Talk me out of 16” Grendel

[Mark611]

Well, just 1 story, my buddy shot 3 deer walking down a fence line at about 100yds to 150yds using a 16'' barrel 6.5GRR with 123gn Hornady SST's, he claims to have had good shot placement, and he was not impressed with the performance of this combo! claimed 1 of the deer ran a long ways off before he found it! IMO 16 '' of barrel was not enough to give the performance for that bullet IMO!!

[imaguy3]

Well, just 1 story, my buddy shot 3 deer walking down a fence line at about 100yds to 150yds using a 16'' barrel 6.5GRR with 123gn Hornady SST's, he claims to have had good shot placement, and he was not impressed with the performance of this combo! claimed 1 of the deer ran a long ways off before he found it! IMO 16 '' of barrel was not enough to give the performance for that bullet IMO!!

A 16" barrel gives plenty of velocity for that bullet at that range and it performs great when put where it's supposed to be.

I'm more confused about how 3 deer stood there that close to allow him to shoot them? I would think after the first one gets shot the other two would run, which would make "good shot placement" much more difficult....

[SDguy]

I would expect one of the 3 deer that ran further off than desired was the recipient of a marginal shot placement.Familiarize yourself with the brachial plexus shot placement for DRT tracking jobs.

That being said, I am a fan of more nearly free velocity, that we get with a longer barrel. For my use, 22" barrel is where I have settled for my bolt action deer hunting rifles in Grendel & ARC. Then I have not utilized a suppressor as of yet.

[Stinky Coyote]

Well, just 1 story, my buddy shot 3 deer walking down a fence line at about 100yds to 150yds using a 16'' barrel 6.5GRR with 123gn Hornady SST's, he claims to have had good shot placement, and he was not impressed with the performance of this combo! claimed 1 of the deer ran a long ways off before he found it! IMO 16 '' of barrel was not enough to give the performance for that bullet IMO!!

me and kids shot 3 Alberta whitetails at 300, 355 and 420 yards with 16" barrel grendel, the 420 mature doe dropped on the spot, the 355 young doe did a 40 yard dash, the 300 (150 class mature buck) did a 50 yard dash, 1800 fps impact velocity at 420 yards at our elevation with hornady black, no contest for deer, the 420 yard deer was quartering, did 15" penetration and front of chest to mid rib cage exited and took off the stuff atop the heart, a moose or elk won't take that bullet from a 16" in the ribs at 400 yards...so there's that, tell your buddy that there's no replacement for placement, and that you don't get to blame the gun or cartridge or bullet when you're shooting way more than enough of all three lol, that's all on him lol

[radar97]

Just ordered a 14.5" Lilja and bolt from rebby over at SixSigma arms. Put a lot of thought into this and decided to go with the best barrel I could. I really liked the monster barrel at the price, but I decided to splurge on my first real premium barrel. I'll be pulling overtime and not checking my bank account while I wait haha

Thanks for all the help everyone!