New Grendel

[Thebear_78]

I just put together a 6.5 Grendel today. Hoping to use it for shooting steel and possibly caribou hunting. Still waiting on the muzzle brake but got the rest together. Going to shoot it tomorrow.

Specs
24" Satern 1-8 5r medium contour barrel
Integrity arms side charging matched receiver set
Magpul moe grip and PRS BUTTSTOCK
Giesselle SD-E trigger
Atlas mono and bipod
Nightforce 4-14x50 F1 MOAR

 

[Thebear_78]

Took it out to the range today. For off the shelf ammo and first time out it did pretty good. I also think that not having a guy raining hot brass in my direction playing with his bump fire stock would help my concentration.

I picked up 4 boxes of hornady 123 amax ammo. I was pleasantly surprised when a 10 shot average ran right at 2525fps with an ES of 22 and SD of 7. That's pretty consistent for inexpensive factory ammo.



I got it zeroed pretty quickly. At 100 yards was consistently running 5 shots under an inch. After getting it sighted in at 25 yards I shot this five shot group, made the adjustment and shot 5 more. First group was right at .74" and second was .84".



Then I took it down to the 300 meter range. 5 shots with a max spread of 2.84". The group was 1.7" x 2.3"



Its not going to win any bench rest competitions but its shooting very well considering. I need to pick up a set of dies and start reloading. Hopefully I can tighten up those 300 yard groups a little bit.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Is that the Satern/Brownells 24" barrel? If so, that is what I have on mine, but haven't shot it yet.

Good to see it has potential.

 

[Thebear_78]

Yes it is. I'm pretty impressed with it. I'm thinking about picking up one of the 450 bushmaster barrels too

 

[rcoody]

Yes it is. I'm pretty impressed with it. I'm thinking about picking up one of the 450 bushmaster barrels too

Nice! that one will be lots of fun. Just curious. What does it weigh?

I joined in with a Grendel too! My rifle is on this forum.

I have had a 20" satern medium weight cut rifling barrel ordered for six months. Got tired of waiting and ordered this JP barrel and had it in a week. Will still build the satern upper if the barrel ever comes.

Loaded up my first round of load development today. Hope to get to the range this week.

Keep sending pics as your load development progresses.

 

[Lonehill]

Nice looking rifle! I built a 6.5 Grendel awhile back. Really wanted a Satern barrel and had some money just burning a hole in my pocket. Called and placed my order with the owner's wife, very nice gal. I opted for a fluted, threaded and bead blasted one. Waited 6 months or so, called and was told that they do runs by barrel length and they were going to make mine in next batch. Okay...cool...wait a month call back, oh we didn't have enough orders that length, we'll do a run later. This happened 3 times. Finally I ask what length were they currently running and can I get one of those. She says they are running the shortest ones they make, didn't really want one of those. She finally "looks up my info" and proceeds to tell me that they do not have me in their system and can find no record of my original order. Oh by the way, they ran my length several months back. THEN, she says I will have to start the process all over again and could give no real time frame. It was well over a year at this point. Nice folks, but here I was sitting on a pile of very expensive parts, missed 2 big hunts, and had made a dozen or so calls and e-mails BEFORE they cared to tell me they "lost" me in their system. They simply did not care and didn't really try to help. I informed her they had just lost me as a customer. Life is too short for that crap. I hung up the phone and had a Shilen match on the way a few minutes later. It's a lot heavier profile, not fluted or threaded either and it's only a 20" . The complete rifle weighs around 11 lbs with side charging upper and 4.5-14×50 VX3 LR. I have shot deer off hand and it's a tack driver, but it's not that practical to hunt with. A lot of fun busting milk jugs at 600+. Not impressed with performance on game in the least. Killed two biggest bucks of my life two years in a row but first took 3 shots, second took 2. All were well placed. It is by no means enough gun for a mature large bodied whitetail buck in my experience. Killed several does, only one dropped in sight. For comparison, I have conservatively killed over 40 deer including bucks with a Model 70 Lightweight in .243 never lost a deer, can only remember one time a second shot was needed.

 

[Thebear_78]

What bullet were you using on your whitetails?

 

[Lonehill]

123 grain Hornady SST. Not at all impressed.

 

[MudRunner2005]

123 grain Hornady SST. Not at all impressed.

That's not the best bullet to judge performance on. I stopped using them almost 15 years ago because they sucked. I'd give something else a try to give it a fair chance.

 

[rcoody]

now don't get me wrong here. I love AR's. But to me they are really toys. My Grendel will be a coyote and hog gun. I will stick with my bolt guns for real hunting.

I too have had a satern barrel ordered for some time. Last time I talked to them they had no clue when they would be making one. If I ever get it I will build another upper with it. I called JP and had my 18" lightweight Grendel in less that a week.

Hope to shoot it for the first time Friday. Have the first round of load development loaded and ready. 123 amax and CFE223 from 30gr to 31.2 gr in 0.3 gr increments. Have 8208 XBR if that doesn't work.

 

[Lonehill]

I read a ton over on 6.5 grendel forum. That's what sold me on the cartridge and subsequent build. Was running the SST's mainly because I got a steal on 10 boxes I believe around $16/ box. They are very accurate out of my 20" barrel and chronied around 2650 fps (mine must be faster than the norm?).Was mainly purchasing for the brass. Looked great on paper and heard stellar reviews, but I will never launch another at a mature buck. I also purchased a 100 ct of Lapua brass and some Redding dies, but after my experiences, I kinda lost interest. The round is a really neat concept, highly efficient, but to me it's a niche I don't need to fill. I don't know what all the hype is about. What bullet would you recommend? With the right bullet, it may get resurrected down the road. I've since discovered the 257 Wby which is a perfect fit for my whitetail needs, but would love to run the 6.5 on some hogs. Imho, Grendel is too much for coyotes too little for deer but should be excellent on hogs.

 

[MudRunner2005]

now don't get me wrong here. I love AR's. But to me they are really toys. My Grendel will be a coyote and hog gun. I will stick with my bolt guns for real hunting.

I too have had a satern barrel ordered for some time. Last time I talked to them they had no clue when they would be making one. If I ever get it I will build another upper with it. I called JP and had my 18" lightweight Grendel in less that a week.

Hope to shoot it for the first time Friday. Have the first round of load development loaded and ready. 123 amax and CFE223 from 30gr to 31.2 gr in 0.3 gr increments. Have 8208 XBR if that doesn't work.

Same here. They are just shooting toys, varmint guns, and personal defense/SHTF weapons for me. Shot them my whole life, but I prefer the bolt-actions for hunting.

I have my loads ready for testing as well, when I get some time. I'm using new Hornady brass and CCI 450's with CFE223 powder. I'm testing 2 different sets. One has Nosler Custom Comp 123's, and the other is Berger 130 AR Hybrids.

 

[MudRunner2005]

I read a ton over on 6.5 grendel forum. That's what sold me on the cartridge and subsequent build. Was running the SST's mainly because I got a steal on 10 boxes I believe around $16/ box. They are very accurate out of my 20" barrel and chronied around 2650 fps (mine must be faster than the norm?).Was mainly purchasing for the brass. Looked great on paper and heard stellar reviews, but I will never launch another at a mature buck. I also purchased a 100 ct of Lapua brass and some Redding dies, but after my experiences, I kinda lost interest. The round is a really neat concept, highly efficient, but to me it's a niche I don't need to fill. I don't know what all the hype is about. What bullet would you recommend? With the right bullet, it may get resurrected down the road. I've since discovered the 257 Wby which is a perfect fit for my whitetail needs, but would love to run the 6.5 on some hogs. Imho, Grendel is too much for coyotes too little for deer but should be excellent on hogs.

What exactly was the issue with the SST you were having? Not expanding? Not enough terminal performance? No exit?

The issue I had was them blowing up on impact, but it was from too light of a bullet at too high of velocities from my 7mmRemMag...

 

[Thebear_78]

I was looking at the 129 nosler LRAB. Looks to be doable at 2500fps with CFE 223, should be a good long range performer. Anybody tried this bullet yet? I have killed a boatload of whitetails with a shorty 243 running 100gr Sierra game kings at 2850fps. I just can't imagine a solid hunting bullet like the 100gr BT or partition at the same speed out of the Grendel wouldn't be equally effective at 2750-2800fps