DoubleNaughtSpy just posted video of shooting hogs with it and I think it’s as you guessed, frags a bit early and hogs ran off a bit. First-round hogs were DRT, but runners were hard to put down. Distances seemed pretty far though to try to hit runners.
For first-round on a deer broadside or quartering away, I would expect fast kills due to velocity. It will wreck the vitals pretty bad based on what is being seen from recovered fragments. It’s performing as it was designed to do with that hollow cavity up front and the ELD tip initiating rapid expansion. Nothing but separated jackets and one core were recovered so far, so it comes apart.
90gr TNTs have been performing very well on hogs and deer over the years though from Grendel.
For deer and hogs, one of the bullets to beat is the Cavity Back 105gr for a premium option. For cup and core, 120gr NBT, 123gr A-MAX, 123gr SST, and 123gr ELD-M have probably killed the most deer from 6.5 Grendel based on the game hunting surveys we did. They all exhibit controlled expansion, usually with pass-throughs or retention on the far-side hide. Barnes 100gr TTSX and 120gr TSX have also been used a lot for the premium monoliths.
129gr SST BC is higher at .495 G1 per Bryan Litz analysis.
123gr SST BC is .462 G1. A-MAX was .468 when Litz did his studies on them. You can’t look at the 123gr SST and 129gr SST and conclude that the 123gr has a more streamlined BC:
When you actually shoot them using either the published or Litz BCs within hunting distances, you will not see any trajectory changes. I use .468 G1/.232 for ELD-M as well and get 1st-round hits at distance with it. I tested this years ago with 123gr A-MAX to 1000yds and the Litz data worked perfectly on the steel at 1000yds. I also used the .510 G1 data the first time I shot out to 1200yds with my 16” Grendel, and was just off the left edge of the TGT. I out-shot a bunch of dudes with 30-338s, 300 WM, and .308s because I don’t think they were using any well-informed trajectory holds or proper optics for that work.
At the time, I had written-off Grendel as maybe a 600-800yd cartridge at-best, 600yds for my 16” barrel for certain. Then these guys came out to one of my shooting spots and were trying to hit a TGT at 1200yds, kicking up dust at the base of the hill at least 100 yards from where they intended to be.
Moderate velocities with Grendel have that happy medium performance where the close range shots don’t totally destroy meat, and you still have expansion out to 400yds. It’s more like a 6.5x54 Mannlicher-Shönauer but with lighter average weight bullets.
123gr A-MAX hand load on 31.2gr CFE223
I didn’t chrono it, so I used the box 2730fps from a 24”, plugged it into a Grendel internal ballistics engine, and got 2598fps for my 17.6”. ETA: Looking at the new 4DOF Doppler Radar Data for it, I plugged in my actual drop at 1000yds, the elevation/conditions, and it shows 2690fps mv, same as other people who have chrono’d it.
BL-C(2) is one of the main initial powders used for 6.5 Grendel load development by Alexander Arms, with lots of published data for it from AA, Hodgdon’s, and Hornady dating back over the better part of the last 20 years.
80gr Hammer Hunter Tipped
I would think that the moderate velocities of the Grendel cartridge are not supportive of the performance of monolithic bullets (unless they are designed to open at lower speeds like the LRX), but I do not have personal experience with them to say for sure. Maybe others could speak to the success of Barnes bullets, Hornady's CX/GMX, or Nosler's E-Tips? I think it would be better to go with lead core expansion or fragmentation rounds and as big as possible. I think the 123 SSTs are very popular (although the published BC on that one is likely much too high).
That's so disappointing to hear. I think 150 SSTs out of my 308 are the most impressive rounds I've ever hunted with, I've never had a deer take one step, they just roll over with their legs sticking up in the air. I built both a 6.5 & 6 ARC in hopes of using them to start my grandsons hunting. Not much choice in 6arc, but I've got several different 6.5 ammo flavors. And I just ordered some 100g solid copper to try as well.
Those look easy enough to reproduce, especially with milling machine access!Not absolutely positive about real OAL max-they say 2.36”-but there are modified PRI magazines that will accept longer than std mag length of 2.28 that you can run in ASC/C Products mags. You still need to address distance to lands, regardless, especially with some chambers and tangent ogive bullets. My 20” Proof hits lands with 120 Scenar L’s at around 2.25, so I load at 2.225 with excellent accuracy.
10 Round PRI Modified Magazine 6.8 SPC
COPPER BULLETS COPPER PROJECTILES NONLEAD ALL COPPER SOLID COPPER HUNTING TARGETwww.cavitybackbullets.com
I got one PRI mad for my 24” 264 LBC. As I wanted to load my 130 RDF’s out as long as possible. A couple of things to note. First the magwell needed a little work. If you loaded the bullets to the internal face of the mag well , the bullet tips would catch on the barrel extension as it protruded 5 or 10 thousandths into the mag well. So filed that down and then polished the feed ramps to take off any burs. This allowed a max COAL of 2.372 approximately. So for feeding reliability 2.36.
One thing I’ve learned about the Grendel as far as reloading, SAMMI pressure of 52,000 psi is based upon the restriction of the GAS Bolt assembly. You can load higher to 62,000 or so but you are exceeding the design specs for mill spec bolts. Which is initially what happened with hand loader as bolts had cracks and failures. Can you exceed 52,000 ? Yes with very little sign of any pressure or swipes in particular if your gas and buffer system are balanced out pretty wells. The sign you at 65,000 psi is flattened primers, pierced primers and deep swipes.
for SD and ES AR comp has been known to be very small with Sd’s between 4 and 9 and ES in 8-12 fps range. I did get some Power Pro Varmint and some H335 but I have not run loads on them so I can’t say at this point. I, have loaded some 123,s. 129’s and 130’s but these are ladders, so no accuracy vs speed loads. I’ll get to shooting some of these next week.
I was kidding. There were still 2 available after I checked out.
I have modified 3 of the 6.8 PRI mags (2-10's and 1-15) and 1 223. I did it with a dremel and a cutoff wheel, a step drill to get the radius at the bottom, some time with a file, and some cratex wheels. A milling machine would be child's play (and a blessing).
Thanks for the input, the Sharps Bolt is here to stay. The extractor lips need to be honed smooth to remove the sharp end point. That coupled with the oversized o-ring is a recipe for disaster as far as creating brass shavings off the case rims.S7 steel is not ideal for tiny parts under high stresses. If you look at the Barrett 82 or M107 bolts, which are made with S7, they are huge triangles that don’t have tiny lugs.
9310 has been working great for Grendel bolts, especially Aerospace grade put through certain processes like Vacuum Arc Remelt. I would not mess around with the unknowns, and even with 5.56, there were a lot of lug failures with S7 as soon as they were released.
For extractors, all you need is a quality extractor spring and elastomer insert to keep it from folding over. I take out O-rings any time I see them because they add unnecessary extractor tension and make going into battery more difficult, while placing stress on the extractor lip during the chambering process.
I also de-horn the corners of extractors if they have sharp edges. The M4 TDP calls for machine-relief cut surfaces that remove the extractor sharp lips as they cause excess brass shavings in the bolt face area, which are known to not help with reliability.
I also check ejector function to make sure there isn’t any binding. You might want to Oxy-blue it after polishing to make sure it doesn’t corrode on the surface. This is what I do to any parts on the bolt that get tuned-up or polished.
