Shooting Lalpua 123 gr bullets at rams?

[longgun]

I've heard of a couple of shooters using Lapua 123 gr bullets in 260s as ram loads.  Anyone have information on what loads and velocity requirements are needed topple them?   Don

[Silo65]

longgun

I'm disappointed no one answered your post since I have a couple of boxes of 123's I want to try across the board and was interested in the replies.  For an unqualified answer I am going to load to around 2875 fps muzzle velocity which yields about 2000 fps remaining velocity at 500m.  This produces about 1090 lb-ft of energy and 1.1 lb-s of momentum, numbers I believe to be just sufficient for rams (now that should get some replies).  Good luck!
Silo65

[longgun]

Silo65.  got a chance to try the 123 gr lapuas at rams this past weekend.  Had two different loads  123 gr lapua with 28.2 gr of N 530  these worked most of the time .  I rang 4 of 10 rams( shooting off the bench) with low belly hits, the worse place to shoot rams.  Very accurate load.  Next load was 123 gr with 29.3 gr of N 530.  Shot ten rams without loosing any.   Also was shooting some 130 gr Norma bullets with 29.2 gr of n 530 and rang only one ram in 15 shots, again shooting low center hits.   All these loads were done in a 6.5 grendel.   Very mild recoil  and IMO good enough for a hunter.   I loose rams with 260 & 139 gr lapua.  If you can keep the velocity of the 123 at 2700>2800 f/s it seems to do a nice job.  You might have some problems if the wind is loading the targets from the behind .   We had lots of wind last weekend but was not comming from behind but rather a cross wind.  don

[ajj]

Don: Is the recoil difference significant? Or, as you seem to be saying, are you just looking for better knockdown regardless of recoil?

[longgun]

Austin,  Was looking for something with mild recoil that would take the rams.  But mainly looking for this of catridge in hunter class legal.  The 6.5 grendel is almost like shooting a "cork pop gun" with 107 smk.  And has enough momentum to knock over rams with both 123 gr Lapua & 130 gr norma bullets.... JLK will have his version of 130 gr bullets out shortly, but the normas will cost less money.  The only powder that I have found to get the velocity up is V V n530.  And I had to bush the firing pin to handle the pressure.  My barrel is only 22.5",  if it were 26" long other powders would probably work as well.    Don

[DanDeMan]

Guys and Gals,

The heaviest, highest BC bullet you can comfortably shoot from a recoil perspective will deliver the best ram knockdown performance.  That of course assumes that the bullet is properly stabilized and the load is accurate.  A slow 6.5mm, 139 Lapua will out-perform a faster 123 Lapua at the ram line even though the felt recoil is the same.

[eroyd]

Has anyone tried the 144 gr. FMJBT Lapua's? Maybe they don't have to be pushed as hard to do the job.

[DanDeMan]

eroyd,

The "oringinal" 144 FMJ Lapuas were probably the best 6.5mm bullet for rams ever produced that would stabilize in an 8-twist barrel.  They had a high BC and the bullet construction was really tough, a very important bullet construction characteristic for high levels of ram knock-down performance.  About 6 years ago, after they had been discontinued by Lapua inlue of the 139 Scenar, several shooters from CA put together an order for 50,000 bullets so Lapua produced the bullets.  The bullets produced were no where near as tough as the original 144's.  The current crop of 144's are not as tough as the current crop of 139 Scenars based on testing using a ballistic bullet smasher.  Go with the Scenars.

I still have samples of the original 144's that are used to compare the newer versions.