Does anyone shoot 140's in their bolt Grendel?

[jason miller]

I played with some Berger 140 Hybrids and some 147 ELD’s a few years ago. If I remember correctly, I think was able to get them up to somewhere around 2440 and 2360 FPS with my Howa’s 20” barrel. I THINK I was using AR Comp, but it might have been H4895. Any of the other popular Grendel powders are either too fast-burning for the heavies(like 8208), not dense enough to get enough in the case(Varget), or temperature-sensitive ball powders that I don’t even want to mess with(CFE,LVR). The 140’s were very accurate. And if you plug them into a ballistic calculator, I believe they were catching 123’s(at 2620 from the same rifle) in velocity by either 600 or 800 yards. If you want to take your Grendel out to very long range, it might be worth trying.

Shortly after, we had a couple kids. My shooting has mostly migrated to pellet guns since then for their ease and lack of time expenditure, or else I might still be playing with the 140’s. I think 147’s really are too much for the Grendel, especially since my Litz book shows their BC dropping quite a bit more than many other bullets as the velocity decreases.

The other bullet I thought was worth more time was the 130 RDF. I was able to get them to a bit over 2500 FPS, but never found an accurate load. Always wondered if their listed BC would prove true...


As always, you should work up carefully in your own rifle, watching for pressure signs and using a chronograph.