Axis deer with my 6.5!

[LoonWulf]

Ive been home on Molokai for a couple days now and got to do some hunting between parties. My father inlaw and i got out yesterday for a while. He shot a nice little buck and a soft horn spike, I shot a soft horn buck and a hard horn spike....change it up ya know? Hunting here is always fun, I grew up on Molokai, but there are alot of areas on the island i didnt have access too. Since ive been hunting with my wifes Fam Ive gotten to see alot of new areas.
Only issues ive had this trip is the 6.5 isnt droping them on the spot. Shots have been good, damage has been good, but the animals have been running on the shot. Flip side is double taps with the Ar is super easy and quick.....i forgot to take pictures of my spike but got Dad and his little buck. Got a head shot of the other two

 

[Gtscotty]

Interesting, I don't think I've seen that variety of deer before, is it native to the Pacific islands? Given the mention of an AR, I'm guessing that you're shooting a Grendel? If so, what bullet/load are you using?

 

[LoonWulf]

Axis deer or Chital, they get arround lol, i think they were originally from india. the horns arnt hard on all of them yet, and quite honestly id have preferred to leave the soft horns for someone else to get later, and shot a doe or two but I didnt see many and none in shootable range. By the time we got on these deer we were getting ready to call it a day and we needed meat in the coolers. We ended up picking up my spike, and dads buck on the way down.

I was shooting a 6.5 grendel, forgot to mention that. Loads a 123amax over 31.5grn of cfe. It produces a little over 2500 from my 20" upper.....I think ill drop some weight to see if i cant get a bit more shock from velocity.

And yeah tshirt and slippers were my father inlaws hunting atire for the day....hell for camo, he saw a ton of deer that morning, I didnt and I was camoed out lol.

 

[Art Eatman]

Axis deer were also imported into Texas as exotic game many years ago. They've escaped from game ranches and have become regular sightings in the hill country of central Texas. As ferals, they can be hunted year-around, day or night.

 

[Patocazador]

Shorts and flip-flops .. nothing like being comfortable while hunting.

 

[Shotgunr]

How does the Grendel compare to the swede and Creedmore?

 

[LoonWulf]

Bout 300-400fps slower than the medium 6.5s, penetration is plenty good, damage was fine, it just lacks the shock of the higher velocity rounds. I could hit 2700fps with my 24" barrelled upper with 123s, my Creedmoor breaks 3k

 

[horsey300]

Sounds like a good time! I like reading about these Hawaiian hunts! If you drop to a 120 bt or sst over RL 15 you're not far from a regular 7-08 deer load....I'm sure a 100 gr partition could wreak havoc too, but just an idea, course, if your deer are generally smallish a screaming 100 bt might do it too. Kinda wanting Grendel for a hog gun myself I just can't get off the fence about it hahaha.

 

[ironworkerwill]

I'm wanting a Grendel upper, badly!

Those are some handsome animals. Then, getting to hunt them in shorts, awesome!

 

[LoonWulf]

I've been wanting to shoot the same bullets in my 6.5s but its looking like I'll have to switch to lighter projectiles in the Gren, ill keep those suggestions in mind.
I recovered a couple bullets and kept one, it only expanded about 3/4 of the way down the shank, core separated was right nearby. I've gotten used to just finding chunks, or inside out jackets, when using amax bullets at 3kish.
I'll be another year or so before I can come home and shoot more deer so I'll be testing my next bullet choices on pigs, sheep (maybe), and goats. I really like the handling, and shooting qualities of my grendel, I'd highly recommend one.

Hunting in shorts is nice, but slippers are usually cause someone forgot their boots.....

 

[Nature Boy]

Congrats!

 

[Rickt300]

I've had many deer sized animals run 30-50 yards after being hit in the chest. If I want them to DRT I usually hit them in the neck in front of the shoulder.

 

[LoonWulf]

Yeah if id gone for nervous system or bones id have had a better chance of drts. Shooting those Amaxs tho i still had expectations handgrenade expansion, never mind i was driving them significantly slower than i do in any other caliber. So shooting for bones didn't occur to me at the time.

 

[Rickt300]

I am going to use the AMAX out of my Grendel for some feral hog control in a week or so. In your experience they hold together pretty good or do they break up. This is control work so chest hits will be attempted if that is all I get to shoot at. Are they pretty destructive on game, the AMAX?

 

[LoonWulf]

At grendel velocity they hold together pretty well.
I shot one spike in the butt twice and pulled one bullet out of the off side shoulder, the other hit the pelvis and ended up in the stomach as far as i could tell....didnt go digging.

When driven to 2900-3k which is where i usually launch them from other guns they normall come apart inside of the body cavity, if shots are thru the ribs than fist size or larger exit wounds are normal.
If a shoulder bone is hit on the way in I usual find significant damage on the opposite side of the ribcage and everything in between is jello. More often than not the jacket will be inside out under the sking on the far side with a very small chunk of core nearby.

 

[Gtscotty]

Out of curiosity, why use the 123gr Amax for hunting with Grendel when the 123gr SST was introduced for that exact purpose?

 

[LoonWulf]

When I was ordering brass grafs had the amax but was out of the ssts, and again i shoot them in other calibers to good effect. In fact the amax from the grendel performed quite well in terms of penetration and expansion, just not enough velocity to get the massive damage and shock im used to with the bullets.
The one box of loaded sst ammo i found on the shelf here was actually used to proof the upper along with some handloads with the amax. both shot to point of aim. My final amax load matched the velocity of the he factory ssts fairly closely.

Oh in the other cals i use the amax for i shoot them heavy 162s and 208s

 

[Rickt300]

Sounds like I can hit the onside shoulder low in the chest and still get some penetration into the heart lungs. Sometimes after dark it is hard to tell exactly where the shoulder/ elbow is and it seems to draw bullets. I found the 223 to be less than up to the task of shattering bone and doing much internal damage.

 

[LoonWulf]

Yeah it should provide enough penetration to get into the chest cavity on a shot like that. I certainly wouldn't hesitate to take a quartering towards shot.