6.5mm against elk.

I've had nothing going but good luck with Gameking bullets, I've even used them on elk. I almost always have a jacket and core separation, but I've never had one explode. Usually I find the jacket in the hide on the off side, but the core has continued out and not been recovered.

At the speeds the Grendel produces I'd not be afraid to use a Sierra bullet, but I'd probably opt for the Prohunter for the shorter OAL of the bullet when magazine space is limited. Plus the Prohunter doesn't seem to have jacket separations like the Gameking. Most people attribute the jacket separation on the Gameking to the boat tail design.
 
i just ordered a box of 140gr swift A frames today.i have had poor accuracy with those in the past but that was a different rifle.

A frame is also available in the 120gr as well which might be better for the grendal.
 
Good thread in which to get my feet wet!
I like the 6.5 for elk.
A circa 1898 Swedish military...loped to 18", lightened & Timneyed is my trapline rifle.
With 140gr Rem coreloks reaching a leisurely 2500fps, I have yet to have a problem harvesting an elk or moose.
Out of 20 elk however, about 17 were the deadly 2/3 up neck shots.

Some good discussion on here but also signs of a few folk
with excessive "Outdoor Life magazine" knowledge.
 
Tahunua, if I were limited to the 120gr .264 bullet, a mono-metal that my rifle grouped well would be my choice.

I weigh all recovered slugs and keep records. A 10-20 percent weight loss on even a perfectly mushroomed bullet is not unusual.
The retained mass of a 140gr is often no more than an intact 120gr monometal. And if you take care of the shot placement, it will take elk and moose quite nicely.
 
Right you are, GreenMT... 100yd is a long shot in forested,
hazel-alder-dogwood underbrush environment.
Thirty yds is perhaps the average range in this stuff.

One hot september I had worked my way into this cool, wet river lowland where elk like to bed down to escape the heat.
The musky aroma of a rutting bull told me that he was NW of me and near.
When I bugled & proceeded to break every branch and tramp underbrush, his answer was so near that I heard the air expelling from his lungs before he broke into a bugle.

The speckled alder was so thick you couldn't see 10 feet.
I managed to scramble up on to a hung-up deadfall, find footing on a branch and look up to see a set of huge 6x6 antlers pushing through the brush, coming straight at me. Try finding that in your scope!

When I jumped off that deadfall, it was exactly SIX paces to his nose.
I even kept that rack, can take pic if anyone wishes.

Would like to hear vignettes from various folk in different areas.

Sorry for the derail, ramblings of an old man.
 
red stag

My Chief Ranger recently hammered a giant red stag in NZ with a 6.5x55 Swede chambered in a switch barrel Blazer. Dang gal hunts all over the world and uses the Blazer for near all of it, using a .416 and .308 barrel as well.

I have no idea what load she used in 6.5, but I will ask.
 
Well the Barnes triple shock / TX / TTX is, I think, a known proven quantity which would work fine/great.

The Nosler E-tip, while new and unproven, as you say - well my bet is that it will perform equally or almost so, being non-lead uniform gilding metal (is it 100% copper?). Note that Federal "Trophy Copper" ammo uses a version of the E-Tip.

So one of these non-lead bullets would be your best bet, although the Nosler partition & Swift A-frame are also a known proven performers. Personally I think it's enough gun, but what do I know?

Oh, but yeah, as others have mentioned, though that would work, a 140 premium going a bit slower will work slightly better than a 120 going 2500, I believe. But keep your ranges short to ensure enough velocity to give expansion (say, under 150 yards). Although I don't know if you can feed a round with 140s through the mag in a grendel.
 
Barnes makes a 110 grain banded solid bullet in 6.5mm

Wont need to worry about penetration. Put that bullet in the right spot, and Elk could be DRT. That is, if it's legal in your state to hunt with non-expanding bullets.
 
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You crazy Canucks - how do you trap elk?
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Ha, good one Dremel.

It's just that I seem to use that rifle for everything!
Hunting may be a couple-three weeks total, but the old 6.5 is carried by me nov-march on the trapline.

Hence "trapline rifle".
 
Don't know where the OP is hunting, but I can't see limiting myself to a cartridge/bullet combo that will require almost dream conditions to be successful. Especially if your hunting outside of your home state. Elk tags in Wyoming are tough to come by, and expensive. Now if your hunting on your own property somewhere and you have the time to wait them out, maybe so. I have a brand new 6.5-300 WSM I'm itching to try out. But it's not going Elk hunting. When your still hunting on foot and you come across fresh Grizzly tracks, your whole outlook on cartridges and bullets seems to change very rapidly.
 
Yes, 340Weatherby- I've seen "hunters" that were in a constant state of trepidation while off the pavement.

The sight of a bear track would bring on a cold sweat, and, like you, doubts about their capability with the rifle in hand.

Look on the bright side, you could rename to 460 Weatherby!

By the way, I hunt on open access crown land & must have been in those "dream conditions" fifty-odd times thus far.
 
Don't know where the OP is hunting, but I can't see limiting myself to a cartridge/bullet combo that will require almost dream conditions to be successful. Especially if your hunting outside of your home state. Elk tags in Wyoming are tough to come by, and expensive. Now if your hunting on your own property somewhere and you have the time to wait them out, maybe so. I have a brand new 6.5-300 WSM I'm itching to try out. But it's not going Elk hunting. When your still hunting on foot and you come across fresh Grizzly tracks, your whole outlook on cartridges and bullets seems to change very rapidly.
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I'm attempting this for the challenge. forcing myself to stalk rather than just up and start blasting at 400+ yards. last year I ran into elk in fairly thick woods and after chasing them for about 2 hours finally stalked to within 100 yards and dropped one, my 300 weatherby loads did a pretty thorough job of making sure we just quartered it because there was a lot of meat damage. if I have to hunt open areas the 300 is coming along but if I'm hunting woods there is no reason why I would need lethal past 300 yard cartridges. as for bear, my tags are only good in an area that has no grizzlies, we do regularly see blacky tracks in the snow while elk hunting but a 6.5 grendel, especially from an AR is more than sufficient to stop a 150 pound charging sow. I also routinely pack a 45 for bear, my rifle would likely stay on my shoulder, no matter what I was packing, faster target aquisition and follow up shots.
 
Tahunua your a good hunter because chasing Elk in the thick timber is a real challenge. I don't consider myself an Elk hunting expert, but I do know that Nosler Partitions put them on the ground. I shoot the 210 Grainers in my 340 and have had no failures of any kind. One of my best friends lives in Northern Idaho and I look at the mountains around him and think I'd carry something shorter, smaller and lighter because a 100 yard shot would be pretty rare. The focus would be more on really good optics if I lived there. My earlier comments about the grizzly tracks related to a trip in Wyoming where we were deer hunting. I was carrying a very accurate 257 Weatherby that shoots 100 Grain bullets extremely well but won't shoot anything heavier at all. Then you see those tracks as big as a pie plate and you look at those little tiny bullets and you start to question your choices.
 
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