So Many Bullets!

I’m about to start reloading for the first time in my life, 6.5CM. How do I go about selecting the right bullet? With factory ammo I would buy eight different types and see what my gun likes but with reloading where do I start? What route do you recommend?

 

I'd start with the purpose of the gun. Is it for hunting medium-larger game? Varmints? Shooting steel for fun? Competition? 1000 yard?

These answers will narrow down your choices. Availability and price will narrow it down further.

 

Deer hunting

 

130 Berger Hunting VLD's have worked great for me on Deer & Antelope.

 

The 130-140 class bullets is where I would look. H4831sc, H4350, RL23 are some excellent powders to start with as well.

 

It's not a sexy bullet, but for my hunting bullets, it's Nosler Partition.
It meets all of my criteria, accurate and full penetration.

 

Try sierra game kings or hornady interlock.

 

Twist, freebore, and what your goals are for your hunting bullet will help you narrow the choices down.

 

Sierra game kings work very well.
Speer work great on deer, accurate and cheap. Very overlooked

 

As littlebuddybr said "Twist, freebore," barrel length are all input. For me hunting bullets mean Nosler but I am prejudiced in Nosler's favor as others have other preferences.

 

Not a CM but my daughter uses the Sierra 120gr Pro Hunter in her .260 rem with excellent results on deer.

 

I've been happy with the 120 Nosler Ballistic Tips out of a 6.5-06 AI and a 6.5 x 47 Lapua. It's been very accurate and deadly on whitetails from both rifles.

 

The hunters here can give you good suggestions. For hunting, accuracy is not paramount - any of them should work in that department.

More generally, choosing bullets follows a process:

1) What is the application? Hunting? Competition? Plinking?
2) Given the application, what are the priorities? Terminal Ballistics? Wind performance? Recoil? Precision? Cost?
3) Once you have your priorities set, narrow it down to a bullet weight and style. For example, if you're shooting F Class, you'll want high precision and good wind performance first. That means you'll be looking at a heavy for caliber (140 grain) boattail match grade bullet with a high BC. You can ignore terminal ballistics and recoil - they're not going to matter. Cost is what it is.
4) Once you've got some candidates, look at availability. Does anyone have them for sale? See if anyone else is using those bullets for your application. If they're not, there might be a reason.
5) At this point you should have only a handful of bullets to consider. Pick *one*, and develop a load for it. trying to develop two loads for two bullets simultaneously is going to be a headache.

Often, you can skip all this and just ask people here what they're using. But that's the thought process.

 

I have killed literally a few hundred whitetail deer with .264 caliber rifles from 6.5 Grendel, 260 Rem, 6.5x55 Swede, 6.5-06 and 264 Win mag. If I had to choose just one bullet for a rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor's velocity ability for any game up through elk it would be the 130 gr Nosler Accubond. If just after deer then most any cup and core 120 to 140 gr bullet will get the job done if you do your part. I have killed most of the above mentioned deer with 120 Sierra Pro Hunter, 120 Nosler Ballistic Tip, 140 Sierra Game Kings and 140 Hornady Interlock. I have only killed one deer with the 120 Speer Gold Dot using my new 6.5 Grendel last year and it did AWESOME. These bullets are a bonded bullet but they expand easily and hold together and keep on trucking. They are very accurate also. They come in 120 and 140 gr for .264 and they are pretty cheap also so might give them a try.

 

Anything but a Barnes bullet.

 

130 Accubonds

 

Should I test different powders as well?

 

I believe the Nosler Acubonds are actually 129 grs. or at least mine are and they are sub MOA in my RAP using IMR4350. They have never failed to make 1 shot kills for me.

 

Do you have a reloading book? Sierra, Hornady, Lyman and Berger among others should be required reading before starting to reload. Additionally, there will be many recommended loads in them.

 

I have a Nosler book I’m starting. I’ll pick up a Lyman as well.