Low ish velocity bullet 6.5

[T3ninja]

hey, I have a public land deer draw hunt coming up in a couple weeks. Indiana laws are dumb so I won't go into that, other than say I can use a rifle if it's a pistol caliber (.357,.44 etc) but not rifle calibers..... UNLESS it's fired from a "handgun". Anyway, I have a 6.5 Grendel "handgun" and I have 3 bullet options. What would u pick? Deer will weigh 120-220lbs, shots will be out to 300 yards.

Bullets are:

100 gr partition, BC .384 @2500
130 Berger VLD HUNTING BC .552 @2250
90 Vmax BC .365 @2600 ish ( can't remember exactly)

All shoot equally well and this is out of a 15.5" barrel. Altitude is only 900ish' temps should be around 30-40degrees.

I know all 3 will kill a deer easily, they will all hit about the same speed, within 65 FPS in the perfect world, ~1800fps. The vmax is interesting to me though. I know at regular rifle velocity 2800+ they're explosive as designed, but running slower at extended range, what do they do?

 

[RT2506]

I would choose the 100 gr Partition. For the Grendel pistols it is hard to beat the Nosler 129 long range accubond. They will expand down to 1300 fps and those on the Grendel web site praise them highly for their on game performance. I have two rifles in 6.5 Grendel one with 18" the other with 20" barrels. I used the 20" to kill a deer last year using the 120 Speer Gold Dot at 2550 fps and the shot was 111 yards. DRT and the bullet did horrendous damage to the vitals from a chest shot as the deer faced me. Bullet penetrated around 20" and exited the belly with a thumb size hole.

 

[T3ninja]

I've considered ordering the 129's but the hunt is only 2 weeks away and most likely the only time I'd use them. The 3 mentioned are what's on hand. since most of my other Huning is on private land I would be using actual rifles for the rest of the season. When the rain lets up I'm going to see how they all shoot compared to each other, meaning using same zero, how close do they group to the other bullets. Maybe I can take a couple different ones along...


As par as shooting AR pistols, I have a .300 BLK that I used last year with 110noslers at around 2200fps and they were great on a doe at around 90 yards. Over the summer I came up with a load using the 168 ABLR in the BLK, Accuracy wasn't as good as I like but running the numbers, they are still "expanding" out to 400+ yards. Running reduced loads at 100 yards into watermelon looked promising. I just couldn't get the accuracy I want.

 

[HARPERC]

I'd look at the 99 grain Hammer Hunter. Not on your list just a thought.

 

[26Reload]

100 partition...

 

[SEGARE]

100gr NP

 

[T3ninja]

Looks like there's a clear winner here , thanks fellas

 

[J E Custom]

I would make sure that It doesn't have to be a pistol cartridge (Straight sided). Even though you have a pistol chambered is 6.5 G the state may not allow that.

Think about the pistols that are chambered in cartridges like the 300 Win Mag. even though it is in a pistol, it may not be OK to use.

I would just double check the rules before you go.

J E CUSTOM

 

[T3ninja]

Been the same for many years. Rifle cartridges are gtg. In a pistol lol

 

[Riflehunter1776]

having used nosler bullets for years and shot many, many whitetails with them, if it was me, I'd go with a 120 ballistic tip. I know you dont have them on hand, but they are easy to find. A higher velocity cartridge turns this bullet into a fragmentation grenade, but the lower Grendel velocity, especially in a short barrel, would tame it down into a nice effective combination for whitetail. IMO, the 100 gr is very light for caliber against a big buck that you might run into there. The 130 berger might also be a good choice, albeit a little bit heavy.