6.5 Grendel question

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Old Stony

New member
A good friend is putting together a 6.5 Grendel for me. I have messed around with 5.56 and 6.5 Creedmore quite a lot in the AR platform, but never Grendel. The caliber just sort of intrigues me and I thought I should maybe play with one some, as I do quite a lot of hog hunting and stuff like that.
I know nothing about mags as far as the caliber, and thought maybe someone on here could educate me.
 
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doofus47

New member
There are a number of 5 and 10 round 6.5 G specific mags on the market. I have some by Armalite that work fine.
Polymer 20 round magazines are sort of a holy grail, in that generally the bulge created by the 6.5 cartridges pushing against the walls and deform when the round count exceeds 15 or so. A lot more people with a a lot more knowledge than I have post up here:
http://www.65grendel.com/forum/forum.php

You'll enjoy your 6.5G. It's in a very sweet spot for intermediate cartridges (that don't need to load out to 30 in a mag).
 
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SwwPlayboy

New member
I got mine from alexander arms for about $20. Stock from 4 round mags to 20. Never had an issue with them. Made of good stuff
 
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stagpanther

New member
Are you going to be hand-loading ammo? If so, you'll probably find some mags are better than others in handling COL's of various lengths.

I've built some grendels or catted variations of it--and it's a great cartridge design, especially for being able to seat long pointy bullets. But it's also a "finicky" one in my experience--it seems to be more demanding of precision alignment of everything--otherwise there can be issues of cycling the cartridge from the mag. What I'm talking about isn't necessarily whether or not the rifle will successfully feed and fire or not--but minimizing the "bash around" factor on the way into the chamber--those deflections/abrasions etc IMO take a toll on the accuracy consistency.

I have lots of grendel mags including some very expensive ones from premium manufacturers--but I also have a C products mag (one of the cheaper ones I might add) that I trimmed the feed lips and front retaining tabs back a bit in order to get an "optimal feed angle" of a long cartridge--this is my "last resort when nothing else will work" magazine in that it has worked with every build I've done when stock magazines might have had issues.
 
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Mobuck

Moderator
FWIW
The Hornady ELD ammo just barely fits my group of ASC mags. Very slight extra length in the mag.
 
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Old Stony

New member
I ordered 100 rds of Hornady 123 SST ammo to get started with and provide me with some brass at the same time. I use that bullet in the 6.5 Creedmore and love the results I get with it as far as accuracy and dropping hogs.
I'll probably be loading that same bullet for the Grendel.
 
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stagpanther

New member
I ordered 100 rds of Hornady 123 SST ammo
Click to expand...
My gold standard for off-the-shelf factory grendel ammo--good choice. I now order my grendel brass in bulk, midway sells hornady brass in 250 count boxes for cheap and I can make good 6.5 as well as 6mm grendel out of it.
 
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stagpanther

New member
Grendel barss isn't shy about telling you it's getting run warm--expect routine expansion which you need to keep an eye on when reloading, a good case gauge and small base full-length dies are useful--I've found grendel cases almost always need the shoulders bumped back a bit when resizing.
 
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Double Naught Spy

New member
PSA ASC Mag warning. Actually, it goes for any brand, potentially. Fellows have reported to me the same issue with some 6.8 mags as well and not from ASC. They don't always seem to have the front edge of the mag low enough and the cartridge lips hang up on them.
https://youtu.be/0Axr5m1Daxc

Hornady SST 123 gr. is the best thing going for killing hogs in factory ammo at a reasonable price. Expect overpenetration on most broadside shots on hogs up to 200-225 lbs. unless you hit the humerus directly.

Precision Firearms offers Berger VLD-Hunting 130gr. that creates some of the most horrendous wounds in hogs I have seen, but it costs about double (I don't reload).

I wasn't impressed with Hornady ELD-M on hogs. It seems to have inconsistent performance.

Federal Fusion 120 gr., about the same price as SST, is a tad lighter, tad faster, and with a lower BC. It tends to bore holes through hogs and it much more meat-friendly than SST.

I like my Grendels just fine. :D
 
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stagpanther

New member
Make sure your builder does this ejector pin modification. Made my cycling-feeding issues go away. It's a necessary modification but it seems manufacturers haven't picked up on it yet. I wouldn't try the quick fix but would remove the pin and radius like the picture.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't bevel down a single-plane edge like that--though I would radius smooth both the ejector and the extractor. It not hard to do.
 
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Old Stony

New member
Got a couple of new mags in today, and passed on the ejector info to the friend that is building it for me. He copied the thread info and plans on doing the modifications to the ejector as stated. I won't get to pick up the rifle until after about the middle of march, but I should have all ready to go long before then.
 
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Mobuck

Moderator
"I won't get to pick up the rifle until after about the middle of march,"

Holy Cow, parts kits(or just parts) rarely survive un-assembled more than a few hours here.
 
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stagpanther

New member
Got a couple of new mags in today, and passed on the ejector info to the friend that is building it for me. He copied the thread info and plans on doing the modifications to the ejector as stated. I won't get to pick up the rifle until after about the middle of march, but I should have all ready to go long before then.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't mess with the bolt until you're sure you actually have a problem. @mobuck--probably "barrel interuptus"--I suffer that in most my builds. :D
 
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Chaparral

New member
6.5 Grendal

ASC mags. And I shoot Hornady 123gr SST. Fun, reliable rifle. I have a Wicked Arms upper on a Spike's Crusader lower. Very nice looking rifle.
 
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