6mm bullet suggestions

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jeremiah1757

New member
With Indiana allowing 6mm rifles this year for deer season I will begin working up a load for my son. I have been shooting a 6mm ai for varmints and coyotes with the 87 vmax. Having never hunted anything larger then coyotes with a rifle I am at a loss trying to decide what bullet to try. Barrel is a 26 inch shilen with 1in8 twist. Suggestions for those with experience
 
I shoot the sierra 85 gr hpbt and the barnes 85 gr tsx out of my 6mm. The barnes is typically a
thru an thru. (my experiences anyway)
 
With an 8 twist barrel you could easily go with a 105gr bullet. With a 26" tube you'd get some good velocity also. It would be a great deer combo!!! I shoot berger 105's out of my 8 twist 243 and it does a good job on mule deer!!!
 
I have been wanting to try the 105 berger but they seem to be hard to find in stock. Is the 105 amax a viable option. I have read good and bad regarding its expansion and overall toughness.
 
Originally Posted By: jeremiah1757I have been wanting to try the 105 berger but they seem to be hard to find in stock. Is the 105 amax a viable option. I have read good and bad regarding its expansion and overall toughness.

I have the same 243AI, barrel, and twist as you. I shoot the 105 AMAX and will be hunting deer here in Indiana with it this fall. Last year, my first year with the rifle, I hunted antelope and two were killed with the gun. Performance was perfect. Shots were all 300-400 yards, so can't comment on close-in experience. I also shoot the 87 VMAX and they are too explosive for deer but perfect for varmints/predators.

Conversely, my bud shot 2 with a 270 using Bergers. Based on the performance, I would never use them on game. They were explosive and unpredictable. Even out to 400 yards the exit wound was 8 inches across. The 120 yard kill required multiple shots due to over-expansion poor bullet performance.
 
For the most part there are two theories with regard to hunting bullets, weight retention and wound channel.

Depending on which theory you think is better, should dictate whose bullet you use.

Berger will be the first to tell you they are all about maximum wound channel. Their hunting bullets are intended to penetrate the animal and basically go off like a grenade, creating a significant wound channel so the animal bleeds out as quickly as possible.

Other bullet companies are more about the perfect mushroom and the bullet retaining as much of its weight as possible.

Which is better, will usually create endless debate but one thing is for certain, a poorly placed shot, is just that, a poorly placed shot and that isn't the fault of the bullet. Quite often, bullet performance, or the lack of, gets blamed for poorly placed shots.
 
The only 6mm bullets that I ever use for antelope/deer are the 85g sierra GKHP and noslers 90 or 95g HBT. They flat out just work to perfection.
I use a 6x45/6x6.8 & .243 on them.
 
One of the tried and true bullets for a 6mm is the 95g nosler partition which has proved to be more accurate for me over the years than the 100g partition.

The 95g nosler partition will make a shore nuff believe out of you on large bodied deer, near and far. In Indiana, those corn fed deer can get on the large size. Also, quartering shots are very common, and you need a bone breaking bullet that can also penetrate. The 95g partition is simply awesome on how it delivers awesome shock to the internal organs and will penetrate 24" or more.

Simply stated, after shooting the 95g nosler partition, you will really begin to re think your need of a larger caliber! We shot a hot load of IMR4831 or 4350, which always gave us a 5/8" group or better.

I also like blood trails incase of a bad hit, and the partition will give you that in spades.

We hunted in Nebraska and Kansas, bucks ran 200+ lbs, and 350 yard shots was never an issue with NO bucks ever traveling over 30 yards.

Hunters today are getting sucked into buying high bc anything, this is a really bad move. Deer shots come in all angles, you need a bone breaking bullet that will also turn the gut sack into blended mess, and keep penetrating to give an exit that is spewing blood like a faucet!

The front half of a partition is soft, while the back end will not expand at all.

We killed antelope to 500 yards with the 95g partition, and while antelope are small, the bullet still expanded.

A new powder, R#26, is reported to push the heavier bullets to over 3200 fps with accuracy in the 243 and 6 Rem, now that would be an awesome combo!

I also shot cow elk with the 243 and the 95g partition, never had one run more than a couple of steps...they weighed 450 lbs or a tad better.

If you try the 95g Partition on deer, you will NEVER use another bullet, Never!
 
First off don't do the most comin mistake and try shooting a 100 or bigger ge bullet, it's nuts.
You loose so much speed it makes no sense.
After that...
I use an 80 gr barns tts in my 6mm rem superformance power, 3800 fps absolute lights out.
I use a 85 gr speer in the 243 Varget powder ,dead deer walking. perfect deer killing round.
PS I use a 55 gr. Nosler for Prairie dogs and coyotes
 
I picked up a box of 95g partitions locally to give a try. also have some 80g ttsx on order to throw in the mix along with some extra 95g nbt a friend gave me. Hopefully between the three of those I can find a combination my rifle likes. If not I will just have to burn a little more powder trying something else. Thanks for all the suggestions I hope to have some first had experience of my own come fall.
 
I shoot 105's in my 6mm Remington 1:8 twist barrel at 3005 fps.
I've had zero problems with it and the accuracy is superb.

If you're interested I'll share my load.....
 
Always used the 100gr partition. Never had to shoot anything twice. Excellent performance. As Ackleyman said the 95 gr will work also. Use which ever one gives you the best accuracy. Stay away from the light varmint bullets even though you can push them fast.
 
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