My 6.5 Creedmoor non-lead factory hunting ammo test

[skr]

I decided to spend way too much time and money doing a thorough test of non-lead hunting ammunition. Check it out below and let me know what you think.

6.5 Creedmoor non-lead factory ammo test

In 2019, California banned the use of lead bullets for hunting. Since then, I’ve been trying to find a good non-lead factory load in 6.5 Creedmoor. My early rudimentary testing unfortunately did not inspire confidence. That was a handful of years ago and the market has seen a lot of new...

open.substack.com

Short summary:

• 6.5 Creedmoor tested in a light hunting rifle with Proof carbon wrapped barrel
• 5x5 shots per ammunition brand.
• 11 different products (10 non-lead, 1 lead control)
• Mean radius MOA group sizes at 100 yards
• Muzzle velocity sd via Labrador
• Calculated hit percentages at 500m/800m (using WEZ)

Bottom line if you don’t want to read it all: I’ll be using Federal Trophy Copper 120gr when non-lead is required by law.

 

[RegionRat]

Will you plan to handload some of the no-lead bullets to see if you can do better than these factory loads?

You have some decent factory baseline data to start with so you already have a rough idea of what to expect.
I'm curious why the TTSX did so poorly in this rig while the LRX seemed to perform as expected?

Or will you just stick with factory ammo?

 

[skr]

Yeah the TTSX results were unexpected. I don't have any theory as to why. In particular since it was a load by Barnes in both cases, so we can't blame the ammunition manufacturer.
I read somewhere ages ago that Hornady had problems with the plastic tip deforming in flight on their GMX bullets. But TTSX and LRX are both plastic tip (assuming it's the same material) so I don't know that there's a difference there.

I'll probably work up a load with LRX and/or CX. I'm not sure I'll be able to improve much on the loads (for this particular rifle) but it's worth a shot.

I also have 3x5 rounds left of each ammo. I might shoot those in my heavier target rifle and see how much the groups improve compared to the hunting rifle.