ridgerunner1965
Member
- Joined
- Dec 11, 2010
- Messages
- 768
im thinking about making my 6.5x55 rifle my one and only deer rifle.anybody have any bad stories about how this caliber kills deer?would loved to hear yur experience good or bad!
Amen! That is a wise summary, "Bullets matter more than headstamps". I'm a big fan of the 6.5x55.....I have 4 of them. Bullets that have been accurate in my rifles (1:8 twist) and very effective on medium game: 120gr TSX, 125gr and 140gr NPT, 140gr Berger VLD. I think you'll be very pleased toting a 6.5x55 as your primary deer rifle.If a .257 Roberts will kill deer, if a .260 Remington will kill deer, if a .270 will kill deer; and it's pretty well documented that they will......then if you don't tell them, how are the deer going to know the difference between them and a 6.5x55? It ain't the headstamp on the case that does the job. With a proper hit in the vitals and a well constructed bullet, you will get very similar results with everything from a .243 to a .300 magnum. Not that every kill will be the same, but 10 deer hit with say a .270 will likely show as much variation in how fast they go down as 10 other deer each hit with a different rifle caliber. The Swedes have killed moose with the 6.5 x 55 on a regular basis for the last hundred-odd years.
The 6.5x55 Swede has been used on every thing from mice to elephants.
The Swedes have killed moose with the 6.5 x 55 on a regular basis for the last hundred-odd years.
It's the same animal, Alces alces. The confusion comes in that in Europe the palmate-antlered one is called "elk." When the early explorers came to N. American shores, they pinned that label on the first large deer-like animal they saw, which turned out to be the wapiti, Cervus canadensis. Then when those early explorers saw what we call a moose, they couldn't call it "elk" because that name was already taken, so they corrupted the local Indian word for it, which was something like "mus," which probably meant something like "he strips bark," and called it that.European moose, not real (North American) moose.
It's the same animal, Alces alces.
"Does there exist a better cartridge for deer?"