Best bullets for the 6.5 Grendel?

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adcoch1

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Looking at memorial day sale ads, and asking myself which bullets to get?

Do I pursue varmint bullets and see how accurate I can shoot them, or do I go with mid weight (120-129grn)? Or do I go heavy for caliber(or cartridge in this case) and try out some 140+ vld type bullets.

I will be loading for a bolt gun and an ar...
 
I like the 90gr Speer TNT if low cost is desired and terminal effectiveness doesn't matter (although they might be fine varmint bullets). I see them for $0.19/piece and I've found them to be capable of decent accuracy. They're not a match bullet or a deer bullet, but cost a fraction thereof.

For medium-size game, I'd shoot 100 gr. Barnes TTSX. I think the 120 gr. and 129 gr are too heavy for the Grendel powder charges and too long for the case capacity or magazine.

For match, I'd look at Lapua Scenar 108 or Sierra TMK 107 gr.

There's more Grendel-specific opinions and experience on 65grendel forum.
 
120-130grn for my Grendel’s.

Not enough powder capacity to make me happy with the 140+ pills, especially if you’re talking about fitting into AR mags.
 
I've seen a lot of talk on the 6.5 Grendel forum about the Speer 120 grain Gold Dot. I may have to pick some up to try. You might want to check out Shooters Pro Shop (SPS) for Nosler, they have a Memorial Day sale going on, free shipping on orders over $99 and 10% off orders over $150. I've bought Blem bullets and had good luck with them in the past. I bought some Nosler 6.5 129 grain ABLR from SPS but haven't had the time to try them yet. They are supposed to expand down to 1300 FPS.
 
Since the OP didn't state what the bullets were for, I would suggest ELD-M for being reasonably priced and very accurate if the OP is doing target shooting.

I like the 90gr Speer TNT if low cost is desired and terminal effectiveness doesn't matter (although they might be fine varmint bullets).

At distances that are normal for most hunters (inside 250 yards), the Speer TNT 90 gr. bullet is outstanding in terms of terminal effectiveness. It is my primary hog hunting round. When I first started using it, I necropsied a bunch of the hogs I shot and found that I usually had 14-18" (typical) of penetration, that the bullet tended to open quickly, and then would be followed by an unexpectedly large wound channel. The performance impressed me so much that it became my go-to round for hunting, replacing Hornady SST 123 gr. which I like very much. Also, because the bullet breaks apart so much, when it does overpenetrate your targeted animal, it does so in fragments which are less apt to harm anything else down range or travel very far unlike a bullet that holds together very well. I have taken over 200 hogs with Federal's loaded Speer TNT 90 gr. bullets.

The most devastating bullet I have found for hunting was the Berger VLD-Hunting 130 gr. round. These are supposed to enter, expanded violently and cause hydrostatic shock, but not penetrate excessively. At Grendel velocities, I found that they did come apart, made large, sometimes huge wound cavities, and would penetrate excessively. I don't know that I had a single kill that I could attribute to hydrostatic shock and this is because they are such low velocity given how heavy they are. The lower velocity, which is even lower from shorter barrels, means more holdover correction for shooting at distance, which I don't like. I thought the cost was prohibitive as well.
 
I plan on target shooting first and some hunting of deer and smaller. Every gun I have has some utility for hunting, as soon as I know I can hit where I want with a firearm I start thinking about what game I can use it on...

BTW, I love the SST for informal shooting, it is my go to in 300 blk, I may just have to try them out in the Grendel too...
 
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