New Howa Grendel owner

[tdbru]

Depending upon how many hogs you have to get rid of and how much shooting you plan on doing, the 6.5 Gr. is fine for hogs and deer. barrel will last a lot longer than a 243 Win. "Better" depends on the criteria your using to measure with. Nothing wrong with either cartridge. Just different. Used for similar applications. If you're doing 400 yard sod poodle popping the 243 Win works better IMO. for closer in stuff, like deer and hogs out to 200 or so yards, give or take some, either will work well. 6.5 bore diameter right now has a lot more bullets to pick from than 6mm, but both have a more than adequate selection for most purposes. The main reason for the 6.5 Gr is to up the performance of the AR platform for hunting big game and/or to provide better ballistics than the 5.56x45 NATO at longer ranges. I have the std bbl mini howa and like it because i could end up with a nice lighter weight bolt gun with mild recoil and muzzle blast, great bullet selection, good accuracy, long barrel life, and fun to shoot. Also have the caliber in an AR. but even with picking out each item in an AR build with an eye towards weight savings, it's hard for the AR platform to match the light weight of the little Howa mini bolt gun. Both are fun to shoot and chambered in the same caliber. but the little mini Howa is lighter than the AR at a lot lower price point. The 6.5 Grendel has lower muzzle blast than the 243 Win if that's important to the area you hunt. The mini Howa in 6.5 Grendel, and i have the std barrel version, is one of the lightest centerfire bolt guns that I own and makes a nice walkabout rig.
welcome to the horde.
-tdbru