6.5mm Hunting bullet. VLR4 - GS HV - Barnes LRX

[gerrieheath]

Has anyone used the 124gr vlr4 peregrine in a 6.5 creedmoor. Does it stabalise it

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[414gates]

Since April 2018 my 6.5 Creedmoor has killed 173 animals, ranging from a steenbok to 13 eland, most in my hands but a few in the hands of hunting clients. It is marginal for blue wildebeest and I would not use it for a mature eland bull but with a good expanding monolithic it is a good hunting caliber. The test in this case being reality.

The OP states that a bullet bounced off a shoulder. I pointed out that the problem may be the caliber used, not the bullet. I never indicated it is not a good hunting caliber. I did say that the crux is what you hunt, and at what range. You can try use any caliber for anything you want.

The OP is about a BWB, not smaller plains game or larger antelope. How many head of other game you have taken with the caliber is not relevant here. It remains underpowered for the purpose described by the OP.

A very famous elephant hunter killed many hundreds of elephant with a 7x57 and FMJs. It's just a fact, it doesn't constitute a benchmark, and doesn't imply that the 7x57 is either good or bad for hunting. The 7x57 remains underpowered for hunting elephant.

[414gates]

Has anyone used the 124gr vlr4 peregrine in a 6.5 creedmoor. Does it stabalise it

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Your barrel twist rate may not be the same as the other person's.

First check what your twist is, then use a stability calculator to see if it can stabilise the bullet length.

[TStone]

So by way of example could you offer a view of the penetration of each.

I loaded 130gr. Accubonds in my 6.5 x 55 and they were fine on the smaller species like Impala, Bush Buck etc. Last year I loaded 120gr. TTSX at circa 2 930fps and we popped a couple of Rhebok. The performance was rather devastating in that the penetration caused a lot of meat damage. On the smaller species I thing I prefer the Accubonds.

Would love to hear how deep they went into a BWB.

Take into account that the following is about 6.5mm bullets. As an example with blue wildebeest sized animals, I will use either on a broadside shoulder shot where no bone will be hit. In this scenario the Accubond will normally stop under the skin of the off shoulder, the Monolithics will often exit.

If the wildebeest is angling towards me, where there is a really good chance that the bullet will hit the heavy shoulder joint, I will use a monolithic but not the Accubond or Interbond.

The Accubonds are great hunting bullets, they work well on the smaller animals and work well even on the large ones as long as you do not hit thick bone. The Accubond have no mechanism to prevent over expansion if thick bone is hit.

For the larger animals I prefer monolithics because they do not over expand (which limits penetration) when they hit thick bone. There are lead cored bullets that do fare well against thick bone, two of which I have personal experience are the Swift A-Frame and the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw (though not in 6.5 mm) both have mechanisms to prevent over expansion and bonded front cores. The first is hellishly expensive and the second virtually unobtainable. The locally made Rhino Solid Shank falls into this category as well and I used it a lot back in 2001 -2003, then their quality control seemed to go downhill. Maybe this has changed again, they are still producing bullets.

[gerrieheath]

I have used the Rhino penetrator a lot, but not on the 6.5, and was very impressed. I see they have a 130gr on the 6.5mm. This would make it the heaviest mono for the 6.5mm

[TStone]

The OP states that a bullet bounced off a shoulder. I pointed out that the problem may be the caliber used, not the bullet. I never indicated it is not a good hunting caliber. I did say that the crux is what you hunt, and at what range. You can try use any caliber for anything you want.


The OP is about a BWB, not smaller plains game or larger antelope. How many head of other game you have taken with the caliber is not relevant here. It remains underpowered for the purpose described by the OP.

A very famous elephant hunter killed many hundreds of elephant with a 7x57 and FMJs. It's just a fact, it doesn't constitute a benchmark, and doesn't imply that the 7x57 is either good or bad for hunting. The 7x57 remains underpowered for hunting elephant.

Good Morning.

The OP states that the bullet deflected and made a 90° turn in the shoulder. It is certainly not impossible, I have seen bullets do very strange things and that is not limited to 6.5 mm calibers. The problem of deflection most often occur when a bullet hit a thick round bone at an angle and off center, this can cause a bullet to deflect, it can occur with any caliber and would probably be more likely with spitzer bullets than with flat- or round nosed bullets.

The amount of blue wildebeest I have taken with the 6.5 mm is only relevant in that I never had a monolithic bullet fail to get to the vitals. This, for me, would indicate that what happened with the OP's wildebeest is not the norm with this caliber.

I fully agree that the 6.5 mm is not the perfect blue wildebeest caliber, but it is certainly capable of killing wildebeest cleanly and reliably if you use a premium hunting bullet.

Never having hunted an elephant, I'm not going to argue with you about that, despite me being a 7x57 fan

[Andrew Leigh]

Take into account that the following is about 6.5mm bullets. As an example with blue wildebeest sized animals, I will use either on a broadside shoulder shot where no bone will be hit. In this scenario the Accubond will normally stop under the skin of the off shoulder, the Monolithics will often exit.

If the wildebeest is angling towards me, where there is a really good chance that the bullet will hit the heavy shoulder joint, I will use a monolithic but not the Accubond or Interbond.

The Accubonds are great hunting bullets, they work well on the smaller animals and work well even on the large ones as long as you do not hit thick bone. The Accubond have no mechanism to prevent over expansion if thick bone is hit.

For the larger animals I prefer monolithics because they do not over expand (which limits penetration) when they hit thick bone. There are lead cored bullets that do fare well against thick bone, two of which I have personal experience are the Swift A-Frame and the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw (though not in 6.5 mm) both have mechanisms to prevent over expansion and bonded front cores. The first is hellishly expensive and the second virtually unobtainable. The locally made Rhino Solid Shank falls into this category as well and I used it a lot back in 2001 -2003, then their quality control seemed to go downhill. Maybe this has changed again, they are still producing bullets.

Thanks, good to know. I would not have used a Mono in my 6.5mm for BWB and would have passed on the opportunity. I now know that one can stretch the boundries a bit with Mono's. Having said which I am a most reluctant mono user due to my perception that they require speeds faster than I like to deploy nicely. This to me means more snotty bloody residue on the meat to clean. I suppose they also go against my "heavy and slow" philosophy for limiting meat damage. In slaughtering this is the most time consuming process I face.

[Toxxyc]

Thanks, good to know. I would not have used a Mono in my 6.5mm for BWB and would have passed on the opportunity. I now know that one can stretch the boundries a bit with Mono's. Having said which I am a most reluctant mono user due to my perception that they require speeds faster than I like to deploy nicely. This to me means more snotty bloody residue on the meat to clean. I suppose they also go against my "heavy and slow" philosophy for limiting meat damage. In slaughtering this is the most time consuming process I face.

Hence modern monos. They expand a lot better. That days of requiring a 3,000 FPS impact velocity for a mono to open are gone. These days they flatten and mushroom even at speeds of around 1,800FPS and even less, which is impact velocity at some range.

PS this sounded a lot more condescending that it should. My apologies for that!

[gary-t]

This is the problem, not the Peregrine bullets.

There are threads on longrangehunting that have over 10000 views on this subject, and the debate gets heated.

It was never designed as a hunting caliber, it's a low recoil target caliber designed to accommodate high BC bullets.

You can use a Creedmoor for hunting. You can use a .22LR for hunting. The question is what you going to hunt, and at what range.

There are hunters that have great results with the 6.5 Creedmore. I disagree that it is not a hunting caliber. The 6.5 x 55 swede built up a great reputation as a hunting bullet. Traditionally the 6.5 x 55 was used with slow heavy bullets at closer ranges. Hunters have been led to believe that the 6.5 Creed is capable of anything. The modern applications are to use lighter faster bullets. Some hunters maybe expect too much from the 6.5 Creed.

[Messor]

I have mentioned on this very forum before that I have never seen as many bullet deflections on the range in my life until we started shooting mono’s. The science is simple, it’s a hard bullet that does not break up or give as easily as cup and core bullets, hence it deflects, the same thing that happens inside animals. I am willing to bet money that on a shot where a lightweight mono did something funny, a slow and heavy cup and core would not have done the same. But this is a discussion for another day.

A forum is where many people share experiences and opinions, not all the same, and somewhere in the middle you have to find the truth. If you read between the lines here then it’s obvious the truth is known, it goes like this:

1: Don’t buy bullets for the Creed which might work for Blue Wildebeest, just don’t, it’s not a suitable cartridge for this type of animal. It’s capable, just as T-stone explained, yet it’s not suitable, suitable would be something bigger, one of the 300’s or up. The 6.5 creed is not a killer through voodoo magic, it’s not even designed to hunt big animals, don’t use it for that.

2: If you get point one, and buy bullets for normal game, not including eland or wildebeest, the 120gr range of monolithics will still be your best bet in penetration, and recoil reduction. It will however not have the BC of the 140gr+ cup and core versions, which might do better in windy conditions on the plains for normal sized game, where deep penetration is not needed.