For my new tikka 6.5 prc, Jim previously recommended the Powerhead blade 120 (apparently sako ammo matches well with the tikka rifles). However, on the latest podcast, the guys were really down on solid copper given the lack of expansion.
I’m looking at elk hunting in Idaho this fall, don’t plan on shooting beyond 250-300 yards, so perhaps copper is fine. But you guys now have me spooked.
What do you recommend? Thanks
At normal ranges, copper is great! In a 6.5 prc I think you’d be good to 500 or so. Copper just performs poorly at slower speeds.
Amazing. What a fast response. Okay, copper it is 
Thank you. Love the podcasts. FYI, just spent a month in Utah. We mostly ski, but this year wasn’t great.
Just keep your impact speeds above 2,000 ft per second and you should be good.
I’m starting to sound like a bad record but I have had bad results with that particular brand of ammo in two separate guns, one of which was a Sako.
It does work beautifully in one rifle however.
So I would definitely recommend doing some testing with just one or two boxes before spending a lot of money on a whole case or something
Thanks Carter, but when you say bad results, I presume you mean it didn’t perform well in the field. Or are you referring to accuracy? If it’s the former, there’s really no way to know until you put it to the true test.
Regarding my setup, what other ammo would you recommend I try?
Keep in mind, I live in Massachusetts, and I only have access to a 100-yard range.
And I probably would never shoot a case in my entire lifetime…
Bad accuracy and velocities
After that thread I went and shot a whole another 20 round box and yet again had spreads of well over 100. Also the accuracy did not stay at 3/4 of an inch but went right back up to one and a half to 3 in.
I’ve also shot that brand of ammo in a 300 Win Mag with a proof barrel and got very poor accuracy. At that point I did not have a chronograph to measure anything.
I’ve never tried shooting an animal with it, I never felt comfortable enough with its accuracy to even try
If you’re going to stick with copper, then Barnes is the elephant in the room. Not so much just because they’re the oldest but you’ll find much more ammo loaded with their bullets even by different companies and there’s just a lot more experience out there with that over some of the alternatives. For 6.5 PRC the 127lrx has a good reputation. If you’re shooting smaller animals then you could even potentially go lighter.
Hornady makes the CX, but I’m not aware of anyone else who puts that in their loaded ammo, and the Hornady type of ammo that they put this in, the Outfitter line, typically just doesn’t shoot very accurately not just for me but anyone else who’s posted about it on the internet.
Completely different caliber but I’ve had good accuracy out of a Norma All Copper load. Haven’t shot any animals with it yet
I’ve also got a 280 Ackley that absolutely adores hammer bullets. At least in terms of accuracy. Again haven’t shot any animals with it yet either. For that though you’re going to have to either reload or purchase some really expensive custom ammo.
The reason I brought up purchasing a case, once you figure out what your rifle likes, it’s best to go ahead and buy as much ammo as you reasonably can at once for that rifle. That way you don’t have to deal with purchasing one box in 2026 that performs one way but then when you shoot all of it, and in 2027 you want a new box you suddenly find that the velocity is significantly altered from the 2026 box. That’s just something that’s known to happen in the Factory ammo world. Purchasing a larger amount of ammo from a single lot at once avoids that. Of course you have to use Financial prudence. I wouldn’t want you to go into massive credit card debt for something like that.
Im running handloads Berger 156g EOL, and Nosler 142g ABLR in my Tikka 6.5prc and Barnes 127g LRX and 130g TSX in my CVA Cascade XT 6.5prc.
Took a nice Blacktail last season with the Berger 156g EOL
Shot anything with the LRX yet?
No still in load development almost there.
Barnes Harvest shoots pretty good groups out of my rifle. Watch the review on Backfire.
I’ve never had this issue before with my 7mm-08 barens 120 gr tsx hand loads out to 300 yards.
