Short range bullet

[Rockhound]

I've read through this whole section in the past few weeks, and I love the info that has been dedicated to this caliber.

My question is, with the thickets we hunt, with sometimes less than ideal shots ( hard quarters, shoulder and rib punching) is the 123 gr. Sst enough to get reliable pass through? I've never been a big non bonded bullet fan, for the reasons of pass through can be critical for a blood trail in the terrain as in we generally hunt. I'm leaning yo the 129 gr. (Sst, Ib, or sp) as well as the 100 gr. Barnes or partition.

Shots could possibly be up to 330 yards in one food plot.

I'll probably give the 123 gr. Sst in go this year, after reading the great reviews, and decide after s couple kills

[JASmith]

Any of your alternative bullets should work well. The 129gr class bullets will have less deflection from wind. The 100 gr class bullets, especially the Barnes style and the Partition, will shoot a tad flatter over the ranges you mention.

Go with the one you rifle likes and has the accuracy you desire.

[Rockhound]

Do most of the 129 grainers have sufficient expansion to 300 yards at grendel speeds? Will most of them punch bone at 40 yards without blowing up?

[Frontier Gear]

What are you shooting at; coyotes, deer, elk, etc...? How long is your barrel? Barrel length will effect velocity at longer distances, which will effect bullet expansion. I think that those questions are more relevant than bullet selection. Last year I took a whitetail spike at 230 yards with a Hornady 123 grain ELD bullet (not a "hunting" bullet), but it performed very well out of an 18" barrel. I really like the Grendel specifically because it performs well at short ranges as well as "long" (300 yards) ranges. Short and long are reletive terms, but for rifle hunting, 40 yards is what I would call short and 300 yards is what I would call long.

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[A5BLASTER]

Pick a all cooper bullet in the 85 to 100 grain range load for best groups with as much speed as you can get and enjoy dead game.

[Rockhound]

18" barrel, shooting deer for the most part. Coyotes and such will be targets of opportunity but they will get whatever I'm slinging at deer. I'm gonna try the 123 hr. Sst this season and see if it performs for me. I'll probably try the 129 lrab as I'm an accubond fan already

[LRRPF52]

I would look at these two bullets for your purposes:

129gr ABLR (1300fps expansion)
110gr Controlled Chaos (1500fps expansion)
85gr Maker

I haven't tested the Cavity Back bullets, but those are another option.

The 330yd shots are well within the expansion envelope of the 123gr SST, however, on quarreling shots, you might not get a pass-through. Your pretty much guaranteed pass-throughs will happen with the solids and bonded bullets.

129gr ABLR seems to open up fully within the first inch of penetration, as it's a very soft bullet, but the bonding really does work as advertised.

Do you have the 6.5 Grendel Handbooks yet? There is a ton of info in there that will answer most of your questions and more.





They include a lot of info even for non reloaders to be able to determine their expansion envelope and realistic expectations of terminal performance of various bullets on game.

[Frontier Gear]

With an 18" barrel on deer and smaller game, you should be fine. As others have said; pick a load that your gun likes. Accuracy is more important than bullet construction at that point. I use the ELD because they are noticeably more accurate in my rifle than the SST.

[JASmith]

Pick a all cooper bullet in the 85 to 100 grain range load for best groups with as much speed as you can get and enjoy dead game.

+1 !!

[Rockhound]

I would look at these two bullets for your purposes:

129gr ABLR (1300fps expansion)
110gr Controlled Chaos (1500fps expansion)
85gr Maker

I haven't tested the Cavity Back bullets, but those are another option.

The 330yd shots are well within the expansion envelope of the 123gr SST, however, on quarreling shots, you might not get a pass-through. Your pretty much guaranteed pass-throughs will happen with the solids and bonded bullets.

129gr ABLR seems to open up fully within the first inch of penetration, as it's a very soft bullet, but the bonding really does work as advertised.

Do you have the 6.5 Grendel Handbooks yet? There is a ton of info in there that will answer most of your questions and more.





They include a lot of info even for non reloaders to be able to determine their expansion envelope and realistic expectations of terminal performance of various bullets on game.

Lrr I've followed your posts, very informative. I will purchase the books. Because I do reload and have for several years, from 410-10 gauge ( mainly Turkey loads) and from 204 ruger to 300 wsm and many in between. The accubond has my attention as it seems to be an end all for big game for my purposes. I thought there may be a cheaper pill that may work. The 129 gr. Sst or seemed like it may do well but I'm not sure how well it would work out to 250+ expansion wise

[LRRPF52]

You'll have expansion to 350yds with the 129gr SST if you load it to at least 2350fps, which is no problem for 18" Grendel.

You can get the 129gr SP faster at the muzzle, but it will lose speed faster than the SST due to BC. Since it doesn't have as long of a profile and is flat-based, you can get it going faster.

If you can safely load it to 2450fps with that extra case capacity left with the flat-base, that might be reasonable. Just depends on your barrel and powder.

At 2450fps, it will still expand to 350yds. I don't trust the stated BC for the 129gr SP, so I dropped it down to .421 G1.

The published BC for the 129gr SST (.485) is lower than when Litz analyzed it, so he got .495 G1 with it. With the 129gr SSTs, it seems that some of them are really accurate, then you'll get some that will open up groups considerably.

I've had that happen to me in .260 Remington before. I have hundreds of the things too.

[Rockhound]

Great info thanks again