At long range the 6.5 Grendel has more energy and higher velocity than any non-magnum round that can be fired through an AR15. It also has more energy and higher velocity than the highly touted and venerable 308Win/7.62NATO
I don't currently load for 6.5 Grendel. I've got a set of Redding dies. I'm sitting on about 4000 loaded rounds and am simply shooting those and collecting the brass. I've got pretty much all the brands in storage, from premium Lapua bullets to cheap Wolf soft points.
When I load, my plan is simple taper crimp. Being magazine fed, it should not require a hard roll crimp.
If you consider 1000ft lbs of energy to be the "ethical minimum" required for ETHICAL and HUMANE hunting, which is pretty much the standard, then the 6.8, even in tactical high pressure loads, runs out at much faster than many other rounds, and clearly at about 1/2 the range of the Grendel.
That said, there have been successful long distance hunts by people using 6.8SPC rounds but the nagging question of ethical comes to mind. The 6.8, if fired from a bolt action, can use better bullets and be loaded to higher than factory pressures, but if fired from an AR platform gun is pretty anemic by any standard of measurement.
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