r/65Grendel

Average velocity of this load was 2736 FPS with 107 TMKs and H335, next steps are for my brother to shoot it and see if it groups. If it does, I’ll load up some more for further testing.

A little background; I have a boringly accurate load for my 6.5x55, and plenty of components, so my brother offered up his Howa mini in 6.5 Grendel for me to do some load development to alleviate my boredom. It’s cut to 16” and threaded, just a super light, handy rifle.

With an aftermarket bottom metal, I have way more magazine length than I can take advantage of with these 107 grain TMKs, but I’m still sitting significantly over SAAMI spec for OAL. Because of this, I’m able to comfortably operate at the upper range of Sierra’s bolt gun load data without major pressure signs.

This is a Ballistic Advantage 16" semi auto gas gun @ 200yds, shooting Hornady black 123 grain. This is the absolute best I can get this gun to shoot. I shot a better group with s&b ball ammo with my Ruger American the very same day, on the target next to it. To add insult to injury I can shoot my 22-250 Tikka without trying, better than moa, or pretty dang close, at the same distance.

Short story:

I got into the Grendel around 2017 I guess because of all the reasons everyone gets into grendel. You have much better ballistics and energy and all that blah blah blah in an AR-15 then with 556. I know I don't need to sell the people in this sub.

Many years ago I sold a Grendel Hunter upper because I didn't feel like it was precise enough, I'm paying for 6.5 g ammo to shoot tight groups and then stretch the legs. Looking back it's shot pretty well with factory loaded ammo. It was never quite MOA but only slightly.

I kind of let It go for a while and then in the last two or three years I've been accumulating parts and uppers and whatnot. I have a Palmetto State 12.5 inch upper that shoots terribly. It's fine for a pistol but it was worse than I expected. It was on sale, you know one of those daily deals or whatever. Oh well.

I had some leftover parts, some of it decent some of it middle of the road, and ended up with the ballistic advantage 16 inch barrel. I built a rifle that's got a decent buffer setup a decent trigger, a decent stock BCG etc. it's all middle of the road stuff and realistically it's a 2.25 MOA gun at best. I guess now I know BA doesn't have the best reputation.

I have 2 faxon match barrels sitting in the safe.

I think I'm going to replace the PSA barrel in muzzle device with a faxon 12 in and the 16 inch ba barrel will get replaced with an 18 inch faxon. I am going to take them to a gunsmith to remove a variable and that maybe I'm just not a good gunsmith.

My Ruger American predator shoots MOA it shoots really good with s and b ball ammo. You win some you lose some I guess lol.

I guess my questions are as follows:

How much can a gunsmith affect the performance of a rifle? I follow the directions, I use a torque wrench and a gun vise, but maybe it's me.

am I expecting too much out of budget parts?

If these faxon barrels don't shoot well, what is considered a good barrel producer for 65 Grendel gas guns these days? I don't mind spending money if something will perform I'm not looking for cheap, I want to shoot sub MOA gas guns out to 800 yards.

Does anyone sell a complete 65 Grendel gas rifle? I'm not usually a gun snob but I would like to have a couple 65 guns that are semi-auto and capable of medium distances towards long range (400 to 800 yds). I have one complete rifle, it is a BCM recce and I absolutely love the rifle. I can tell it is being put together better than I can do it, it feels more solid and it is quieter. Is there an option like that for six five grendel? I'm thinking LaRue but I don't love the way they look as stupid as that sounds.

If you have experience with the faxon match barrels, what ammo did they like?

Need some advice for a newer handloader on how to reduce extreme spread ive been averaging low 40s to mid 40s across 2 different powders 2 different bullet types 107gr TMK/100gr Nosler Partition 2 different casings Nosler/Hornady and two different primers standard/magnum I've hit a wall and cant break any lower than 40s for ES the above labradar results are 107gr Sierra TMKs out of a 16.5" tube accurate 2200 powder cci 400 primers and shoot great id still like to fine tune the ES amd SD for longer range accuracy next test batch im gonna drop the powder charge .2gr as im up there in the max pressure range this string of 26 shots are pretty close to each other but then ill randomly get a high or low shot that opens the ES up I anneal every firing neck size (set to lowest possible tension and a slight crimp so seating depth doesn't change feeding from a mag) every 5 firings and then bump the shoulder back 0.002" brass is squeaky clean and chamfer the case mouth every firing

Quick shoutout (I know they don’t need it) to OCL for the amazing Infinity. I have had it for a while but went a different was then originally planned. It’s been sitting in my safe until today. I decided to play can roulette and my Grendlim was naked and afraid.

Long story short, the infinity with the vented cap ROCKS! I know it’s heavy, but my entire setup is only 9.2 lbs with it installed. My main issue is how gassy my setup is and up until now, my ODB was the only can I owned that tamed the gas. I wasn’t even worried about the sound as much, but damn the infinity did amazing.

I’ve been tinkering with this for a little over a year, adding or swapping parts. Started as the wife’s hunting rifle, showed no interest, so I kept it as a project. I think I’m finally done and ready to move onto the next mistress. While sighting in the optics, I was getting <1 moa @100yards with off the shelf ammo, and ~.5 - .75 moa with anything loaded with SST.

Upper:

-Grendel Hunter upper receiver

-16” fluted Satern Liberty 1/8 twisty

-BCM Raider M13 hand guard

-Radian Raptor LT

-YHM Resonator R2 with muzzle brake

-Vortex Viper 4-16x44 with Holosun 507c riding shotgun

- Spartan Precision Javelin lite bipod

Lower:

-Aero M4E1 lower receiver

-LaRue MBT2S

-BCM Mod0 sopmod stock

-Magpul K2 grip

It was my Lightweight endeavor