156gr Oryx, best 6.5 Grendel load ever???

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...for hunting larger bodied, big game, and/or those tough pig shoulders.

In an ongoing effort to explore heavy bullets in the 6.5 Grendel to maximize hunting penetration for larger bodied game animals, today I focused on 156 grain Norma Oryx. For my ongoing bullet efforts with the 160 grain Hornady round nose, see here: http://www.65grendel.com/forum/showt...rnady-RN-today

The Oryx is a bonded gilded metal jacket, lead core bullet. It is arguably one of the finest penetrating hunting bullets ever. The Oryx will work all the way down to about 1,500 fps. With the velocity achieved in this load in my rifle that puts me out to 300 yards at my altitude, 550' ASL.

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And parsing out the pics because I'm limited to only posting 4 at a time????

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[Mitdr774]

That is some impressive results.

[Lemonaid]

Great post. There are new Grendel discoveries being made quite frequently. Don't mean to detract from your positive results but will point out a few minus points. One is having to use a drop tube, the more it's a hassle to reload the less popular it will be. Number two is demonstrated by your photo of loaded round that shows how far past the shoulder the bullet intrudes into the powder column. A common result with the long bullets or even medium with certain bullet profiles. Number three is for those who want longer range or flatter trajectory.
The minus points are on the small side, the pluses on the large. It will be interesting to see what the results on game will be, I bet it will hammer what it hits!

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Arrrrghhh....
Just tried to reply while using my cell phone and went to edit my long post after I posted it and I deleted the damn thing!!! That really sucks!

Anyway, @lemonade, I got to run but basically it was to say i don't mind the constructive criticism at all. Anything worth considering is worth a shakedown. It's how anything improves. As for using a drop tube, I use drop tubes whenever I'm over 100% density in order to make the powder column as consistent as possible. It's how I shoot little itty bitty tiny groups with compressed loads. Next time out, I'll try it without the drop tube. I expect it'll probably be still under half Moa.

There are a lot of great hunting bullets out there that can be launched from the Grendel. They have a range of applications from smaller Critters to longer-range for bigger animals. For my AO, things are large, typically above 160 lb and within 200 yards in thick cover. The types/velocities of bullet I've been working with in the Grendel seem to be ideally suited for my AO. For someone else in another geograph, with different game under different conditions there would be much better choices that would fit.

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Also, much like the Ford versus Chevy versus a Dodge argument, in terminal ballistics there's the full penetration pass-through vs. The full energy dump inside the animal argument. I'm of the persuasion I'd rather have the bullet pass through and leave a good blood trail. It's worked very well for me in the manner and way I hunt. Animals still don't go very far and I found I ruin a lot less meat.

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Oh yeah, on the length... during my work up I had some of them going 2260fps from my 16 in tube at mag length - my limiting factor being the chamber OAL. They were starting to show pressure though. Folks who run a bolt gun, esp with a chamber that will allow more OAL, and/or with a 20" or longer barrel should be able to get these handily above 2300fps with RL17.

[peak98]

Impressive load and great shooting BB.
peak98

[bruceleroy]

Great job. I look forward to experimenting with stuff like this once my hunting loads are finalized.

[BluntForceTrauma]

Excellent report. Great details and pix. Thanks for taking the time; it is appreciated!

[HuntTXhogs]

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Truth be told, I had these kicking around since last fall when you could find them leading up to hunting season. I had bought them for my Creedmoor that has since moved on. For what it's worth I just called Grafs where I bought them from and they said they are on order. The kind woman said they get a shipment in from Norma about once a quarter.

Yeah, that would be a frustrating aspect of this work put into this bullet if it's something hard to get. I don't have any experience with their availability other than when I bought these.

Been giving an eyeball towards the 156gr Alaskan and Vulcan as well. Like to get my hands on some of those and give him them a whirl. Not sure they'll do any better then these or the 160 Hornady round nose. In the absence of the Norma I would give a hard look at that 160 Hornady round nose. See my posting on that as well. I wouldn't hesitate to use that for my purposes in the slightest bit.

I haven't had the opportunity to workout the accuracy aspect with the Hornady yet though. As of the load that I posted for it, it's doing 1.25 Moa at 100, as is in my rifle.

[HuntTXhogs]

[jmkhenka]

You are welcome to sweden, where every gun store has atleast 10 boxes in 6.5 and .30..
Oryx is probably the most used bullet in sweden. Alaska might be more common, but mostly because hunters here is cheap and they probably have the same box since 1960.

there is a nice alternative, Woodleigh 80A or 80B. I shot the 80B (roundnose) in my grendel with a V0 of around 2150-2200.

The 80A has better BC (around .5), I would take that instead but my experience is that even in my 6.5x55 it didnt expand much when shot a moose calf at 50 meters (v0 was around 2650-2700). If the 6.5x55 cant make it work, i doubt grendel will make it more then a FMJ in those speeds.

Im going to test the roundnose on roe this fall, its that or 120 nosler BT.

Killed two roe this last week - the lack of lighter 6.5 bullets at that time forced me to use a 140 grain nosler partition. It worked, but not much expansion even though it took the shoulder.
the 120 Partition looks nice though.