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It's that time of year. Let's see those kills.

Tell us more about the rifle and load used to bag that buck.

Mike
Rifle is a CZ 527 that is 1 of 2 that were originally a 7.62 x 39 & purchased primarily for the donor action for a 6.5 Grendel or 6.5LBC roughly 5 years ago. Then roughly a year ago I reached out to Pacnor to see if they were able to do a drop in barrel chambered in 6mm ARC. Well yess they could & a 22" long 5 groove 7.5 twist barrel is what we settled on. I was warned this would likely be a fast barrel.


That is she would likely require less powder to achieve max velocity. Also they have started to alter the geometry of the land/grooves to decrease fouling. Right on both accounts. she requires approximately 1 grain less propellent to achieve max velocity, listed in Hornady load manual for a 24" barrel.

Barrel arrived late last summer. only change required was a need for a bit more clearance for the claw extractor. Otherwise Head space was great. & she really cleans up like a breeze.

The chosen bullet for this hunt was a 108 gr Elite hunter. 29.4 GR of LVR is sending it with a muzzle velocity of 2780 FPS. A high shoulder impact point was the chosen point of aim on a quartering away shot. Would say the bullet hit slightly higher & back from my intended point of impact, Results was a low spine hit & instant lights out.

Better write up over on LRH link below.


 
Very nice, I am torn between building a 6mm arc, or a 6.5 Grendel.

Mike
Suppose this depends on your intended use. W the 6.5 mm Grendel you are looking at a Max practical bullet weight of 130 Grains. Otherwise with the longer bullet is intruding in on the powder column too much. So the 6.5 mm Grendel is somewhat limited in terms of high BC bullets.

The 6mm ARC is at home with what I consider a much wider range of B.C. bullets ranging from 115 grains & down.

My observation is generally you are looking at 200 FPS or better velocity advantage with the 6mm ARC.
 
If you do a grendel in a bolt action perhaps even a AR you may wish to look in to LVR as a propellant. Cant say I have seen published data w LVR in the 6.5 Grendel & really can't say why not. When working up a load for the flat base 129 gr Hornady spire point I did experience velocities well above anything I have seen published. ES & accuracy was quite impressive as well with LVR under that 129 GR flat base bullet. similar results were seen with 125 grain partition.

There was an aspect of that high velocity load that made me uncomfortable in the sense of the light weight CZ527 recoiled a bit more than I cared for.
 
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I was leaning toward the Grendel because I really like the CZ 527 in 6.5 with the heavy barrel. I already have (my first rifle/wildcat build) a 6mm-250 on a Stevens/ Savage action. This is my coyote rifle, it shoots Sierra 80g blitz great. It also shoots the Sierra 85g game kings very well. I haven't killed any yotes with it yet, not been able to get out much. The last time out resulted in my son shooting a fox we called in.

Mike
 
Went out the ranch this morning and spotted this guy when I was at the entrance to my "range pasture". It was actually one of the luckier shots I've ever taken.

I shoot this 6BRA in F-Class, despite it really being a PRS gun without a brake and a NF comp.

Earlier in the week I'd Iosso'ed the barrel, pulled the barrel off the gun, then changed my mind and re-installed it, put a new stock on the rifle, and headed out today to do some load dev. The gun was previously zeroed for 31gr of Varget and a Berger 108 BT; the only 108s BTs I had on me were leftover 31.5gr rounds from a test session a few weeks back.

I see 6-7 hogs that ranged at 550 yards; pulled out a PRS bag and toss it on the bedrail of the truck. I didn't have my drops with me, no cell signal, so just dialed 9 minutes, and put a minute right to offset the wind, then held top of it's back.

So if anyone wanted to know, that's what a Berger 108 BT @ 2900 looks like on a hog at 550.

Edit: Also, NF comps are freaking terrible "early morning" hunting scopes lol.

1643570678329.png
 
Went out the ranch this morning and spotted this guy when I was at the entrance to my "range pasture". It was actually one of the luckier shots I've ever taken.

I shoot this 6BRA in F-Class, despite it really being a PRS gun without a brake and a NF comp.

Earlier in the week I'd Iosso'ed the barrel, pulled the barrel off the gun, then changed my mind and re-installed it, put a new stock on the rifle, and headed out today to do some load dev. The gun was previously zeroed for 31gr of Varget and a Berger 108 BT; the only 108s BTs I had on me were leftover 31.5gr rounds from a test session a few weeks back.

I see 6-7 hogs that ranged at 550 yards; pulled out a PRS bag and toss it on the bedrail of the truck. I didn't have my drops with me, no cell signal, so just dialed 9 minutes, and put a minute right to offset the wind, then held top of it's back.

So if anyone wanted to know, that's what a Berger 108 BT @ 2900 looks like on a hog at 550.

Edit: Also, NF comps are freaking terrible "early morning" hunting scopes lol.

View attachment 1312473
Mike was that entrance or exit?
 
Today is the last day of squirrel season in Ohio. I did 'ok' this year. I didn't go out as much as I'd hoped. There were family issues and a LOT of terrible weather.

But today I went out with the 22 to a small patch of wood next to farm land. Usually filled with lots..and fat squirrels. They like the corn. The ground is covered with snow. Today it got up to 33 degrees and sunny. For 10 days it's been in the teens or below, and often very windy. I don't go out if the wind is above 10mph...I just never seem to find any squirrels. I don't think I used my 17hmr all season. Early on, I used a shotgun, then when the leaves start to fall, switch over to the 22. My Savage 17hmr has the bull/varmint barrel and is REALLY barrel heavy. It's cumbersome & awkward to carry on your shoulder. It wants to tip over. But good Gawd it's accurate. Also, when using the 17hmr (and also shotguns) I use earplugs. And it's difficult to put earplugs in with gloves on. And for squirrels, the 17hmr pretty much has to be head shots only, anything else is like a grenade.

But I hit the woods, and the snow is crunchy...so it's difficult to be silent. I make my way as best I can, and I passed by a fox squirrel but didn't know it. (didn't see it) But it starts barking. Big mistake. I backtrack and find it. It can clearly see me and it's not running. I just make sure I move slowly so I'm not considered a threat. I unsling, and lean against a tree...and it's barking at me. I look through the scope, I'm barely wavering and the squirrel is relatively close, so I have my choice of what body part I want to aim for. It's facing right at me, and aim for where the neck meets the body. I fire, hear a healthy and loud 'thwack' and falls back but grabs the thin branch it was sitting on. Now it's just hanging there with both front arms holding onto the branch...like it's going to do chin ups! I chamber another round just in case. (But I'm pretty sure my shot was on target.) It finally drops to the ground with a good thud. I go over. I see the entrance point is just about where I aimed. No exit wound. It must have torn through heart/lungs.

After another 30-45 minutes (with calling and finding nothing), I finally see another squirrel moving. I think I'm a little too far away, so I try to get at least 10 yards closer. When using a rifle, I ALWAYS brace against a tree. No offhanding for me. So when I move through the woods, it's always from tree to tree. I do manage to get a little closer. I lean against a tree and look through the scope. It's sitting on a branch but mostly facing away from me. Then it adjusts itself...now it's completely facing away from me. I don't shoot it in the ass for fear of not a clean kill. So I have to try to move to another tree to try to get a better angle. I find another tree, it's still facing mostly away from me, but I can see it's head and shoulders. I aim for the shoulder and fire....direct hit. But it doesn't fall and don't think it's an immediate kill. I chamber another round and quickly fire. That did it....it falls to the ground dead.

Nice way to end the season.

2022-02-01_01-29-42 by John Doe, on Flickr
 
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