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Greetings,
I recently bought a Howa Mini in 6.5 Grendel with the 22" lightweight barrel. I am very happy with this rifle so far. I anticipate taking a longer distance shooting class this coming year since I have never shot beyond 100 yards before. I have developed some accurate loads with both copper bullets and lead bullets in 100 grain and 120 grain bullets. The class will shoot at various ranges up to a maximum of 600 yards. Here is the question for those more experienced longer distance shooters: Which weight bullet do you think would be better for the longer distances I will be shooting? Any advice and help offered would be appreciated.
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I like my loads with 130gr Berger Hybrids from the 22 inch boltaction for shooting out to 600 yards, very simular to my hunting loads with the 129gr Nosler LR accubonds.
I do not shoot many all copper bullets especially at long range, the lighter consturction hurts the BC some for the weight bullet. Drop is not an issue with todays scopes at distance but wind is a different story of course.
There are members that shoot 1000+ yards with Hornady 123gr bullet
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Is your planned next step after the class to hunt with the rifle?
It is really hard to beat the Hornady 123 gr ELD-M for all round shooting.
If you plan to hunt with the all copper bullets, the 100 gr versions will do well enough for your purposes.
In any event, assuming your objective is hunting, use the bullets an loads you expect to use in the field, eveon though the copper cullets are more expensive.
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123gr to 130 gr.
The lighter bullets will get more speed, the heavier will have more energy to hear impacts at distance.
Loading for the Howa will let you get COAL out to 2.32 and still mag feed. More room for powder, and the bolt action will allow higher pressures than the AR/SAAMI loadings.
We need to Petition LRRPF52 and his collaborative to put out a 6.5 Grendel Bolt Action loading handbook with the longer COAL and higher pressure tolerance.
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I believe they've tested Grendel pretty thoroughly - definitely enough to make educated guesses about stretching Grendel performance. There are all kinds of liabilities in these kinds of public statements/posts, start low and work up blah blah blah. Even more-so when publishing data. This can be a dangerous game, you understand. He reloads for his Howa, and is aware of the potential of longer COAL for the bolt builds. I'm afraid as much as I'd love another bolt-specific volume, that it may be asking a little much? I don't want to speak for him, but find myself for some reason getting my protective hackles up on this touchy subject. I may be overprotective at times...
I'm finding success with the Federal GMM loads. Factory loads that are relatively dependable out to 980 seems like pretty good stuff. I have yet to develop a truly LR load, but I love my 27.5 Benchmark 120 SMK load. It's way under pressure, absolutely a laser to shoot from my LaRue, great in my 12.7", and shoots well suppressed or unsuppressed. Last time I went out I radar'd it at 2380fps, which is probably too slow for long range, but It's good at 400 for steel.
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Ahhh yes...Liabilities. America the Great, Land of the Lawsuit.
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Kswhitetails Wrote:'Tis what 'tis.
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12-05-2018, 07:28 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-05-2018, 07:41 AM by Mark6.5.)
I would look at the 130gr projectiles. With their higher BC makes up for some of the speed lost to say the 120-123gr units.
Berger AR Hybrid
Norma Golden Targets and Diamond
Nosler RDF
With CFE223 and LEVERevolution. Both can get you up to 2500fps with the 130gr. Just start loads low and work your way up. Will need to load right at max AR15 mag length at around 2.29". This numbers are from a 20" barrel longer barrel you can gain lil more speed. With your Howa you can load a little longer if needed.
But at 2500fps with the 130s 600 yards repeatable continually and impact as stated above will be more audible
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CazadorBob Wrote:Greetings,
I recently bought a Howa Mini in 6.5 Grendel with the 22" lightweight barrel. I am very happy with this rifle so far. I anticipate taking a longer distance shooting class this coming year since I have never shot beyond 100 yards before. I have developed some accurate loads with both copper bullets and lead bullets in 100 grain and 120 grain bullets. The class will shoot at various ranges up to a maximum of 600 yards. Here is the question for those more experienced longer distance shooters: Which weight bullet do you think would be better for the longer distances I will be shooting? Any advice and help offered would be appreciated.
CB:
Weight isn't the major issue. Performance is. Your max range will be 600 yards. It is a shooting class so you will have someone watching trace and either seeing impacts on steel or someone in the pits working a target. Do not base your decision on hearing a bullet hit steel, BC's, bullet weights, etc. Base it on the ability of your ammunition to shoot well at 600 yards. I advise you to do yourself a favor and go with a 120 Sierra Match king. Avoid the hassles of bullet jump, OAL, and the time and money spent trying to find a 'node'. The 120 Match King is not a competitive bullet from a Grendel much past 300 because of wind but if it shoots well for you at 300, I give it a much better chance of shooting just as well at 600. This is not as certain with one of the VLD designs.
My bet is that if you use a common powder and a CCI-450 primer, load the Grendel to about 95% of the max charge of that powder for a 120 Match King, seat said 120 Match King to what ever OAL is in a reloading manual, that you will shoot a minute or less, group after group, day after day, and will do so all the way to 600. The problems will occur with winds. It is a lousy bullet to shoot in winds at 600 but it is consistent and that has great meaning when it comes to learning how to dope winds. A 108 or 123 Lapua are also good choices but you will not see a difference at 600 unless you are a highly skilled long range marksman. Then you will see a very slight edge with the Lapua bullets in terms of winds, not raw accuracy.
Face it, there is nothing magic about putting a 600 yard elevation on a sight. Your bullet will go to 600 without a issue. The challenge comes from your marksmanship skills plus your ability to estimate wind, then having the confidence to either hold or adjust windage the correct amount before the wind shifts again. Use ammo that will perform consistently well to 600 and you will have eliminated one source of any problems that may arise.
LR55
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Mark6.5 Wrote:I would look at the 130gr projectiles. With their higher BC makes up for some of the speed lost to say the 120-123gr units.
Berger AR Hybrid
Norma Golden Targets and Diamond
Nosler RDF
The 130 RDF has been a problem child for many on this forum. I've never gotten the thing to shoot sub-MOA consistently. I've had much better luck with the Berger AR Hybrid and the Hornady 130 ELD.
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Kswhitetails Wrote:'Tis what 'tis.
Tort reform; loser pays on frivolous lawsuit loss. Me thinks it can't come soon enough.
Never happen because the next logical step would be Government pays for quality defense on unfounded prosecution.
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12-05-2018, 04:48 PM
(This post was last modified: 12-05-2018, 09:47 PM by Mark6.5.)
Yep i read that. And honeslty meant to add that to the post beside the RDF. Someone recommend to weight sort them as they got better results.
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LR1955 Wrote:CB:...
Face it, there is nothing magic about putting a 600 yard elevation on a sight. Your bullet will go to 600 without a issue. The challenge comes from your marksmanship skills plus your ability to estimate wind, then having the confidence to either hold or adjust windage the correct amount before the wind shifts again. Use ammo that will perform consistently well to 600 and you will have eliminated one source of any problems that may arise.
LR55 ^^^^^^THIS^^^^^^^
The Grendel bullet get to the target just the same a an Ultra Mag. The Grendel shooter just has to have more skill in calling wind, and holdovers.
Knowing your Dope, and max range is the key.
LRRPF52 stated once a while back...It is much better to spend less time at the reloading bench and more time pulling the trigger and learning how to read wind and make adjustments.
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