6.5mm copper monos for Elk - LRX vs CX vs E-tip vs CEB vs Hammer vs Lehigh

Old Rooster said:

While I have not shot an animal with the 30 cal CX bullets yet I can say they are very accurate bullets when you find the right combination.
I am waiting for my LGS to get some in but it was 39 degrees below zero this morning so the only thing I am shooting today is the breeze with my buddies on Long Range Hunting.
By the way,FEENIX is north of me and colder than -39 degrees!FEENIX we live in a freezer!

Click to expand...

Holy moly it was 20 degrees here when I went to feed our cattle this morning. I must be a real wussy because by the time I finished I was ready to back my rear end up to my wood stove and warm up LOL

GUNNNN said:

Holy moly it was 20 degrees here when I went to feed our cattle this morning. I must be a real wussy because by the time I finished I was ready to back my rear end up to my wood stove and warm up LOL

Click to expand...

My hats off to all the ranchers and farmers, regardless of temperature/weather conditions. You have my utmost respect. My parents made me experience farming/ranching at a young age, and I quickly realized I was not cut out for it. Thank you to all the farmers and ranchers who help feed America.

model 700 said:

Glad to hear about the 130gr accubonds. I've been looking for a good bullet for my 6.5-06 without getting too heavy and losing velocity. I'm going to have to try these. Thanks for the tip.

Click to expand...

If You can find them to buy! Hammers are always available.

I don't like to run mono bullets close on the twist rate any more. My brother and I loaded 120 ttsx bullets for his 11.5 twist stevens 7mm-08 years ago and they did good on a couple of MN whitetails until one day he shot about a 160 lb doe at 150 yds and the bullet didn't seem to do much damage on a solid double lung hit. Then we had to track the deer for 250-300 yds onto the neighbors property. When we opened it up the lungs just had about a 2" rip through both of them like a knife would make and previously the deer he shot with that rifle had nothing but red pudding in the chest cavity when opened up. We couldn't figure it out and he switched back to 120 nos bt's and never had one go more than 50 yds again. We figured years later when newer monos started coming out that it may have been a twist rate thing causing the bullet to not open or tumble. Really made me want to stick with the saying from 20 years ago with barnes bullets run the lightest weight for caliber bullets you can.

model 700 said:

Glad to hear about the 130gr accubonds. I've been looking for a good bullet for my 6.5-06 without getting too heavy and losing velocity. I'm going to have to try these. Thanks for the tip.

Click to expand...

ajkellerusmc said:

If You can find them to buy!

Click to expand...

I've shot pretty much every mono made except badlands.
I also kill a lot of stuff so I have a large sample size.
For me its hammer is always my first choice followed by cutting edge. Both far outperformed the Barnes for me. My 6.5 creedmore with hammers took 3 elk this year. Two at 608 yards and one a young lady took one at just over 430 yards.

Ronald W Schaefer said:

Well, the twist rate may be a limiting factor for this experiment. I've had very good luck on plains game in Africa and Elk, Mule deer etc. with a Barnes 145 TTSX in 7mm-08 so terminal effects of the mono bullet have been good. If it were me, I'd opt for a heavier expanding bullet that my rifle would stabilize over short monos, but that's just me. Any particular reason you want to go mono? Just a thought.

Click to expand...

I've found no loss for switching to monos for hunting in certain calibers. In fact monos have been better. Take example my 6.5 creedmore. I shoot 120gr class mono. Also shot the 147 eld. I was using the eld for higher bc. But after some less than perfect performance on heavy skinned game like oryx I stayed searching. Once I crunched number and using the manufacturers min fps to open the bullet I was within 30 yards of max distance. What I gained though was a flatter shooting round, better performance on dense animals and no worry about a bullet failing from bone contact.

It's a balance between speed and bc for sure.

Rebell said:

I have very limited experience with any of the 6.5's although have lots of big game experience with the E-Tip. From bison to kudu to whitetail I have not been disappointed yet. I am guessing around 30-35 big game animals with only a few going more than 10-15 yards, and those were on me and shot placement. I have not lost a single one and extremely happy with bullet performance.

One example was a large bull elk in AZ. 441 yards, I shot a bit to far forward and hit directly on the shoulder. It shattered the knuckle on entrance and shattered the knuckle on the off side. It went 10 yards on his lower lip and drt. I recovered the bullet on the off side hide and had 98% retention.

Click to expand...

That's a cool bull.

Old Rooster said:

While I have not shot an animal with the 30 cal CX bullets yet I can say they are very accurate bullets when you find the right combination.
I am waiting for my LGS to get some in but it was 39 degrees below zero this morning so the only thing I am shooting today is the breeze with my buddies on Long Range Hunting.
By the way,FEENIX is north of me and colder than -39 degrees!FEENIX we live in a freezer!

Click to expand...

Where bouts are you in Montana, I'm outside of Helen and we're at -36 this morning
Just a tad bit nipply outside!

archeratlrg said:

Where bouts are you in Montana, I'm outside of Helen and we're at -36 this morning
Just a tad bit nipply outside!

Click to expand...

I'm in East Helena.I got the temp off our inside thermometer.Not sure how accurate it is.It reads from a source from the TV station I think.Our outside thermometer was so frosted it could not be read.I saw it was well below -40 below a while later when the sun hit it as I took a wet rag and rubbed on it so I could see it later.
Thats cold brother!

choprzrul said:

Lots of negatives to living in CA.....but my weather isn't one of them....

View attachment 532058

Click to expand...

Warm weather breeds crime.North Dakota 4ever!

If you run them at 3150 or higher you'll be fine. My son shot an elk with 127LRX at 50 yds frontal shot and bullet stayed in one piece. I found it in the pelvis area, so it went the entire length of that elk. Ive also shot them out to 550yds on a coyote and the bullet opened not problem. MV was 3150fps

You guys up north are making me cold! Currently it's a cold 70°F here!

i"ve been told that if you drive the bullet faster it is not imperative to have a faster twist barrel. Is this true up to a point???