I finished a build last month of my first 6.5 Grendel AR.
The weather & the range road has yet to permit me to get out & shoot it.
I'm on some other caliber specific forums and know there's a big rivalry between this caliber & others.
I'm not taking about that.
I'm interested in hearing what our members who actually have a 6.5G like about their set up.
Or what they do not care for .

I am quite able to admit that I built this AR because I found the caliber interesting, the ballistics intriguing and (most important) I didn't have one yet.

So I built it to appeal to me personally.
I'm not going to shoot long range steel, competitions nor do I have any tactical-cool daydreams.
I do have some in-laws in WV who I can hunt deer with.
But mostly, I just wanted one.


That being said, what are you guys using your for?
In using them have you found or tried them on other game or competitions (organized or unorganized)?

What ammunition/ bullet configurations are your favorites for different situations?
I'm going to be placing an order for a couple thousand rounds & would like some input.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: GrumpyBiker,

A buddy of mine built one. We were shooting out at my place. Moderate wind, 5-7 mph, measured with a kestrel.

He punched in his data for the ammo he was shooting, dialed, and made a first round hit on a 10" round gong at 636 yards.


I opted for a 223 when I built a precision rig, because of a plethora of my own reasons. But the 6.5 Grendel is an awesome little small frame AR cartridge.

I don’t have one yet, but one of my grandsons and I just finished his first 5.56 and I was hoping to build a 6.5G upper as a second project. The idea is to ring the steel out to 600 yds.

What barrel/BCG did you go with?

BCA had a combo over Christmas.
So I went with the 20" stainless with their matching BCG with type II bolt.
They only offered the spiral fluted one with the sale.
Turns out I kinda like the look of it.







Assembly took a bit longer than usual as I spent 1/2 hr polishing the barrel.
Silly perhaps but I'm not pulling a creep on anyone at the rifle range.

I use mine as my bad weather hunting rifle.

You know, to go along with the seven other bad weather hunting rifles and the sixteen good weather hunting rifles. It's vital.


This is in the woods in November... it no longer looks like this. The lower is now FDE with an alligator skin pattern. lol I also changed the barrel for no real reason. It's slightly lighter, but not enough to justify the cost. That Mepota K-dot is where the weight comes from, I love the scope but it's heavy for its size.

I got a 12" Faxon barrel and Monster bolt.

I had a bunch of parts laying around (upper receiver, suppressor mount, etc) and wanted to play with an adjustable gas block so this fit the bill. Ammo is cheap for plinking. I bought some of the fancy rounds for hunting but there's no where for me to hunt up here in Cleveland. For now this was just a build because I could.

I bought one of those BCA combos also. I'm using it to do a different upper for my Alexander Arms Grendel.
That being said, I'll probably end up with a separate rifle.

My wife surprised me with a 22" upper from Grendel hunter that quickly got thrown onto a new lower. The barrel is fluted and of intermediate profile.

The gun shoots well and is surprisingly accurate. It is my deer rifle now.

I recently put together a 12.5 inch 6.5G upper for my SBR for suppressed deer hunting. The ballistics, even out of a short barrel, are firmly between supersonic BLK and .308, but has all the benefits of the AR15 frame, in regard to weight.

Mine is a Ballistic Advantage barrel and, topped with Leupold VX5 2-10x42, it’s a light, short, handy rifle.

120 grain Federal Fusion is my go to load for hunting and home defense eventually. It shoots quite well, sub moa 3 shot groups at 100. A fourth shot for some reason usually breaks out to a 1.5 inch group.

I’m still fighting some function issues due to being over-gassed. Testing a fix for it with an adjustable gas block Tuesday. Shouldn’t be a problem.

My only real gripe are the magazines. No polymer mags...I understand why...and no big name/reliable/quality metal mags. The recommended mags by ELander are ok but not ideal.

I’m firmly committed to Grendel though for all it brings to the table. It’s my favorite rifle.

quote:

My only real gripe are the magazines. No polymer mags...I understand why...and no big name/reliable/quality metal mags. The recommended mags by ELander are ok but not ideal.

That's the rub. I got in fairly early in the game and shortly thereafter C-Products started offering magazines. They kinda worked; IIRC, you could load a 25-rounder with 17 with fair reliability. The ELanders came later, so IDK about them.

I don't have that upper, anymore. I still like the cartridge and maybe will get another upper, someday.

I’ve got a 6.5g build with a 20” JP barrel that has one of their funky barrel heat sinks. Things I like? I do love the round it’s self. The recoil is manageable, there are bullet options that allow for speed as well as others that are slower but retain energy better. It’s is plenty accurate, in my gun anyway. I certainly enjoy shooting it! Oh, and the heat sink is blue, which I think looks sort of space-gun cool.

Things I don’t like? That I got it in an AR. I exclusively punch paper with mine, so being semi auto just beats up the brass more than necessary, and the bolt isn’t as strong as a bolt action would have been. Since I got it as a target gun, I kinda wish I would have gotten one of the bolt guns with a mini action in 6.5g, but really they weren’t available at the time. As it is, I’ve considered switching it to a side charging upper and plugging the gas block to make it a straight-pull bolt action, but that is only because of how I personally use it. The other thing I don’t love are the magazines. There are fewer options than 223, and I don’t feel the quality is the same, especially if you don’t want 30rd mags.

As for loads I like, Accurate 2520 has worked in a number of loads really well for me. Some of the best have been with Nosler 100gr ballistic tips and 123gr Sierra match kings. Oddly, the Lapua 108gr bullets didn’t like my gun much. I don’t have velocities on any of my loads at the moment, but it doesn’t take all that much energy to punch a clean hole in paper!

All in all, I don’t regret getting it, but I think if I ever picked up a Howa or CZ in 6.5g, the AR wouldn’t come out of the safe much.

-Bret

I just got to shoot my new Grendel build yesterday. I built it kind of on a whim...I got an Anderson lower for $33 OTD, and decided I needed something different. I already have a .223 AR, and a 9mm, so I decided to build a cheap AR that I could legally use to deer hunt with. As such, I wanted it to be as light as reasonably possible, and it had to be at least .243 caliber to comply with Indiana law.

Cost was a factor...I think I have $560 in the gun, including the scope. It's an Anderson upper and lower, a Bear Creek 16" barrel and low profile gas block, toolcraft bolt, and a cheap free-float tube I got off Ebay. I mounted a Nikon Buckmaster 2 4-12x40 on it...a little better than a Walmart Tasco, but not much.

As I was saying, I took the gun out yesterday. I had one box of 123gr Hornday ELD Black and some 129Gr SST handloads that I had cooked up to try. I was primarily function checking and running chronograph data, but I did manage to keep them in about a 1" group at 50 yards. I plan to take it back out once I get a load worked up and see how tight I can get it to group at 100. As to the chronograph results...I'm seeing numbers about 200 FPS slower than the quoted factory spec (with the 123 ELD Black amo), which I can only assume is the result of my short 16" barrel.

Things I like about the 6.5:
- High BC yields good energy retention over a longer range
- Low recoil for the amount of power generated
- Even with the shorter barrel, pretty impressive performance out of the AR platform
- Seems to be pretty reliable out of the AR platform with minimal tweaking. My first round stovepiped...after that I had no issues.
- A really cool looking little cartridge

Things I hate about the 6.5
- Availability of components and ammo. Locally, there is nothing. Zilch, Nada. Everywhere I've asked said they don't even stock it. I even tried stores a few hours away and couldn't find anything. Even the huge Cabela's in Dundee, MI had only two spots on the ammo shelf for 6.5 Grendel, and both were empty. They also had no brass, no dies, and only heavier 6.5 bullets (no 123s). Guess I'm stuck ordering online (and even then, I'm having trouble finding everything in one place for a decent price).
- Speaking of brass...how in the heck is this stuff so expensive? Best price I've found is $35/50 for Hornady cases. WTF? Is it gold plated? I might as well just buy loaded ammo and save the brass....I'd about break even. Oh, and forget finding free range brass for this thing, ever. Or even a source of used brass for sale.
- Requires a proprietary bolt and magazines. And the C-Products Mags I got kinda suck...they feed ok, but the lips are really sharp and scratch up the outrageously expensive brass something fierce.


Overall, I'm still pretty excited about it and looking forward to playing with it some more. That said, the cost and difficulty in finding ammo and components has me kinda wishing I had stuck with a round that was based off the .223 case, like the .300 blackout or .25-45 Sharps (can be made from .223 cases, abundant bullets and use a standard bolt and mags). The 6.5 has much better ballistics, but components are just so darn expensive and hard to source. Even the 6.8 SPC is easier to shop for.

Anyone else have experience with the Hornady Black 123gr ELD Match ?
I'm leaning towards this , again as a first ammo to zero & get to know my scope to rifle relationship.
Good to go as a starting point ammunition choice ???

quote:

Originally posted by GrumpyBiker:
Anyone else have experience with the Hornady Black 123gr ELD Match ?
I'm leaning towards this , again as a first ammo to zero & get to know my scope to rifle relationship.
Good to go as a starting point ammunition choice ???

It worked well for me. I averaged 2385fps out of my 16" barrel with it, with a deviation of 1.59% over 10 shots. It's also the cheapest brass cased ammo I could find, so there's that.

quote:

Originally posted by 92fstech:
It worked well for me. I averaged 2385fps out of my 16" barrel with it, with a deviation of 1.59% over 10 shots.

MV deviation is generally described in fps, rather than percentages. Your figures calculate to 38 fps -- but it's uncertain whether this is ES or SD.

Your MV variation will have no practical effect at shorter distances. At 500 yards it translates to about 1/2 MOA vertical impact variation, and at 750 yards it translates to about 1 MOA of vertical impact variation.

Honestly, your variation seems a little high for Hornady match ammo in an AR. Maybe it's something with a Grendel? For Hornady's 223 match ammo I see about half that ES in my ARs.

Nice rifle! The ELD Match was the more accurate than the SST out of my 16" BCA that I threw together before hunting season last fall. Oddly enough, it's opposite on my 6.8 SPC. Granted that could have just been that lot, and I haven't reloaded for either yet, just saving brass right now. Both rifles have less than 200 rounds through them, so I'm hoping to have some more time this summer to get out and shoot.

The ELD is also more accurate for me out of my 12” Faxon barrel.
I don’t have a chrono to check velocity.

My 12.5 Ballistic Advabtage likes Federal Fusion better than any other round...had it at the range yesterday and lucked into a .45 inch, four shot group!

I don’t care for the Hornady offerings.

Also solved my gas problems with a Superlative Arms Bleed off gas block.

Now...just need to find lots of cheap Federal Fusion!

For you reloaders, I just got an email that Starline is making Grendel brass.

quote:

Originally posted by Chowser:
For you reloaders, I just got an email that Starline is making Grendel brass.

They had been for a while, but it was out of stock everywhere. Looks like they must have just done another run, because it's in stock now on their website. Good news indeed!