I had a terrible deer hunting trip this year on my annual 3 1/2 week hunt to Halifax Co. NC. In 2 1/2 weeks I only saw one deer. Discovered that black tongue disease must have hit my hunting land. In the past 25 years you usually see many deer about every day and always when leaving the farm after dark. This year ZIP O. My hunting buddy saw 3 deer. I shot the doe that I saw early the first week because I needed the meat and had not realized that there just were hardly any more deer around. I usually take 6 deer a year. I have hunted this farm for the past 25 years and you see multiple deer most every day and at night the soybean fields are full of them. This year NOTHING. I built two AR rifles this past year in 6.5 Grendel and was hunting with them this year. The load that I shot the deer with consisted of Hornady case, CCI 450 primer, 28 grs. IMR 8208, 120 Speer Gold Dot. From the 20" barrel velocity is 2550 fps and shoots sub MOA. Deer was at 111 yards and I was hoping to recover the bullet because this was the first time using it and the caliber on game. When the deer turned facing me I shot it in the center of the chest. It went right down and did a little break dance and was dead. When processing when I pulled the hide past the front shoulders the heart and lungs just ran out in a splattering pulp. Bullet entered center of chest and the hydrostatic effect broke the first 2 or 3 rigs on both sides and broke the left scapula causing the left leg to just flap. The bullet held together and exited the belly about 6" in front of the crotch with a thumb size hole. I could not believe the damage done and have the bullet hold together going through the guts and exiting. I know one example does not make a norm but from what I saw in this one example the Speer Gold Dot is a different and very good game bullet. No pictures because I forget to take my camera.
6.5 Grendel 120 Speer Gold Dot results.
- Thread starter 1Shot
- Start date
Cleveland48
Handloader
- Jul 28, 2015
- 1,971
- 155
Sounds like a stout bullet and great performance! I’m trying to talk my brothers into some 6.5 Grendel’s for their sons.1Shot":36ny2woy said:
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Nothing wrong with a Grendel for you too. :grin:
Glad to hear that report on the Gold Dots. I picked up a few boxes of them. Figured if they’re anything like the pistol Gold Dots then they’d be good. It sounds like they are.
Sorry about the lack of deer in your lease though.
Glad to hear that report on the Gold Dots. I picked up a few boxes of them. Figured if they’re anything like the pistol Gold Dots then they’d be good. It sounds like they are.
Sorry about the lack of deer in your lease though.
- Thread starter
- #4
Cleveland48 I believe for the AR 15 platform you can not beat the 6.5 Grendel. With the 6.5 bullet you get great ballistics and there is virtually no recoil just like a 223 for kids. From my experience stay away from anything Bear Creek Arsenal makes because it is a crap shoot if you get a barrel that will shoot. Go over to the 6.5grendel.com forum and join and then look in the Group Buy section and you will find some really good deals on quality barrels and things at really great prices to build a really good shooting rifle for lots less. I started out with a 20" complete upper from BCA and it would not shoot under 5" groups had to send it back to them and they replaced the barrel and I finally found a couple loads it will shoot under 1". During the process of sending it back and waiting I decided to build one from scratch. Got and Oden Works 18" barrel, complete bolt carrier group and gas block and tube package. I put it into an Anderson upper and used a Stingr handguard. I built an Anderson lower and used a 3.5 lb POF trigger. It is a shooter, 1/2 MOA or better.
