myrifle Wrote:To the best of my knowledge I am the only bolt grendel owner to ever safely get over the 3000fps mark, actually hitting 3300fps with a 85 grain maker trex from my cz 527 varmint grendel.

I wont give you the load details. Let me say this straight out. Give up and dont chance this idea. It's a waist of time, powder, primers,bullets and you will kill your brass life on the first or second shoot.

Dont chase it, it's not worth it, if you need over 3000fps step up too the short action rounds. The Grendel just doesn't have the powder capacity vs brass thickness/strength too push it like that.

myrifle Wrote:To the best of my knowledge I am the only bolt grendel owner to ever safely get over the 3000fps mark, actually hitting 3300fps with a 85 grain maker trex from my cz 527 varmint grendel.

I wont give you the load details. Let me say this straight out. Give up and dont chance this idea. It's a waist of time, powder, primers,bullets and you will kill your brass life on the first or second shoot.

Dont chase it, it's not worth it, if you need over 3000fps step up too the short action rounds. The grendel just doesnt have the powder capacity vs brass thickness/strength too push it like that.

myrifle Wrote:To the best of my knowledge I am the only bolt grendel owner to ever safely get over the 3000fps mark, actually hitting 3300fps with a 85 grain maker trex from my cz 527 varmint grendel.

I wont give you the load details. Let me say this straight out. Give up and dont chance this idea. It's a waist of time, powder, primers,bullets and you will kill your brass life on the first or second shoot.

Dont chase it, it's not worth it, if you need over 3000fps step up too the short action rounds. The grendel just doesnt have the powder capacity vs brass thickness/strength too push it like that.

Zeneffect Wrote:I would think using a bolt to hit 3k would be easier than a semi-auto. Pretty sure 3k is doable with sierra 85gr and some norma 202. Interesting combination, especially in a bolt gun.


22" barrel ar15, and still way light charge.

jackRyan Wrote:i am always trying to get a little more juice out of my AR-15 using the amazing 6.5 Grendel. After years of testing and trying, my conclusion is that because of the bolt face and the chamber on some 6.5 grendel barrels, it is way easier to just buy a bolt in a 6.5 Creedmoor. The grendel, as much as I love it, has it’s limits, even with a 24 inch barrel and maxed out loads in a bolt rifle. Better off goung with a 6.5 Creedmoor. instant large gain of energy, power, range, longer more aero boolits, and you can easily do 140 grain boolits at over 3100 feet per second stretching your range out to super sonic 1250 yard range and with a sleek, slipery140 grain boolit. Now you can comfortably shoot an Elk nor Mullie if you want. I have seen a guy get a moose just inside 100 yards with the Creedmoor. Two shots right behind the front sholder, 7 inches apart. You can download ammo to very low recoil at 140 gr at 2800fps, or use 123 gr grendel boolits. You are also not giving up any inherant accuracy with the creedmoor.

Jake TN Wrote:LRRPF52, at what distance are you still get reliable expansion with the 12.5 inch with the SSTs? I know my new 12.5 upper likes the SST. Had horrible results with the 95 gr TREX on the first test loads.

LRRPF52 Wrote:

lazyengineer Wrote:I recently SBR'd an 18" .22LR BBL down to just 13", with ZERO velocity loss with 40 gr bullets (within stnd dev.), due to this.

lazyengineer Wrote:This is a great graphic, and really points out the remarkable aspect of the 6.5 Grendel in shorter length BBL's. In my own usage and assessments, I run 6.5 Grendel in AR15's. And with that, 20" is about as long as typical. And when looking at the velocity loss from a 20" down to a 14.5" BBL, it's remarkably less than you might think. Dropping only about 100 FPS. Which no doubt is why 12.5" is so popular, because that's probably right about where the inflection point is, where further cuts start getting expensive. And with that, Grendel impact energy out of a 14.5 (or 12") is remarkably good out to very practical distances. It's one of the cooler aspects of this round.

From a logic standpoint, this makes more sense the more I learn. The best way I can figure it: after about 3" of travel, most of the powder is burned, and only a little more additional gas is generated. That peak pressure and volume in the casing and little bit of barrel, is basically the "bottle" of high pressure gas that's pushing the bullet the rest of the way down the barrel. with just a little extra gas generation from additional burn.

In 6.5 Creedmoor, it's a big reservoir bottle, so can keep pushing down a longer barrel. In 6.5 Grendel, it's a shorter little casing, and so a smaller little bottle. Meaning additional barrel length doesn't buy you as much, as there's less gas in a bottle to keep pushing it. In the most extreme case, I recently discovered, of .22LR, where the gas bottle is a straight walled little .22 Casing of quite small volume, additional barrel buys you very little. I recently SBR'd an 18" .22LR BBL down to just 13", with ZERO velocity loss with 40 gr bullets (within stnd dev.), due to this. Anyway maybe everyone else recognizes that, but to me, it helps explain while shortening the barrel in a 6.5 Grendel isn't all that expensive; compared to .223, which is higher pressure and has a large bottle volume ratio compared to the bullet and barrel diameter.

Grendel is a very cool little round.

LRRPF52 Wrote:For the altitudes where I encounter mule deer, assuming 2350fps mv from my 12” with 123gr SST, my program says 400yds 1817fps, using the Litz G1 BC of .462 for the 123gr SST, not the Hornady BC of .510 G1.

If I was at sea level, it would be 325yds.

Most guides will stalk their clients into within 300yds, even if they are shooting magnums, because most hunters have no training or experience in compensating for trajectory or wind.

If I was hunting mulies, I think I would load up the 129gr ABLR and get some good downrange impact data with it for a while. BC is really high with it, and expansion goes down to 1300fps, since it’s a bonded bullet with plenty of tail mass to deliver deep penetration. I don’t think the outcome would be much different using 123gr SST or ELD-M though. ELD-M expands more rapidly, which would be ideal for the 12”.

Jake TN Wrote:Thanks. No Mules around TN. The white tail, on the large side, are 140 lbs field dressed. Most shots are within 200 yards. Wish we had mules. More meat for the work.