Barnes 115 gr TAC-TX for the 6.5 Grendel

[White Smoke]

This is a fairly new bullet that was designed by Barnes specifically for the 6.5 Grendel. No one seemed to be able to get their hands on any, but John at Fine Firearms managed to get two boxes for me. THANK YOU John! I loaded up a couple of ladders the other day and finally got to the range. 26.0 grains of Reloder 15 gave a four-shot group of 0.81" and 26.0 grains of IMR 8208 XBR gave me a 0.69" group. Previously, I tried the 100 and 120-grain Barnes TTSX bullets, but could not get them to fly. These 115 TAC-TX's are dynamite with the Grendel!

 

[TRICER]

We have the 308 110g tac-tsx shooting awesome in the boys Black out. Great bullets and they perform well at low velocity.

 

[White Smoke]

Just shot another ladder today using H335. I got one group with 28.0 grains that measured 0.72" and another at 27.5 grains that had three of the four shots touching plus a called flyer. (My son torched off a 45-70 right next to me as I pulled the trigger). I'm going to be making up two five-shot loads at 27.5 and 28.0 just to confirm and see if I can get that 4-shot touching group. I also got some CFE223 and will be building a ladder using that powder. That SHOULD do it for the testing...I hope! The flyer is marked with a pen line coming in from the left.

 

[Aeon]

How broad were your nodes impact or speed? Did you do it in 2/10ths of a gr increments.

 

[White Smoke]

I shoot 4-round groups from the starting suggested load to the top load in half-grain increments. Once I find the best load, I shoot five more to confirm. If the patterns on either side of the "best" group don't match, I sometimes do a spread around the "best" in 2/10 increments to find the "real" best load. I don't usually chronograph a load until I find my final "best" load.

 

[Aeon]

So ladder tests are a lil different and something you can all do. here is a good write up on how to do them and why they work.

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The basic idea is you are looking for a node where a couple shots have close to the same impact and or speed. Think of the barrel whipping and you want to catch it on the sweet spot. You can run ladders with powder charge changes, primer, and seating depth. They can be a moving target as you shoot barrels wear and lands move so whats good today at shot 100 might suck at shot 700 on a fast burner.

shooting groups is good too and does work but wont show you the broad node you want to get the most out of your rig. Groups also induce shooter error and other things that can trick you into thinking you got it nailed.

my personal method is ladder test at 2/10ths gr increments. then seating test to bring it the rest of the way. I cheat all the time and stop if the gun shoots good with the break in loads. I am in that boat right now with the 7 saum. Its shooting lights out good with the break in/fireform loads and i am so tempted to just keep banging away at it. in competition on sat at 1k yards 8 of 20 shots were in a 1/2moa circle at 1k yards. The rest were basically in a 1moa circle.

as always 1" groups are easy but 1/2" will cost you

***EDIT**** forgot neck tension plays a part too. When things are not working right at all i will move that in and out .001 to .005ths

 

[White Smoke]

I also play with the seating depth once I get the final powder load. This Grendel has gotten spendy. I have been shooting a lot of bullets trying different powders to find the one combination that works best. The big cost was all the Barnes 100 and 120 TTSX's that never worked out. I've gotten the new 115 TAC-TX's under an inch with several powders. I have one more ladder to shoot using CFE, which is the one Barnes recommended. Hopefully, I'll get to the range this Friday.

 

[White Smoke]

Preliminary tests are indicating that the 115 TAC's like a longer seating depth. The ones seated at magazine length all flew better than those seated shorter.

 

[White Smoke]

More testing indicates I have a bad barrel. I cannot get consistency in any group, no matter what powder or bullet. I will get a great group one day, like around a half-inch, and then come back with a five-shot string to confirm the previous grouping and it goes crazy, like up to 3". Tore the rifle apart, re-torqued the barrel, totally cleaned it, changed the scope...nothing worked, so I went down to Gunfighter Tactical in San Diego and have a new Odin Works 18" intermediate barrel on the way. It will arrive on Thursday. The new flash suppressor and crush washer will arrive on Friday. If it gets here early enough, I'll get the new barrel put on Friday. If it arrives later on in the day, it will be Tuesday. Range day will be Wednesday. I have six ladders of bullets made up, four with the Speer 90 grain TNT using CFE, 8028, Reloder 10x and H335 and two ladders using the Hornady 95 grain V-max with 8208 and CFE. Those are all good powders and two good bullets. SOMETHING should fly! Report to follow on Thursday!

 

[White Smoke]

The new Odin Works barrel did it! I shot four ladders with the Speer 90 grain TNT using CFE223, IMR8208, Reloder 10x and H335 and two ladders with the Hornady 95 grain V-max. There were more sub-MOA groups than there were groups over an inch and four right at or under 1/2". I wound up with two great loads for each bullet. Now to do some final testing and chronograph each load before making the final decision of what powder to shoot for each bullet. As the pictures show, for the 90 grain TNT, 32.0 grains of H335 gave a 0.51" group and 31.5 grains of CFE223 gave a 0.61" group. For the 95 grain V-max, 31.0 grains of IMR8208 gave a 0.47" group and 30.0 grains of CFE223 gave a 0.49" group. Once I finalize these loads, I'll load up some of the Barnes 115 grain
TAC-TX's.

 

[NBK]

Nice job Jerry. Sub half inch groups out of an AR is some strong work.

 

[White Smoke]

Thanks. And thanks for all your help. I now have two ladders built for the 115's you sold me the other day, one with CFE and the other with IMR8208. I also have 5 confirmation rounds made up for each of the two 90-grain TNT targets. Range Day is Wednesday. Let the cordite flow!

 

[White Smoke]

First try with the 115 TAC's produced a 0.91" group. Not too bad for a starting point. Still playing with the 90 TNT and 95 V-max bullets, but both have produced sub-MOA groups with two right at half-minute groups. Lookin' bad for the prairie dogs!

 

[White Smoke]

Here's the 0.46" four-shot grouping for the Barnes 120 grain TTSX using 28.0 grains of H335 at 2372 f/s.

 

[White Smoke]

The final results are in! All my problems were due to a defective scope. It was returned to the factory, repaired and re-mounted. All is well now. Results are:
120 TTSX - 28.0 grains of H335 - 2372 f/s - 0.46" group
115 TAC-TX - 30.0 grains of CFE223 - 2418 f/s - 0.72" group
95 Hornady V-max - 29.0 grains of H335 - 2656 f/s - 0.68" group
and the WINNER is...
90 grain Speer TNT - 31.0 grains of H335 - 2692 f/s and a 0.22" five-shot group at 100 yards! This is my prairie dog load for Arizona.

 

[NBK]

Nicely done Jerry!

 

[White Smoke]

I just can't stop tinkering! Here's the latest 5-shot group using WC844 (H335 equivalent).

 

[HATCHET1]

We use 115,s thru the 257 often on large mammals...menacing to say the least....