Next ar-15 build: 6.5 Grendel, 300 ossm, 6.8, or 6mmbr

[Stealthshooter]

I also don't know why they chose the 243WSSM brass instead of the 25WSSM? But I talked to Mike from Dtech on the phone and he said they have been having good luck with the 6.5WSSM although he didn't have any velocity numbers for me.

[Hoot]

Sounds like a lot of experts already have an opinion about the 6.5 Grendel, so there's no need to have any light shed on it.

Hoot

[Stealthshooter]

I've heard nothing but good about the Grendel! Easy to reload effective for game up to Elk out to 300-400 yards. I don't think you could say the same for the 5.56!

[BillytheKid]

I apologize for raining on the parade. It is difficult to find anything negative written about the 6.5G, and it certainly has it's pluses. I don't pretend to be any kind of expert on it, I just found through tons of reading everything I could on it, that it just won't quite do what I would want it for.

Everyone has different needs and expectations, and probably for most the 6.5G will be a great rifle for them.

Bill

[Texas Sheepdawg]

Okay, I did a bit of research on the Grendel and also looked at some ammo prices and reloading data. It may not be a powerhouse but it has the potential of being a good Youth deer round. Let's just see how things pan out in the next few months. Maybe Hoot can talk me into one if WCs treats aren't in the near future.

[Texas Sheepdawg]

I apologize for raining on the parade. It is difficult to find anything negative written about the 6.5G, and it certainly has it's pluses. I don't pretend to be any kind of expert on it, I just found through tons of reading everything I could on it, that it just won't quite do what I would want it for.

Everyone has different needs and expectations, and probably for most the 6.5G will be a great rifle for them.

Bill

Yeah, but down here in Texas, you gotta remember that our whitetail deer are a bit scrappie in stature and I know tons of guys out here using 5.56, 243 and 6mm for deer and they do just fine. The 6.5G could make a great deer rifle for a youth and that might just be a fun build.

[Hoot]

My first Ar15 was an RRA NM lower upon which I built a Blackthorne, yes the lowly Blackthorne 24" stainless steel bull 5.56 upper. It shot 1-2 MOA with Lake City XM193, but much better with 55gr Hornady Vmax reloads. I'm not into the 5.56 like a lot of folks are and it sat in my safe most of the time. When I got interested in the Grendel, I bought an AR Stoner (E.R. Shaw) 24" Stainless Steel Bull barrel and AA bolt on sale for $339.00 plus used a free shipping coupon from Midway. It took maybe an hour start to finish to change the Blackthorne over. The bore finish was the best I've ever gotten in an AT15 barrel. I don't know if Shaw hand laps tham or what, but a dry patch went through like a knife through cold butter. A wet patch produced no residue. I also bought a Ross brake for it. Not for taming it as it's quite tame already, but to allow me to stay on target with oone of my 6-24 scopes. Anyway, having done my homework, I loaded up some Hornady brass with both Amax 123gr bullets and 140gr bullets and proceeded to the range. After sighting in the 123s, I got consistent groups like this at 2600 fps:



I then sighted in the 140s and got these groups with the best being at 2200 fps:



Those are dime sized bullseyes at 100 yards and essentially right out of the box. Folks who had dropped some serious money on big name Grendels do about as well.

If you're used to throwing around specifications of larger, magnum class calibers like the 450b, those velocities and bullet weights sound wimpy. But folks have taken some large game with this caliber, some at outrageous ranges. With the high BCs inherent in the .264 bullet family, it just doesn't shed velocity very fast and it bucks the wind with equal effectiveness. As I said before, it can make anyone feel like Vassili Zaitsev.

If you need to shoot a flying ashtray, by all means get one of those also, but the 6.5 Grendel fills a good niche in one's AR15 collection. The 5.56 bull barrel sits on a shelf now.
You can purchase manufactured ammunition anywhere from $12.50 to $17.00 a box, with the latter being the high priced spread. For a caliber that has taken Elk and Dall Sheep, that's quite reasonable.

Hoot

[BD1]

Here is my $ .02 :

I was all hot and bothered about the 6.5G for many months. But, as I kept researching it, I came to understand how the ammo is very expensive, and a .223 will do what a 6.5 will do at reasonable distances. The 6.5G will reach farther, but is at the mercy of a puff of wind at those distances.

I'll just save my pennies for Tim's .308 semi-auto upper.

Bill

I have not found this to be the case in my own experience. I do not own a 6.5 Grendel, but I do own several 6.5 x 55s, and I've hunted a fair bit with them, and shot them competitively, as well as with the .223. I've found the 6.5 x 55 to be adequate for deer in the 250 lb range out to 350 yards, something I would definitely not try with the .223. I believe that more moose have been taken with the 6.5 x 55 than all other calibers combined. My "truck" gun is a cut down swede set up scout style and I can't imagine a situation east of the Mississippi where I'd think I'd rather have a .308.

The "puff of wind" comment seems a little off base to me as all of my experience has been that any of the 6.5s using 139-140 grainers will experience less wind drift than a .308 with any common loading at all ranges, and the difference becomes pronounced at ranges over 400 yards. This was the genesis of the 6.5 x .284, 6.5 Grendel and 6.5 Creedmore.

BD

[BillytheKid]

Here is my $ .02 :

I was all hot and bothered about the 6.5G for many months. But, as I kept researching it, I came to understand how the ammo is very expensive, and a .223 will do what a 6.5 will do at reasonable distances. The 6.5G will reach farther, but is at the mercy of a puff of wind at those distances.

I'll just save my pennies for Tim's .308 semi-auto upper.

Bill

I have not found this to be the case in my own experience. I do not own a 6.5 Grendel, but I do own several 6.5 x 55s, and I've hunted a fair bit with them, and shot them competitively, as well as with the .223. I've found the 6.5 x 55 to be adequate for deer in the 250 lb range out to 350 yards, something I would definitely not try with the .223. I believe that more moose have been taken with the 6.5 x 55 than all other calibers combined. My "truck" gun is a cut down swede set up scout style and I can't imagine a situation east of the Mississippi where I'd think I'd rather have a .308.

The "puff of wind" comment seems a little off base to me as all of my experience has been that any of the 6.5s using 139-140 grainers will experience less wind drift than a .308 with any common loading at all ranges, and the difference becomes pronounced at ranges over 400 yards. This was the genesis of the 6.5 x .284, 6.5 Grendel and 6.5 Creedmore.

BD

With all respect to everyone, I stand corrected.

I did my best in my research for about a year or so, and stated my interpretation of what I have interpreted.

Once again I apologize for raining on the parade.

Bill

[Colohunter]

Since the OP mentioned the 6.8 I figured I would add a little info on that, even though most of the thread is going in another direction.

A buddy of mine had a couple PRI barrels for a decent price, so I bought one from him and we both built 6.8s. At the time I built mine (2-3 years ago), it seemed to be a little easier to actually get your hands on ammo for the 6.8, but WOLF was about to change that. Silver State Armory almost always had 6.8 in stock and had decent prices, the ammo quality was excellent. There also seemed to be more and more manufacturers jumping on the 6.8 bandwagon, making it easy to get rifles,uppers, barrels, etc from a number of differet manufacturers. There were also some groups, such as ARPerformance expirimenting with barrel twist and number of groves to improve the velocity of the round without excess pressure. As a result the 6.8 is good for pushing light for caliber bullets pretty fast. A lot of guys have used it very well on deer and even Elk at moderate ranges.

The disadvantage of the 6.8 is the brass length does not really give you room to work with heavier, longer bullets. As a result, does have a disadvantage at longer ranges, because it can not use the higher BC bullets available.

If you most of your shooting is within a couple hundred yards, the 6.8 is a great round (a lot of users on 68forums reported that it didn't loose much velocity out of shorter barrels). But if you want to get into the long range game, a 6.5 bullet is probably going to perform better at extended ranges.