6.5 Grendel TC Contender

[hhi812]

I also have one of those barrels, and, being a Barnes affectionado I looked for a load that would work in my 16, 18, 20, and 24 inch rifles as well. The 120 grainers didn't work well in the handgun, couldn't get much over 2100 or 2200 fps. I decided to work with the 100gr TTSX. There wasn't enough velocity with 2520 or with leverevolution (which worked well with the heavier bullets in the longer barrels), so I had to go with a faster powder. Currently I worked up a load that worked well with H335, using 31 grains. This looked a little flatter on the headstamp (I mean a trace) with the gas piston rifles, so I backed it up a couple of tenths of grains to 30.8 with new Lapua brass. It shot very accurately in all the guns. The T/C shot nice groups (the best I can do with a handgun anyway) and chronographed at 2600fps, with a very small sd out of the 14 inch handgun, and with the shorter barrel pressure wasn't an issue at all. I cannot tell you what this may do in your gun. I use the old style white box WSR primers ( the silver harder kind, at least until I run out of the next ten thousand), so a different primer could drive up your pressures. I'd start a couple of grains lower and slowly increase to a comfortable level. I load to 2.260 coal so that it will work in the magazines, but did not use the chamber seating coal gauge for the SSK barrel. Barnes says to back off .050 from the lands anyway, and the Weatherby people tell us this gives us more velocity with less pressure. In the Barnes bullets, it improves accuracy also, as I've shot tons of guilding metal from Barnes in calibers up to .500 Jeffery. I'm doing a charity handgun hunt with the Handgun Hunters chapter of SCI next week, and I'll shoot some big things to see how well it does. Last year I shot a scimitar horned oryx with a 110gr Barnes TTSX 6.8 spc II from a 14 inch barrel at 140 yards, and it went through the shoulder, both sides of the rib cage, and heart, and was imbedded in the off side. They didn't save the bullet for me like they promised, but that was a slightly slower load, so I bet the penetration will be good with the Grendel for most NA game at pistol ranges.

BTW, this round does function in all my Grendel rifles too.

fanofflyn,
How did you set the overall length of the 100 TTSX in your Contender? Barnes suggests .050" off rifling? I also just aquired a SSK 6.5 Grendel Contender barrel. H335 is the best powder for this Bullet?

[rabiddawg]

You have bumped a thread from '13 that originated in '11. I have not seen fanofflyn post recently so I wouldn't expect a reply.

For some reason you can't search his activity as he is shown as a guest. Could have something to do with board crashes in the past.

[hhi812]

New here and didn't realize how old it was. Thanks for the update.

[JASmith]

...How did you set the overall length of the 100 TTSX in your Contender? Barnes suggests .050" off rifling? I also just aquired a SSK 6.5 Grendel Contender barrel. H335 is the best powder for this Bullet?

Do you mean "How far off of the lands should the bullet be seated?" or did you mean, "How did you determine the optimal overall length?"

[hhi812]

Both?

[JASmith]

Several techniques exist for optimizing one's OAL. Here is what I use:

• Start out by finding the OAL where your ogive first touches the lands.
  
  
• Then, back off by the Barnes recommended amount.
  
  
• Do an OAL ladder using a slightly reduced from max load. Run the OAL in increments of .005" to .010" from that recommended .050" down to touch to determine the most accurate OAL. The reduced load is suggested because getting close to or actually touching the lands causes an increase in pressure of a few thousand psi.
  
  
• Repeat with five five-shot groups with OALs .006", .003', 0.00', -.003' and -.006" from your best OAL in the first pass.
  

If your SSK barrel was cut with a SAAMI-compliant reamer, the 0.50 degree taper where the freebore normally would be broadens the sweet spot for best accuracy and at the same time makes getting the precises land-touch OAL more interesting.

I normally run the powder charge weight optimization after I am happy with the OAL.

[Joseph5]

The parent case for the 6.5 JDJ was the 225 Winchester if I am not mistaken, which I could be, the memory isn't what it used to be.

[JASmith]

The parent case for the 6.5 JDJ was the 225 Winchester if I am not mistaken, which I could be, the memory isn't what it used to be.

The 6.5 JDJ gas a .473" rim diameter and about eight nore graind of case capacity.

[hhi812]

Thanks for the info. What did you mean,"I normally run the powder charge weight optimization after I am happy with the OAL."

[JASmith]

As I recall a lot of the afvice is to get your most accurate powder charge, then tweak the COAL.

My own experience has been that I get larger group size swings by changing the COAL. So, for me, it seems sensible to take care the big one first, then tweak the charge weight.

The problem with either approach is that we are dealing with both barrel vibrations and jump. The jump affects both the alignment of the bullet entering the throat and the timing. The powder weight largely effects the time to bullet exit.

If one were serious about the best accuracy (I cannot claim to be since I am thrilled when the groups drop below 0.5 moa) then running through both to verify the sweet spot in both dimensions might be advisable.