The Hornady Precision Hunter 143 Grain 6.5mm Creedmoor with ELD-X projectiles is the second factory hunting load I’ve tested for shot group accuracy as I search for my preferred factory hunting load in the Battle of the 6.5 Creedmoor Factory Hunting Loads.

A few weeks back, I had the privilege of introducing my nephew to shooting. It was quite an honor that my sister, who doesn’t share my view on guns, trusted me and allowed me to teach her kid, my nephew, to firearms. The whole experience got me thinking about how I went about it and what I learned.

After publishing the Battle of the 6.5 Creedmoor Factory Hunting Loads post, I headed over to Reddit to get some input on how to improve my test method to help determine the best load factory load for my rifle. Perhaps the best input was posed as the following question: What are you hoping to learn? This question was followed by a simple statement that I believe to be true: Terminal performance of the bullet is a much bigger factor than group size for hunting applications.

As you may know, I recently started a project to build a 6.5mm Creedmoor based hunting rifle and discussed my rationale for selecting the 6.5mm CM cartridge. What you may not know (unless you follow me on twitter), is that I ordered several different types of factory hunting loads from Lucky Gunner with the intent of putting them to the test against each other to see which ones group better.

I really meant to do a first impressions review when I bought a Sig Sauer P229 Legion back in mid-March like I did for the Sig Sauer P220 Legion and the Savage Arms 100 FCP HS Precision Rifle. But, I didn’t. I could make excuses for it, but that’s not the point of this post. Let’s just dive into what I think of this gun after having sent more than 500 rounds down range.

Shot two more IDPA matches this month. Both matches took place at the Austin Rifle Club and were hosted by Texas Tactical. It was uneventful in terms of how the Sig Sauer P229 ran, which is good given the malfunctions I most likely induced last month.

I recently purchased a new bolt-action rifle chambered for the 6.5mm Creedmoor cartridge and some friends have been asking why I specifically selected that cartridge. So I will attempt to answer that.

The 6.5mm Creedmoor cartridge has been around for some time now. It’s been the all the range among competitive precision rifle shooters (although it seems like 6mm based cartridges are the current rage) for some time now. At least long enough that the ammunition market in the USA has enough demand that manufacturers are creating quite a variety of hunting loads for this cartridge. In fact, I tend to see this cartridge regularly mentioned in magazine articles and the internet media.