6.5 Grendel load

[BLACKFINTURKEY]

Does anyone have a load that’s very close to the hornady Black 123 grain eld? After shooting a deer with them over the weekend the perform amazing! Plus my 20” shilen barrel likes them pretty good.

[kmon]

Pretty sure you can get better results with your reloads than you get with Hornady factory ammo which varies quite a bit from lot to lot. 8208-XBR powder is very good with the 123gr bullets with a do not go above charge being 28.5gr with the 123gr Hornady bullets. Some guns that might be a too hot load at 28.5gr. Most rifles tend to shoot well with between 27 and 28 grains though.

[switchbackxt]

Does anyone have a load that’s very close to the hornady Black 123 grain eld? After shooting a deer with them over the weekend the perform amazing! Plus my 20” shilen barrel likes them pretty good.

Just FYI, the 123 ELD 6.5 Grendel is a match/target bullet. Should be using ELD-X which I do not believe Hornady has right now. However, they do still have the SST which is a hunting bullet.

[BLACKFINTURKEY]

Pretty sure you can get better results with your reloads than you get with Hornady factory ammo which varies quite a bit from lot to lot. 8208-XBR powder is very good with the 123gr bullets with a do not go above charge being 28.5gr with the 123gr Hornady bullets. Some guns that might be a too hot load at 28.5gr. Most rifles tend to shoot well with between 27 and 28 grains though.

I’m positive I can find a better load just was looking for a charge and powder to start with. Just picked up a pound of 8208.

[aggieman08]

I’m positive I can find a better load just was looking for a charge and powder to start with. Just picked up a pound of 8208.

I've got a funny story regarding factory loads and trying to out do them in a Grendel.

At the time I bought my rifle, I was only able to find the cheap ppu 120 grain hpbt rounds. Took the rifle to the range and I could not believe the outcome, multiple 3 shot, 1 hole groups.....

I tried loading 120 NBT and 123 AMAX's with cfe 223, 8208, and benchmark at various depths but could not replicate the accuracy of the cheap ppu. The best power I found during all this attempted replication was benchmark and consistently produced sub 0.5 moa groups.

[kmon]

there are lots of powders that will work with some of the most popular being 8208, CFE223, Benchmark, AR comp, Leverevolution....

Part of what I like about 8208 and ARcomp are the temp stability of those, have some very accurate loads with CFE223 but not that temp stable, but dang they shoot good.

For lots of reloading data it is out there, there are a couple Grendel specifiv handbooks available at http://www.arbuildbox.com Volume 2 is geared more toward the hunter. For lots of things Grendel guns, ammo and reloading checkout http://www.65grendel.com/forum/forum.php a site dedicated to the 6.5 Grendel that Bill Alexander still gets on from time to time.

As to the Hornady black not being for game, neither was the Amax but know lots of people that used the A-Max including myself, I have killed critters from 70 to almost 250 yards with it and all have dropped within 15 yards of being hit. No exits with it though but dead critters is dead critters. The Hornady black ammo has been actually getting good reports, some exits some not but do not recall reading of a lost animal when using the Black Ammo with the ELD-M bullet. Read of one write up with pics of a 400+ lb black bear taken with it, one shot kill with exit. That and pics are at the link above.

Something about the Grendel and match type bullets, its velocity is not so high that it stresses bullets as much as faster rounds and the A-Max and ELD-M are just cup and core hollow point bullets with differing plastic nose Inserts in them. I am loaded up this year with 129gr accubonds at 2500fps and have no doubt they will do the job. Some say expensive bullets are not needed and they may be right but I say why not, I have no more invested in a bunch of these than filling the feeders one time, bullets are a cheap part of the hunt.

[BLACKFINTURKEY]

there are lots of powders that will work with some of the most popular being 8208, CFE223, Benchmark, AR comp, Leverevolution....

Part of what I like about 8208 and ARcomp are the temp stability of those, have some very accurate loads with CFE223 but not that temp stable, but dang they shoot good.

For lots of reloading data it is out there, there are a couple Grendel specifiv handbooks available at http://www.arbuildbox.com Volume 2 is geared more toward the hunter. For lots of things Grendel guns, ammo and reloading checkout http://www.65grendel.com/forum/forum.php a site dedicated to the 6.5 Grendel that Bill Alexander still gets on from time to time.

As to the Hornady black not being for game, neither was the Amax but know lots of people that used the A-Max including myself, I have killed critters from 70 to almost 250 yards with it and all have dropped within 15 yards of being hit. No exits with it though but dead critters is dead critters. The Hornady black ammo has been actually getting good reports, some exits some not but do not recall reading of a lost animal when using the Black Ammo with the ELD-M bullet. Read of one write up with pics of a 400+ lb black bear taken with it, one shot kill with exit. That and pics are at the link above.

Something about the Grendel and match type bullets, its velocity is not so high that it stresses bullets as much as faster rounds and the A-Max and ELD-M are just cup and core hollow point bullets with differing plastic nose Inserts in them. I am loaded up this year with 129gr accubonds at 2500fps and have no doubt they will do the job. Some say expensive bullets are not needed and they may be right but I say why not, I have no more invested in a bunch of these than filling the feeders one time, bullets are a cheap part of the hunt.

Thanks for the info. I picked up a pound of 8208 to play with. I’ve been having very good results with match bullets out of my 260 and my Grendel.

[tpepper70]

AR Comp with 120gr Nosler Ballistic Tips and Sierra 120gr SMK shoot awesome in mine. Same load data also. Gotta love that.

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