Another look at the 120gr Hornady ELD Match bullet in 6.5 Grendel. The test powders are Alliant Power-Pro Varmint and IMR 8208 XBR. / johnnysreloadingbench / reloading
Dude you are the Bob Ross of reloading. Nothing more relaxing then getting home at the end of a long day, grabbing a beer and seeing you uploaded a new video.
I wonder how the Spear Gold Dot soft tips would shoot with those powders , I think the annealing is helping !! Looking forward to more Grendel !! Thank You for your hard work !!
What’s better than Elite 8 basketball on a Saturday night? A new Johnny’s Reloading Bench video! And not just any video, a 6.5 Grendel video! 🎉 🎉 🎉 Great to see you back at it. I hope all is well with you.
Fantastic SD’s for ball powders indeed. A benchrest old timer once told me its all about the neck tension. Looks like the annealing and attention to neck length is paying off.
I have a bunch of 6.5 grendel 123 scenar versus 123 smk loaded with 27.3 grain xbr8208 to shoot and evaluate. Appreciate the vid. Will try that bullet next
120 ballistic tip RL 15 30gr. +\-.. or other 120s maybe.. 2550+\-. ...100 gr. loves xbr around 30gr.. all from an AR.. . Never shot the varmint. .. love your channel ,has helped me . Just my 2 pennies
Sometimes I take breaks longer than this, and I don’t have the added responsibility of shooting and editing videos. Welcome back! Hope you’re keeping it fun. P.S. Brass prep is the worst part for me
I think the only reason you can see the poi shift with the 8208xbr is because the groups are so freaking small. If you stack the first 20 rounds on top of each other, they're still probably under an inch.
For years I've maintained the opinion - "that you can NOT get consistent good groups from a semi auto" My hat is on the lunchtime menu after this vid! Firstly, all the resultant groups from an 18" barrel on a semi auto action.............HOLY SMOKE!!! Secondly, those SDs from an 18" barrel on a semi auto action........... STONE THE BLOODY CROWS!! These results are amazing!! Back in the 70s I shot my 7.62NATO quite well and scared the crap out of my instructors, but nothing like these groups here. Thanks for these results JRB, absolutely fantastic!!! 🇦🇺 🍺🍺 👍
Just ordered my first reloading kit, plan to reload for my 6.5 Grendel for fun shooting little groups and 300 win mag for really far. Luckily, you show both :)
your results mimick what I have experienced with my 20 inch alexander arms grendel barrel. That cartridge loves XBR powder hands down. Mine loves the sierra 123 grain match kings though. good shooting!
Nice to have you back. You all ways go for Max load I wanna see a subsonic round. Like the 140gr Speer or 143 eldx. Maybe some gel block testing would be a good vid.
I shoot the 100gr Sierra HP. I tried several powders including IMR 8208 XBR and Power Pro Varmint. I had good groups with 8208 XBR but the velocity was down from what I was looking for. PPV gave good velocities but the groups were so so. My best groups with good velocity was H4895. If I could get groups like you did with IRM 8208 XBR I wouldn't be that concerned with velocity. Good shooting and great video, Thanks.
Great to see you back!!! Your videos have been a great help for me in my new obsession, RELOADING. I started with 223/556. And am about to jump into 450 bushmaster for my deer rifle. There is very limited data out on it so far but that almost makes it more interesting!.... if I could make a special request I’d like to see more 40 grain 223 vids. Although a 450 bushmaster series would be tits.
Just ordered 200 of these 120gr bullets. Thanks for working up these two loads, as these are both powders I keep in stock anyway! Best targets I’ve ever seen, hands down! Update: 29.3 and 29.6gr Power Pro Varmint both shoot sub MOA in my 18” Odin Works 6.5 Grendel. Thanks again for testing these components!
Good stuff. Thanks a bundle. With you on 8208XBR. It is as good or better in my 5.56/223 as Varget for accuracy. 50gr. V-Max beautiful & the 69gr SMK likes it the best. Paper punching, varmit on a budget...Vmax. We have even harvested whitetail with 69grSMK very well. Thanks again.
Great vid today! I’ve had group and velocity success with the 123 ELD Match and 8208 XBR, but the brass is getting some burrs. It is Hornady brass, so maybe I’ll pick up some Lapua and see how it may improve. I know it’s a low pressure load, and the primers are pristine, maybe the brass is just too soft.
I'm so glad you do 6.5 Grendel videos I load 120gr barnes match burner with 26grs of H335 I do sort bullets my velocity is 2240fps my sd is not good at 26
I just got my X-Caliber Barrel in last week in 6.5 Grendel and am anxious to get the gun put together. IMR 8208 XBR will be my first powder to try if I can get my hands on a pound!
Thank you for your comment at the end about you would rather shoot a bullet you didn't expect then to shoot a bullet with a lot of hype and still have bad groups... The main takeaway from this video is that it does not matter which powder or how much charge you use the 6.5 diameter bullet it's best served at the 120 grain weight because you changed all the other variables but the point of impact and grouping was still fine. This means that your Barrel likes that bullet. (Period)
Happy to see you back! I love your videos and it has been a tremendous help for me as I found them about 18 months ago when I started reloading as a hobby. I very much appreciate you sharing your work...my wife on the other hand thinks I am a nerd but the videos help her fall asleep. Some people just do not understand the fascinating world of controlled explosions in your hand for the purpose of launching a projectile as accurately as possible! I do have a request if possible. SPEER GOLD Dot 150 grain 300 Blackout!... any chance you will be covering that one?
Maybe we need a "Finding Johnny" task force to be sure he hasn't blown his face off. After 10 days yous start wondering - 20 days and you start think maybe so - after 30 days obviously he did.
Great to see you back. My grendel has quickly become my favorite gun. Right now my bullet combo is 123gr nosler custom competition and 27 gr of varget. 8202 xbr is absolutely horrible in my gun so varget was in the load manual so I tried it and man it groups like the xbr does in your gun. Keep up the fun work and can't wait for the next video.
Nice to see you’re back! Hope you’re doing well. Nice groups! Great content on the Grendel. Wouldn’t mind seeing more on the 224 Valkyrie with maybe some RL-16?
Incredible job! I have learned a ton from your videos. After you pick your favorite groups out; where do you go from there? Do you load about 20 and go test them some more? Also it would be great if you had a shopping list video with you favorite powders, bullets, and primers for different calibers. I'm gonna be honest I watch a ton and write some down and end up watching them in the store again because I forget which did the best.
Johnny. . Awesome reloading channel. Like you I was raised in a family that loved hunting and target shooting. My dad used a Lee hand reloaded for a .270 with a full case of 4831 and a 140 gr bullet. He also had a old single six black hawk that we hand cast 44 mag 255 gr wheel weights bullets foir and loaded with unique. I especially like you 262 clones, 224 valkyrie and these 6.5 grendel videos. I was wondering if you could for example choose your favorite load for your rifle say Your 18" rifle. I mean that rifle and load is your best rifle and bullet and powder combo. Then test that same bullet combo in a 16," 18",20",22" and 24 inch barrel of the same twist from the same barrel maker.. Would it be as you say a dumpster fire or would the groups move in and then back out with the different length barrels. Or would they all shoot lights out. I think it would be vary instersting. Clearly not a practical for 99.9% of us Joe blows out here in fly over country. Just something to think about. How do we donate to your channel. Keep up the great work. .....
Johnny, how much of this excellent performance can you contribute to the Lapua brass and the annealing? I would like to see the same loads tested with Hornady brass and compare the results.
Glad to see you back Johnny . Hope your doing well and glad to see you putting up videos. On another topic did you take your franklin tumbler video down -- will miss it. You are the best out there and while I really like your new videos I still like the old one where what you say is unfiltered. Glad your back and hope you had the time to think about your grand father. Just from what you say during your videos I can see the love.
It's been a while glad to see you pop up in my notifications ...if that IMR powder isn't temperature sensitive I'd probably stick with it ..although I'm not sure what is a good bullet speed for that cartridge and bullet weight?? I definitely prefer your video style the way you deliver the info !!
I hope one day you’ll start loading some lead free bullets. I just started reloading for my Grendel and I live in California. So I’m having to come up with a load for my 24” barrel.
Impressive! So tell me, do you think that annealing was one of the factors in the low SD's? Seems from those groups the runout is probably spot on too. Nice groups and good shooting,
Your rack will get cruddy fast. Put the cases in a ziplock bag and spray in a little One Shot. Shake it up like Shake n Bake. Take them out and let them dry (really fast). The bag can be reused.
Holy crap that's some good shooting there! The XBR might not get as much velocity, but you can't argue with the SDs and accuracy. 2400fps+ vs 2300fps+.... A deer won't out run it either way.
It's not about the deer out running it. It's about gravity. At 9.8 meters per second gravity has a big role. If the bullet takes an extra one second to get to the Target then it will be almost 10 meters low. Now one second is a long time on a 9th of a second it's still an entire meter difference. The bottom line is FPS fights gravity or the effects that gravity has on the p o i
Great shooting and I’m glad to see you post another vid. Any reason why you brought the Labradar instead of the Magneto? I’m debating on which one I should buy.
I live in NJ I thought it was hilarious that you shot your rifle out of the window in your house in the other Grendel video. I could never do that since here in nj we live on top of each other. Plus a tactical response swat team would be here immediately
Another great video of loads, Really appreciate your work and effort. on the one video you had Federal, NON Typical white tail 140 gr SP, have two Bergara's in 6.5 Creedmoor, B 14 HRM one shot .350 groups at 100yds, and other shot 1.40 ",,,any idea, or just the gun different, not yet completely broken but that a big difference. Thanks again
