Is there one bullet that does it all in the grendel?

[Papa Smurff]

Kinda a one bullet kind of guy.Those of you that have shot the cartridge for a while and know what the little fellow will do chime in. For years I've used 87gr Sierra in the 257 Bob at 2970 fps for everything from rhodents to deer and was never disappointed. Limited shots to 300yds, most less than 200yds, some even closer and always killed what I was aiming at. Is there one bullet that does it all in the grendel? I'd like to find some of the 100 gr Hornady eld and work up a load for the howa mini and shoot throgh the colder months, but, alass they are no where to be found. Thought about the 100 gr Nosler hpbt but haven't found much good news for them on the net. My next thoughts went to the 120gr class, either Sierra hpbt or the Hornady 120 eld as ther are quite a few loads available on the net. Most of my shooting in Kansas is in cattle country of the flint hills and long shots are 300yds with the Kansas wind(10 to 35mph pretty common) limiting that most days.

[imaguy3]

123gr sst or eldm for me.. shots on deer and smaller out to 500 with winds varying from 5-40 across canyons.

[gwtx]

Is there one bullet that does it all in the grendel?

123gr sst or eldm for me.. shots on deer and smaller out to 500 with winds varying from 5-40 across canyons.

123sst for it's terminal performance. I hunt at night and don't shoot over 250yds ,,,,Unless I need to eldm may be a tad more accurate, but I've not had much experience "killin" with them. Others say they do ok.

[sundowner]

Yes the 123 sst is a great all-around round .

[lazyengineer]

Yes the 123 sst is a great all-around round .

This is my opinion. Beware to make sure it isn't buried into your lands, or accuracy suffers badly. But with the right jump it can shoot quite great, and has excellent flight and terminal performance.

I like 90 TNT as a cheap <200 taget bullet and slayer. I like 107 SMK HPBT at a target round. But if only one : 123 SST

[Papa Smurff]

Looks like Powder Valley has them in stock for now, just tring to figure out the best powder for the variable Kansas temps. 67 degrees when I started the car this morning and 96 when I left work.

[stef1274]

I would say rather the 123 ELD-M than SST.

With what I see, the guys can't get the same grouping with SST that they can with ELD-M. And the velocity is low enough to make the ELD-M a liveable body shot bullet.

(Here in our neck of the woods, people don't like SST because of too rapid expansion. We generally do not shoot as far behind the shoulder as I believe hunters in US do).

P.S In SA we have a monolithic bullet manufacturer that uses softer, more pure copper, to give terminal performance similar to the of Barnes TSX, but at milder velocities, while still controlling expansion with a limited depth cavity. So a 115gr at about 2600fps should be able to handle shots right on the shoulder on hartbees size antelope (I think that's roughly mule or caribou size). They are CNC machined to a very tight tolerance and good BC, equal to their equivalent match bullet. This at the same price that we can buy a Hornady SP. I'm considering this as a one stop bullet. Links below for info:

https://balistixbullets.com/home/

https://balistixbullets.com/products/

https://balistixbullets.com/testimonials/

https://www.gunsite.co.za/forums/showthread.php?103878-Balistix-Bullets-Review-and-interesting-observations

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oMmC6oxiSLE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyVPt-8aDBA

[JASmith]

stef1274 -- That's an excellent choice!

Somewhat flatter shooting over the first 300, and the monolithic expanding bullet kills about the same as a lead core weighing 30-40% more.

Edit -- I will, however, concede that using that bullet for mice, rats, and squirrels might get to be a bit pricey - - -

[Stinky Coyote]

Hornady black factory ammo, already has the best bullet, 123 gr eld-m, and don't even need to reload, have 15 head of Alberta big game in 5 seasons from wolf to moose, 10-420 yards, average shot distance 163 yards, average recovery distance 13 yards. That ammo has shot accurate in everything so far. About moa in cz American, about 3/4 moa in ruger American ranch, about 1/2 moa in howa 20" lightweight (all 3-shot groups), and was 1/2 moa in a proof carbon 24" barrel I ran for awhile too, and fast in the proof barrel, 2605 fps average, it ran 2552 fps average from the 23.5" factory cz American barrel, and around 2500 from 20" howa, it does 2386 fps out of the 16.1" ruger American ranch. Just buy cases and have a blast, range or animals, it squeaks the most from this niche end of cartridge selection and 30 grains of powder. No need to overthink it at all. Everything right off the shelf.

[vaguru]

stef1274, stinky coyote, and any others,

What makes the 123 ELDM better than the 120 ELDM in your experience? Have you used it (120ELDM) for game?

Thanks

[Stinky Coyote]

I have no other experience in the grendel, that bullet is what drew me to the grendel, the grendel cartridge was just coincidental to be the one that pushed that bullet at the perfect velocities with no fat to do what I want to 500 yards. everything I used up to that was from .243 to 300wm but most of my previous hunting life was done with .270 win and .270 wsm with 140 accubonds. I have only ever bought and used hornady black from day 1 back in early 2018, the bullet and cartridge are a perfect match, would not want to shoot anything else, if they force copper one day for hunting I'll move up a powder class to compensate for the added speeds needed to offset the sad sd/bc of mono's. I'd move into the standard short action 308 type class and burn the low 40 grains of powder to get what I need from mono's...until then, the 123 eld-m in the grendel is all my safe is full of, cases and cases of it.

[Double Naught Spy]

There is no one bullet to do it all because bullet performance varies. By that I mean you have non-expanding, expanding softpoint, expanding petal, and frangible bullets (and maybe a couple more types depending on how you categorize). So do you care what happens to the bullet in the body?

People mentioned SST 123. It is one of my favorites as a workhorse bullet, but it tends to come apart, more like a frangible at higher velocity impacts and more like a softpoint at lower velocity impacts.

I am a huge fan of Speer TNT 90 gr. bullets. They are 100% frangible and I rarely find anything over 20 gr. in weight and that would be the bottom of the base and usually that is it. This work for varmints to hogs (up to 330 lbs so far).

I have killed more hogs with SST 123s and TNT 90s than anything else. I would not consider either to be fur friendly on smaller game such as coyotes or bobcats, in case you are after hides.

[Papa Smurff]

The cats got me up early this morning so I spent some time looking for .264 grendel compatible bullets. Not a huge selection of grendel components available right now. For economic sake looks like the 123 eld m from powder valley along with AR Comp seems to be the best choice as a one bullet do everything load. Would love to find some 90 gr TNT as I've shot a truck load of them in other calibers over the years and have nothing bad to say when used properly. Around her coyotes, coons, armadillos, and the worst of them all coydogs are basicly a shoot on sight target. Ther is no fur market any more, I finally gave away 300+ coyote, coon, and beaver pelts just to make room in the basement.

[Stinky Coyote]

yeah I guess 'everything list' needs to be individually defined, for me it's coyotes to moose hunting to 4-500, so the 123 eld-m or sst makes the same sense, it is niche end of cartridge/bullet spectrum for that 'everything', just so happens to be top choice for steel work etc. also, highest bc's, good visuals and audibles etc. coyotes we don't shoot for fur, if so I'd run a .204 ruger

if more varmint work is desired with less potential for bullets to leave properties not sure I'd be trying to do with a grendel but I guess if the varmints are larger like hogs then likely so, then get to frangible with less sd to meet that 'everything' list

if you start at the top with the 123's though it should cover off more of the everything list criteria than any other options, you just move down and make trade offs from there, if you need copper only...almost like changing the capabilities of a cartridge by a full 'level' by the amount of trade off you have to give up, that's why I would just move up a powder class if forced to mono for my 'everything'

[603Country]