to hear I have bought a Kilo of N160 having done as much research as possible into powders.

I went for the Game Kings, they look quite similar to the heads Federal use, once I have put it all together I will post the results on here - good or bad!
 
Stuart, I've recently changed to Sierra Gamekings for the .243 and .270.

Accuracy has improved, and stopping power, from what I've seen so far on Munty, Fox and Fallow, is superb!
 
Thanks Tikka, that is encouraging, I am off to the range soon with my trial loads so I will see how there fare.
 
Sierra 100g spitzer game kings are a very accurate bullet and do a hell of a job. I use to use these about 8 years ago and only changed to using 95g Ballistic Tips because of the polymer tip due to the inertier action on the bullet in the mag flattening the nose against the mag face.

Good bullets.


Cal
 
Sierra gamekings in 223 and 308, bergers, hornady amax, sst, noslers and even round nose..... they all work. Also Barnes, LOS, and impala . If you mean if I could only choose one forever it would be SGK #1390 55gn in 224 and 150gn SP in 30cal
 
As per earlier threads, time-proven Sierra Prohunters 120gns will do all you need and are very accurate too. More recently Sierra Gamechangers 130 gns look very promising with the same load of Viht N160. My rifle also really likes the good old 140gns Remy Corelokt but did not at all like Hornady GMX copper. Recent experiments with Yew Tree 112gns copper and N160 have ben very positive. You pays your money….. As ever be careful working up loads-no shortcuts-start at the lowest and work up, steady as she goes. The attached early experiment was at 100 off quad sticks, not sniper-quality but more than good enough for deer - and you can see the bullet strike.
Good luck.
🦊🦊

20C11168-2725-475D-94BD-0411B29F768E.jpeg
 
A fine bullet that does the job.

According to Litz they have the most consistent BC of any of the soft point bullets he tested. For what that is worth.
 
As per earlier threads, time-proven Sierra Prohunters 120gns will do all you need and are very accurate too. More recently Sierra Gamechangers 130 gns look very promising with the same load of Viht N160. My rifle also really likes the good old 140gns Remy Corelokt but did not at all like Hornady GMX copper. Recent experiments with Yew Tree 112gns copper and N160 have ben very positive. You pays your money….. As ever be careful working up loads-no shortcuts-start at the lowest and work up, steady as she goes. The attached early experiment was at 100 off quad sticks, not sniper-quality but more than good enough for deer - and you can see the bullet strike.
Good luck.
🦊🦊

View attachment 218143
Well, this does not show that your rifle does not "like" the GMX, it shows the groups may not be there yet but it is promising. Dunno your scale but the 44gr load is ok for starters and the 44.5gr has great vertical ?! No?

Shooting off sticks has too much shooter in it for load development. There is horizontal and vertical in the other groups so hard to say what is load and what is shooting. The shooter needs to be taken out as much as possible to give the load a fair chance. Lots of sandbags.

0.5gr is too big a step. Go up in 0.2 increments from 43.8 to say 44.8. Pick a load with the least average vertical change between loads (ie the centre of the node), then vary the seating depth to pull in the group size, if required. Depending on how confident you are in your shooting and reloading, you can try this with one shot per load.

No short cuts to a good load I am afraid.
 
Well, this does not show that your rifle does not "like" the GMX, it shows the groups may not be there yet but it is promising. Dunno your scale but the 44gr load is ok for starters and the 44.5gr has great vertical ?! No?

Shooting off sticks has too much shooter in it for load development. There is horizontal and vertical in the other groups so hard to say what is load and what is shooting. The shooter needs to be taken out as much as possible to give the load a fair chance. Lots of sandbags.

0.5gr is too big a step. Go up in 0.2 increments from 43.8 to say 44.8. Pick a load with the least average vertical change between loads (ie the centre of the node), then vary the seating depth to pull in the group size, if required. Depending on how confident you are in your shooting and reloading, you can try this with one shot per load.

No short cuts to a good load I am afraid.
All this I know but in fairness not the entire story. What I had not said and you would not of course have been aware of was that I had already worked the loads up (x.2gns), adjusted seating depth and tested them off front and rear sandbags at 50m on a concrete bench at my club and then retested off sticks “real-time” - at 100 - as shown, with pretty much the same result! Indeed I was so unhappy with the performance I baulked at using them at bucks in Perthshire and reverted to Prohunters. As a comparison just look at the groups with a selection of different (traditional) bullets, shot on the same day and in exactly the same conditions, I think most stalkers would be happy with any of these, I know this one certainly was. GMX were, and still are, for my rifle a different story, Yews, however are showing great potential thus far.
🦊🦊
 
I am about to order up my first batch of bullets for reloading, so I thought I would ask you lads what you use, and why?

Having spent some time browsing I have provisionally settled on Sierra Gamekings - any comments on these?

FYI the calibre is 6.5x55, and I will be using 140grns.

I do OK on 120 Pro hunter in my 260 rem . Used the 100 grain version for years in my 243 and when I shot 7-08 I used tge 140 gameking
Gameking is boat tailed , pro hunter is the same bullet with a flat base . Flat base and boat tail are ballistically twins inside of around 400 yards
Today I am pretty much finding copper a requirement and my use for lead deer bullets is diminishing so fast though
The 100 grain seirra varminter in 6.5 is a very good bullet for a fast fragmenting fox /crow round
 
When you start reloading like any hobby you put your toe in the water and jump in. All of the common bullet manufactures make quality bullets. Your post suggests you have researched you requirements and made a decision. We all started at this point and we can offer opinions because we have experience.

My opinion is the Gameking is a quality bullet and will serve you well. I personally like Speer boattails better for no reason that I can defend ( ok I just like the yellow boxes). Put some down range and let us know how it went!
 
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