6.5 Grendel Loads / Powders?

Stu Farish

Stu Farish

Director / Webmaster
Staff member
I have one being built, will be a while before I get the rifle delivered. But this round is so new that none of my reloading manuals has it.

I'm getting the new Hornady manual & will likely use the Hornady SST bullets, as this will be a hunting rifle. Calling as well as deer & pigs on the menu.

I've found some info online about the history of the round, it seems that N530 is supposed to be a great powder for it. But I'm wondering what some of you have found to work well?

Over the next 2 or 3 months I'll be acquiring brass, powder etc & loading some ammo to be ready to hit the range when the rifle gets in.

Too late for christmas but I may get it in time for my birthday
wink.gif
 
Stu, mine is not too picky. I have not put together a lot of loads for it yet, but have had good success with 8208, 322, and 335. Only been loading 95 vmax bullets but all 3 powders gave loads that would go subMOA. Good luck with your build. If I were to have just one gun it would likely be a Grendel.
 
the current insanity includes the grendel. there's no brass, no ammo, no dies in stock anywhere.

I did find some lapua brass, was planning on using hornady. Should be able to pick up some brass & dies next month when the next stock comes in.

Am also thinking to get some hornady ammo for the initial setup & break in, which is another reason to stick with hornady brass.
 
8208 works great. 28-28.5 grains is usually the sweet spot. I have two of em both 18" barrels. Most people like the longer barrels but I run a suppressor on mine and its long enough for hunting. This caliber is easy to load for. AA puts their brass on sale a couple times a year for $.55 a piece and it is made buy Laupa.
Your going to love the Grendel.
Here is a target shot with 28.1 8208 with seirra 120 game bullets rem 7.5

55A6566C-EFFD-4C59-BA62-AAA0D7A96B39-19938-0000039812FFDCAE.jpg
 
nice!

at the hunt before last I got to shoot Scott's Grendel, liked the way it handled. Since I already have a 223 I wanted something suitable for larger game & decided to go with this.
 
I am afraid mine is going to get taken from me... by my daughters. The 2 oldest both shot their deer with it this year. The 7 yo shot a wt buck (her first deer) at 215 yards, and her 10yo sister shot her wt buck at 250 yards. My older daughter has shot 2 deer previously with a .243 but has decided that she likes the grendel a lot better. It is a 16" carbine with a collapsible stock, so it is much easier to fit it to them and easy for them to handle.
 
just scored 2 boxes of hornady brass for the grendel & the new hornady manual. the hunt for components, dies, etc continues.

some confusion over both bulk bullets & factory ammo.

I'm seeing both in 123 grain and 129 grain SST, but the hornady site only lists a 123 gr SST bullet in .264"
 
I use Redding dies. I have never used another brand of dies so I can't say about the others. Reddings are nice though. I've shot 85s, 107s, 120s, and 123s and they all shot well. Everyone says the 120-123 were made for the Grendel. Not sure if that's true or not as my gun seems to shoot em all equally well. I'm stuck on 8208 as I use it in my 204 also so it makes it nice to be able to use the same powder for both. I've tried other powders and it shot them well to. Tac shot well but it was about the same as 8208.
 
I have several redding sets, they're fine. for the grendel they're also expensive. the hornady dies are more affordable & with my limited experience, the hornady dies are also quite good.

they're also sold out just about everywhere, LOL
 
I have the Hornady Grendel Dies and I wouldn't buy them again. Or any other Hornady dies for that matter. My Grendel likes 28 grains of 8208 and 123 g. Amax, but I will be switching to 123 g. SST's on my next bullet purchase. I'm getting just over 2600 fps. from that combo in my 20" SPC contour.
 
I too tried a slew of powders before I settled on the 8208. It worked really well on all the bullets I tried. I am only shooting 123gr.....I tried SMK, AMax's and Scenars. The SMK shot the best but nearly no different than the Amax's and I got a bit more speed (25fps) out of the AMaxs.

As for brass I did exactly what you said as well. I bought a bunch of the Hornady ammo when it was on sale and then some Lupua brass as well. As others stated the AA brass is Lapua as well and a bit cheaper. I also bought some AA and Wolf factory ammo to try but wasn't impressed with either. The Hornady factory ammo shot the best, but not as well as the reloads. I am using a Forester set of dies. Having both brands of dies, Forster and Redding, I would choose the Redding. I ended up settling on 28.5 gr of 8208 with a CCI 450 and am running about 2590 fps out of a 20" SD upper.

DSCI0014.jpg
 
I have a set of Hornady dies and a set of Forsters. The Hornadys work fine but I prefer the Forsters. Note that the Hornady manual is based on testing with a 14" barrel. (yes, I called and asked. No, I did not get a coherent answer). Their manual isn't bad, but I found Hodgdon's on line data more helpful. Personally, I'm using 8208 under 123 Amaxes and 123 SMKs.
 
I bought 200 pcs of Hornady 123 amax rounds for break in on my JP 18" 6.5Grendel, and am using a Forster FL sizing die and a Wilson seating die....

I later picked up 50 more pcs of Hornady brass. I never liked their offerings in .204 or .223, but have been very satisfied with their Grendel brass.

Mine loves the 85gr Sierra's, but I'm away from home and don't have my load data with me.....I recall that I've also had good results with TAC.

The 65 Grendel forum also has helpful information.....including some very positive feedback on CFE223.....

George
 
Last edited:
I am using Hornady dies. I think they are ok, all my other dies are RCBS. The only bullets I've shot through mine are 120gr Nosler Ballistic tips and 123gr Lapua Scenars. Both are extremely accurate. My 19.5" Shilen seems to prefer Western TAC powder, but every powder I shot seemed pretty good. I got load charts from Alexander and Hodogon has the loading manuals that are like magazines. All my brass is Lapua. Only because that was all I could find, Hornady was back ordered at the time. I just googled Grendel brass and found a place in Florida that was selling Lapua brass 70 bucks for 100 pieces.
 
I use Redding dies and highly recommend them. The 123 gr. SST is a brand new bullet that Hornady just created and are now available. Hornady is also loading ammo with it as well, but I don't know if anyone has it yet. I use the 95 Vmax and get very good precision. Just don't use it on fox.
smile.gif
For powder, I love TAC and Xterm. If you are worried about temp sensitivity, use IMR 8208. I havn't tried that one yet, but it is supposed to be great. I am down to my last couple pounds of TAC and may go to that next. Other Powders that give great results are AA 2520 and H335. I hear CFE 223 is another good powder to try, but I haven't used it, yet. You will notice most of them are ball powders. I used Benchmark years ago, but I can't find half of my load data. Apparently, one of my boys felt he needed one of my folders for school more than I did - he knows better now. I have been using Lapua brass, but I am building up a supply of Hornady. I have also made hunting rounds using Winchester 7.62x39 brass (and it uses a LR primer vs. SR). I made it up after the first gun/ammo/reloading scare of 08. You don't get as high of velocity and brass life isn't as long before primer pockets loosen, but you don't worry about losing a piece of brass as much either. I would recommend getting a brass catcher, because nothing sucks worse than looking for a piece of Lapua brass in brush and grass...trust me. It's even worse in dry powder snow.
 
That does look good, thanks!

Went ahead & ordered a case gauge & set of redding dies.

Am not going to buy bullets or powder until I look over more data. I have maybe 2 powders on hand to try before buying more.
 
that thread is big on CCI 450 primers. I don't have those, I do have regular WSR primers on hand.

Will have to look & see if my local guy has the 450's
 


Write your reply...
Back
Top