Anticipating Range Testing

Well guys, after many many many long months of waiting and drooling, I finally get to shoot my reloads through the grendel. This rifle as been giving me problems like you would not believe. I even sent the upper back to Alexander Arms to have them check it out because hardley none of my rounds would chamber. They would get stuck in the chamber and I would have to force it back out. Even forced the bolt open once and it pulled the bullet out and powder went everywhere.

The problem was my dumb butt bought the wrong bullets. Even tho they were 6.5mm (.264), 120 grain A-max, they were not the right bullet. It took AA almost 2 weeks before it hit them. I was even told that Bill Alexander was scratching his head. ( I have a friend that works at Alexander Arms just in case you were wondering). At any rate, the 123 amax is what I needed. In order for the round to fit in to the tight chamber, Hornady had to make the bullet a little heavier, and stretch it to move the ogive back. Very slim.

So, back to the drawing board. Mind you, I have had this rifle since Feb. of this year. I have gotten to shoot a few factories down her. Recently I was given 2 brand new boxes of the 123 grain Scenar loaded in Lapua Brass. They won't be good hunting rounds

A couple days ago, I recieved 2 boxes of Nosler BT 120 grainers. I was told that they were excellent rounds and that deer feard them. Not really sure how they know this. Never heard a deer say oh man, he got a grendel with noslers, were screwed now!!

So here are the loads I am working on:

Nosler Ballistic Tips 120 grain
Ramshot Tac (Western) Powder
Alexander Arms Lapua Case
Wolf small magnum rifle primer

5 rounds of each

27.5
28.0
28.5

Starting load is 27.5 with a max load of 28.8 This shouldn't be too hard to work up. I am sure that all powder listed will group fine. Just have to really scrutinize the groups and determin what is best. I would love to take my chrony with me, however, being the slacker I am, I still have not gotten anything to hold the sky screens on.

Here are just a few pics:

The Grendel Trio



I know it is small, but this is the size target I will be shooting at 100 yards.



Just a pic of the head stamp



I will post pics of the target when I get back home tomorrow. I will also be taking along with me the new forum member, jd30caliber. He will be shooting his new savage 308 he just purchased from wal-mart. He is off to a good start. Listened to me and the first thing he done was take that ole Bushnell scope that came with it off and purchased a really nice Center Point 4-16x40. Now, if he continues to listen to me, might make something out of him

Wish me luck...

I bet you are itching...

I can't wait to see how she does for you, GOOD LUCK and shoot straight!

Thanks!! I am a bit giddy at the moment. Kinda rethinking my target size tho LOL. I did make up 10 rounds of each so that if I did find the load I am going to use, I would have an extra 5 rounds to get the scope set to center for that particular data... So, I could develope with a larger target with the first set of 5 rounds, get the scope set, then play with the remainder at the smaller ones.. We will see...

i use a .25"-.5" target at 100 yards. aim small shoot small.

So did I hear Bushnell for sale real cheap.

infantryjohn49 wrote:
So did I hear Bushnell for sale real cheap.

Na for all the trouble it has given me, there is no way I could pass that one to anyone else. It is payback time. You know which one it is. Had it good the first time then went hunting and it starting shooting 6" to the left. Since then, never could get it back on target for the life of me. Moved it over to the .270 and could not get it to help at all.

On a side note, had a great day at the range with jd30cal and the wife. Got the Grendel down to a good starting load to tweak with. I put around 20 rounds through the Grendel, the wife put 5 rounds and jd30cal another 5 rounds. Between jd30cal and myself, we put 40 rounds through his Savage model 10 in .308. I have to say. I really enjoyed shooting that .308. The accutrigger, eh, have to get used to it. Not a big fan of that safety trigger jobby. Pulling it back then engaging the trigger then pulling the shot. I am so used to touching the trigger and just barely squeezing lol. He had also purchased a Mossberg Model 88 12 gauge pump shotgun. I like it alot!! 187 bucks, I know which shotgun I will be getting hopefully in a couple of weeks cross fingers.

I will have pictures of my groups out to 100 yards shortly. Just finished taking jd30cal home after trouble shooting his .308. For the life of me, it would not sight in for nothing. It kept going all over the place. Using 150 grain Federal Soft Points. Got home, and booom right off the bat, the screws to tighten the rings down were loose (I did not mount the scope *cough). So I went ahead and had him look through the scope while I moved it forward and back until his eye relif was set right. Then I leveled his crosshairs and really tightened the rings down. So the next range day should be much better for his .308. Hopefully I can talk him into getting dies and stuff and load for it. Soon I will be looking for some good load data. Bill had already told me that he had great luck with RL15.

All in all, it was a good day. The best group for my Grendel on the load development was from 28.0 of tac but more on that later...

Ok so here are the results of my first trip load developing for the Grendel. I now have a good place to start tweaking to get them in better..

The first group, starting load of 27.5 gains of Tac under 120 grain Nosler BT. The group measures 1.759, edge to edge of furthest hole, subtracting diameter of bullet .264 gave me a final reading of 1.495 at 100 yards:



This second group, I feel was the best out of all three, 28.0 grains of Tac under 120 grain Nosler BT. The group measures 1.053, subtract .264 final reading of .789 at 100 yards:



This frinal grouping, 28.5 grains of Tac under 120 grain Nosler BT. 28.8 is the max in which I did not load. The group measures 1.158, subtract .264 with a final reading of .894



Now, all I have to do is sit down, figure I would go with the 28.0 load data to start and figure where to go from there to bring that group in tighter.

More to come....

oh yeah baby...the 28gr looks real promising....I can't wait to see your groups once you put a little alum on it to tighten it up.

All three targets look like dead deer to me regardless of how tight the groups are

Oh yea, defintaly good enough for deer. The red circles are 2" placed on 3x5 index cards set out at 100 yards. I know for a fact this thing is better than that tho hehehe......