Have a Creedmoor and a Grendel that are new to my collection. Took them both on a hunt with some kids. Wanted to use them since they are ver accurate and easy with the kids. Kids we 11, 10, and 7.

11 year olds first hunt.
Whitwail buck - 6.5 Creedmoor
80 yards in the shoulder. Ran 50 yards. Then took some time to pass

10 year old
Axis buck - Grendel
60 yards. Hit, fell and ran. Found blood. No axis. Looked for hours that night and then waited til morning. Found him and after hours of chasing moved to the Creedmoor. He wanted me to put him down. Hit him in spine and back half was out. Got to him and took 2 more shots to put him down. He wouldn't die. It wasn't fun.

7 year old
Fallow buck at 50 yards. Shoulder shot. He went 15 yards and then raised up and flipped over backwards. Thought it was done. Great! Got to him and he wasn't dead. Gave him a minute and we decided to put him down with another shot.

48 year old kid (me)
Axis buck 75 yards. Smoked in the bread basket. Ran up a hill and fell out. Got up there gave him some time. He started trying to get away which was down a hill so hit him again to put him down.


Myself and other adults, including ranch managers, were all really disappointed in the performance.

143 led-x
123 sst

When you say you and ranch managers were disappointed in the performance, do you mean y'alls shot placement?

Would've swapped your weapon/animal choices. Grendel is deadly on whitetail at shorter distances but it still has to be a well placed shot.

Would've bumped to creed (not personally but it's what you had) for axis & fallow, but still has to be a good shot.

Whether in the "bread basket" or double lung, you're likely to have some track job no matter what. Unless you're breaking necks or blowing out front shoulders (my personal preference), it sounds like both rounds performed to the best of their capabilities. The rest is up to who's pulling the trigger.

I know at the shot vs after pics can make things look different, but the entrances all look pretty low from the ones I can see.

Grendel shot was only one that was not one to out an animal down.

I have shot things at 200 with the creed. And it performed great. Consensus was long range it is great. Under 100 it isn't a great choice.

No.

Either way, the smiles and excitement was top
notch.

6.5 Grendel is absolutely devastating on ALL North Amercian big game (except the big bears) and ALL the African plains game at ANY ethical hunting distance. Period.

Creedmoor improves on that performance some.

Sorry yall had some bad experiences but shot placement is key.

SGrem said:

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6.5 Grendel is absolutely devastating on ALL North Amercian big game (except the big bears) and ALL the African plains game at ANY ethical hunting distance. Period.

Creedmoor improves on that performance some.

Sorry yall had some bad experiences but shot placement is key.

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Lol, worked fine on an offhand 40yd frontal on a mule deer doe. Was honestly too much damage.

It's just amazing that we ever got animals down and dead before the advent of all the new super cartridges.
I think all the OB should break down and just clean out our gun safes and get rid of all those .243's, .270's, .308's,
.280's, 7mm-08's, 25-06,s and other old non killing cartridges before they are totally not worth anything.
Let's have a OB sale!

Eldx isn't great at close range. It has a thin jacket. In my experience the bullet can fragment at high velocities. It's better at long range. Has nothing to do with the caliber.

More than anything it sounds like you're approaching the animals too quickly after shooting.

Let them bleed out for 15-20 minutes.

I've taken axis buck, whitetail doe, blackbuck male and female with my grendel and nothing made it more than 50 yards and nothing required an additional shot.

I've also hit a different axis with my 300 win mag that did require an additional shot.

It's shot placement.

It's supposed to fragment. That's how they work, and they work well.

meggy09 said:

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When you say you and ranch managers were disappointed in the performance, do you mean y'alls shot placement?

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Well that didn't take long...

I'd rather the bullet expand and pass through. Expansion and weight retention is better in my uneducated opinion.

I've shot quite a few deer with different calibers in the Eldx. Bullet never holds together. All die but don't always get pass through sand blood trails with Eldx. I switched to Barnes LRX and had better bullet performance.

NRH ag 10 said:

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It's supposed to fragment. That's how they work, and they work well.

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This the eldx has a thicker jacket than the 140 match.

I shot a bid pig the other day with 130grain prime match ammo. Right in the shield of front shoulder. Did not take another step….

Not to brag but rather a case in point - I dropped a pig at 500 with a Grendel SST. At your distances and game, the Grendel platform has zero blame on any "performance".

Numerous WT, Aoudad, Oryx, Axis, hogs, javelina all either DRT or piled up within 25 yards.

Try different bullets. The Nosler AB and ABLR have done very well for me at ranges of 25-300+ yds.

Game I play with the kids in the blind is to take pictures of the deer at the feeder and ask them to draw shot placement on my phone. Helps them visualize it and placement is always more important than caliber.

I was around for a doe taken by a 13 year old with a 6.5 Creedmore, two weeks ago. Perfect shot just behind the front legs, she went 40 yards and dropped never to move again. Hair and blood at the impact spot and good blood up to where she lay, which was within sight of where she was hit but still good to see. Upon cleaning shot took out both lungs and the top of the heart. Very efficient and ethical kill in my opinion.

In my opinion all kids should be taught to shoot for the lungs just behind the shoulder. Larger target and more assured and ethical kill.

I'm betting the 6.5 C ammo was Hornady performance hunter eld-X. Watch some YouTube videos. They've found that to be very inconsistent velocity wise. Also as mentioned the ELD-X is poor bullet choice for most Texas distances. 200 and under.

Try Federal Fusion. Nosler Accubond is good for heavier game.

Also this. Ribs on deer don't offer a lot of meat. So you're not messing anything up.

Tissue destruction followed by blood loss kills. Like for like, bullets that yaw and fragment will kill faster than something like a TSX.

No one replied, but on another one of these threads I posted photos of the ribcage of 2 different whitetail deer and asked if anyone could tell the difference. One had been killed by a tipped matchking from a 223, another by a copper bullet from a 7mm PRC. They were damn near indiscernible from one another. Not perfect because there were no photos of the organs, but still interesting.

I agree with that. It is devastating. They all kill. A majority of hunters would prefer a bullet that holds together than fragments. We have different philosophies for what we look for in a hunting cartridge.

A bullet that retains its weight though is more predictable and consistent though especially on bigger animals. Doesn't really matter on thin skinned game like deer.

I agree that it's bullet choice. Personally, I am a 165-180 grain .30-06 fan. I've never hit anything with that that didn't pile up on the spot or run no more than 20 yards before dying.

That said; my son has shot several deer with his .223 Remington and those deer all had similar results. I think, even on Texags, we can agree the .223 is inferior to any 6.5 offerings. Shot placement and bullet selection is the key to any ammo choices, I think.

I've HEARD many of the magnum rounds can fail to efficiently kill animals due to short distances and speed. They don't expand or "work" under their circumstances resulting in injured or lost animals. I've never personally experienced that with 7mm Rem Mag though. But again if I'm shooting something at 80 yards with a magnum round, I'd probably want to make sure I've dialed it down a little.

This will save you the trouble for next time.

Nope

I would say with all due respect that you fell for marketing hype.

We pretty much figured out how to kill deer inside 300 yards 80 years ago when we figured out SP bullets. Hunting ammo is absolutely a case of not getting more when spending more. Unless you are doing something well beyond 300 yards just use Core Lokts or Power Points or blue box or whichever one groups best in your rifle. Norma makes a good soft point too.


Every time I field dress a deer with a heart lung shot from a SP bullet I look at the complete devastation and wonder how anything could possibly be 'better'

Didn't know they had this. Many years ago I got cute and switched my 3006 to xp3 ammo. Had to start tracking doe at 100 yards. Went back to core lokt and haven't had to track since. Shoots dirtier. But i am fine with that. Dropped an elk in its tracks with no issue.

These faster bullets that zip through just aren't great

Not offended. And I agree.

I made the exact same mistake with 30-06 though I can't remember exactly what I had switched too. But I switched back pretty fast.

I use Core Lokts in my 06 and Power Points in my newer .243 only because it groups a little tighter. My kids have shot probably 8 deer in the last three years with the .243 from 60 to 200 yards, all with spectacular results.


I didn't know they were making them in 6.5 creed either until I saw them at Academy in Temple. They were bought up pretty fast. Remington had a production disruption during their bankruptcy but are back full swing.

Exactly…….