6.5 Grendel for Elk Hunting

[AlphaHunter]

Hello Guys,
I rencently got insterested in the 6.5 Grendel. i have look into the ballistic and they look great but has any one shot an elk with 6.5 Grendel and what is your experience with it?

Thanks in advance.!!

 

[okie_hotrod]

Use a 120gr GMX or Barnes bullet, keep shots at a reasonable range, and put it in the sweet spot and you should be good.

 

[AlphaHunter]

thank you!

Use a 120gr GMX or Barnes bullet, keep shots at a reasonable range, and put it in the sweet spot and you should be good.

 

[Bigjay73]

I own and love a 6.5 grendel. I would try to find a 129/130gr load if you want to shoot an elk with it. I wouldn't shoot one at more than 200 yds with that caliber though. Quite honestly, I would leave my 6.5 grendel at home on an elk hunt, but I have larger calibers to choose from.

 

[Bigjay73]

Oh, and btw, if you can find it, there's a video of a guy taking an elk at 400+ with a grendel. Not saying I recommend it, but it shows that that caliber can be quite potent in the right hands

 

[AlphaHunter]

Thanks that is the reason why i picked the 6.5 Grendel, less recoil with same trajectory than a .308

Oh, and btw, if you can find it, there's a video of a guy taking an elk at 400+ with a grendel. Not saying I recommend it, but it shows that that caliber can be quite potent in the right hands

 

[AlphaHunter]

Use a 120gr GMX or Barnes bullet, keep shots at a reasonable range, and put it in the sweet spot and you should be good.

Ill be shooting 140 grain Hornady SST

 

[Bigjay73]

Ill be shooting 140 grain Hornady SST

I take it you're shooting a bolt action.

 

[scubohuntr]

Yup, people kill elk with Grendels. They also kill elk with .243s. And Toyota Camrys. It can be done, and if you are really, really disciplined it works. Most of the time. Personally, I’d limit shots to under 150 yards, and only perfect broadsides. If you can realistically refuse a 200 yard shot on a B&C bull, and are willing to shoot many hundreds of rounds in the offseason so you are really, really accurate with your rifle, you’ll do well with a Grendel. Otherwise you maybe need to look into a bigger stick. For whitetails it would be great. My personal minimum elk rifle in a 6.5 would be a Creedmoor, which has several hundred FPS over a Grendel. There’s more to ballistics than trajectory. But then, I’m not a small caliber guy. My little elk gun is a 7MM Remington Magnum.

 

[BrentD]

It's nothing a .30-30 couldn't do much easier.

 

[okie_hotrod]

Ill be shooting 140 grain Hornady SST

I'd take an Accubond over a SST. The SSTs are great deer bullets but for elk you want something built a bit tougher. I suggested the 120gr lead-free bullets because you can squeeze more velocity from that little cartridge with a lighter but still very tough bullet. The trade off is gonna be that more velocity will be needed for proper expansion.

 

[Brian in Montana]

Ill be shooting 140 grain Hornady SST

Personally, I'd steer away from an SST on elk. Using a smaller cartridge like a Grendal, I wouldn't recommend a rapid expander. I'd go with a solid or bonded core bullet, as others have said.

 

[AlphaHunter]

I take it you're shooting a bolt action.

no AR Platform 24" heavy barrel.

 

[Bigjay73]

no AR Platform 24" heavy barrel.

Interesting. I haven't met anyone who can load a 140gr to mag length without having issues. Let me know what that recipe is.

 

[scubohuntr]

no AR Platform 24" heavy barrel.

It would be entertaining to see someone drag that up and down the mountains, at least.

Seriously, though, the Grendel is an attempt to make the AR platform shoot a useful whitetail-class cartridge, and it works with some serious limitations, especially if you are trying to load heavy bullets to magazine length. If you want to carry an AR for elk, look at a .458 SOCOM (under 150 yards) or get an AR-10 in 6.5 Creedmoor. I’m not a Creedmoor fanboy, but you seemed averse to the “recoil” of a .308. The CM (or the functionally identical .260) is as close as you’ll get to a real elk cartridge without the savage punishment endured behind a .308.

 

[wyoboypt]

You guys shooting hornady gmx and sst should reconsider. I’ve shot 12 elk with them and have finall concluded they SUCK. Last year I center punched my 5x5 through both lungs and he took around 10 minutes to die. The exit hole was less than an inch with a small amount of lung tissue hanging out. They just don’t expand enough. That explains why the majority of the elk I’ve shot with them received multiple shots. They SUCK! I’m switching to interlocks.

 

[MiStickSlinger]

I shot an elk just before labor day with the 6.5 creedmoor using the precision hunters, the terminal ballistics on the ELD-X reminds me a lot of the SST's. It got the job done but I am going with a more solid built bullet like the gmx next time around.

 

[119bowhunter]

I shot a whitetail with my 6.5 Grendel using the 123 grain SST two years ago...I hit him right behind the shoulder and he ran 150+ yards, took me a long time to find him...I was convinced I had made a poor shot as the blood trail was nonexistent. I spent 4 hours that night after dark trying to find him, and then two hours the next morning before I finally stumbled on him by blind luck (all of this tracking was in a North Carolina rhododendron thicket) when I found him I had hit exactly where I was aiming but the bullet had fragmented and left 3 tiny exit wounds...there's no way I would use a SST on an elk, in fact I completely quit using the Grendel as a hunting rifle after that and have gone back to my 30-06 as my primary hunting rifle

 

[VikingsGuy]

Ill be shooting 140 grain Hornady SST

Cartridge aside, you will want a tougher bullet than an SST for elk. Accubond, Interbond or Partition would be great lead choices, with Barnes TTSX a top choice for non-lead.

 

[Duck-Slayer]

whats with the hate on Hornady SST and ELD-X? this is all i've shot and I have never had a Antelope, Deer, or Elk go more that 25 yards from the spot it was shot. Also the insides were turned to a milk shake, not sure how they suck? you don't need a blood trail if you hit them in the right spot? I should mention that I have only shot 1 deer and 1 antelope with this bullet both out of my .270. but my daughter and wife have shot 12 animals including 3 of those were elk and never had a problem. So IMO if 2 young woman can put down game all day long with these 2 bullets I would assume any grown man can. This is not being a smart azz. I am merely pointing this fact out in my personal experience's.
Matt