RWS Hit 6.5x55 - anyone using?

[grizzpup]

Previously (pre-lead restrictions on my ground) used to use RWS DK and loved the mix of effect and lack of meat damage. Switched to RWS EVO green which is scary accurate but causes huge meat damage. My rifle seems to like RWS. Tried Norma and Sako lead free and both are fine but not exceptional

Anyone used HIT that can offer thoughts and experience? It looks like a nickel coated Barnes bullet??

Thanks

 

[Heym SR20]

Not in 6.5x55, but pre all the discussions on non lead I managed to buy about 200 RWS HIT in 7x65R for a song. They weren’t selling in the UK. I bought fir the brass.

But been using them ever since and really like them. On Roe they knock them down but with minimal damage. On Reds, Sika and their hybrids they punch right through and the deer die. They don’t fragment, and meat damage beyond the actual hole is minimal. Shoot through both shoulders, you loose a burger’s worth of meat.

I have had a couple of reds stand stiff legged after being hit. They were dead but had not read the correct operating manual. And I had one hind that ran a hundred yards.

To be fair, I had the same with DK and other lead bullets.

I have heard / read that they are a nickel plated Barnes bullet. The nickel plating looks pretty.

 

[Heym SR20]

Re the RWS Evo green, and similar such as the Geco Zero, S&B Blue synergy, these are all traditional type of bullets but use a zinc or tin core instead of lead. They work by fragmentation sending a cloud of fragments through the carcass and the vitals. In my 243 I used to use the RWS T Mantel soft point. Bullet behind the shoulder, lungs and heart would just be mush ( been put in a liquidiser) and offside shoulder would be ruined on Roe. Often the damage would rupture the diaphragm. But roe still ran, indeed you expected them to run.

I haven’t used the RWS Evo, but shooting colleague tried the Geco Zero in his 6.5x55 or 7x57 (can’t remember which) but similar results on red deer.

They are designed for those who insist on using a cored bullet in the belief that monolithic type bullets don’t do enough damage to kill quickly. That was true back in the 1990’s with the early monolithics. They were tough bullets for shooting tough animals with high velocity magnum type cartridges.

Current generations of monolithics use softer materials and better designs so that they open into a spinning cutter when the hit, and mostly retain 99% in one piece.

Below is a photo of a 140gn HIT in 7x65r. Shot a big red / sika hybrid that responded to a sika type whistle. Came stomping out of the bracken really cross and ****ed off that something else was on his terratory. He stopped long enough for to put this bullet in behind his right shoulder as he was quartering away. It smashed right the way through the top of heart / aorta into the spine and up along the neck and I recovered it under the offside thick skin on the neck. He went all of five yards before dropping down into a 5 ft deep drainage ditch. Getting him out was interesting. Still weigh 139.5grains

 

[grizzpup]

Great! Thanks for the useful info. I'll give them a whirl as they sound like they'll be ideal

 

[Heym SR20]

Great! Thanks for the useful info. I'll give them a whirl as they sound like they'll be ideal

Your welcome. Shot a wee fox cub last night. Saw them outside their den. Gave them a squeek and four of them came running straight for us. Mrs Heym was with me. I am sure they were going to attack her so shot one as it came through the fence at about 15 yards away. Head on shot and cub pretty much exploded - yes the HIT bullet also works very well at close range on wee Foxes.