I just slugged the bore of my new (old) 1925 J.P. Sauer stalking rifle chambered in 6.5x58R Sauer. It measured .254" lands and .263" grooves.

The goal is to find a GC bullet in the 90-120gr. range that will have reasonable expansion on small whitetail deer inside 150 yds. with muzzle velocities fron 2400-2600 fps.

What diameter bullet do you folks reccommend and can it be bought?

Thanks for the advise,
Ian

This is not a good place to ask about store-bought bullets since casters make their own. Beartooth is the only place that comes to mind.

Who told you you were going to get 2400+ out of a 6.5 mm? The 6.5's often have a fast twist that is very hard on cast bullets. It's impossible to say where you will run into problems, but 1600 - 1800 fps is generally easy, and then it gets progressively tougher as you up the velocity. Plus high velocities require a hard bullet, so don't expect much expansion.

Slugging is not a reliable way to measure because sometimes the slug abrades as it passes through and comes out undersize. That said, let's assume your groove diameter is really 0.263". It doesn't really matter, because there are other considerations like the throat diameter and the chamber neck clearance. The only sure way to determine the optimal diameter is by trial and error, but 0.002" over groove is a good starting point, so let's say minimum 0.265". Don't be afraid to go bigger.

If the rifle has a short throat, then you will likely need a bore riding nose, in which case the nose diameter is critical, generally 0.001" larger than the lands. Very few commercial casters will guarantee a particular nose diameter.

6.5mm fans will disagree with me, but I can't get excited about deer hunting with a 6.5 cast bullet because you can never count on expansion with a cast bullet. Big bores and big meplats are the way to hunt with cast. Use the 6.5 cast for plinking.

I prefer to have my cast bullets .002" larger than groove diameter. It seems to work well in every rifle, regardless of caliber for me. Of course, YMMV, but it's a good place to start. When I had a 6.5x54 MS, I used a Lyman bullet (sorry, I forget the number) that cast out at about 150 gr. IIRC. In that rifle, it killed 3 fairly good sized Mule Deer quite well. No chronograph back then, but I estimate the velocity was about 1800-1900 FPS. Metal was straight wheel weight and there was some leading that had to be cleaned out after about ten rounds. I quit using it for deer primarily because I didn't feel I could get really decent velocity. I was trying to duplicate the velocity of the original 160 gr. RN bullet, but in cast, it didn't work all that well. In a lighter load witht hat bullet though, it sure raised hell with the jack rabbit population.
Paul B.
Paul B.

Ian, in your position, I would just use jacketed. A thou tighter than the nominal .264 ain't nothing to worry about. I also seem to recall that some 6.5 bullets were made in .263. EDIT: I went out to my shop and looked. Sure enough, I had an unopened box of Speer 120 grain .263s sitting there.

The others are right about the extreme difficulty of getting high velocity and accuracy from most 6.5s. You might measure the twist of your barrel. If it's 1 turn in 12" or slower, you might have a chance.

It is possible to get cast bullets that will expand and can be pushed past 2000 fps in more cast bullet friendly calibers. The trick is to use two pots and a dipper that holds the correct amount of pure lead to pour the nose. Immediately fill the mould with a hard alloy and drop the bullet into a bucket of water.

Such bullets give performance similar to Nosler partitions, but at lower velocities. The nose expands dramatically, and the hard body will continue to penetrate even if the nose is wiped off against bone.

This information is very much apprecated; just what I needed to hear.

Thanks again,
Ian