6.5 Grendel on Deer Results

[119bowhunter]

Hey all, finally got it done with my 6.5 Grendel I built this year last week, I must say I was a little concerned with the results. My rifle is an AR-15 with a 24 inch ss barrel and I was shooting the 123 grain hornady sst bullets.

I had an 8 point I've been hunting all season walk out on me about 40 yards, pulled the crosshairs right behind the shoulder and squeezed off. He bolted out of there wide open and I couldn't see him run but about 20 yards but I felt good about the shot, waited a few minutes and walked over to look for him. I looked for 4.5 hours that night and found a very sparse blood trail maybe 10-15 yards long. I was really starting to question my shot thinking maybe the scope had been knocked loose or something and I hadnt made as good a shot as I figured.

I went to bed and got up early the next morning and couldn't find anything else to help me find him, so I began crawling on my hands and knees through rhododendron thickets (hunting in NC mountains) and eventually found him piled up, he had ran probably 150 yards and I had shot him exactly where I was aiming. It appears that the bullet fragmented and left two small exit holes that bled very little, one in his armpit and one a few inches behind that one.

My question is to anyone else who has experience with this caliber/specifically this bullet...was this a fluke or have you had similar experiences to this? I felt incredibly lucky to stumble across him the next day and would've had to have passed less than 5 yards from him to see him, I was so excited about hunting with this rifle but now I find myself contemplating selling it and just sticking with my 30.06 for deer hunting. I don't know right now that I would have the confidence hunting with it somewhere unless it was pretty open where I could likely watch something run a ways after I shot.

Thanks

 

[kinross]

keep using your 3006 on deer just use the grendel on paper , steel and feral pigs. My buddy has shot several with his grendel with mixed results. My 300 blackout seems to run a little faster than his factory sst, and it has killed deer no probs but the chance of loosing one with it is a lot more than when i hit them with the 7mm08. Dont get me wrong it is a great little caliber you just need to know its limitations

 

[Doolydawg03]

not a fan of the SST bullet several lost deer and almost lost deer due to no blood trails all perfect shoots on the found deer i do not shoot them out of my deer rifles anymore. caliber i had these results with was a .270 win

 

[RamblinWreck]

I have wrecked many hogs in one shot with the 125 SST in .300 BO, and also killed several hogs and deer with the 165 SST in .308 Win. No complaints, all one shot kills with short or no trailing. Works for me. Not a fan of the 6.5 Grendel ballistics, though.

 

[119bowhunter]

Yeah I was definitely disappointed, I believe I'll stick with the 30.06 from now on...I was excited about using the AR-15, I guess this could be an excuse to talk my wife into letting me build an AR-10!

 

[Buzz]

The SST is probably my least favorite of all hunting bullets. Very thinly jacketed and erratic performance on game. Never lost a deer with one but had multiple bullets come apart at low velocity resulting in poor penetration. Your Grendel has a MV of about 2580 fps and that's plenty of speed the bullet will open up, but not nearly enough to cause a quality bullet to come apart.

The bullets I used were 129g SST in .264" and the 150g SST in .308".

 

[misterpink]

I hate SST bullets. I got rid of them in my 270 for this exact reason

 

[Killer Kyle]

It was cold last night in NE GA, and I expect is was a bit colder up where you were. Did the meat still turn out ok?

 

[119bowhunter]

Killer Kyle I shot this one last week, just now got around to venting my frustration...it was cold that night too though, I couldn't tell that any of the meat was bad...I've got the last batch in the pressure cooker right now...and it was 18 degrees this morning, I'm kind of glad that I'm tagged out now so that I don't have to brave that cold tomorrow morning

 

[fowl play]

Stick with Barnes or Berger vld's

 

[Always Searching]

What you experienced was not a fluke. Small diameter and lighter bullets leave small holes and rarely exit. As a result, animals go farther and leave less blood on the ground, making it very difficult to recover your deer in a timely manner. Also, unless you reload your own ammo, most folks shoot whatever they can find at their local Walmart. (Typically not a bonded or monolithic bullet that will hold together.) This only adds to the problem. Stick with the trusty 30-06 and if you can't find quality bullets, shoot the heaviest bullet that shoots well through your gun. In my opinion, you can never have too much gun.

 

[ChainReactionGC]

Never had an issue with my Grendel. Shot 8 hogs and a buck this year with mine. Hogs either dropped or fell in a few feet and the buck I shot last week dropped so hard his legs ended up behind his head. All had pass throughs. One was a pass thought at over 100yds and it hit the hog standing behind it too. both dropped. 18" barrel, 123gr sst.

 

[SCDieselDawg]

I shot the SST in both .30-06 and .270. 165 and 130 grain. Both produced golf ball sized exits. Don't remember much of the blood trails as I usually shoot for the shoulder. I will say that they performed better in the .30-06 than winchester power points did, when it comes to on game performance.