re: 6.5 Grendel ELD-M bullets for hunting

quote:

---

No pass through, zero blood trail. My dad has one & he has lost every animal he has ever shot with it. He was shooting hornady sst which is great ammo.

---

Your dad doesn’t know how to shoot then.

And SST is a ballistic tip which tends to not exit. Some people like them others like pass throughs.

quote:

---

Any suggestions on where to purchase?

---

Uncle Larry has some

I reload 123 grain ELD-M for a 22 inch Grendel for the kids. Muzzle velocity is around 2,650 fps. So far, it’s been a great round. Killed 8 whitetail and 9 pigs last year. A couple weren’t the best shots (a little far back), but the animal only ran less than 100 yards, and we were able to track blood and finish it off with another shot. The shots that were placed correctly resulted in DRT kills or maybe 20-30 yard runs.

Precision Firearms has 6.5 grendel ammo on sale right now. I've ordered from them before and have been pleased. Several different options available right now.

Yes, my bad for the delay.

Yes, my bad for the delay.

Rivertown munitions
They have them on sale right now too. 29.99 is a great price. I recently bought 10 boxes from them and can recommend.

My Grendel in on a 20 inch odin works DMR barrel. I think the 18-20 inch barrels are the optimal length.

JBM ballistics has this bullet in their data base


Barnes has said this bullet gets reliable expansion down to 1800 fps, and on the box they suggest keeping shots within 300 yds. That lines up with the JBM graphic.

I dont know that there is any difference between the SST and ELDM other than the shape. From what I've read they are built the same.

If its just for deer I'm sure either one will work fine. They should both expand reliably. Not exiting is really not that big of a deal if you take good shots. It's easy to argue that leaving all the energy in the deer is desirable, and doing it with multiple wound channels is even better.

Get whatever tickles your pickle and shoot deer with it. Stick to good shots until you know how they'll work. I've used Serbian 139gr soft points at 2500ish fps for a few deer with no problems.

Disclaimer: I've never shot a deer w/ a 6.5 Grendel. OTOH, I've killed close to 30 deer w/ 120 gr bullets in a 6.5 JDJ handgun w/ a 14" barrel that duplicates the Grendel's velocity. All performed well w/ deep penetration on all deer. All but a few were killed w/ the 120 gr Nosler BT, my first choice for you. I know a lot of folks will read that and say, "The BT is too fragile. It'll blow up." That might be true at high velocity, but at the modest velocities of the JDJ and the Grendel, the NBT is the best bullet to use. It's the preferred 6.5mm hunting bullet of many other handgun hunters, as well. From my personal experience (or that of other handgun hunters), other bullets I'd feel good about in the Grendel's MV window are : Sierra 120 gr Pro Hunter, Speer Gold Dot 120 gr and Nosler Partition 125 gr. My group of "first runner ups" would include: 100/115 gr TTSX and 100 gr Nosler Partition. A friend of mine swears by the 123 gr SST in his 16" barreled AR. I don't use match bullets in hunting situations. Sometimes they work good, but sometimes the don't. There are too many good 6.5mm hunting bullets to instead use a match bullet.

That's what I use in my grendel. 120 gr nosler bt.
Only killed 1 deer so far, but it barely made it out the food plot before piling up. I own lots of calibers but it's probably my favorite to shoot, especially suppressed.

I don't care how many deer "drop right there", I'm not using a round that doesn't exist most of the time.

Especially for kids, I want a good blood trail over immediate terminal ballistics