6.5 Grendel Moose & Whitetail

[Stinky Coyote]

6.5 Grendel Moose & Whitetail, Alberta, Nov 2018

Bull Moose
CZ 527 American
Hornady Black Factory Ammo rated 2580 fps
(123 gr ELD-M, .506 BC, .252 SD @ actual 2550 fps)
125 yards, shoot till they drop philosophy used.

Shot 1: Standing on far edge of a stand of trees, position to see most of middle. Moose went maybe 15 yards after shot and stopped, turned and came back a couple steps, unsteady. Shot angle was quartering towards slightly, hit tail of near lung, full center of liver 10” hamburger section through middle of liver, no exit I could tell. Field gutless method done, did not pay attention to offside hide or guts although saw at least one hole into the paunch area beyond the liver, liver was saved for the farm cats, went in for it last…it was a mess and worst damage I’ve seen to a liver ever, my guess is bullet was in the guts somewhere past centerline and nearer the offside?

Shot 2: Had to move several feet to see through trees, quartering towards a bit, good impact. Hit rear quarter, center of femur (dammit, blame deflection but could be hurried shooting at this point, I can take ownership), did not know placement until doing gutless method lifting rear leg it was clear where shot two ended up. In butchering found approx. 4” section of the femur destroyed, no obvious exit, no fragments found yet. Extensive damage around the destroyed section of femur, maybe cantaloupe sized ball of destruction. Meat is currently in deboned state ready for final trimming and vac sealing, two helpers butchering, we didn’t get very forensic, will update if any fragments or a bullet is found in final processing.

Shot 3: Bull looked to be going down, may have been down, on front end perhaps?, things were happening fast at this point, could still see the top 1/8th of him, aimed for hump but again, hurried up, possible deflection, entered under antler directly into brain and blew antler off with good chunk of skull plate with it. No exit, brains and guck exiting places…yes, bull down, did not know placement until walked up and seen antler laying alongside head.

So for one moose we got to experience 3 different shot placements so in my mind it’s important to share the data accurately, so anyone can make up their own mind of it’s lethality potential. Shot 1 was fatal and the other two not necessary, bull was going down within 15 yards regardless of shots 2 and 3 which just sped up the process.

At 125 yards that moose was hit with approx. 2430 fps. For curiosity sake 2000 fps will come at about 375 yards out of my particular set-up, 8.0 ft/lbs recoil energy in my set up also, gun all up with sling and ammo is 7 lb 6 oz. I’m happy with performance, no surprises, maybe a little better than anticipated. The cartridge does seem to have a reputation of unusually high ratio of either drt to sub 30 yrd recoveries (multi-year knock down survey on the Grendel forum), my experience so far is echoing that.

Have pics, will need to send to someone for help in posting, any volunteers?

By all accounts from my searching, this may be the first moose taken with the 6.5 Grendel?

Later same day I shot a small 4x4 whitetail buck slight quartering away liver and tail of lungs, down in 15 yards again. Smaller damage cone than I saw with the moose, easy pass through, normal looking holes/damage through liver, maybe closing in on tennis ball to baseball diameter size of lung tip missing on offside before exiting, 1.5-2” exit. Not much of a test. I passed a 380 yard opportunity on that buck in order to get across valley and above and hope he came into view below and half hour later it worked out that way for the 125 yrd shot.