6.5 Grendel vs Button Buck

[Christopharx]

Palmetto State Armory 18.5" rifle, chambered in 6.5 Grendel. Primary Arms 1-6x. Hornady 123 grain SST.

Last day of deer rifle season, thought I'd share the terminal ballistics with you guys. It was 6 degrees with the wind gusting so I decided to still hunt a bit to not freeze, he was hiding from the wind about 35 yards away from me down a 40 degree slope. Looked like the bullet went through the back of the skull and spinal cord. I found one or two small pieces of the jacket in the blood/bone but couldn't find the rest of the bullet. I had hoped I could, because it looks like the bullet opened up super quick, though not sure how I feel about the jacket separating. Would love to hear some thoughts on the 123 SST from others who have used it.

The Deer: https://i.imgur.com/vGbI0RP.jpg

Entrance wound: https://imgur.com/6QEWxhU

Exit wound: https://imgur.com/zwqJKl1

[A5BLASTER]

Congrats on the kill sir.

Can't help on the sst results. I won't use them for hunting. Just not my type of bullet.

[VASCAR2]

From my experience head shots with cup and core bullets is very destructive to the bullet. There was obviously enough bullet mass to exit, evident by the exit wound. About any cup and core bullet is going to shed weight after hitting bone. The higher the velocity (closer distance) is going to generally reduce penetration. If your concerned about the 123 grain SST shedding weight you might consider one of the monolithic bullets (copper alloy). The partition bullets tend to hold more mass than a conventional cup and core bullet. A bonded core bullet like the Fusion or Gold dot are less likely to shed as much weight as the SST.

Obviously your bullet resulted in collecting the deer and I doubt the deer was able to go very far, if at all after that hit.

[CJW]

Nice job and welcome to the clan.

Nice pictures.

[GREYBUFF]

Nice job! especially since "no one uses an AR for hunting".

[1Shot]

Can't help you with 123 SST because neither of my rifles will shoot this bullet either in factory ammo or NUMERIOUS hand load combos good enough for me to try to hunt with them. Did kill one deer with the 120 Gold Dot in a hand load. Shot was at 111 yards to the center of the chest as the doe faced me. Bullet did tremendous damage to vitals and penetrated about 20" and exited the belly with a thumb size hole. Bullet expanded but held together because there were NO BULLET FRAGMENTS found anyplace.

[sundowner]

Congrats on the deer .

[Growler]

Congratulations on the deer. This looks like a clean take.
Placement > terminal ballistics > energy
Happy cooking!

[RobertFL]

Have head shot 5 hogs with SSTs less than 20 yards all damage looked like your pics. Shot a hog 25 or 30 yards away running and quartered away. Barely hit liver and got at least one lung, bullet passed thru and was not recovered. The 80lb boar ran 30 yards and fell over, did not have to blood trail. When cleaned there was good internal damage. I just purchased 2 boxes of 85 grain T-REX rounds from Maker. Hoping to try them out on a hog soon. I may buy some heavier 110 TREX bullets and try them out. So right now the 123 grain SSTs are grouping well from my 16" 5R Faxon barrel. The SSTs have passed thru hog skulls and one body shot hog, with my limited use of them I can't say if they are the best for me..

[Christopharx]

Thank you all for your replies, I love reading and learning new experiences especially when it comes to what is working best for everyone. Vascar, I agree I was doing some research and I guess the spinal cord/skull is very hard and does a ton of damage to the bullet, so I suppose it's not TERRIBLE that I was seeing some jacket separation. I appreciate your suggestion about trying out monolithic bullets, especially since I'm usually a fan of shot placement and good penetration followed by good expansion. Problem for me is that I don't reload at all, and finding factory box ammo has been a bit of a chore. I am looking at Federals lineup to try out, as I guess those are bonded and hold together a bit better. I'd love to try the gold dots like 1shot also recommended, I use them for my 5.56 with awesome results. I'm not abandoning the SST just yet, just trying to get some options. Also the deer dropped in its tracks like flipping a switch, no kicking or anything when it hit the ground.

Greybuff, yeah I'm a huge fan of the AR setup. This is my second year hunting, the first year I used my Thompson Center .308 which I love, but I come from a background of carrying the ARs on a regular basis so the switch was hugely beneficial to me. The ergonomics and ease of use made carrying the Grendel AR for still/blind hunting a breeze. Much faster to get it on target, double point adjustable slings are amazing, and the general safety/controls of it are fast and efficient.

Oh also, I've been reading a lot through these forums and seen a lot of people use the Hornady Black for hunting medium/big game. I emailed Hornady once for the 6.5 Grendel asking about the difference between the Black and SST, I'll just upload a screenshot of the email. https://imgur.com/siCigD2 According to the Hornady rep, the Hornady Black isn't supposed to be used for any hunting applications, and the SST is designed to stick together.. Not EXACTLY what I got as a result but figured I'd let you guys see.

[VASCAR2]

Precision Firearms offers ammo loaded with several monolithic bullets in fifty round boxes. PF has some loaded ammo in Lapua brass, Hornady brass and Starline brass. PF uses Barnes, Nosler, Lapua, Hornady bullets with quite a selection. For hunting ammo a box of fifty could last several years for a deer hunter.

https://www.precisionfirearms.com/48m8/ammo/6-5-grendel-ammo.html

[Carlson]

Well done. Nice pictures!

[LRRPF52]

Here are your pics:

[Constitutionalist]

FWIW I've shot one deer with a 123gr. SST- a 155lb. doe. 125 yards quartering away and downhill. Hit it through the third rib from the back. That rib and the ribs on either side of it had 2" of bone missing, it shredded both lungs, detached the heart from everything (I just lifted it out with my hand after opening the diaphragm), and exited between the far shoulder and the neck (two more ribs missing significant bone). She dropped in her tracks and slid 20' downhill until bumping up against a log. The blood in the snow was a sight to see. I found most of the jacket caught in the hide at the exit hole. Since there's not enough meat on deer ribs to mess with, I didn't lose much.

Some might say the bullet "failed" because the core and jacket separated. My perspective is that it hammered the deer and dropped her for a very quick and humane kill with over 20" of penetration and a golf ball-sized exit hole. I know what bullet I'll be using the next time I shoot one with a Grendel.

My load for this rifle is Hornady brass, CCI-450, 27.0gr. IMR-8208XBR at 2450fps. 20" Hanover Armory Upper on a PSA Lower, Rock River Match trigger and a Vortex Diamondback 4-12X Scope.