These threads make me sit back and laugh

Certainly, bullet performance once it strikes an animal target, is the most important thing when selecting ammo. For me, I like to build my rounds with 2 things in mind: Accuracy and bullet performance. I go for accuracy first because of the confidence it gives me when I squeeze the trigger. I like knowing that I can choose to shoot a deer or a hog in the head, neck, earhole, eye socket or bread basket, depending upon the situation/condition/range I'm dealing with at the time of taking the shot. When trying a new bullet, I'll always do an autopsy (Epstein didn't kill himself, BTW, even though I didn't do the autopsy on him) to discover for myself just what kind of damage/wound channel the bullet has created. If it appears that the bullet performs well, I'll then work for however long it takes to develop the right combination of powder, primer, and COL that gives me the nice, tight little groups that I'm looking for (sub-MOA with 5 shots at 100 yards). I've had a few bullets that performed well in animal targets but would never give me that accuracy in a particular rifle, so I would use them for getting in a bit of trigger time, but not for game hunting.

I don't know, apparently even the 28 nosler can "icepick" with the wrong bullet and twist rate. Nobody anywhere is saying it is not enough gun for anything. I would bet that any standard cup and core bullet will give adequate expansion in the 6.5 creedmoor out as far as you'd take an ethical shot. But I do love to read the comments...

When it comes to hunting only two things really matter, shot placement and the terminal performance of your bullet. Assuming your rifle/ammo will shoot a "reasonable" group, say 2" or less you can get the job done at "normal" hunting ranges of 200yds or less. While we all like to see those 1/2" groups, I'll take a good performing hunting bullet that shoots 1.5" over a 1/2" one that doesn't give good terminal performance any day. For hogs and deer, as mentioned earlier, you don't need "premium" bullets, any of the following reasonably priced bullets will perform well on deer/hogs if the shot is properly placed.

Hornady Interlock or SST
Speer HOT-CORE
Federal Fusion
Sierra Gameking or Pro Hunter
Remington CORE-LOKT

I don't like anything under 110gr and 6.5cal for deer/hogs, but that's just my personal opinion.

I’m gonna start doing all my hunting with xm193 ammos

I've yet to find a Federal Fusion load that doesn't shoot well in anything I own. IMO, it offers the best value of anything on the market.

The following calibers seem to shoot OK in our bbls, normally 1.5" or less:

6.5CM
6.8 SPC
.308 Win
.338 Fed

I found one. My Remington 700 ADL .270 would barely keep Fusion ammo inside a paper plate at 100. I got a box of the Federal blue box and the next three rounds were well under 1". I can't explain it, but that rifle absolutely hates Fusion.

I have not had good luck with fusion either. So I just dont mess with it. I think it is the coating, some barrels don't agree with it.

I never shoot groups anymore, unless I'm assessing some new ammo. I find that it's more productive to focus on making every shot hit where I want it to, not making all 5 shots hit in the same place. So.... I do dot drills. 5 shots = 5 one shot groups. I use little 3/4" black dots.

Lots of people do......This will improve your tracking skills.

I do that with arrows. Helps save the fletchings from ripping off.

Never thought about it but I do the same thing once the holes start piling up on a target. When it becomes difficult to know where I hit the paper last, I'll just start aiming for other points on the target paper away from the center. You get a lot more miles out of a target that way.

You definitely get distracted focusing on the group, how many times have you piled in 2 or 3 on top of each other then shanked that last one? Aside from that, I'm more focused on the training aspect and getting the most out of my range time. How many times do you shoot for groups in a practical application? I think it's much more realistic to focus on putting that one shot right where it needs to be the first time. So lots of small dots all over the paper. If you're queer for group sizes, measure from center of dot to poi and average them all.

This forces me to focus on how I'm driving the rifle and getting more consistent with it. It's all about training yourself to get into a natural point of aim without too much thought. Trigger press, follow through, and recoil management the same every time, therefore your POI is the same every time for your 1 shot groups.

To me I don't see the difference in shooting dots or a group.

You still want the bullet to go where you want.

Adjust your scope so bullets hit 1-2” high, you never lose your aim point.

Dot drill example. As evidenced below, I have much work to do.

I’m a big fan of tight groups.

Now that's a tip and photo worth sharing, at least for those who actually enjoy shooting their rifle.

Thanks, glad you see the value. The goal is to set up for the shot and manage recoil the same way, every time. This method is a much better indicator and training tool for how well you're doing that. On this particular day, I averaged from center of dot to POI on each of them and came up with 0.75 MOA. That's pretty dang good for 15x 1-shot groups. But I'm really focusing on those 3 or 4 dots where my POI was 1 moa high. That could very well be a clean miss on a cold bore shot at 600 yards.

I"ve been using the same approach for years. I went to the Targetz site, downloaded the grid page, asked Targetz if the modification I wanted to do was OK with them, and then cranked out a few copies as needed. I still tend to be a "groupie" during initial load development, but once I have what I think is a good load, I switch to the dot system to make sure that I am doing all the fire control things correctly, like flinching, blinking, jerking the trigger and the other things I tend to do quite frequently.

The only issue I've had with the ELD-X is that it expands so rapidly you don't always get a pass through (I know some people say the perfect bullet embeds in the skin on the opposite side). But when I'm taking newcomers I like the chance at having 2 options for blood trails. Other than for that specific scenario I love the ELD-X's.

I run the same drill with 5 targets in a + style setup or 3x3 square. Targets are $0.25 each, cheaper than ammo.
As I track my shots from right to left or down to up, I will hit a twinge in my shoulders or back. And the shot is off.
I prefer to shoot straight and too my left which is borne out by my bad shot placement on the right side of the target field.
Good to know what idiosyncrasies in your physiology will affect shot placement.

I’m gonna try that next time I go out. Thanks for posting that