I picked up a 20" Tikka CTR in 6.5cm

I haven't shot it yet, but is there anything that isn't match necessarily, but will still be fun for shooting steel 10" plates at 200-400?

I picked up some hornady eld-m so far, but looking for something that people have had good luck with that is a bit cheaper to play around with.

sgammo has s&b 140's for just over a buck a round. Thoughts? Or what is the 6.5cm equivalent of  115gr 9mm Winchester white box?

My last bolt rifle I picked up a bunch of .308 168 priv ammo, and had fun .just not sure with all the options with a new caliber. Thanks all!


https://www.sgammo.com/product/65-creedmoor-ammo/20-round-box-65-creedmoor-140-grain-fmj-bt-ammo-sellier-bellot-sb65a

I took my new Christensen Scout in 6.5 out this last weekend, and tried several factory loads. The cheapest plinker was S&B 140 FMJ... and its was a winner in the Christensen.. it was shooting .5 MOA at 100

I ordered more, as its accurate in my set up. Hopefully you see similar results.

I’ve found Hornady American Gunner 140 grn to be nearly as accurate, and similar ballistic path as 140 ELDM’s.

Do you reload?

I don't reload. Just looked at the box and I have 147gr eld-m's. Eventually/next fall this will be my whitetail gun. I was hoping to buy eld-x's but that is all the shop had. I'm hoping to shop around and find some eld-x local, then if the gun likes it, I'll hunt with those.

I'll order some of the 140gr s&b and see how they compare.

The Federal American Eagle is pretty decent

I bought 100 rounds of that S&B to break a rough Sig Cross barrel in a bit and it was more accurate than any of the match loads I shot. I had some left so I ran it in my Fix to try as well and it also shot very very well.

I didn’t chrono any of it but S&B tends to have pretty extreme spreads in general so it would probably fall apart at distance but to 400 yards max it should be good enough to shoot 1/3 IPSC. Further I shot it was 300 and it opened up some vertically as I expected but it was still only 4” vertical spread max.

I shot some 6.5 S&B through my RPR. It shot better than MOA but I did have some issues with bolt lift. At least one other RPR owner had the same issue with his rifle and that ammo.

I have had good results with Hornady American Gunner 140 grn and S&B 140 grn.

My 2 favorites are S&B 140 and I just found that Cabelas carries Aguilla 140gr FMJBT target and it shoots amazing at 100 yards. Sorry thats the farthest I have shot that stuff, but if its anywhere near as good as their .22LR I am sure it will easilly go the distance

What do you consider "shoots amazing at 100 yards"?

I haven't shot any of it but SG Ammo has some rebate maximizer deals he's put together and one of them is 6.5 Creedmoor. I'm tempted to grab some becuase it's the cheapest I've seen since the Hornady Gunner that got blown out. Sam says it works out to $.68 a round but make sure you do the math yourself.
https://www.sgammo.com/product/65-creedmoor-ammo/rebate-maximizer-680-rounds-65-creedmoor-125-grain-open-tip-winchester-whi

A warning about the S&B 6.5cm 140 fmj: a lot of people, myself included, get high pressure signs with this ammo. Flattened primers, heavy bolt lift, ejector marks on the brass. It's really ironic since it's one of the slowest factory 140s on the market. I bought 5 boxes of it pre-covid when it was $12 a box. I didn't even make it through a whole box. Others have found that the powder used is very temperature sensitive and it may be fine if you can keep the rounds out of the sun. I'll have to try that this fall when it cools off. I live in NC and where I shoot the most is a tobacco field with no shade so I may have to fudd it up and bring something with me for shade. FWIW, it shot a 3/4 in group before I stopped shooting it.

I've since switched to Hornady American Gunner...Hornady Black if you have an Academy near you. It's a little slower than eld-m and has a lower BC, but has the same POI in my rifle. It also groups around a 1/2 in, which is in line with eld-m. Again, this is with my rifle. Your results may vary. Drop and wind data is nearly identical out to 600. I haven't shot it farther than that and just use eld-m if I'm shooting that far.

My rifle loves 140gr but the S&B wasn’t great (at least not for me). At 200 I get good groups with federal 140gr soft points, but farther than that the groups start to open up (some of that may be me, some may be projectile design).  I’ve liked the hornady ELD bullets (143gr?) out to 500 (note, I didn’t shoot paper at 500, but I hit a 6” steel every time but one 19/20 — that’s just a hair over 1MOA, so that’s pretty decent).



Old pic, 200y.  10 shots - that’s a little over 1/2MOA. That was the best of 3 targets, but the other two weren’t a lot bigger.  I’m almost certain that was federal 140gr SP.  as I think I said earlier, it was not as accurate at 400 or 500 yards, in my experience.

I have a 100y target with that ammo somewhere…

I also got some relatively inexpensive Norma 140gr that seems to shoot well - I haven’t tried anything serious with it, just a quick zero before hunting, but my son shot a deer at about 200 (I think it was lasered at 207?) and hit it exactly where he was aiming.

I use ELD-X for hunting and the American Gunner for practice.  The last time I ran the numbers, at the distances I feel comfortable taking a deer or elk with the ELD-X they are pretty identical.  I should add that I've not bought 6.5 for a few years now, so new ammo may be different; most practice is with 308 to keep costs down.