The ablr is a pretty soft bullet. Fast expansion, moderate penetration. I have been shooting Accubond in my 30-06 for a while. It does a good job killing them, but much like your experience. There is not much exit and very little blood. Most of the deer I shot no trailing needed. But still sometimes, they are going to run, and when they do I want to be able to find it. If you want a big hole out the back go to something a bit harder. In my 30-06 I changed from 165 Accubond to 180 Fusion this year. last deer I shot looked like a seen from a horror movie. Blood everywhere. I am happy with this change so far.

Check velocity on a chrono. That is the only way to know what you are getting. That is a really short barrel especially for small bore like a 6.5. Might need to enlist the help from a handloading friend to see if you can get the velocities up.

If you want them to go down fast. Shoot more towards shoulder. That is a safe shot, but they are usually going to run a bit hit back like that.

That’s the opposite experience I’ve had with regular Accubonds. It’s very, very rare for me to not get a bloodtrail and for it to start at the shot site. That’s across several different cartridges.

Im not here to argue, just trying to understand why we are getting different results. I started off shooting 150 AB in 30-06 at a chrono of 2950. I shot them for several years, with similar results. with 15-20 deer exit the size of a dime very little blood, but also a very dead deer. I recovered several bullets, and weighed them, got 80% weight retention and about 12-14 inches of penetration. Changed to a 165 going 2900 in hopes of better performance but same result.
I shot 5 deer with 6.5 creedmore 130 grain in the Accubond LR at 2800. with similar results. It has a is faster expansion than the original AB. I have not changed bullets with that rifle, but I do not hunt with it, bought that one for my wife, but I had to test it for her lol.

Here's an Exit hole for ya.

Here's an Exit hole for ya.

I'm disappointed that isn't a spike

Impressive. what you shooting?

I wish Winchester still made the xp3. That was a bad round there!!

I have a couple of boxes of Winchester XP3 270 Win.