One of the deer stands i hunt from has tight quarters, and deer are rarely more than 50–60 yards away. Because of this, I built an AR chambered in 6.5 Grendel specifically for use in this blind.
I haven’t found any ELD-X options for this caliber, so I’ve been shooting Hornady SSTs, which have been giving me MOA-level accuracy. My question is:
What’s the best 6.5 Grendel bullet for deer in terms of damage and accuracy?
The SST seems to be a proven performer, but I’m wondering if there’s a better option I may have overlooked.
I realize AR hunting isn’t particularly popular here, but my bolt-action rifle with a 24” barrel is just too unwieldy in this setup.
I have used the 123 gn SST and some 120 gn Barnes TTSX for feral pigs east of Austin and both did their job. The monolithic had MUCH better penetration on the larger hogs.
Honestly at those ranges I think just about anything that you can shoot will kill a deer. As for accuracy, that’s going to be dependent upon your specific rifle.
Not what you asked, but something to consider in the future is they make some pretty nice handy 16 inch bolt action rifles which could be very handy in a situation like that. I too have a few tight stands and I ended up buying a 16 inch 7 mm-08 which is very handy. Also something like a Howa mini in 6 ARC.
Your question is what’s is the best (bullet) for grendel, the nosler 129ablr would be very hard to beat. We have several grendel guns and use ablr handloads for hunting. Nothing has ever survived. Deer hogs and yotes. They even perform quite well out of a 12” barrel out to 200yds.