What can the 6.5 Grendel kill?

[Vortex!]

I'm just curious what y'all have killed with your 6.5 Grendel? I haven't killed anything except paper so far.

 

[moses42ak]

Black bear and caribou for my rifle so far. I have a friend who took a bull moose with his 2 seasons ago. I strongly suggested against it but that wasn't until after he did it. 125 yards, through the meat of the onside shoulder, through a rib, destroyed the heart and lungs, through another rib and the meat of the offside shoulder and came to rest under the hide. The bullet lost one petal but didn't detonate. He was shooting 123 grain SST's. He called Hornady and they strongly suggested he not do that but again, too late. They were dumbfounded at the bullet performance as the SST isn't designed to hold together like that and asked if he would send them the bullet which he declined. Same friend took a bull caribou at 405 yards the same season using the A Max. Full penetration, horrible meat damage and he'll never use them again.

Those are personal knowledge uses but I've read a few articles of people taking elk with them. I'll pass on that.

 

[MudRunner2005]

The SST will hold together fine, but not at high velocities. At lower velocities like the Grendel, it should hold together fine. I learned this a long time ago when I had no issues shooting the 139 SST in my 7mm-08 at deer, and it was like lightning... Then I shot the 139 SST in my 7mm RemMag, and had a couple grenade and just destroyed a ton of meat. I stopped using them for hunting after that.

I'm curious to see the 123 ELD factory Hornady Black ammo's performance on deer...Even though I know that it's technically "target" ammo... Heard good things about accuracy.

 

[moses42ak]

In my experience and the experience of my friend, the ELD Match ammo is slightly less accurate than the SST but we're splitting hairs here. We are talking less than a quarter MOA. Not sure I'd use it on game, haven't seen or heard good things about it in that purpose.
One thing of note for those looking for cheap ammo, the Sportsman's Warehouse ammo cans are lights out accurate!! I've shot a few cans of that and now have 1,000 pieces of brass for reloading.

 

[Vortex!]

I'm curious to see the 123 ELD factory Hornady Black ammo's performance on deer...Even though I know that it's technically "target" ammo... Heard good things about accuracy.

 

[Vortex!]

This is what I'm planning to use for deer this season and hopefully a coyote.

 

[TC338]

My dad killed a nice whitetail buck with the 123 eldm last year. Quartering to shot at about 120 yards. No exit but everything in his chest was jelly. Ran about 50 yards and piled up.

 

[Aoudad shooter1975]

We have taken Aoudad, Whitetail, Axis and a blackbuck or 2 with the grendel

 

[Vortex!]

I didn't realize so many people were using it!

 

[Vortex!]

So, is the 123gr bullet what most of y'all use in your Grendel's?

 

[MudRunner2005]

I didn't realize so many people were using it!

It's been around since 2003... It was popular back then, and I remember reading about it in the magazines and wanting to build one, but never did until 2015. But the popularity kind of died-off quickly, and it pretty much went off the radar for a while, till it had another upswing in popularity that revived it. Then it sort of plateau'd and was still around, just never really took back off until the whole 6.5mm craze took off around 2010, it leveled off around there again, and now it's getting another resurge in popularity. It's doing just what most cartridges do. Everything is pretty much cyclical as far as cartridge and caliber popularity goes.

 

[MudRunner2005]

So, is the 123gr bullet what most of y'all use in your Grendel's?

Yes, being that the Grendel is a small capacity cartridge that's only going about 2,500-2,600 FPS, so anything over a 130 is going to drop like a hammer. It was designed to shoot 100-130 grain bullets, and most manufacturers made the 123's specifically for the Grendel (like the Nosler 123 Custom Comps), because most folks with rifles like the 6.5 CM and .260 Rem are shooting 130+ grain bullets because they have alot more horsepower than the little 6.5 Grendel does.

 

[Aoudad shooter1975]

I've used 120 and 130s out of mine....130s with in 300 yards do wonders.

 

[FEENIX]

I'm just curious what y'all have killed with your 6.5 Grendel? I haven't killed anything except paper so far.

Me too! My son is considering getting one.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.