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300 BO, 6.5 G, or 6 ARC?

Yeah, brass will come down and as long as you have bullets and powder/primers, brass is the easiest I've found. I just bought factory loaded ammo until Lapua made brass for it then got that...
 
Is the 350 legend on the table? I'd think it would do just fine for all of that if the shots aren't going to be lengthy and ammo for it has seemingliy been available everywhere. That said I went the 6 arc route. Factory ammo is starting to become available more readily and making brass from 6.5 grendel is a breeze... trip through the sizing die, trim to length. I like the option of 55gr. to 110gr for varmints and such. The 6.5 grendel would have been an option for me if I didnt already have a creedmoor in an ar10, and all around might be the best choice for what you're after. 100gr eldm's should be great for coyotes and such and the 123-130s great for deer/bear.
 
Not a Blackout fan. Unless it's kept supressed which was generally its intention. My hog hunting buddies tried it, they all shoot 12" suppressed Grendel's now. The blackout just didn't have the stopping ability they were looking for. The Grendel will do what you want. Privi Partisan has come back onto the scene offering a reasonably low cost ammo for hunting option and another brass option. Brass is also trickling in. Which is a good thing. The 6mm Arc is making some inroads. And there are sone spinnoffs in 6mm. I like the idea of the mongoose, just maybe not for your possible bear needs. Truthfully, if I were ever considering the Blackout, which I wouldn't, I would go with the 7.62 by 39 because there is almost always ammunition available even if it is mostly in steel case. We shoot quite a bit in the AK.
We handle 300 pound hogs reliably with the Grendel. As always shot placement plays a part. One phrase I find myself using a lot about the Grendel is it Punches well above its weight class.
 
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How about a 6.5 Grendel in an AR for the small stuff and look at a Bull Pup 12 gauge with slugs and/or buckshot for the occasional black bear. I have a couple of bull pups and they are pretty incredible.
 
Looking at all 3 rounds that you have in mind and considering the max yardage at 550 yds none of them carry enough energy to take an animal. IMO I want about 1000 ft lbs of energy to make a clean kill. Even though they are a nuisance they deserve to be taken quickly.
 
Go for the Grendel, hard to beat for your tasks, my opinion .300 BO is useless unless subsonic for zombies. My son shoots an ARC its a sweet round, I have a Grendel, I feel it's better all around because of the heavier bullets... It's a very fun and capable little cartridge!!
My experience with .300 BO is that it wouldn't even be all that great for zombies.

Grendel is a great round, can be hard to find though.
 
6.5 Grendel. I use it more than any of my other guns. You won't be sorry.

In the past week I got a notice that Statline brass was available. It may be a bit scarce, but it exists.

Go Grendel.
 
In std ar15 there is also the 6.8spc, 300hamr, 350 legend, 375 socom,, 450bm, 458 socom, 50 bw for factory offerings-- and then there are wild cats too.

Or you could do midlength or full size if you have the lower available
 
In the OP, what I had meant by "550+ range" is the size of the bear, not the max distance to target. I had written that shots would be no more than 75 yards. They are generally closer than 50 yards, because outside of that distance we tend to fire a warning shot to discourage any further encroachment on the pens. With bears, this works most of the time.

I've made the decision to go with the Grendel. My AR10 is in .260 Rem, and I shoot a lot of 6.5x55, so have plenty of different 6.5 projectiles on hand. It's not a matter of switching between different projectiles for this particular rifle; my wife isn't going to ID the predator and then choose the appropriate ammo, nor does she want to think about selecting between different rifles; she wants to shoulder a dedicated rifle and go, and it will be a one-size-fits-all projectile. Likely, it will be a 120 TSX. I'm not a fan of pass-through shots, particularly because I want to be able to verify that the critter is down for the count, and I have been using Barnes for years to do this. It's usually one and done. In the .260 and the 6.5x55, I exclusively use the 127 LRX. Hasn't failed me yet.

Reloading my own ammo is an absolute requisite, which was the issue holding me back from the Grendel initially (due to lack of available brass). I'll just keep looking. I use a lot of Starline; perhaps they'll have it back in stock sooner than later.

Just for reference, the AR10 is too large for her to shoulder and get her eye behind the glass, hence modifying the existing AR15 for this purpose. It's the perfect LOP for her. The next step will be getting the barrel and bolt head on order. Remarkably, we've had relatively little predator activity so far this winter (if you can call it "winter"; I've counted at least ten days in which tree frogs have been peeping between Jan 1 and now, and normally we're averaging 25 - 40°F daytime highs; they don't generally become active until the temps are mid-60's).
 
In the OP, what I had meant by "550+ range" is the size of the bear, not the max distance to target. I had written that shots would be no more than 75 yards. They are generally closer than 50 yards, because outside of that distance we tend to fire a warning shot to discourage any further encroachment on the pens. With bears, this works most of the time.

I've made the decision to go with the Grendel. My AR10 is in .260 Rem, and I shoot a lot of 6.5x55, so have plenty of different 6.5 projectiles on hand. It's not a matter of switching between different projectiles for this particular rifle; my wife isn't going to ID the predator and then choose the appropriate ammo, nor does she want to think about selecting between different rifles; she wants to shoulder a dedicated rifle and go, and it will be a one-size-fits-all projectile. Likely, it will be a 120 TSX. I'm not a fan of pass-through shots, particularly because I want to be able to verify that the critter is down for the count, and I have been using Barnes for years to do this. It's usually one and done.

Reloading my own ammo is an absolute requisite, which was the issue holding me back from the Grendel initially (due to lack of available brass). I'll just keep looking. I use a lot of Starline; perhaps they'll have it back in stock sooner than later.

Just for reference, the AR10 is too large for her to shoulder and get her eye behind the glass, hence modifying the existing AR15 for this purpose. It's the perfect LOP for her. The next step will be getting the barrel and bolt head on order. Remarkably, we've had relatively little predator activity so far this winter (if you can call it "winter"; I've counted at least ten days in which tree frogs have been peeping between Jan 1 and now, and normally we're averaging 25 - 40°F daytime highs; they don't generally become active until the temps are mid-60's).
I understood it differently. Then with a maximum range of 75 yards then you should be pretty all right on all of them. When it said the range of 550 and generally no more than 75 yd, I took it as a range of 550 yards mostly within 75 yd
 
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