6.5 Grendel - Bad Experience

[toledo]

Meat means impact was bad. If you are confident in your shot, you need to go back to the bench to diagnose the problem.

[txtrophy85]

Elaborate please.... don't leave us hanging..

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I bought my youngest son a slick little Howa Mini-Action 1500 in 6.5 Grendel.

Reading the ballistics charts it seemed about the equivalent to a .30-30 so I figured it would be fine for the 75-125 yard shots we were taking on 140 lb hill country deer.

Sighted it in and took it into the field....first morning a mature 9 point comes to the feeder ( again a 140 lb deer ) and he drills it right in the shoulder. Deer hits the ground but I can tell something isn't right. After a min i see a back leg move. I tell him to shoot it again but he can't see, and wants me to shoot it. I take a raking shot that entered behind the rib cage and should have gone into the chest cavity.

After another few min we make our way down there...when we get about 15 yards away the deer jumps up and runs off. Miraculously, after another 50 yards i turn a corner and he is on his feet looking at us. I plug him in the shoulder again and he runs off for a 2nd time but expires after a 30 yard dash.

1st bullet hit the shoulder blade and skidded up over the top of his back...did not penetrate the shoulder. 2nd shot didn't even make it into the lungs. I found both bullets and the jacket/Core had completely seperated ( I will allow that the bullet played a part in poor performance ).

about a week later I'm driving the buggy to a blind and come across a spike axis feeding on an oak.....i creep to within 125 yards and plug him right in the armpit. He runs off seemingly unharmed. I find him 30 yards from impact, but no blood and when i open him up there is very little internal damage. nothing at all like what you would expect from a modern centerfire rifle.


After that I was done...imo there was no reason to continue to use it. I sold it, and bought him a 7mm-08 and using hornady custom light ( again with the SST ) he has killed 5 or 6 deer and about as many hogs all one shot kills and plenty of internal destruction.

[bboswell]

Do some reading, Barnes bullets don't open up very reliably at all.

Barnes are very reliable, they just require much more velocity for a given caliber to do it. This makes Barnes a poor choice for Grendal.

[TxBowHntr]

Why are you shooting “ behind the shoulder?”

I was hunting meat does, and that is the largest target for vitals without ruining meat.

[sideways]

I bought my youngest son a slick little Howa Mini-Action 1500 in 6.5 Grendel.

Reading the ballistics charts it seemed about the equivalent to a .30-30 so I figured it would be fine for the 75-125 yard shots we were taking on 140 lb hill country deer.

Sighted it in and took it into the field....first morning a mature 9 point comes to the feeder ( again a 140 lb deer ) and he drills it right in the shoulder. Deer hits the ground but I can tell something isn't right. After a min i see a back leg move. I tell him to shoot it again but he can't see, and wants me to shoot it. I take a raking shot that entered behind the rib cage and should have gone into the chest cavity.

After another few min we make our way down there...when we get about 15 yards away the deer jumps up and runs off. Miraculously, after another 50 yards i turn a corner and he is on his feet looking at us. I plug him in the shoulder again and he runs off for a 2nd time but expires after a 30 yard dash.

1st bullet hit the shoulder blade and skidded up over the top of his back...did not penetrate the shoulder. 2nd shot didn't even make it into the lungs. I found both bullets and the jacket/Core had completely seperated ( I will allow that the bullet played a part in poor performance ).

about a week later I'm driving the buggy to a blind and come across a spike axis feeding on an oak.....i creep to within 125 yards and plug him right in the armpit. He runs off seemingly unharmed. I find him 30 yards from impact, but no blood and when i open him up there is very little internal damage. nothing at all like what you would expect from a modern centerfire rifle.


After that I was done...imo there was no reason to continue to use it. I sold it, and bought him a 7mm-08 and using hornady custom light ( again with the SST ) he has killed 5 or 6 deer and about as many hogs all one shot kills and plenty of internal destruction.

What ammo were you using?


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[jshouse]

Do some reading, Barnes bullets don't open up very reliably at all. I have tried a couple different types of Barnes, shot multiple deer, never had one open up. They just zip through, with very little damage. The only reason I recovered the deer I shot, was they were all heart shots. So the deer only went 40 yards and dropped, but no blood, small entrance and exit wounds.

With a round like a 6.5 Grendel, you are not going to get a lot of velocity, then with the short barrel, you are loosing quite a bit o velocity. Combine the low muzzle velocity with a Barnes bullet, you are not going to get much expansion, so very low damage and very little blood to trail.

The Grendel can be very lethal, but for it to be such, you really need to do some research and find good bullets that will give you reliable expansion.

Barnes are very reliable, they just require much more velocity for a given caliber to do it. This makes Barnes a poor choice for Grendal.

my son shoots a 7mm08 with barnes vor-tx 120g bullets, he killed 2 deer and 2 hogs with it, all drt, it shoots them great.

on his last buck, 80y shot, he aims for the high shoulder shot and hit it a little back and a little low, so "behind the shoulder." deer dropped but was moving a lot and lifting its head so i put another shot into his chest and killed him.

the first shot did not expand at all, pin hole entry and exit with so little blood we had to really look to find both of them. it was a little discouraging.

and since i cant find any of them anymore anyway, i am on the lookout for a new bullet, may just go back to the old faithful core-lokt

[bowguy75]

I've been a grendel shooter for a few years now, and I've had good success with the 123 SST's and the Barnes 115 TAC bullets. The key I've found is hitting the shoulder or just behind it. The grendel is a small round with a small margin of error. I love the light recoil, and my kids do too, but its not a 180gr 30-06, nor does it kill like one.

The 123 ELDM will be next for me to try, mainly because I found some on sale.

[trophy8]

Barnes isn’t the best expanding bullet even at higher speeds. Couple that with a short barrel in a round that’s already slow. THEN shoot them behind the shoulder where there’s nothing solid to help expansion….yeah. Pencil through. No blood trail. Deer probably died. Hard to find. Shoot them IN the shoulder.

[Mike D]

In defense of Barnes bullets, much like the 110 & 120 grain TAC-TX were purpose built for the 300 BO, the 115 Barnes were specifically designed for the lower velocity of the Grendel. They should in theory expand easier than the TSX/TTSX line of bullets.

I’ve tried them in my Grendel AR and I just haven’t found a load that shoots well for me yet so I won’t hunt with them.

Op if you handload find some Speer 120 grain Gold Dot bullets. They expand well at Grendel velocities. Just keep them at or above 2000fps impact velocity.


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[ElPescador24]

My experience with the Grendel has been good. It's mostly been my son (12yr old) shooting it. He's shot several bucks over the last 4 years and none of them have ran more than 20-30 yards. Always shoots behind the shoulder. We use Hornady 123gr SST and it just destroys the lungs.

My only complaint would be the lack of blood trails. But like I said they haven't run far, so that really hasn't mattered. The last two dropped in their tracks.

[denimdeerslayer]

If your shooting does why not shoot in the head and no wasted meat nor tracking..

[justletmein]

If your shooting does why not shoot in the head and no wasted meat nor tracking..

Guy on our lease when I was a kid blew the jaw off of a doe and 12 of us chased her around all day and finally someone put her down that evening. I'll never do head shots after being involved in that and seeing the poor thing running through thick South Texas brush with her jaw flailing all around. He always shot doe in the head and never had any problems before, but just takes once.

[Duckologist]

Guy on our lease when I was a kid blew the jaw off of a doe and 12 of us chased her around all day and finally someone put her down that evening. I'll never do head shots after being involved in that and seeing the poor thing running through thick South Texas brush with her jaw flailing all around. He always shot doe in the head and never had any problems before, but just takes once.

My cousin did the same thing. Stop head shooting after that. Said the thing was runnin around squalling wit its jaw flopping all over

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[HTOWN]

My cousin did the same thing. Stop head shooting after that. Said the thing was runnin around squalling wit its jaw flopping all over

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Yea, I agree with that. I've seen it to. Not something you want to re-live

[lnester]

OP: did you sight in the gun? Could be a bullet stabilization issue. Are bullet holes keyholing in targets?