6.5mm sub 250m bullet recommendations

As the title suggests I'm looking for 6.5mm bullet recommendations for under 250m.

I will be using point blank range, no range finder, no bipod, there are no adjustable turrets on the scope and it's a plex reticle (at some point I may measure the sub-tensions and work out drops). The reason for a 130gr preference, less drop and marginal difference in wind drift.

Quarry: goats up to red deer, maybe sambar. A few assumptions: 120gr will probably be too light for the bigger animals, and a premium bullet shouldn't be necessary.
Distance: anywhere up to 250m.
Velocities: ~2650fps for 140gr, ~2750fps for 130gr, and ~2850fps for 120gr.
Cost: under $100 per 100.

First hand experience would be useful, any suggestions with justifications are welcome. I've narrow the selection down to a few choices:

Hornady Interlock SP 129gr: Well constructed, flat base (which may have an advantage inside 300m?), cheap.
Hornady SST 140gr: Might be bit explosive hence the extra weight.
Sierra Gameking HPBT 130gr: Supposedly very accurate, heavier construction than the 140gr Gameking but may have excessive meat damage.
Sierra Gamechanger 130gr: Heavier construction than the 140gr Gameking.

This bullet performs extremely well at faster impact speeds. Have guided two guys using this bullet, watched them poleaxe a heavy red hind and spiker at 200m-ish, and another hind at 400m. Back in the shed, meat damage was minimal. Clean pass through in all three cases, good exit wound. From the nature of the wounding I would think the bullet shed a little weight, but not a lot. For closer range, that’s what you want, else you end up with too much blood shot.

https://www.speer.com/bullets/rifle_...264140GDB.html

I don’t use this bullet myself because my 6.5 is almost exclusively used for longer range stuff and I have no desire to change from the ELDX. If however I was to build a lightweight carry rifle in 6.5 for closer range stuff like you then this is the bullet I would choose, no question.

140grn partition should be top of the list.....

Do a google search for Speer Gold Dot expansion tests. Jonny tested the 6.5 them quite thoroughly. I don’t really see the point of doing an expansion test at 10 yards though...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-t3PRARVLQ

I load Hornady 129 SP in my mats daughters .260 they have shot alot of goats fallow and a couple of reds he says they are awesome

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Anything 120 -140gr should suit. 120s have plenty enough smack on reds at reasonable ranges.
I tend to go light, fast and hardish or heavy, Slow and Softish.
I use 120gr speer Gold dot in a 260 and 140gr Hornady spire point in a 6.5 x 55.
Creek and slips hunting

143 eldx have shots shit loads of various animals with them.
Reasonably priced and accurate

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Speer 140 gn hotcore - excellent pill for what you want & hard to beat at $54/100. If you got plenty of cash go 140 partitions

what kind of 6,5 are we talking

Sierra 120gr Pro Hunters. Cheap, effective, reliable and very accurate.

Greetings,
129 grain Interlock for me. Accurate in most rifles, even those with long throats. Easy to get over 2,800 fps to keep that trajectory flat for point blank out to 250 metres (with a 180 metre zero). Good price and availability. Wind deflection a non issue out to 250. What else could you possibly need.
Grandpamac.

The Sierra 130 Gameking was very accurate across a range of powder loads in my 260.
The 143gr eld-x shot well too.

The 125 Partition is one of the better allrounders for your given parameters, will open on lighter framed animals, but still punch deep/through big heavy animals - but if it's all about cheap,cheap,cheap - go the 120 Sierra Prohunter or 130 Sierra Gameking hp. BC's not the best 6.5 stuff, but you're not proposing to knock animals over at 400 either.

i use 140gr and 120gr gold dots in one of my 6.5s 120 mk i think it is in one of my other ones 140gr speer hot cores in another of my 6.5s and trailing a 90-100gr load in another one all work good so far just depends which one we are talking about

Had multiple 6.5s. Gotta be the 130hpbt gameking. Ran them at 2700~ and they were lethal.
Had a 260 running 140 sierra gamekings @ 2520 and they were epic. Recently shot a sika front on at sub 50m and it monster it

Lots of good 6.5 pills in the 120-140 range. You can add the Nosler BTips in 120 and 140 grain to your list. Not dear by the box as there is only 50 in a box.
wifes shopping logic!

Federal fusion 140 grain

Basically one or two votes for each bullet out of the entire catalogue. Hope we managed to narrow it down for you :thumbsup:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Pommy

Basically one or two votes for each bullet out of the entire catalogue. Hope we managed to narrow it down for you :thumbsup:

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That's 6.5 pills for you. They generally all have High BC and SD so you cant go too wrong.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dicko

Lots of good 6.5 pills in the 120-140 range. You can add the Nosler BTips in 120 and 140 grain to your list. Not dear by the box as there is only 50 in a box.
wifes shopping logic!

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The 6.5 120 nbt is a fantastic all round bullet.

Thanks for all the input. I was trying to narrow down the options, not expand them. The list now looks something like this:

120gr:
Sierra pro hunter
Speer gold dot

130gr:
Hornady Interlock
Sierra Gameking HPBT

140gr:
Not sure yet.

I have lately sourced a 16" short and ultra light 6.5CM which use is to tag along on my back while walking the dog and exploring new territory without me even feeling that it's there. Being short, top speed was never gonna happen so I looked for a light-ish bullet that does the job from pretty much point blank to max. 400m. Which means not too fragile to blow up on close encounters but also has a reasonable BC and would do a good job when going slow at longer distances. This means bullets like the SST type bullets are out and so are the Interlock and monolithic bullets.

Ended up with the Nosler ABLR 129gr:
0 - 5m it turns the inside of big billy goats into jelly without blowing up on the outside, even when hitting bone. You can see the whole animal expanding on impact.
50 - 200m pretty good exit wound with a lot of damage inside.
250 - 375m still exit wound but narrow and decent but not excessive wounding inside, so shot placement is key which is easy with the high BC.

I would have preferred a 120gr version of the ELD-X as I like them in my 6.5CM Bergara and they do just fine out to 600m plus it is usually easy to find a very accurate load with no pressure spikes but as you know, there is only the 143gr version available which was going too slow in the shorty.

Have a look at the various bonded bullets for your application, I think they could work for you just as they do for my situation being medium fragile over a very wide velocity range?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Magnetite

Thanks for all the input. I was trying to narrow down the options, not expand them. The list now looks something like this:

120gr:
Sierra pro hunter
Speer gold dot

130gr:
Hornady Interlock
Sierra Gameking HPBT

140gr:
Not sure yet.

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140 should definitely have the sierra sp gameking.

Just to throw a spanner in the works...100gr Barnes ttsx at silly speed. Will smash in that 0-300 range. Punches well above its weight and am sure a few people will back that up

If you are genuinely only ever shooting sub 250 then surely just a plain jane soft point pill will never let you down and do the job no fuss