Made meat with the 6.5x52R

[CoyoteJoe]

I guess it's been more than a year since I posted photos of my Franz Kettner break open single shot stalking rifle. Here is the latest update. Last day to Montana whitetail season I lucked onto a nice little 3x4 buck standing broadside at maybe 50 yards or less. I rushed my shot since I doubted he's stand there much longer. It was higher than I like, maybe 3" under the spine but the 110 grain Hornady FTX totally destroyed his lungs.
I can't seem to get a photo to upload so you'll just have to take my word for it. LOL

[mike ford]

CoyoteJoe,
Great, I had a hunch the new Flex Tip bullet would work great in the 6.5x52R. Your little Kettner is a great outfit, you are a lucky man.
Mike

[cotis]

Nice! I loaded up 70 rounds with this bullet, waiting for my rifle to return from the gunsmith so I can hunt with it!

[Leatherman]

Great to hear the 6.5 x52 did the job on the mule deer. My experience with Hornady fTX bullets has shown they are very distructive on game . I shot a mule deer two years ago with the FTX in my .270. I have also seen the damage on an Prong Horn with them in a 6.5x 55. A little too much damage if you ask me. I met two guys in South Africa this year who had a hunter in their camp useing the FTX bullets in a 30.06 and he had some problems with penetration on the bigger plains game resulting with long days chasing wounded game. I am a firm believer in bullet choice for caliber and the intended game. I would say the FTX is a great choice in the 6.5x52 on deer size game . I have had great accuracy with them in my 270 and 6.5x57R. But I use either Barnes solids or a premium bonded bullet when I go for bigger game . I used Swift Scurroco in my 6.5 and their A Frame in my 9x57 this year in South Africa and they performed great and was also the most accurate of what I tested.

[Diz]

CoyoteJoe, Great that you could use that rifle to take a deer but I am a little confused by the bullet. I did not know Hornady made an FTX in 6.5 that light. Is it new? Hope you can upload some pictures. I had problems trying the other day myself. Thanks, Diz

[Leatherman]

Diz you are right . I ment to to say the TSX bullet not the FTX . Perhaps Coyote Joe ment that also. I just checked and Hornady doesn't offer a FTX on their website for the 6.5 or 270 or a 30 caliber that I could find.

[Diz]

Leatherman, thanks for the reply. I have used the FTX for the 45 Colt in a 45 ACP with good results but you have to trim the tip for it to feed. There are so many new bullets out there with all sorts of designations that it's hard to keep up. Thanks again, Diz

[mike ford]

I'm pretty sure he means the Flex Tip Bullet, that they load in their 25-35 Win. ammo, and intended to work at 25-35 velocities.
Mike

[cotis]

Here is the bullet CoyoteJoe is talking about.

https://www.hornady.com/bullets/rifl...-110-gr-ftx#!/

CoyoteJoe, post some photos of your rifle and the buck please!

There are some good recent articles on the new Hornady LeverRevolution loading using this bullet. One is in the May/June issue of Rifle magazine (www.riflemagazine.com). Another is in Guns&Ammo April 2017 written by Craig Boddington. Dave Emary, the chief ballistician at Hornady, designed the 110 grain FTX bullet to work specifically for the lower velocities of the 25-35 Winchester as discussed in the G&A article.

Here is a link to an article in Guns Magazine from John Barsness. Ironically I purchased 100 rounds of 25-35 Winchester brass from him when I got my cape gun a few months ago.

https://gunsmagazine.com/the-25-35-winchester/

[Diz]

Well, that explains two things. One, I must be getting soft in the head for not remembering that one is the same as the other (or very, very close) and the bore is not .264. Second, it is a very quick expanding bullet as evidenced by CoyoteJoe's description of the effects and likely the perfect choice for this caliber. I would like to see a photo as well. Thanks, Diz

[Leatherman]

Well Heck, wonder when Hornady will update their Website?

[CoyoteJoe]

Diz you are right . I ment to to say the TSX bullet not the FTX . Perhaps Coyote Joe ment that also. I just checked and Hornady doesn't offer a FTX on their website for the 6.5 or 270 or a 30 caliber that I could find.

We're talking 6.5X52 which Hornady sells as 25/35.

[CoyoteJoe]

Great to hear the 6.5 x52 did the job on the mule deer. My experience with Hornady fTX bullets has shown they are very distructive on game . I shot a mule deer two years ago with the FTX in my .270. I have also seen the damage on an Prong Horn with them in a 6.5x 55. A little too much damage if you ask me. I met two guys in South Africa this year who had a hunter in their camp useing the FTX bullets in a 30.06 and he had some problems with penetration on the bigger plains game resulting with long days chasing wounded game. I am a firm believer in bullet choice for caliber and the intended game. I would say the FTX is a great choice in the 6.5x52 on deer size game . I have had great accuracy with them in my 270 and 6.5x57R. But I use either Barnes solids or a premium bonded bullet when I go for bigger game . I used Swift Scurroco in my 6.5 and their A Frame in my 9x57 this year in South Africa and they performed great and was also the most accurate of what I tested.

I agree, I think it's a lot like the Nosler Ballistic tip I used to load in 6.5X55. I say "used to" because while I got great results on broadside chest shots I once took an angled shot on a big mule deer and blew a massive hole in the entrance side. It did drop the deer pretty quickly but cost a lot of bloodshot meat. The result with this .25 caliber 110 grain FTX seems just a scaled down version of what I saw with the 120 grain .264" Nosler. It did penetrate fully and exit the off side, actually perfect performance for that shot placement but the bullet totally disintegrated and made a tennis ball exit wound. I would not trust it anywhere deep penetration was required. All things considered the old reliable 117 grain round nose soft point may be a better choice but the 110 FTX can be pushed faster, my loads averaged 2485 fps, and retains its speed much better than a round nose, thus shooting lots flatter. For longer shots where the velocity may not be so high the FTX may be more "civilized", I don't know. My rifle shoots both bullets close enough to the same point of aim that I could interchange them but probably won't, I'll probably just stick with the FTX and simply make allowance for it limitations.

[CoyoteJoe]

Well, that explains two things. One, I must be getting soft in the head for not remembering that one is the same as the other (or very, very close) and the bore is not .264. Second, it is a very quick expanding bullet as evidenced by CoyoteJoe's description of the effects and likely the perfect choice for this caliber. I would like to see a photo as well. Thanks, Diz

I've tried repeatedly to upload phots and after a long wait I finally get a pop-up informing me I do not have permission to access this page.

[Leatherman]

I have that problem if I take more than 10 minutes to write a reply. I find if I highlight and copy what I have written and go out of the forum, then return and log in again, I can paste what I had written and send it with out getting that reply.