Economy Ammunition

[BjornF16]

+1 on the 123 grain SST!

[LR1955]

As many of us use the Grendels for practical rifle and other similar matches, you might give some thought to a low cost, good accuracy load. Something using the Hornady brass, and an accurate Hornady bullet would really help keep costs down. Although the Berger bullets are very accurate, they are noticeably more expensive than many of the Hornady offerings.

Noone:

'Low cost' and 'match grade' bullets are mutually exclusive.

No matter what anyone in the USA does, they won't be able to undercut Wolf MPT in price. Not with US made brass and particularly US made match grade bullets.

LR55

[LR1955]

I guess I don't think to many people are looking hard for 115gr bullets. The biggest demand is 123gr A-Max and scenars as far as I know. I have to agree with steel89 about the 123gr special edition hunting around from hornady. I would be all over that in a minute. Good to see you on here Bill.

GN:

The reason is that not too many places make a 115 grain 6.5 bullet. I make a bunch of them for my own use and LRP52 is right that they do represent a excellent combination of weight / length in terms of the dimensions and shape of the Grendel case.

LR55

[skyfish]

Since we are all putting are want list here. I agree with most of above. The Hornady seems to have the best combination of price and quality. Actually, I have not been able to best the 123 A-max in my Grendel, weather I use my reloads reloads or factory.

If I could get "economy ammo" of my choosing with good Hornady brass, my ideal bullet would be a hunting grade BTHP of 110 grains. Good enough BC to shoot out to 600 yards. The A-max is great, but will not handle bone very well. Since that bullet(the 110 gr BTHP) doesn't exist, I would lean toward the new 100gr A-max. I would stay away from the Berger and Nosler as they tend to be more pricey. From personal experience, I believe the Nosler BT is not even close to the SST in holding together. I get to shoot a lot of deer in Iowa, sometime up to 8 a day. The antlerless season in January has made my winters fun, but the farmer wants them thinned big time. I've been hunting now three years on his 6000 acres and they breed faster than I shoot them. My 2 cents on ammo.

[ss355]

Bill asked for any input, so I'll state that I'm with Stan. I rarely hunt, so I want an economy round I can use for practicing, plinking or fouling the barrel before sending more expensive target loads downrange. FMJ, HP, SP, I don't care, as long as it's less expensive than the current Hornady 123 grn Amax. I know Wolf brass case is available ($13 a box at aimsurplus), but I'd rather stick with Hornady or Lapua brass with the small primer because I will reload those.

I'm getting tired of holding my breath for more news about the mythical Wolf 110 grn FMJ steel case at about a quarter a round. If we see it, I believe that round will be a boon for the 6.5 community.

[Budmccarroll]

Well I built my Grendel to hunt. I load all of mine with 123 AMax Or Barnes 100 TSX.

[JASmith]

Going with a 95 gr VMax or the 100 gr TTSX would make for a flatter trajectory out to beyond 330 yards. If the manufacturer's posted ballistic coefficients are accurate, then the VMax could make an excellent varmint, target, and plinking round out to a few hundred yards (higher BC than the 100gr TTSX). The 100 gr TTSX has a good chance of performing well out to what most of us would consider reasonable big game shooting distances.

Too bad they're so expensive!

[Gswamp]

Bill,you might consider the Speer 120gr Hot Cor bullets. They seem to be the cheapest bullet in that weight in 6.5 caliber. They are plenty accurate and mushroom well. They also hold together well enough especially at Grendel velocity. To be honest the Grendel power wise is about on par with a 30-30. I have never thought I needed solids or partitions to get the job done with my 30-30. A boattail base is of little value at reasonable hunting distances. A simple, well constructed bullet is what is needed for no frills hunting loads in the 6.5 Grendel. The Speer Hot Cor fills the bill for that.

[sgt_murf]

Bill,you might consider the Speer 120gr Hot Cor bullets. They seem to be the cheapest bullet in that weight in 6.5 caliber. They are plenty accurate and mushroom well. They also hold together well enough especially at Grendel velocity. To be honest the Grendel power wise is about on par with a 30-30. I have never thought I needed solids or partitions to get the job done with my 30-30. A boattail base is of little value at reasonable hunting distances. A simple, well constructed bullet is what is needed for no frills hunting loads in the 6.5 Grendel. The Speer Hot Cor fills the bill for that.

+1 on the 120 grs from speer from what have read on here I really like the 100-115 FMJ mention for plinking but feel that maybe swamp is correct with the speer mention as it "could" fill both mentions light target and a hunting round at a reasonable cost.

[Nimrod]

Bill,you might consider the Speer 120gr Hot Cor bullets. They seem to be the cheapest bullet in that weight in 6.5 caliber. They are plenty accurate and mushroom well. They also hold together well enough especially at Grendel velocity. To be honest the Grendel power wise is about on par with a 30-30. I have never thought I needed solids or partitions to get the job done with my 30-30. A boattail base is of little value at reasonable hunting distances. A simple, well constructed bullet is what is needed for no frills hunting loads in the 6.5 Grendel. The Speer Hot Cor fills the bill for that.

+3 for speed hot core.

[RangerRick]

Bill,you might consider the Speer 120gr Hot Cor bullets. They seem to be the cheapest bullet in that weight in 6.5 caliber. They are plenty accurate and mushroom well. They also hold together well enough especially at Grendel velocity. To be honest the Grendel power wise is about on par with a 30-30. I have never thought I needed solids or partitions to get the job done with my 30-30. A boattail base is of little value at reasonable hunting distances. A simple, well constructed bullet is what is needed for no frills hunting loads in the 6.5 Grendel. The Speer Hot Cor fills the bill for that.

There is a little too much exposed lead on the Speer. Some people seem to have no feed problems with it in the Grendel, but others get deformation of the lead tip from sliding up the ramp.

The Remington 120 grain core-lokt is a good bullet. Surprisingly accurate and has very little exposed lead.

They used to be as cheap as the Speer, but they have gone up lately. Of course you might get a good price buying a 100,000 count lot.

[JASmith]

...The Remington 120 grain core-lokt is a good bullet. Surprisingly accurate and has very little exposed lead.

They used to be as cheap as the Speer, but they have gone up lately. Of course you might get a good price buying a 100,000 count lot.

Ranger Rick has a point. The Core-Lokt has a solid reputation across the spectrum of calibers. I also just checked MidwayUSA, and discovered that the price drops to about the same as the HotCor as soon as you buy 500 or more at a time.

[JASmith]

Ok, not a true economy round but something I am thinking about running once a year to liven up the summer and pre-empt hunting season. Anyway I was looking at a limited run of 50k-100k of a Hornady brass cased round. Either with a Nosler partition or maybe a 115 grain Berger as a factory special. The run would be a once a year deal, for the single batch size only and once it has sold that would be it until next year. Probably only priced for MSRP with no dealer bands to keep the price as low as possible.

Any input!

Bill Alexander

One could infer from your post that part of the goal is to see what new items would be of interest.

You already offer the Partition. The 115gr Berger would indeed be a new option.

There's a lot of folks showing interest in the 120 gr HotCor/Core-Lokt.

I think an offering of the Berger 6.5mm 100 Grain Match Target BT could generate a bit of excitement. The bullet is light enough that it would be rather flat shooting over the first few hundred yards. The G1 BC of 0.377 (G7 0.193) coupled with a probable 24" barrel muzzle velocity of 2750-2850 would give it a trajectory, wind drift, and residual velocity to that of the 7.62 M80 round at all ranges.

[stanc]

I think an offering of the Berger 6.5mm 100 Grain Match Target BT could generate a bit of excitement.

Uhh...you mean, sorta like this?

http://www.alexanderarms.com/item/12/157/65Grendel100gMatchTargetBTHPammunition.htm

[bwaites]

Uhh...you mean, sorta like this?

http://www.alexanderarms.com/item/12...ammunition.htm

LOL, Stan, you beat me to it!