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[montana]

The most effective anti-personnel 223/5.56 loads are the Federal Tru 55-64 grain s.p. loads..Use bonded bullets if penetration/windshields is important and the non bonded if over penetration is a concern.. Most civilian needs would be best served with non-bonded bullets so collateral damage is diminished..

The Gold dot 55/64/75 and Federal premium 55/62 bonded bullets are other effective loads..

These are mil spec assemble cartridges that are designed to work perfectly in the AR platform..

Another fact is the use of any suppressor will cut the life of the AR rifle in half..

[LRRPF52]

[montana]

No argument here. The 6.5 Grendel is a very effective and diverse cartridge..It is my go to pack/camping/over landing and hunting caliber for wooded and hilly environments..I figured this was a given for those who have experience with it (AKA Grendel forum members)..

I mentioned the best rounds in 223 for those in more urban environments and who chose this caliber.. I recently returned from the Colt armorers course and never wasted the opportunity to talk to the vast experience I had at hand.. After talking to many retired law enforcement and military veterans, they all repeatedly stated that using the right bullet in the 5.56 was critical..The 5.56 round can be devastating, but it can also give pathetic performance in many circumstances..Bullet choice in 5.56 is critical to performance..The 6.5 Grendel is much more forgiving..

[BluntForceTrauma]

SHTF is less about running gun battles with zombie hordes than it is learning to turn your suburban lawn into a vegetable farm with the cooperation of a neighborhood association you've formed.

A reasonable supply of ammo in any caliber will do.

I can only guess at what your definition of SHTF is, but the collapse of food and fuel supply chains is gonna be your first major problem to solve.

More realistic is the degradation of the U.S. government into something resembling today's totalitarian state of China. The Chinese people have food. They have fuel. They have a more or less "normal" life. What don't they have? Liberty. Cameras are watching everything. Digital records are kept of everything. Nothing you do or say goes unapproved by the spying eye of the police-state bureaucracy. Everything you do or say is tied to your Social Credit score, which determines the extent of your privileges and human rights.

I suppose one could conceivably need lots of ammo to keep that from happening....

[Bonas]

If you're in a situation where you have to take one rifle and the ammo you can carry and leave, then obviously Grendel is a bad choice. Frankly, anything other than 5.56 is a bad choice for that.

Outside of supply issues, I think 6.5 Grendel is the ideal chambering for small frame AR pattern rifles.

[CJW]

Long slide Glock

[tashley680]

Couple SPAM cans of steel-cased 9mm, Glock and Ruger PCC with half a dozen magazines for both.