Savage 110 Trail Hunter 6.5 Creedmoor

[cgeb]

Just picked up one of these Savage 110 Trail Hunter 6.5 Creedmoor from Academy Sports, $429 - out the door for $448 w/tax. I'm primarily just deer/coyote hunting with it. Pulled a Sightron 3x12 mil-dot scope off another rifle I'm going to sell and mounted it up.

So I won't be reloading. Most shots in the 100 to 250 ish range. As a factory load looking at Remington Core-locts in 140 grain or the Hornady Whitetail in 129 grain. I believe these are newish release guns October 2023 is what I see. Anyone have any experience with with a reasonable whitetail load in this rifle or possibly a Savage in 22 inch barrel? Thanks

[LeadHammer]

At that distance I would try anything in the 130 weight range. A bit more speed is always nice.

[Bullet Jockey]

I'd hate to even guess how many deer have been slayed by Core-lokts. They generally shoot way better than they should.

[Denver Steve]

It's actually quite amazing how some of the cheap cup and core bullets for the creedmoor shoot. One of the cheapest factory rounds around here are the hornady 129 grain whitetail bullets.

A couple years ago at Cabela's there was a really good sale of them. I got them for something like $17/box taxes in. Which is insane considering how much ammunition costs up here in Canada. I hardly ever buy factory ammo, because I reload everything. But at that price it was cheaper than buying brass, and I could use them for barrel break in.

They surprised the hell out of me. I didn't chrono them, but I was getting sub moa out of my new rifle, so i tried them in my old creedmoor. I was getting very close to 1/2moa at 100 yards. With 10 shot groups. I did not shoot any game with them, I was just burning through them in the new rifle to break it in, then use the brass. But I have shot deer with a interlock bullet before, and they will not disappoint you.

I would not be afraid to buy or use any of the cheapest creedmoor ammo that was designed for hunting, for hunting. As mentioned above, the core-lokt is also a great deer bullet, almost identical to hornady's interlock. They both do phenomenal on game and will not fail at the moderate velocities the creedmoor is driving them at. Either of the two you picked will be perfect, I would buy a box of both, and see what your rifle shoots the best, then go with that one.