A little back story first. The 6.5 grendel is my first AR and first semi auto. Ive always shot bolt actions and shot them very well. I figured I would start my first AR by building it so that way I would know how the entire thing works and how to disassemble and clean etc. I had help from a guy who builds ARs for a living. I ordered all my parts individually and think I ordered pretty good stuff. Alexander Arms stripped lower, 16" barrel, and bolt. Midwest Industries handguard, Larue MBT 2s trigger.
First time I took it out shooting I wanted to throw it in the trash as previously posted. I shot hornady 123 g SST and Amax, The amax shot better but still like 2moaish and the SST was easily 5+ MOA. I did my research and lapped the upper receiver, bedded the barrel and went back with Amax and ELD-M. It shot much better. 4 shot groups were mostly all around 1moa with a couple 3/4 MOA. Of course, I wanted better so lets take a dive into reloading. I got all my reloading gear back in June (its october), thats right I spent 4 months doing a ton of research, bought and read volumes 1 and 2 of the reloading handbooks, along with a few other books, watched countless youtube videos on reloading etc.
I ordered 200 blem bullets from midway. I understand these might not be as accurate as non blems but its my first bullets to reload and the main goal is to not blow my face off right. I ordered 123g polymer tipped boat tails that im not positive what they are and 120g lead free that LRRP52 said were the Hornady GMX in a previous post. Following volume 2 load data I found a 120g lead free load and 123g load that used CFE powder and CCI 41 primers.
My reloading process was very thorough. 1st I took all my once fired brass and put it in the tumbler and most ran from 8-12 hours overnight. After that I lubed and put through my redding full length resizing/depriming die. Then I put back in the tumbler to take the lube off overnight. After that I trimmed all the brass with my Worlds Finest Trimmer to 1.513. Next I used the chamfer deburring tool to clean the edge I trimmer. After that I used a RCBS priming tool to prime all the cases. Now its time for charges. I did 10 rounds of the lowest charge of the 123g first. 5 shots to foul up the barrel a little then everything else would be 5 shot groups. The 123 grains had a max load of 31.0g of powder so I started at 27.9 and did .3g increases to 30.3g stopping 0.7 g short of max load. I loaded with COAL of 2.250 +- .003. I loaded the 120g lead free starting at 27.3 and increased in 0.3g increments to 30.0 with COAL 2.250 +-0.003.
Im guessing the 123g that I dont know what they are are SST cause the groups were aweful as you will see in the pictures. My 123g groups are the top 2 targets. The lead free where not much better but I had 2 groups that were "OK" for hunting purposes but not going to win me anything. I was using a 16x nikon monarch which works very well for me on my bolt action. I moved it to the AR just for load development. I was shooting off a gun rest and I admit that the table height wasnt super confortable for me but I was able to get into what I felt was a good steady shooting position with what felt like good trigger pulls. It was a little breezy and im not sure how much that affected the groups or if it was all me or some of the loads or all of the above.
So heres my questions. What is a decent inexpensive bullet to buy to load for plinking for more trigger time and what is another good option for a lead free hunting round shooting in florida where the game is typically 100-150lb deer and hogs. I am thinking I can go with a lighter lead free bullet that I might be able to get higher velocities on to increase the effective range maybe.
I also admit that I am not an expert shooter but I do shoot allot better then this with my bolt action 270.
First time I took it out shooting I wanted to throw it in the trash as previously posted. I shot hornady 123 g SST and Amax, The amax shot better but still like 2moaish and the SST was easily 5+ MOA. I did my research and lapped the upper receiver, bedded the barrel and went back with Amax and ELD-M. It shot much better. 4 shot groups were mostly all around 1moa with a couple 3/4 MOA. Of course, I wanted better so lets take a dive into reloading. I got all my reloading gear back in June (its october), thats right I spent 4 months doing a ton of research, bought and read volumes 1 and 2 of the reloading handbooks, along with a few other books, watched countless youtube videos on reloading etc.
I ordered 200 blem bullets from midway. I understand these might not be as accurate as non blems but its my first bullets to reload and the main goal is to not blow my face off right. I ordered 123g polymer tipped boat tails that im not positive what they are and 120g lead free that LRRP52 said were the Hornady GMX in a previous post. Following volume 2 load data I found a 120g lead free load and 123g load that used CFE powder and CCI 41 primers.
My reloading process was very thorough. 1st I took all my once fired brass and put it in the tumbler and most ran from 8-12 hours overnight. After that I lubed and put through my redding full length resizing/depriming die. Then I put back in the tumbler to take the lube off overnight. After that I trimmed all the brass with my Worlds Finest Trimmer to 1.513. Next I used the chamfer deburring tool to clean the edge I trimmer. After that I used a RCBS priming tool to prime all the cases. Now its time for charges. I did 10 rounds of the lowest charge of the 123g first. 5 shots to foul up the barrel a little then everything else would be 5 shot groups. The 123 grains had a max load of 31.0g of powder so I started at 27.9 and did .3g increases to 30.3g stopping 0.7 g short of max load. I loaded with COAL of 2.250 +- .003. I loaded the 120g lead free starting at 27.3 and increased in 0.3g increments to 30.0 with COAL 2.250 +-0.003.
Im guessing the 123g that I dont know what they are are SST cause the groups were aweful as you will see in the pictures. My 123g groups are the top 2 targets. The lead free where not much better but I had 2 groups that were "OK" for hunting purposes but not going to win me anything. I was using a 16x nikon monarch which works very well for me on my bolt action. I moved it to the AR just for load development. I was shooting off a gun rest and I admit that the table height wasnt super confortable for me but I was able to get into what I felt was a good steady shooting position with what felt like good trigger pulls. It was a little breezy and im not sure how much that affected the groups or if it was all me or some of the loads or all of the above.
So heres my questions. What is a decent inexpensive bullet to buy to load for plinking for more trigger time and what is another good option for a lead free hunting round shooting in florida where the game is typically 100-150lb deer and hogs. I am thinking I can go with a lighter lead free bullet that I might be able to get higher velocities on to increase the effective range maybe.
I also admit that I am not an expert shooter but I do shoot allot better then this with my bolt action 270.
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