Greetings,

We'll be doing some messing around here at the shop with a 6.5 Grendel, AR15 platform for deer hunting.  A lot of the available bullets for this caliber were designed around very high velocities that can be had with the more common hunting rounds like the 264 win mag.

For those of you who hunt northern deer size game and not just paper or steel plate punching, what bullets have you found that perform well at the lower speeds this round will produce?  Per hunting regulations in my state, it needs to be an 85gr or heavier.  I would like to stay as close to 100 as practical, but I do realize that starts cutting into case capacity too.

Barrel length is 20".

Thanks for your time,
Gos

Most of the hunting bullets for 6.5mm were not made with the 264 Win Mag or even the 260 in mind, but the 6.5x55 Mauser.  The Grendel was built around the existing bullet availability in 6.5mm, hence the short case to allow for ogive length.

The 6.5 Grendel excels at deer hunting, mainly with 123gr SST, 129gr SST, 100gr TTSX, 120gr TSX, 120gr NBT, or pretty much any of the hunting pills in the 100-130gr range.

A 20" will push the factory 123gr Hornady ammo in the 2520-2550fps range, which is way more speed than you need.

123gr SST is one of the most affordable pills for practice and hunting medium game.

Loaded on top of CFE223, LVR, AA2520, BL-C(2), TAC, or 8208XBR, you'll have a good power/pill combo.  I personally like CFE223 a lot with 123gr SST.

LVR produces the most speed.  CFE and AA2520 would be next.  Lowest ES comes from AR Comp, then 8208XBR.

I took a custom 94gr GMX load for elk hunting this season, and that bullet also slays deer like the hammer of Thor.

Another bullet I really like is the Nosler 129gr Accubond Long Range, which expands down to 1300fps, and has very high sectional density.

Thank you very much!

.260 Rem/130gr VLD Moly, 6.5Grendel 123gr AMAX, 120gr TSX, 129gr ABLR

I shot a nice doe with a 123gr Hornady SST at 350 yards this year. From an 18" barrel the bullet penetrared the left base of the neck then through the left rib cage and stopped after penetrating about 24". Hunt with confidence.

Another vote for the Hornady 123 grain SST.  Factory load chronoed at 2500fps in an 18" barrel.  This fall I had a clean pass through on a big buck at about 120 yards.  Lots of blood and he piled up within 20 yards.

My first set of hand loads for mine was the 129gr. Hornady interlock SP on top of BLC2.  I have been using factory 123gr sst.