Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Deer hunting with the 6.5 Grendal..

I've taken a few deer with a 120gr Speer Gold Dot. 2400 fps out of my Howa Mini and about 2250 fps from my AR. Distance was 200 to 225 yds. The Gold Dots worked fantastic and all were quick one shot kills.
(I'm culling under ODNR crop damage permits.)

My daughter killed two bucks last year with her Howa Mini 6.5 Grendel. The Federal Fusion 120 grain performed very nicely.

My son's LaRue 6.5 Grendel

Results

That sure is a nice buck... would like to break mine in with that kind of result....

I put together an AR 15 with an 18" ballistic advantage barrel for the kids to hunt deer with.

I used it one day because I knew the horseback fox hunters on the property across the road had a hunt planned and their hounds move all sorts of game. Thought I might appreciate quick follow up shots. Ended up with an 8 point and a coyote for their efforts.

Awesome! What age kids? My about to be 7 year old has recently started shooting my grendel AR and really enjoys it. Perfect round to get started with IMO. What ammunition did you use and how was the performance on the 8 pt?

My daughter is 12 this season (4th year hunting) and my son will be 8 in December (3rd year hunting). They both use 120 grain federal fusion (which I seem to have a tough time finding even when ammo isn't scarce). I like that bullet because it's a little tougher and I trust it if they make a less than ideal shot placement. My gun shoots the fusion and hornady black in small groups to the same POI so I tend to shoot the hornady black (which is much easier to find) when I hunt to preserve the fusion ammo I have for them. I'm down to ten rounds or so. It does not like the hornady SST at all which is a shame because I see it pretty regularly. The hornady black was a high neck/base of skull shot on the 8 point, dropped it dead in it's tracks. The hornady black performs well on heart/lung shots as well on my sample of a handful of does, I just avoid the shoulder with that bullet.

Anyone have any federal fusion they'd part with? I'd be happy with any quantity. Feel free to PM me. Thanks.

Just got back from the range, where I raised the POI to 1” high at 100. Should be dead-on at 150 and maybe 3” low at 200.

I love this little rifle. Definitely going hunting Satuday.

It's a great little cartridge. Let us know what ya' kill!

I picked up a Howa Mini in 6.5 Grendel, with a 16.5" barrel and chassis stock for my 12yr old to hunt with this year. I haven't loaded anything for the rifle yet, so he will be using Federal Fusion 120gr ammo....I'm very interested in seeing how it works out.

140 grain Speers, on top pg 29 gr of W 748, at 100 yds, will give a real small hole going in, and a half dollar sized exit
hole on a blacktail buck....

Learned that this morning about 10 O'clock... nothing as outstanding as Skeen's son's buck...

but venison is venison...

Nice work!

Nice!

timely post as i'm thinking bout a CZ-527 american in 6.5 grendel with a 24" barrel. wonder what kinda velos folks get outta the 120 bt? seems performance on deer would be great with the 120 bt at 300 yds and in.
Big Ed

After searching around for load data on the net... and finding it in bits and pieces, here and there.... I finally had a picture big enough to have a point of references, to go out and do some testing...

All powders in my Ruger Predator were more than capable turning out minute of blacktail or White tail at 300 yds...

Depending on powder and charge... with a 120, one can expect from 2400 to 2600 fps. MV...

another thing I found on line... loads for an AR 15, can be surpassed with the same powders for a bolt action model...

100 grains, can be run at 2850 to a hair less than 3000 fps MV... and Nosler makes an often over looked 100 grain Partition, and on some of their over runs for the Euro Market, a 105 gr SMP Partition can be found here and there out of their Pro Shop...

I'm not a Barnes fan, but they have made some 100 grainers in 6.5 mm....

The 140 I used from Speer... it put a dime sized hole going in, via the neck, just above the right shoulder, and came out on the other side, with a half dollar sized hole.. draining blood big time....

at 250 yds or less, with the velocity possible 2350 to 2400 fps....I like the heavier Sectional Density of the 140 grainers..
and the Speer definitely high lighted that works real well...

I was presented a Texas heart shot, but I don't take them... so when it stopped to get a look at where the other deer were scattering to, I placed my shot just off to the right of the rear hip... where part of the lower neck was exposed... shot hit pin point right there, and deer went down instantly, and rolled onto its back... with all four hoofs sticking up in the air, like a dog wanting his tummy rubbed... he had fallen into a slight indentation. .. hence his position...

think of the Grendal as a 30/30, with a flatter shooting bullet and a lot more pinpoint accuracy potential...

The Ruger Predator uses an AR Mag, and comes with a 10 rounder...I was able to try a Magpul 5 rounder for the 223...
a Grendal works just perfect with them also.. even tho the factory told me that one needed a Grendal mag exclusively.. thru them... which turned out to be false.... any AR 223 mag should work just fine with the Grendal Round....

Thanks Joel and Skeen! Appreciate it!

I'd certainly recommend the rifle and the round, for kids, women, young and old... and makes a hand truck gun also...

My hand load which is just a little more than load book data, is only 300 fps behind the MV of a 140 grain Creedmoor factory load., and that can be adjusted for with a couple clicks up on the turrent elevation knob...

I used my 22", custom stocked, Howa mini exclusively this year for hunting. I ran Hammer 99 grain bullets and was impressed. The first buck was a blacktail at 100 yards - double lunged, he spun a circle and sat down. I shot three coyotes out to 210 yards with quick kills and great exit holes. With a little reservation, I took it with me on my Idaho deer hunting trip last week. I practiced out to five hundred, swore to stay inside four hundred and hoped for a three to three fifty shot. I ended up sneaking up to 176 on a good buck in his bed. when he finally stood up out of his bed, he was quartered away. the bullet entered about his second rib and exited in front of the off side shoulder. The buck fell over backward, slid down an icy windfall and expired. The exit wound was about the size of a nickel and internal damage was better than I expected. All in all, the Grendel performed great. I wish I could of stretched out the ranges for for testing a bit more but I did like the results - alot.

1st deer with the cut down (16 1/4" barrel) Howa Mini: 85yds, 123gr SST at 2427fps. High shoulder shot, never took a step.



Exit about golf ball size, I could not be happier with the performance of this little gun.

My kids 10 and 11 years old both got their deer yesterday with a Howa Mini Action in 6.5 Grendel. I loaded it light for them, 100g NBT at 2600 fps. We sighted it to be dead on at 200 yards. Daughters deer was ~ 175 yards and sons was a good 200 yards. Worked great on both.