6.5 CM 130gr bullet test, Part 1 - Setup

[bdbrown66]

As I have mentioned in earlier posts, I have been doing some load development lately with 130gr bullets in my Franchi Momentum 6.5 CM, which I intend to use for deer this fall. After a bit of work, I ended up with the following:



First row: 129gr Hornady SST, 38.5gr Varget, 2791 fps
Second row: 130gr Sierra TGK, 41.2gr Big Game, 2797 fps
Third row: 130gr Sierra GKHP, 43.3gr StaBall 6.5, 2793 fps

(The 129gr ABLR is on my list for future work.)

The test was done using a wooden chute holding 8 gallon jugs of water, firing at a distance of 50 yards. While water jugs aren't a direct substitute for performance on game, it does provide a reasonable medium for relative comparison between various bullets to see how well they expand, penetrate, hold together, etc. On the property where we hunt, very few places are open enough for shots at 100+ yards; 50-75 yards is a normal shot, with some considerably less than that. So I felt that testing at 50 was reasonable for my purposes.

The test setup:





Now on to the test results.

 

[Blkram]

Nice work, and thanks for the info!

I have been saving empty milk jugs since last fall as I would like to finally do some testing myself.
For the 6.5 CM I want to test the 130 gr AccuBond and Terminal Ascent bullets at 300 yards, where they would still retain 1500-1800 ft. lbs of energy depending on initial velocities (max ranging from 2835 to 3090 fps according to QuickLoad) of the powders I want to try (Re-26, Re-17, Re-16, Hybrid 100V, and H-4350).
I have a 24" Benchmark barrel on my rifle and it is proving to be somewhat faster (50-100 fps depending upon load and barrel length) than most other rifles I have seen tested. My other 6.5 CM is the Winchester 1885 High Wall with the 28" barrel, which is giving an additional 110-120 fps velocity than what factory specs are indicating for the factory 130 gr TA ammo.

Thinking of 300 yards as is entirely a possible shot in some of the places I hunt, and I took my red stag at 296 yards with the 6.5 CM (largest game to date with this rifle, and furthest), and had a complete pass through.
From your test results, it looks like I will need at least 6 jugs...but should someone suggest otherwise, I will build the jug chute long enough to fit more, to catch the tougher TA bullet at this distance where velocities will still be 2300+ fps.