Anyone out there hunt deer size game with this combo in either 10 or 14 inch tube. These are TN deer, not northern bruisers or Muleys.
I am wondering if I will will regret giving up mass to gain velocity.

Bobby T. et. al. feel free to jump in with your real world experience

I deer hunt with a 6.5mm Bullberry improved - basically the same as the 6.5mm JDJ. I use 120 Nosler Ballistic tips with great success. My loads are traveling @2350 fps and I have taken shots with success out to 300 yards (broadside shots from sitting position. your loads are going to be slower due to decreased case capacity. The 6.5 are great deer rounds @ resonable distance. I would say your 6.5TCU would be a 200 yard whitetail proposition. Good shooting!

Louis,
Back when I deer hunted extensively w/ the 6.5 JDJ, I primarily used the 120 gr NBT, but did kill 5-6 deer w/ the 100 gr NBT. I was not happy w/ the 100 gr NBT as a deer bullet in the 6.5 JDJ as I had problems w/ jacket/core separation. Mind you, this was 10-12 years ago so it's quite likely the bullet has changed since then. I was pushing the bullet at 2550 fps. You may, or may not, but ok w/ this bullet in your 6.5 TCU. Hopefully someone will give you more pertinent real life experience, but if not you may want to try bullet penetration comparison of the two bullets. Bind 6" of dry newspaper together then soak it for a few hours. It will swell to 10-12" thick. You may need two stacks back to back. Shoot your rounds, measure the penetration, retrieve the bullets and compare the bullets. I've done similar thing w/ my son for his science fair projects the past 4 years. Results are sometimes surprising. Gary T.

I somehow managed to miss this thread until now.

While I have used the 100 grain Nosler BT, I was not at all pleased with it and instead prefer the time-proven 120 grain BT.

The 120 grainer is simply more authoratative on deer-sized game and puts them down quickly. While the 100 grain BTs do expand well (maybe even a little too quickly in some instances), animals seldom gave definitive reactions that would indicate bullet impact.

So I guess the short answer is this: Yes, the 100 grain Nosler BT will work on smaller deer, but the 120 grain BT will work MUCH better.

I guess the difference is that all of you are using the 6.5 Bullberry or JDJ and the 6.5 TCU is signficantly smaller/slower.
I will likely only see 2200-2400 in the TCU with 100 grain bullet. Looks like it is time to save up a couple of weeks of newspaper and do some testing.

Hey Louis, If you have a local recycling center, you can save yourself some time by getting the newspapers from them. That's what I've done the past couple years when I did bullet penetration vs velocity as a scienc fair project w/ my son.

Louis-

I've used them in a variety of 6.5s, including 10 and 14" " TCUs.

In the TCUs, The 120 grain BT at around 2000-2150 fps (10 and 14", respectively) fps was just much more authoritative than the 100 grain BT at 2200-2350 fps.

There's no real need to do the testing. Both will expand fairly well and give sufficient penetration.

The 100 grainers will certainly work for your applications -- no doubt about that. I just prefer the performance of the 120 grain BT instead.

Thanx for your insight.

Dang, and I have so many more 100 NBTs than 120s too!

What can the 6.5 TCU do with a longer barrel, like 20" or 22"? A 223 can do 2700 fps easy with a 90 grain bullet so I'd expect at least that from a 100 and a 6.5mm bore.

Hey Tyler,
I built one on an old 600 action years ago. It is DEADLY accurate. I had Clymer take the throating off the reamer so I could set the bullet depth as I wanted-- not like the long throat for the Silouetta. With ACC X 4350 I get a legitimate 2800 fps with the Sierra Pro-Hunter. Vectan SP-10 gives 2775 but accuracy is ?????. Varget get me 2700 with EXCELLENT accuracy. These loads work fine for medium range shots on the small coastal Blacktails here. I did pull a 300 td shot on a coyote and he never twitched. The 100 gr bullets give more velocity but are a little thin-skinned for deer but fine for coyotes.
Aloha, Mark

Confucius say deer not made of newspaper

I have a 24''MGM bullbarrel 6.5 tcu. i get alittle over 2450 fps with 123 grain a-max's.

quote:

Originally posted by TCLouis:
Thanx for your insight.

Dang, and I have so many more 100 NBTs than 120s too!

With the above load I shot a deer at 154-160 yards.The deer staggered at the shot,took 1 step and fell over dead. The heart was destroyed-bullet was found in rear hip which it shattered.