03-09-2020, 11:00 PM
tdbru Wrote:Floorpoor,
benchmark and H4895 are relatively temp insensitive and have a burn rate somewhat in line with the 6.5 Grendel. 8208 has a lot of fans for relative temperature insensitivity and useful performance out of the Grendel. APPV seems to give great velocities, but is not as temp stable as many other choices. lots of folks like AR-Comp but i haven't tried that yet.
i've got the same 22" mini howa and will be bedding it in a B&C mini howa sporter this week. then doing more load development checking.
the bullet you use has gotten mostly favorable reviews as terminal performance goes. seems rifles either shoot them well or not at all. haven't seen much in-between as far as accuracy reports.
due to the magazine dropping out at inappropriate times, as soon as HPK gets his bottom metal ready i'm going to order a set for my rig and test it out. I think oregon gun smithing already has a setup like that out in the market.
i do like the low rifle weight and modest recoil of the 6.5 Grendel in the mini howa.
another option, since you reload, is to use a relatively fast powder that works well at lower loading densities, like H4895, and simply download your 7mm Rem Mag to, say, 7m-08 or 7x57 levels using a lighter (120ish gr.) bullet for a lot less pulverized shoulders. of course that doesn't get around rifle weight, that will be still as heavy to haul around, but the recoil will be much less and you shouldn't have such bloodshot meat.
of course the 6.5 Grendel option is way cool. and light weight. and modest recoil.
-tdbru
I've shot a few deer with 139gr SST's in the 7 mag. They performed well, but seem to be very sensitive to seating depth. It took a lot more tinkering to get them to shoot well.
It's a good bullet for hunting, whether or not I can get it to shoot well remains to be seen.
Thanks for your input.