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Just a quick drive-by to give a quick update on some work I did earlier this year (May) developing some high sectional density deer hunting loads for big body deer in thick cover - i.e. 156 Oryx + 160 Hornady RN, super sonic loads from a 16-inch, 6.5mm Grendel. My original threads are archived somewhere and when I get a chance in the next couple of days I'll try to find/post a link to them.
Quick refresher: the load I ended up going with was 29.4gr RL17, 156gr Norma Oryx, Rem 7.5 primer moving at 2220fps avg from my 3 groove, Trident, 16 in bbl.
Well, good news is I kept my word and hunted with the rifle this year and killed a deer with it. Bad news is I forgot my damn phone in the truck and couldn't take pictures of the organ damage and I didn't want to hike a mile back into the woods after I dragged the thing out by myself.
I'll just say it was a hundred pound doe and I shot it at 80 yards running, quartering away. Waited for the right timing to loose a single round and it felt good. Watched the deer go another 30-40 yards and somersault into a pile.
Below: I basically aimed/hit for "C" in this illustration
Below: the yellow circle-dot is where I was aiming
Below: the bullet recovered from the deer (in the entertainingly wise words of Ted Nugent, "where have we seen this before?!")
Below: bullets recovered from the original gel tests at 100 actual yards (looks like it the gel test of this configuration was a good analog for its real-world results)
The round passed through a rib on entrance, through the liver (cut in half), through a lung (wrecked it), then nearly cleaved the heart completely from the arterial plumbing, then went into the offside shoulder and busted it up to the point of "flopping around in a crunchy, unwholesome way" where it was recovered by the meatcutter.
That bullet launched at 2220fps from a sub-6lb rifle sporting a 16" tube , traveled 80 yards, passed through 18-22" of deer and did all that damage. Ya know, I really couldn't ask for much more from the mouse gun and the heavily laden Grendel. It has officially graduated to deer grade in my book.
-w
Quick refresher: the load I ended up going with was 29.4gr RL17, 156gr Norma Oryx, Rem 7.5 primer moving at 2220fps avg from my 3 groove, Trident, 16 in bbl.
Well, good news is I kept my word and hunted with the rifle this year and killed a deer with it. Bad news is I forgot my damn phone in the truck and couldn't take pictures of the organ damage and I didn't want to hike a mile back into the woods after I dragged the thing out by myself.
I'll just say it was a hundred pound doe and I shot it at 80 yards running, quartering away. Waited for the right timing to loose a single round and it felt good. Watched the deer go another 30-40 yards and somersault into a pile.
Below: I basically aimed/hit for "C" in this illustration
Below: the yellow circle-dot is where I was aiming
Below: the bullet recovered from the deer (in the entertainingly wise words of Ted Nugent, "where have we seen this before?!")
Below: bullets recovered from the original gel tests at 100 actual yards (looks like it the gel test of this configuration was a good analog for its real-world results)
The round passed through a rib on entrance, through the liver (cut in half), through a lung (wrecked it), then nearly cleaved the heart completely from the arterial plumbing, then went into the offside shoulder and busted it up to the point of "flopping around in a crunchy, unwholesome way" where it was recovered by the meatcutter.
That bullet launched at 2220fps from a sub-6lb rifle sporting a 16" tube , traveled 80 yards, passed through 18-22" of deer and did all that damage. Ya know, I really couldn't ask for much more from the mouse gun and the heavily laden Grendel. It has officially graduated to deer grade in my book.
-w
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