Howdy lawndart!

The best 6.5mm bullet I've ever used in several 6.5x54s is the RWS 156 grain H-Mantle hollow point. Runner up is the Hornaday 160 grain RN and the 156 gr. Norma, whether the newer Vulkan or the old standby RN. My logbooks shows groups as small as a half inch (100 yards) out of a MCA carbine. The M1903s hold at one inch, and the commemorative SBS-96 (new model) shoots less than an inch, although it refuses to feed the RWS bullets reliably. In every deer I have killed with the 6.5 M-S the results have been splat down kills. Does not get any better.