i plan on hunting antelope, deer, black bear and elk this year, but i want to work up a load with one bullet. my rifle is a 24" 1x9 twist encore. what bullet and weight would you recommend and why?

[ 02-10-2003, 05:37: Message edited by: exsanguinate ]

Sierra 140 grain HPBT.

Why? Because it worked just fine in my .264 Winchester. It may be a little on the heavy side for antelope and small deer, but should be just right for bear and elk.

I'd even suggest the following:
AA-4350 From 41.4 grains to 47.0 grains
Federal 210 Primer

i don't think they make the 6.5 HPBT in a gameking or are your refering to the matchkings?

how about TBBC's or Grand slams?? comments???

i tried reading the 30+ pages on sierra MK's for hunting. there was a lot of heated discussion. my question is, has anyone (who wants to admit it) shot an animal with MK's and failed to harvest the animal or needed a follow up shot?

[ 02-10-2003, 18:29: Message edited by: exsanguinate ]

The dependability of the Nosler Partition at virtually any velocity and under a wide variety of conditions makes it hard to beat for game of varying size. For deer, I'd prefer the 125, but since elk is in the picture, the 140 would be more sensible choice.

You might very likely find some other "premium" bullets lacking in adequate expansion compared to the Nosler, especially on your lighter game.

I think the 125 partition is very hard to beat for the applications you have outlined.

Mine loves the 140 gr. XLC, but it's a 1 in 8 twist.

I used a 15" XP-100 6.5-284, with Burris 3-12X LER and Ballistic Plex reticle to take a 300 yd. bighorn and 330yd. cow elk this last season and experienced perfect performance from the 129 Hornady SST bullet at 2900 f.p.s. m.v.. But the proudest moment in my life was when I took a coyote with this rig about a month ago at an unbelievable 906 yds. using the Ballistic Plex reticle zeroed on paper to 700 yds. and computer calculated comeups to 1000 using Gerald Perry's Exbal ballistics program, Leica 1200 LRF, and some luck to top it all off. I took a shot at a dirt embankment at 1000 last week and hit 4" high, with good windage. The bullet was recovered and was mushroomed back to the cannelure where it stopped as it was supposed to. I know dirt is not tissue but the cannelure did stop the expansion.

Since elk happen to be on the menu, I'd start with the 140 grain Partition (with the 125 grainer as a second choice) and look no further. Otherwise, I'd have recommended one of the standard 140 grain projectiles such as the Sierra BTSP GameKing, Hornady SP or Speer Hot Core as they offer plenty of penetration for game up to and including black bear -- and would probably even do fine on elk with careful shot placement. Those long, skinny bullets have very high SDs and penetrate extremely well. The Sierra 140 grain BTSP is the toughest of the lot and has been used to take quite a few elk with good results. If for some odd reason the Partitions won't group well in your rig, the 140 grain Sierra will do the trick as long as you avoid the the ball joint of the shoulder.

Good luck on your hunt. Oh, and by the way, Sierra does NOT make a GameKing HPBT in 6.5/140. That above reference by another poster was to the MatchKing, a bullet Sierra advises against using on game. That same heated thread got me a nice $100 "bonus" when a poster said you cannot make a MatchKing NOT expand. I had a number of them filed away which were pristine other than the rifling marks, posted a photo of one that was pristine and another with a bent nose -- and smiled all the way to the bank.

[ 02-18-2003, 20:14: Message edited by: Bobby Tomek ]

exsanguinate,
I've played with several different 6.5s and with the exception of elk, I'd suggest the Nosler 125 grain Partition. In my 6.5x06, which is almost identical to your 6.5-284, it gave good velocity and accuracy. Killed quickly and didn't blow up on close shots. If I say the 6.5-284 won't kill elk, it would be a lie. I just don't consider any 6.5, at any velocity, a elk bullet. It will however drop deer and antelope as fast as anything I've used, and do so quicker than a lot of others. Good luck.