Glad to see some one out with the Grendel , first of your videos I've seen why did you settle on the 90 grain? I have stuck with the 130's, for hunting stuff, and the Barnul 100 grain fmj for pleasure
Hey Leadbutt. I document all my hunts so that the landowners can see what I am doing on their properties (originally) and now I do it as a matter of practice whether it is on my property or somebody else's. I find that letting the landowners know what I do often gets them more interested in helping me... so there are a lot of vids on my channel. I have primarily hunted with the Grendel since 2015 (IIRC) when I had to temporarily go to a lighter recoiling caliber for a while after I had surgery.
I don't reload and so initially it was almost exclusively Hornady SST 123 gr. factory ammo which I found to be excellent for the tasks. Over the years, I have tried numerous factory loads and a few handloads I have let people make for me. I have tried all copper bullets, brass, soft point, OTM, match, hollowpoint, bonded, cup and core, fmj (tumbling on impact claimed to be a good thing), varmint rounds, etc. etc. etc.. A lot of the bullets did really well or did really like they were advertised to perform - can't fault the manufacturer or bullet if is performs exactly as claimed, right?
So I am NOT a meat hunter. I want the hogs dead. 123 gr. SSTs did a fine job, often coming apart with large wound channels and multiple small wound channels and fragments went various directions. At least part of the round would often overpenetrate (exit) on hogs up to 225 lbs with shoulder area/boilerroom shots. I had tried some of Alexander Arms' loaded 90 gr. TNT rounds but wasn't totally impressed because AA is conservative in their loading. Out of a 20" barrel, I was only getting 2700 fps for the 90 gr. bullet, but was getting 2550 fps from a 123 gr. Hornady SST 123 gr. I should have been getting >2900 fps from the 20" barrel if the ammo was loaded appropriately.
Federal came along and loaded the TNTs. I was getting 2800 fps from my 18" barrel and 2920 fps from a 20" barrel. Still, not quite as much energy and not the same BC as the SST, but a flatter trajectory and plenty of energy inside of typical shooting distances of <200 yards. The cool thing about the TNTs, despite all the cries of how I was doing wrong by using a "varmint" round (I don't buy into marketing, hence why I have tested so many bullets on actual hogs), the TNTs performed very well. They hit, penetrate 8-16" and make a typically oversized wound channel as they come apart. I have had fragments exit on hogs over 230 lbs in size, but generally overpenetration drops off significant on hogs over 160 lbs. Using a metal detector to find fragments, the heaviest (often largest) is the base and maybe a bit of jacket and it typically weighs less than 30 gr. If you are into energy dumping, then these rounds often dump most or all of their energy inside the hog. I don't believe in energy dumping, but do believe in direct damage and all the fragments and such going in various directions are more apt to damage more things, IMO, than bullets that simply drill a hole right through.
Also, I hunt a lot of smaller properties. If I have a bullet that passes through, the fragments that exit are going to be small and rendered non-effective over a very short distance if not already rendered that way going through the animal.
As it turns out for reloaders, TNT are really inexpensive bullets and apparently plenty accurate. A could of the Grendel (forum) guys target shoot with them to 700 yards and beyond.
So that is why I like TNT 90s. There are plenty of other good bullets out there. Berger VLD-Hunting 130s at Grendel velocities are some of the most destructive Grendel bullets I have seen, but they are comparatively more expensive and not as flat shooting. Speer Gold Dot 120s, Federal Fusion 120s, Nosler ABLR 120(?), and various weight Maker T-Rex (all copper) are excellent expanders and penetrators that shed little or no weight and would be what I would be using if I was meat hunting.
