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6.5 Grendel or 450 Bushmaster

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Lockjaw View Drop Down
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    Posted: July/16/2018 at 11:16
Want to make my little AR something I deer hunt with. Live in Alabama. Could take a long shot, but... don't need to. 

Thoughts on each? 

Seems like for reloading I could do way more with the grendel. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rancid Coolaid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/16/2018 at 12:12
 As both are an upper swap, get both and let us know.

But, short of that, they are very, very different rounds, with very, very different ballistics.  The Bushmaster is not a long-range round, and the Grendel is not a brute force round.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lockjaw Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/16/2018 at 13:12
I'm struggling with the choice to be honest. Part of me wants a 16 in 450 for woods hunting, and part of me wants the 6.5 for going pig hunting with a buddy. At least I'm hoping he will invite me.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rancid Coolaid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/16/2018 at 16:24
 Okay, that helps.

For piggies, especially up close, the 450 is a good choice.  I have a 45/70 and it makes a mess of pigs every time, good blood trail, lots of impact trauma.  And pig hunting is usually a low light game, which means not long range, which means 450. (For clarity, my 45/70 is not an AR, but I have considered a big bore AR upper for just that reason. What has kept me from it is I do not have a suppressor that would work with a 450 or 460 or 500 AR rifle round - at least one that wouldn't turn a 16" upper into a 35" broomstick.)

The Grendel is intriguing, but it is a longer distance round with more ass than a 223; the bushmaster is a whole other thing.

With your update, I'd say do the bushmaster and set it up with a good 1-4 or 1-6.  That'd be a good pig gun setup.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cpwomack Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/17/2018 at 06:41
I have no experience with the 450 Bushmaster but I do have two 6.5 Grendels. One is an 18" and the other is a 12.5" pistol. I used the the 18" to hunt deer with last year. I hunt in the Southeast (Tennessee, Alabama, and Arkansas)and rarely have a shot opportunity that exceeds 200 yards. Took a nice 8 point and a doe, both shots were about 80 yards and both dropped within 25 yards. I was using factory 123 grain SST and they performed really well, complete pass through and a good blood trail. I think either one would make a great rifle for what you want.

Edited by cpwomack - July/17/2018 at 21:45
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Urimaginaryfrnd Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/17/2018 at 15:25
Or 300 Blackout where you can choose between supersonic 125g or subsonic 220 gr as need changes. This runs the same bolt as the 5.56 so just the upper is all you need same mags as 5.56.
The one thing you don't want to do is ram a 300 into a 5.56 chamber and blow it up so mark your mags somehow.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote urbaneruralite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/17/2018 at 17:58
Do you want a .250 Savage or a .45/70? Do you want cheap practice ammo or are you only going to shoot a box per year?

If you have doubts about the Grendel on hogs, check out the Carpe Sus channel on youtube. He shows what it will and won't do on hogs.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote supertool73 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/17/2018 at 18:28
One thing to note 450 bush uses pistol bullets. .458 socom uses rifle bullets. Both have their pluses and minuses depending upon usage.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lockjaw Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/19/2018 at 12:00
The issue with a Socom is the entry price.  And finding ammo. Reloading is an option for sure. 

I think I can find grendel or bushmaster locally. I am going to see about the socom round. 

Not a fan of the 300blk. If I wanted to do subsonic and suppress it, maybe. A suppressor is in the works for deer hunting though, since they made that legal here. 

And quite frankly, here is my dilemma. I'm in a hunting club. Our lease calls for us to shoot basically 3 year old bucks. They take jaw bones and other measurements from every deer harvested. The problem is educating everyone, myself included, on how to age a deer. So the rule is 3 points on one side is the minimum. 

The second issue is we have a lot of guys that just sit in the shooting houses on green fields. Some of them are set up improperly for the prevailing wind direction. As in, they are upwind of the fields. So that doesn't work.

The third issue is we need to really get the PH right, and plant different stuff. Planting 21 green fields in wheat, oats and rye with a few winter peas mixed in doesn't seem to be the ticket. We have 2500+ acre's and we don't have probably 10 acre's planted. 

So what I do is try to find places no one hunts, and hunt them. Which means its thick. So the big bore is probably better. I plan to hunt my with 30/30 more too, and use the hog hammer ammo it likes. Buffalo Bore says that bullet is the bullet for a 30/30 short of a moose. 

Most of it is planted pines, we have had a bunch clear cut, and then we have hardwood bottoms. Anu shooting house or clear cut I sit on I can cover with my 700 SPS 308, or 270. The woods, or short fields, I really want to be able to anchor what I shoot. 

So my 308 I have to test out my Berger Classic Hunter 165's and see which load groups the best, and then test them at distance. 

So in the thick stuff, I need a fast follow up shot, and my bolt guns, and even the lever gun don't really give me that. Not to mention a 150gr 30/30 isn't exactly a powerhouse. 


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lockjaw Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/19/2018 at 14:28
Well local gun shop has no 458 socom. They have 450 bushmaster. I asked dude if they kept it, and he said they did, BUT.... sometimes people come in and buy it all. 

I did notice they had the barnes 30-30 ammo marked down to 15.99 a box, and while I am sure its probably not the same powder as the Remington Hog Hammer ammo, my 30-30 seems to like the bullet in Remington trim, so.... hoping the barnes ammo is the same. 

I saw a test on youtube where that ammo went through 6 gallon water jugs, so..... It ought to leave a nice hole coming out. That I like. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote urbaneruralite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/19/2018 at 14:41
Speed of follow up tends to be determined by how quickly I can recover from recoil. On a magnum rifle, working the bolt doesn't make much difference because that is done and over with by the time I get back down. With lesser recoiling rounds, a different action can help. 

About the fastest thing I can think of for deer in thickets is a semi-auto shotgun. You could probably push the range to 80 yards handloading 18g/cc tungsten shot. Slugs, of course, work, but you'd want sights. Any sighting slows you down. 

Buckshot can be slung to the neck/shoulder junction right quick with your duck gun. We used to do a lot of man driving back in the day. Using that shot placement and a 12 gauge pump, my best was four deer in a row as they ran by nose-to-tail. 

Generally, anchoring deer means interrupting the CNS. With heart/lung shot placement, the most impressive things I have used dropping deer on the spot are .308-class cartridges and 120gr ballistic tip style bullets. A shot that a .300 mag would leave me expecting a 50 yard dash often just drops them right there. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote cpwomack Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/19/2018 at 16:31
Our local Academy and Sportsman's Warehouse carry both, not sure if you have either. Bonus for Sportsman's Warehouse is that they carry the Hornady American Gunner 200 round value packs. The ammo is accurate in both my Grendels and at $139.99 it is a good deal, cheaper than buying new brass.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lockjaw Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/20/2018 at 08:28
I have to check Academy. No sportsmans warehouse here. I wish......

My go to for putting deer down on the spot used to be Winchester Supreme ballistic silvertip out of my 7-08. Out of my 16.5 in Ruger M77, it was death. At least the first box of ammo was. The next one, a big FAT NOPE!! 

Every deer I have shot since the first box has run off. First box, double lung one, and there would be 6 to 8 feet of hair, blood, tissue behind the deer, and a DRT deer. I guess I should have never opened my big fat mouth and boasted about the ammo/cartridge...... Embarrassed

That has lead me to try Berger's in my 308. The most effective round for me with it, at least out of the short 16.5 Ruger, was Hornady AW, 150 grain. I want meat, so I hate to put one through a shoulder. 

The 450/6.5 is more of converting to getting a fast follow up shot if needed. The 6.5 would have been ideal last fall on youth weekend when I had my boys out and they shot at the dumbest deer on the planet. 4 shots. My oldest finally hit it with my AR15 with 60 grain partition hand load. Found a ton of blood, but no deer. First 3 shots were from 7-08. I said put crosshairs on shoulder. They missed as I watched through AR scope. I finally handed my son the AR and he hit it. I was so frustrated I took gun to the range, it was dead on. 

I seemed to have that issue last season. In the field, nothing shot where it was aimed, but take it to the range, and it was dead on. And I broke 2 scopes. So my 308 SPS was out of commission, as was my 30-30. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SVT_Tactical Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/20/2018 at 08:38

 For me if I'm buying factory ammo I like to buy in lots.... normally 5+ boxes at a time from the same lot..... I don't buy one box at a time so ordering ammo accomplishes this most of the time.  If you plan to reload, ordering 100 or so factory loaded rounds and reloading after those get spent make sense unless its a firearm you will shot in volume. 

I had a 450 bushmaster.  Great gun but limitation is the name of the game.  To 150 yards I was confident it would knock down and ethically kill the deer I harvest around here.   I would not have taken a shot beyond that because it gives out of gas and energy after that and it has a rather fast drop rate. 

 

If I wanted a in the woods fast shot gun that would knock deer down to 100yds, I would carry my blackout with an 8" barrel and suppressor and the 110ttsx ammo, enough to knock down in the distance and compact to swing for follow up shots....

 

I love my Grendel I have as well, 18" suppressed, but not a woods good. My friend hunts with a 12.5 Grendel woods gun and another buddy uses a 11" 6.8SPC.... The 6.8 seems to have more umpfff in it for closer ranges but the Grendel shines when distance matters. both of them run theirs suppressed.  but a 16" woods gun in AR, my top two choices would be 300 blk out or 6.8SPC.   If you want cool factor though a 458 or 450 or even a 50B would be fun. But you loose long range use with them.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rancid Coolaid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/20/2018 at 08:51
Originally posted by Lockjaw Lockjaw wrote:

 The 6.5 would have been ideal last fall on youth weekend when I had my boys out and they shot at the dumbest deer on the planet. 4 shots. My oldest finally hit it with my AR15 with 60 grain partition hand load. Found a ton of blood, but no deer. First 3 shots were from 7-08. I said put crosshairs on shoulder. They missed as I watched through AR scope. I finally handed my son the AR and he hit it. I was so frustrated I took gun to the range, it was dead on. 


 

Time to take the boys to the range.

On DRT hits, you have only a few options: head, spine, neck, or shoulder.  I totally agree on the meat part, but I'll give up a front shoulder to not lose a deer.  The downside to head and neck is a miss goes really bad really quick, especially for the deer.  With shoulder, you have a bit of "wiggle room", so long as you hit that shoulder bone and grenade it, their vitals are perforated and their front legs no longer work.  I have seen a few deer try to run away with their face on the ground.  It ends with certainty, provided you can make the shoulder shot.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote RifleDude Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/20/2018 at 10:15
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote urbaneruralite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/20/2018 at 10:21
I saw Grendel ammo at Academy yesterday. I generally order everything off the web, though. 

A deer processor once told me he didn't understand people. It's simple according to him. You use a heavy bullet out of a .308 or .30/06 and break the shoulders. Everyone just asks for burger anyway, so why try to save the shoulders? 

That's good advice, unless you put it into the point of the shoulder at close range with a fast round. Suckers blow up on the heavy bone too much of the time. If I had a nickel for every time someone wondered why the buck ran off after they shot it in the shoulder when it was quartering toward at thirty yards...

If they have standard length barrels, I'd get some soft 150gr for the .270 or 165gr for the .308 and use it to blow shoulders out near and far. Grendel will be great for the kids to take neck or heart shots. That's what I'm doing with my kids.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rancid Coolaid Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/20/2018 at 12:35
Originally posted by urbaneruralite urbaneruralite wrote:


Grendel will be great for the kids to take neck or heart shots. That's what I'm doing with my kids.
 

I'll never forget the first time I saw a doe have her lower jaw blown off, your kids will remember it too.  At least she stayed around long enough to get shot again.  There was a buck that had his jaw blown off, he ran, screaming the whole time, we never found him.  But the coyotes did.  I bet.

I do not encourage head/neck shots unless the shooter has the confidence to know it will be a clean kill.

But I'm kinda old fashioned.

On the shoulder, I agree.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote urbaneruralite Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/22/2018 at 10:05
The neck and brain shots are controversial due to the easily viewed damage that occurs when you miss. Gut shots or leg shots are as bad, but they for some reason do not horrify people the same. 

Missing is missing. Fatally wounding an animal, leaving it to a slow death can happen with any shot placement. The advantage of the neck shot is that there's a whole lot more area to miss in around the target that does not wound the animal.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Lockjaw Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: July/23/2018 at 11:42
My academy had 6.5 Grendel ELD and that was it. Didn't think that was what I wanted. No 450 bushmaster. 

I got 3 boxes of Barnes 30/30 for 15.99 each at the local gun shop, he is clearing them out. My 30/30 likes Remington Hog Hammer alot, and this is the same bullet. Not the same powder tho, the barnes sounds compressed, the remington, no. 

So I am going to see how it shoots when I sight it back in. The FPS on both boxes is the same. I was trying to see if i could back into that load. I asked Remington if they would tell me the powder they used, and they said no. They do have some new copper round out that uses the same bullet, and I asked if it was the same and he said it was. 

I looked at a DPMS 308, it wasn't that heavy. 

I got some 180 Gr partitions for my short 308. 165 gr berger classic hunters going in 700 SPS. Maybe I will sit on it for a while and see. I just really love my AR15, it would be awesome to hunt with it. 
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