Does anyone have any experience of the 6.5x55 for use on plains game, including Eland?

I have in mind a 140 Barnes X or a 160 grain premium bullet.

Bushveld ranges i.e. 5-150 metres.

Thanks

I've used a 6.5X55 w/ Barnes bullets on Oryx and seen it used on red deer, though it seems a little light for an eland - after all we're talking 400-700 kilos here. As ever it is the rifleman not necessarily the rifle that is the biggest factor.

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I used 140 Grain Barnes X bullets in a .264 on a plainsgame hunt. I took 6 animals up to Eland in size. The only one that required a second shot was a Kudu I hit about 1" to the right of his tail.

The only bullet I recovered had penetrated 34" from the rear of the Kudu. The bullet had lost it's petals.

I intend to use the same loads on my next trip.

I don't see any problems when it comes to the smaller plainsgame up to and including Hartebeest. But with a body shot that hits large bone on anything bigger including oryx I would hesitate.

We are talking here of extremely tough animals especially when it comes to wildebeest. I'm not saying it can't be done sure it can be done but why take chances. A friend of mine who use to use his 243 on game up to kudu said it will take down antyhing untill the day he hit the thick shoulder bone on a big kudu bull we found him and I finished him off with my 375 H&H he was too confident in his 243 the reason being as he mostly took headshots and neck shots.

From that day he has never used anything smaller than the 30-06 for kudu.

Safari-Hunt

www.Safari-Hunt.com

I had a long and hard look at various calibers that could fill the gap that I had.
Decided on "a slow 6.5", since it is held as minimal on meat damage, almost said to be magical in that regard.
Which one? Well, the 6.5x51 has the advantage of 243 and 308 brass so I picked that one. Custom built, recieved it 2 weeks ago and only dropped a blesbok so far (minimal meat damage on a heart shot - coincidence?) Doing warthog culling coming Monday and Tuesday, can't wait to see what it will do.

Very informative posting, ALF - many thanks ! I have always longed to know more about the nowadays obscure 6,5 x 58 P.

Regards,
Carcano