14.5" Grendel

[pajasonc]

The 16" data on Hornady's site is in fact a 14.5" AA Grendel with a pinned muzzle device, confirmed by Hornady tech support.

Use .462 G1 BC for your 123gr SST calculations within 600yds.

If you hand load for the 14.5", you can probably get 2450fps easily with CFE223.

You can also load the 129gr ABLR.

As pajasonc stated, 18" Grendel with a 123gr has typically been in the 2457-2511fps range for me using several different factory 120-123gr loads.

You will still get expansion on soft tissue down to 1800fps with the 123gr SST, especially with Grendel twist rates.

those pictures at 1800 are not showing much expansion. The 2000 fps one showed good expansion.

Which basically means that a 14.5 " grendel using the 123 sst is good out to 300, where you can expect the bullet would look like the picture with decent espansion. Any further and there is a very real chance that you won't get a quick clean kill. So to take the 14.5 " further you would either need to boost speed(handload hotter) or use a softer bullet(which at close range runs the risk of over expanding and not penetrating enough) I would like to see how much the amax's expand at 1600 fps.