140gr Accubond 6.5x55 Report/Question

Coues106 said:

Yessir, and thank you! I practice quite a bit at this range with my rifles so the ability to shoot wasn't the issue, just the power, so this has been good reading. Bullet shown here. Seems to have just mushroomed/peeled down to the cannelure:
View attachment 799448View attachment 799449View attachment 799450

Click to expand...

Well I agree with the consensus on distance and caliber performance in this instance; but .30-06 with Accubond is a wise choice.

You load so the case capacity of the 30-06 will give you versatility and with Accubonds 180gr + I’d be comfortable up to and including moose.

If your looking for Coues load with Accubonds then any weight will work, I just prefer heavy for caliber. Hence why I decided on the 200gr LRX-BT for my long range and do all travel bullet; mono for penetration but the LRX is designed to open up at lower velocity and may shear off at close range…. Which I’m completely comfortable with.

deewayne2003 said:

Well I agree with the consensus on distance and caliber performance in this instance; but .30-06 with Accubond is a wise choice.

You load so the case capacity of the 30-06 will give you versatility and with Accubonds 180gr + I’d be comfortable up to and including moose.

If your looking for Coues load with Accubonds then any weight will work, I just prefer heavy for caliber.

Click to expand...

Absolutely, I would have been using the ol ‘06 but got caught flat footed without enough brass to start doing a load development. I picked up a bunch of the Lapua 167 gr loads the CMP was blowing out earlier in the year and have only shot a half box, so deer this year are with the Swede. That’s good advice.

I think I’ll second what some others have said. That’s just a lot to ask of the Swede if you aren’t shooting hot hand loads.

If I was expecting to shoot at those distances I’d want a minimum of 6.5 PRC and would prefer 7 PRC or one of the 30 cal magnums.

Coues106 said:

Yessir, and thank you! I practice quite a bit at this range with my rifles so the ability to shoot wasn't the issue, just the power, so this has been good reading. Bullet shown here. Seems to have just mushroomed/peeled down to the cannelure:
View attachment 799448View attachment 799449View attachment 799450

Click to expand...

Thanks! This is good data, I run 150 lrab in my 280 ai around 3000 fps. Which is a softer bullet. At this range it would be running ~2200fps with 1650 ft lbs. Not sure it would have gotten a pass thru in this same scenario....

Bob Nelson 35Whelen said:

@sgt_zim
Even at those speeds you are going to notice a big difference in the way those round nose hit compared to the PPSP. They will hit a lot harder.
Bob

Click to expand...

Seriously thinking about bringing the Swede with me again next year to Limpopo. Haven't shot anything with my 280AI yet, tho, either. Tough call.

I’d say you made a good shot and got near text book performance from a bonded bullet fired from the 6.5x55 after hitting bone. People have a tendency to think the Swede is a .270 Win but it’s not. It’s not even really that close.
At any rate a Barnes 127 gr LRX launched at 2700+ would be down to about 1895 fps at 450. Still enough to open and (likely) would have punched through.

I’m assuming most of AH members are familiar with Nathan - Ballistic Studies website, but for those who are not, I’ll include the link for the 6.5 Swede (which I love).
If nothing else, please review the Conclusion paragraph at the end . Cheers!

Revision: sorry - the link somehow opens the 6.5 Creed.
I’ll include the link to the database and please select 6.5, then 6.5 SE lower on the page.

sgt_zim said:

Seriously thinking about bringing the Swede with me again next year to Limpopo. Haven't shot anything with my 280AI yet, tho, either. Tough call.

Click to expand...

@sgt_zim
Take both
Bob

Bob Nelson 35Whelen said:

@sgt_zim
Take both
Bob

Click to expand...

the plan is to bring the 404 Jeff and something lighter.

I love my 6.5x55 in the R8 configuration. As I have posted here before, it is my backyard deer rifle and I will confidently take a deer to three hundred yards with it - but I am happier 250 and under. For conditions where I could expect longer shots at big game, I would grab my 300.

My only experience with the accubond is 130 grain in my 6.5x284 norma. Factory loads are 2900fps at barrel, still over 2100 fps at 400yds with 1372ftlbs energy. Plenty of penetration on deer sized game. I shot a whitetail doe last year at 400 yds just to see what it would do. Through heart and broke back side foreleg and lost one petal. I was impressed with that performance. Sounds like your load could use a bit more speed for that range. Glad you got your deer.

sgt_zim said:

the plan is to bring the 404 Jeff and something lighter.

Click to expand...

@sgt_zim
Hard choice
Swede or 280, 280 or Swede.
Bob

Red Leg said:

I love my 6.5x55 in the R8 configuration. As I have posted here before, it is my backyard deer rifle and I will confidently take a deer to three hundred yards with it - but I am happier 250 and under. For conditions where I could expect longer shots at big game, I would grab my 300.

Click to expand...

@Red Leg
At those ranges under 250 the 160gn Woodleigh RNSP would be good especially if you loaded it to the higher European SE specs. With that SD I can see it reaming out the biggest whitetail from north to south.
Bob

AckleyHunter said:

View attachment 799674

Click to expand...

As much as i love watching videos about shooting gel.... Gel != to tissue. The medium defines the test.

Journey said:

As much as i love watching videos about shooting gel.... Gel != to tissue. The medium defines the test.

Click to expand...

Gelatin is commonly used in ballistic testing as substitute for biological tissue. Comparison of ballistic impact effects produced in the gelatin and living tissue is lacking. The work in this paper was aimed to compare the typical ballistic impact effects (penetration trajectory, energy transfer, temporary cavity) caused by 4.8 mm steel ball penetrating the 60 kg porcine hind limbs and 10 wt% gelatin. The impact event in the biological tissue was recorded by high speed flash X-ray machine at different delay time, while the event in the gelatin continuously recorded by high speed video was compared to that in the biological tissue. The collected results clearly displayed that the ballistic impact effects in the muscle and gelatin were similar for the steel ball test; as for instance, the projectile trajectory in the two targets was basically similar, the process of energy transfer was highly coincident, and the expansion of temporary cavity followed the same pattern. This study fully demonstrated that choosing gelatin as muscle simulant was reasonable.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1751616117305234

Journey said:

As much as i love watching videos about shooting gel.... Gel != to tissue. The medium defines the test.

Click to expand...

I agree with that if the view is to how deep a bullet will penetrate in absolute terms. A SxS comparison is useful, though. If viewed as performance of one bullet relative to another, it's instructive.

If you get 40" of penetration in gel, it certainly doesn't mean you'll get 40" of penetration in flesh, but if 2 different bullets penetrate to the same depth in gel, it's probably a safe assumption they'll penetrate to the same depth in flesh, whatever that depth happens to be.

Real world results tend to support the value of relative comparison. There's a sound reason why operators like Mark Haldane strongly encourage his hunters to bring Swift or North Fork softs rather than TSX for buffalo.

Was listening to the JVB podcast in Spring of '25, he and a few of his buddies with Mark Haldane, prepping for an upcoming hunt to Coutada 11. Haldane told them if they brought TSX, got a pass-through, and wounded another buffalo, they'd have to buy the 2nd buff. But if they brought Swifts, got a pass-through and wounded a 2nd buff, he'd pay for it.

SxS comparison of 300 gr A Frame and TSX in gel - John McAdams gets 46" of penetration from TSX, 36" with A Frame.

A lot of good knowledge here.
Someone mentioned the low velocity of the factory 6.5x55 load and I ran some numbers.

Nosler advertises 2600 on the box for the 140 Accubond Trophy Grade. I'm not sure what your barrel length is but for me their ammo gets about 100 fps less than advertised in my hunting rifles.

From my 22" barrel my fairly mild (its a break open gun) hand-loaded 140 grain bullet is going 2700 fps. Compared to factory load at 2500 fps, the kinetic energy at 450 yards is 20% more on impact with the hand-load. Or looking at it a different way, the hand load hits with the same energy at 450 yards as the factory load does at 330. That seems significant to me.

The Swede is almost a different cartridge class when handloading