6.5x55mm cruise missile for deer?

Is this a suitable boolit for deer? Small diameter but with the proper alloy and enough velocity could it work for whitetail within 200 yards? I think they shoot moose with this caliber and boolit Sweden

Last edited by horsesoldier; Yesterday at 01:01 AM.

I tried this bullet in my .260 with poor results. The bullet from the mold were too large and sizing them to fit wiped out the lube grooves!! IF it shoots in your barrel it should be a FINE bullet. It is a DEEP penetrator though. It should go thru any deer hit with it. I am assuming you are talking about the 160 grain gaschecked RN model. The only thing I'd do to make it better (in MY opinion) is put a flat nose or HP on it.

This boolit design (170gn fngc) caused a long running never ending hot debate and ended in some folks leaving CB.
Anyway forgetting all that the general concesus was that in milsurp barrels its upper velocity limit was 1700 fps or there about.
I seem to remember several reports of it taking game cleanly within that velocity limit.
If you go back and start reading everything about 6.5mm cal since the introduction of this originaly group buy mold it will take a year of reading to catch up to all the fine details of what I just said.
Some real good spun off of it but much bad and hard feeling were gererated by it as well. After that the boolit design just seemed to have died maybe being too much of a good thing by way of length for caliber.

Boolit Master Join DateDec 2009LocationQuilcene, WashingtonPosts860

I have a friend who travels annually to the Sweden, Norway, and Finland. That caliber with a cruise missile is far and away one of their favorites for their moose (called elk there). It is an astounding number but tens of thousands of moose (if not 100,000+) are killed in those countries with that caliber every year. Of course, training to be the shooter in those countries is stringent and it would be tough for any of us to pass the test. Because of those shooter qualifications, a single shooter is allowed to fill many tags.

horsesoldier, what are you going to shoot these out of?

Tikka T3 hunter with a 22 inch barrel.I have shot a few groups with this boolit and I am very impressed.This target was at 50 yards, five shot group.

I may hate myself for saying this but I dont think that is a group. I think it is a single boolit tipping as it passed through the paper. Please dont get angry with me for saying that but from the appearance of the hole and color around the hole and knowing what I know about this boolit I think that is what I am seeing.
You could easily proove me wrong by shooting a couple more groups.
Really sorry but I have to call it like I see it.

Watching with great interest.

David

There is only one way of compromising the on Second Amendment. That is when Liberals call for Conservatives to compromise. What they really mean "give up just a little more of your rights just this once"- every time they call for compromise. Molon Labe!

Its ok, I understand.But I dont have to prove anything, the group size is irrelevant to my question.Thank you for your input Bullshop.

One of the problems associated with this design and also with the relatively fast twist milsurp barrels and the reason for the 1700 fps velocity limit is that above that the boolits seemed to be bending from the torque remaining on the base end of the boolit while still in the barrel and after the front end had already exited.
At some point in pressure/velocity you could hear the boolits whizz off in random directions supposedly from the bending taking place at the muzzle. I have recovered many of these bent in perfect horse shoe shape.
It is a very interesting design and I like it and it will do good work within its velocity limit on game or otherwise.
I have a custom 6.5x57 on a single shot FN Mauser with a 1/10" twist barrel and it seems a bit more forgiving than milsurp barrels but still I dont see a huge gain in atainable velocity with this boolit.
For hunting it may be a good candidate for soft nose casting. It will penitrate well even with a good frontal mushroom.

jhalcott, there were a batch of moulds that were improperly cut. Is yours one of them? I have two that are as you describe, and two more that are correct diameter.

I do not see why this would not be a good boolit for deer; alloy, velocity, and shoot placement. Heck, done right, you can harvest a deer with a .22 rim fire.

It ain't rocket science, it's boolit science.

yes ive heard good things about the 6.5x55 and if yours shoots that well you should have no problem taking down deer.

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats.
H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

Does OK on wallabies:

The challenge you may face is finding an alloy that is soft enough to expand but hard enough for the twist/velocity. I find that to get my Carcano to shoot I have to use alloy no less than 18 BHN.

Cheers from New Zealand

Jeff.

horsesoldier-
I'm the designer of the cruise missle. It has been a real adventure, with all the harassment I get, to help people to get it to shoot. A sticky involving all that is down in the Military Rifles forum titled "Milk Jug 300 Yard 6.5 Swede". Somewhere in there I posted directions on how to get this boolit to shoot at higher velocities. Read at your own risk because these folks don't believe it. A few other people have done the same as I have, but very few.

45 2.1

Knowledge without understanding is a dangerous thing. For a little knowledge entices us to walk its path, a bit more provides the foundation on which we take our stand, and a sufficient amount can erect a wall of knowledge around us, trapping us in our own ignorance.

Never sleep, never die

Knowledge is easy to get, but worthless if you never use it. However the info is free, so the only person you have to blame is yourself if you chose not to use the information.

Thanks for all of the input guys.I didn't mean to open a can of worms with my question. The ones I am using a sized to .266.I believe my load data was 28.0 grains of IMR 4895( Its been awhile since I have played with it).First cast boolit I have shot outside of black powder.I am brand new to casting so I do not have a lubersizer yet.My friend sent me the boolits to try.

45 2.1, I read a little of the thread, I plan on reading it fully tonight.Amazing results!

The buffered load technique was one of the tenticles that grew out of the monster.
I never tried it simply because I got tired of trying to filter through the arguing to find useful information and gave up following as I think others did as well.
There were a few dedicated sluggers though.

Jeff; they look like the Bennetts wobbley we get in Tassie I shot a few this morning with my PB 115gr HP in 30-30. It sounds like overkill but is very efficient out to 100yards. I have posted some pics of the boolit and mold on the design and maintainance page in the last couple of days; search "Erik Ohlen".

I am digressing but my point is does anybody have experience of a scaled down version of my HP boolit in 6.5mm. I inherited a Merkel 6.5x57R/12 combo it is battered but functional. The twist is 1:8 "ish" and throat not as long as milsurps. The smallest commercial mold I have seen is 140gr. Lyman Loverin. I am hoping to get something around 100 grain flat point spitzer, LBT praps. Other possibility is get Lyman milled down; GC'ing could be a problem however. I noted the 18 bnh plus, is this because the sharp twist throws the boolit out of whack? If the boolit is shorter it might be less prone to bending. Ultimately like to get it up to 2200f.p.s. GC'ed of course. I'd like to take the same game out to 200 yards. I appreciate your input Jeff and others. Apologies for curving the thread Horsesoldier but it seems you already have the attn. of the 6.5mm afficianados.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading
Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt"

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