03-12-2016, 02:10 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-12-2016, 02:15 PM by Rugerfan.64.)
Side tracking the Benchmark discussion momentarily, after careful consideration I went with AR Comp. I have used Alliant powder for a long time in other cartridges and found them to deliver excellent accuracy , velocity , and lot to lot uniformity. With that being said I looked everything I could find on this powder with 6.5 Grendel as the application. I read about the excellent single digit SD's and went with it. I loaded up from 26.4 - 27.9 grains in .3 gr increments. I have never used a mag primer with extruded powder , ball powder yes.
I took all of this + my chrony to the bottoms and spent the afternoon with my Grendel and a 25-06. All my groups were from a cold barrel. The velocity was where I expected. When I got to 27.0 grains of powder my SD went from low double digits to single digits. I was only shooting 3 shot groups, but recorded an SD of 1 on one of the loads. So from 27.0 to 27.9 all the SD's were single digits. I shot one 3 shot group at .286" at 100 yards. The rest of the groups from 27.0 - 27.9 were between .286" and a touch over 1".
Velocity of my chosen load ended up being 2610 fps. I reshot the 27.6 and 27.9 load the next day and the 27.6 load went 1.19" at 100 yds. It had an SD of 8.42. I believe AR Comp is an excellent powder for the 6.5 Grendel. The 10 shots were fired slow fire, single load , the barrel warmed up pretty well but not scalding. It also had at the end of the session 60 rounds through it. I didn't think about it when I started but I should have cleaned it. No telling how it would have shot had it been clean.
My load consists of :
Hornady brass
27.6 gr AR Comp
CCI 400
Sierra 120 gr Pro Hunter.
Here are my results.
( tried to insert picture here, its on my profile album)
I haven't shot this at 300 yet to bare out my results so it is still pending but very encouraging.
I view the 6.5 as more of a very good 300 -350 yd deer hunting round. I realize it is capable of long range feats well in excess of the small size it portrays. Most of my shooting is done either in preparation to shoot an animal or at the actual animal. In this arena I believe it will preform very well.
I took all of this + my chrony to the bottoms and spent the afternoon with my Grendel and a 25-06. All my groups were from a cold barrel. The velocity was where I expected. When I got to 27.0 grains of powder my SD went from low double digits to single digits. I was only shooting 3 shot groups, but recorded an SD of 1 on one of the loads. So from 27.0 to 27.9 all the SD's were single digits. I shot one 3 shot group at .286" at 100 yards. The rest of the groups from 27.0 - 27.9 were between .286" and a touch over 1".
Velocity of my chosen load ended up being 2610 fps. I reshot the 27.6 and 27.9 load the next day and the 27.6 load went 1.19" at 100 yds. It had an SD of 8.42. I believe AR Comp is an excellent powder for the 6.5 Grendel. The 10 shots were fired slow fire, single load , the barrel warmed up pretty well but not scalding. It also had at the end of the session 60 rounds through it. I didn't think about it when I started but I should have cleaned it. No telling how it would have shot had it been clean.
My load consists of :
Hornady brass
27.6 gr AR Comp
CCI 400
Sierra 120 gr Pro Hunter.
Here are my results.
( tried to insert picture here, its on my profile album)
I haven't shot this at 300 yet to bare out my results so it is still pending but very encouraging.
I view the 6.5 as more of a very good 300 -350 yd deer hunting round. I realize it is capable of long range feats well in excess of the small size it portrays. Most of my shooting is done either in preparation to shoot an animal or at the actual animal. In this arena I believe it will preform very well.