Antelope Medicine

[antelopedundee]

6.5-06AI 59.3 grains of IMR7977 with a Barnes 127 grain LRX in a Quality Cartridge case and a nickel plated case. For backup same bullet and 57 grains of IMR7977 in a new Qual Cart 6.5-06 case. Gonna go the lead-free route this year.

Sorry about the pic size. Ya gotta admire those purty tips. How did they decide who got what color? IIRC Nosler was first with the yellow tips on the ballistic tip series.

 

[EastTNHunter]

Cool. What’s the velocity on the 127s in the 6.5-06 AI?

 

[NoWiser]

That ought to work very nicely for everything you could want to hunt in the lower 48, not just antelope. I'm also curious as to the velocity you'll be getting.

I tried the 129 LRX out of my 270 WSM but just couldn't quite get groups like with the 130 TTSX, so I stuck with the 130's. They have yet to disappoint me. They are the only bullet I shoot out of the only rifle I own. I suspect you'll be as pleased as I have been with the switch to copper.

 

[antelopedundee]

Cool. What’s the velocity on the 127s in the 6.5-06 AI?

TBH I don't have a chrono, but QuickLoad suggest something close to 3000 fps. The IMR7977 seems to be near the bottom of the list of suitable powders velocity-wise using QL. It shoots good for me and accuracy tops velocity in my book. I like the Enduron powders for their temp stability and having a copper fouling reducer additive. Lately I've been cleaning the 6.5-06AI barrel just with rubbing alcohol patches and nothing else. The amount of copper that Wipeout removes seems to be negligible. Reloader23 is another powder that will fit the bill if I can pick some up on the cheap. I'm a firm believer in the 129/130 grain bullet weight being the best for deer sized game and the Barnes 127 grain seems to be the most readily available lead-free bullet in that weight range. Just bought 3 boxes from Midway on sale and got free shipping to boot.

 

[buffybr]

Those should work great.

I'm a long time Ackley fan, and I like to looks of your 6.5-60AI cases.

I'm also a big fan of Barnes bullets, and they are my only hunting bullets in my .300 Weatherby and .375 RUM.

Antelope are a small thin skin animal and bullet placement is most important so accuracy is the key. I've killed or seen antelope killed with a large variety of cartridges from .22-250 to .300 Win and .348 Win. My favorite antelope rifle for over 40 years has been my .257 Ackley with 117 grain Sierra Spitzer bullets.

 

[ImBillT]

Looks good. I built my 6.5-257AI to be a lope gun, but after shooting some mule deer with it, I decided that it was a bit more than necessary for pronghorn. Of course that’s not a huge problem. I finally drew a lope tag, and put together a 6Rem, but had limited time and have not gotten it to shoot like I’d prefer. 6.5-257AI it is! I think the monolithic bullets might be just the ticket for minimizing meat damage on a pronghorn using a 6.5. I won’t be...hopefully I’ll just keep it in the lungs and it won’t matter.


If you’re not beating 3000fps with your current load, I’m sure you could at some point in the future. Unless your barrel is pretty short, that shouldn’t really be pushing things too hard in a 6.5-06AI.

 

[antelopedundee]

My barrel is 26 inches. The top powder in the QL listing [ReloadSwiss76] purports to give about 3250 with the Barnes 127 grain LRX. It's also unavailable here. There are others that could provide higher velocity, but the IMR7977 shoots good in my 6.5-06AI and 6.5-06 plus I like the other properties too.