This is why I'm building a 25 Grendel bolt gun from a Howa Mini action. the plethora of .257 hunting projectiles in Australia compared to the ridiculous prices and short supply of 6.5 projectiles makes my decision easy for the long run. I fail to understand how Speer can make bulk 87gr and100gr HotCors in .257 but only 140gr HotCors in .264 and don't get me started on 120gr Gold Dot. They are a Unicorn. Never seen them, never heard of anyone using them.
Very interesting! Never thought of a 25 Grendel but makes sense! I was able to get my hands on 1800 of the 120 gold dots just recently. They disappeared a few days after they showed up. A 25 Grendel is an interesting prospect for sure
@@highcountryadventures9606I built a wildcat with Gordon's Reloading Tool, necking up the 6 ARC to 7mm, and loading 150 gr SMKs with LEVERevolution, I got 2500 ft/s out of a 20" barrel. Using a ballistics calc, I got 1750 ft-lbs at 100 yds and 1000 ft-lbs at 400 yds. Seems like a winner for hunting. I used bolt gun pressures.
Love that cavity back 118gr! Wonder what it does at 100 yards along side the Gold dot. Midway carries the gold dots and is more well stocked than most.
Shoot factory hornady black 123 eld match for white tail in middle tn out of my 20 inch BCA upper. Harvested 3 so far with vital shots. All pass through. 2 at 175 and 1 at 70. Also a coyote at 30 pass through. Been deadly for me.
Excellent review. Have you tested the 110 and 130 Lehigh Controlled Chaos? Not sure there would be enough to show in this type test, but they are devastating.
@@highcountryadventures9606 I have Underwood Ammunition loaded 110gr Lehigh 6.5G. I have a few boxes of 110 and 130 bullets from MidwayUSA. The bullets are extremely nasty and functional to well under 2000fps
This is great! Thanks for a very informative video. What is your hold over at that distance? I'm also kinda curious about your failure of your original upper. Have you done a video on that yet?
I probably will not do a video on the failure of my other upper. I used parts from it to make another rifle. Long story short the barrel came loose from the barrel extension and I could turn my barrel by hand. This should never happen. I didn't notice it until I was grouping my rifle and I noticed the groups were very poor. I contacted Alexander about it and they said I could send it in and they could try to retighten it or I could buy a new barrel. This prompted me to just redo the upper
Hold over at that distance is roughly 6 moa. Although some bullets are a little more and others are a little less. The good thing about the 55 gal barrel is I can shoot multiple different loads at it at 400 and usually hit it.
I'd love to see how the Maker Bullets 110gr Tipped T-Rex performs. Product ID 6.5G110THV SKU 6.5G-110HV-T-Rex Also, MidwayUSA has the 129gr Nosler ABLR in stock.
I can get sub half inch groups with these out of my Grendel. They are very hard to get a hold of. I was able to stock up about 6 months ago when they showed up for a few days
WOW! That 118gr MKZ looks BEAUTIFUL!!! My 105 MKZs expand at 400, but not near that much. The 120gr Gold Dot, 123gr SST, and ELD also looked really good. I'd love to see the118gr MKZ put through its paces out of something like a 260 Rem or even an old 6.5 Swede. The only thing I'm disappointed about with on the 118gr MKZ is its ballistic coef. The 105 has a BC of .480, so I'd expect to see something noticeably better than .505 from a bullet that's almost 20% heavier. If they could put out a 130gr MKZ with a noticeably better BC, that would be one heck of an elk bullet. Specifically for the Grendel, I will say that I'm going to stay with the 105gr MKZ simply because of the difference in drop. Plugging your numbers in, it looks like with a 200yd zero on an AR, the 118gr bullet is dropping almost 35" at 400 yds where my 105s are only dropping a little over 21". That 118 is still an impressive bullet though.
I’ve gone almost Solely on the Nosler Hunting Ballistic Tip It’s been doing a great job on white tails all winter long and hogs to A local shop keeps them on the shelf so availability is no problem So I’m not going to fix what ain’t broken 😂 Really was shocked at all this copper ones with zero expansion Reminds me of 7.62x39 Tula hp
Nice to know that the sst and eld are good for long range. I have a pile of both because they are the most common you find but I don’t use them because inside 150yds they explode into pieces and wasn’t getting any exit wounds
I use the Barnes for hogs and deer at 150yd and under with perfect results. Not trying to screw myself but check out Druid Hill, good prices done well.
@@highcountryadventures9606 what's wrong with the bullet disintegrating? Did it damage the meat of your animal? Was the kill less ethical as a result? I hope I don't sound argumentative. I am honestly curious about the effects of the result you are describing. Thank you.
A guy on the Grendel forum tested those years ago and felt that the 120gr GMX did the best, but he started turning them down to 94gr and even 75gr, sent me a bunch of the 94gr to load up for my hunts. The Cavity Back 118gr is the one to beat in that weight range. Brutal expansion.
I've been trying to find 100 gr Partitions for over two years with no success. I even called Nosler and asked. The guy told me that he didn't have the production schedule handy so I don't know what the deal is!
The 90gn in 224 Valkyrie does good pushing it around 2600fps. I’d imagine from a 6.5 Grendel we could push it over 2700fps given I can push 90gn tnt around 2800fps from an 18” barrel.
@@justa3v619 I found that factor 90gr TNT from Federal does about 2900fps from my 17.6” Lilja, and 2698fps from my 12” Grendel suppressed. Really surprising high speeds with it from the shorter Grendels. Accurate too. Feels like it and the 12” were made for each other.
@@Bshwag Under a 120gr, 28.5gr used to be max load published by Hodgdon's. They have 170 published loads for Grendel now. 30gr of 8208 is up there even for a 100gr bullet.
@@LRRPFco52 that is correct very high. the problem with most all data for the grendel is that it's for an AR-15. They can't handle the higher pressure that a bolt action can. One other thing that you have to remember is that by adding space to the case via a shorter bullet or loading as long as possible you are reducing the peak pressure. That lets you add more powder back up to max pressure, and the little bit of extra powder is huge by volume when you start with such a tiny case.
@@Bshwag Yup. I've done all that in the Howa bolt gun, clipped my mag, loaded 129gr SST out long, increased charge weights, but still hit sticky bolt with charges that weren't that much higher than AR loads. There's about 300fps different muzzle velocity between my 22" 260 Remington and my 22 inch 6.5 Grendels with the exact same bullets. 260 Rem runs 42-44gr of powder at 60ksi. Grendel runs 28-32gr powder at 50ksi. I could increase mv by about 100-150fps and then encountered sticky bolt lift in the Howa. Powder selection seems to beat trying to push the pressure. CFE223 and LVR are kings for velocity, even with lower chamber pressure.
