6.5 creedmoor on prairie dogs?

zr600

New member
Ok I’m going to spend a day with a couple friends shooting prairie dogs in a couple weeks. I have a 6.5 creedmoor that is very accurate with 140 eldm. Are these bullets going to be explosive enough or should I order some 90g tnt varmint bullets and try them? I don’t want to just pencil through them I want them to act like when I hit them with my 22-250 with 55g Vmaxes. I don’t have that gun no more so it’s not an option to take. I also have my ar that I’m taking and it shoots Vmaxes very well. If anybody has experience with the 6.5 and the 140 I would like to hear it. I have shot them with my 22-243 and 75g amaxes at 3500 and it acted like it just penciled through and I don’t want that that’s why I’m worried about it with the bigger slower bullet.
 
My buddy shot some with a 260 140 grain RDF nosler and it killed them but not spectacular. He also shot some with the 123 gr. eldm and they did have a pretty good wow factor.
 
My brother shot 2 last year with his 6.5 using the Hornady factory Match with the 140 gr. Both of them were quite impressive. It scattered pieces over a 20 foot area. They were about a 150 yard shot.
 
I would pick up vmax loaded rounds also. I had the same thing with my 204. 32g vmax puts on a sweet red smoke show, but 45g softpoints left me wondering if i punched a hole clean thru or maybe they were just getting hit with dirt and rocks because i missed. The couple i went out and looked at were hit just like said above. Pencil in/out.
 
Sierra has a line of bullets called the Tipped Match King (TMK) and every review I've read on them so far has them being pretty explosive on varmints despite what Sierra says. They have a high Ballistic Coefficient and usually aren't nearly as sensitive as Bergers on seating depth.

They offer them in 107gr for scorching velocity and 130gr for "normal" velocity for a 6.5 Creedmoor.

Here's the link for the 130gr ones.
https://www.sierrabullets.com/product/264-caliber-130-gr-tmk/

And if you're looking for more explosive results due to higher velocity I guess you could try these 107gr bullets but when I pick up my Creedmoor I'm looking for long range with high BC so I'd use the 130's.
https://www.sierrabullets.com/product/6-5-mm-264-caliber-107-gr-tmk/

Midway sells both but their search engine doesn't find them easily for some reason.

Here's the 130's
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1482449310

Here's the 107's
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1019731937

For short range on a limited budget I'd strongly suggest building a Palmetto State Armory 223 with a 20" barrel and use 55gr Vmax bullets and you should be able to blast them out to 200yds fairly easily with pretty good splatter. That's about the cheapest route that I'm aware of currently for a short range prairie dog blaster.
 
Another vote for 95 VMAX, very accurate in the two Creeds I tried them in.
It was running near 3000 FPS over a mild load of Varget from my RAP.
 
Sierra gives load data for the 107gr TMK for Varget at 3100fps and the BC of that bullet is .455 where the 95gr Vmax is .365 so I think I'll stick with the 107gr TMK if I can get good terminal results on small varmints.
 
Agreed and I have run the charts.

I have rifles that are better suited to coyotes at short to medium ranges such as a lightweight 243 and an AR-15.

I'm more interested in prairie dogs at long range for this particular application as the title of this thread indicates.
 
OK... Y'all have twisted my arm to try the 95gr Vmax bullets and just out of curiosity I thought I'd pick up a couple of boxes of factory ammo to try out.

I found a site that has them for $10.99 per box if you don't mind using the Federal rebate. As you can imagine I sat up straight in my chair. Even if you hate and refuse to do rebates (like me) they're still only $15.99 for a box of 20 here (79.9 cents a round).
https://www.sportsmansoutdoorsuperstore.com/products2.cfm/ID/222474

If you REALLY like them and don't want to go to the trouble of loading up a bunch you can get them in bulk for cheap (69.9 cents a round) here and end up with a bunch of Federal brass to reload after you shoot them.
https://www.sgammo.com/product/federal-a...mmo-v65crdvm95b
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: Bob_AtlAnother vote for 95 VMAX, very accurate in the two Creeds I tried them in.
It was running near 3000 FPS over a mild load of Varget from my RAP.

Federal is claiming 3300fps from their factory ammo. That's smokin' for a 95gr bullet. Can you say EXPLOSIVE?
wink.gif


https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1021564439
 
Originally Posted By: LDhunterSierra has a line of bullets called the Tipped Match King (TMK) and every review I've read on them so far has them being pretty explosive on varmints despite what Sierra says. They have a high Ballistic Coefficient and usually aren't nearly as sensitive as Bergers on seating depth.

They offer them in 107gr for scorching velocity and 130gr for "normal" velocity for a 6.5 Creedmoor.

Here's the link for the 130gr ones.
https://www.sierrabullets.com/product/264-caliber-130-gr-tmk/

And if you're looking for more explosive results due to higher velocity I guess you could try these 107gr bullets but when I pick up my Creedmoor I'm looking for long range with high BC so I'd use the 130's.
https://www.sierrabullets.com/product/6-5-mm-264-caliber-107-gr-tmk/

Midway sells both but their search engine doesn't find them easily for some reason.

Here's the 130's
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1482449310

Here's the 107's
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1019731937

For short range on a limited budget I'd strongly suggest building a Palmetto State Armory 223 with a 20" barrel and use 55gr Vmax bullets and you should be able to blast them out to 200yds fairly easily with pretty good splatter. That's about the cheapest route that I'm aware of currently for a short range prairie dog blaster.


Great info here, thank you!
 
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