6.5 Grendel Build: Reviews/Opinions

[General RE LEE]

Yes, it’s part of the upper. I checked thier website and they are using mid length gas on 18” barrels.

From my limited experience building a total of (1) 6arc gas guns:

1. don’t trust the manuf knows WTF about gas systems, find out for yourself. My barrel is a Wilson combat and I trusted they knew what was appropriate. So mine is a mid length gas on an 18” barrel. Brass length after extraction is inconsistent, ejector swipes, and the brass and action are just beyond filthy after low round counts. (Silencer with adj gas block). Extremely accurate barrel though, for a gas gun.

2. Resist heavy long barrels if you care about weight and packing the thing around. These rifles get heavy as hell quickly, I built mine for my 12yo first hunt and it was realistically too big for her to handle at 10#

3. The aero M4E1 upper receiver w/ free floating handguard (attached to upper, not barrel nut) is fantastic for this kind of rifle. Not sure why they aren’t more popular.

Good point on rifle weight. I’ll look at fluted option.

 

[General RE LEE]

I could just skip the gas gun all together and look at the Savage 110 Switchback from Sportsman’s. Probably could get it to shoot with handloads.

 

[bbell]

And what is the hand guard? Looks light weight.

It was an aero precision blem that I picked up cheap. Can’t remember the model but it was one of their lighter ones

 

[bbell]

A gas gun is pretty fun to mess around with and shoot. The ar I showed was the first one I put together. Really wasn’t that hard especially if you like to tinker with things.

If I did that one over I would have used the arc barrel though. 15gr less bullet for better ballistics, lighter bullet, and at least in my area cheaper ammo.

 

[Nicaburns]

I haven’t shot the 6 arc but have setup a number of 6.5Grendels and love them. Just a dead nuts simple caliber to get to function flawlessly in an AR platform. My longest kill is admittedly 198yds with mine but it has performed exceptionally with factory Hornady loads. It is also a great fun rifle to use and loan with kids since you get the added benefit of a collapsing stock and super low recoil.

 

[Ozarkansas]

Because it has no effect on terminal ballistics. Wound channel size is wound channel size. The Grendel is a good cartridge, but the 6 ARC is better in every measurable way than the Grendel- less recoil, higher MV, less wind drift, and way better factory support with Hornday.

I think the 6 ARC is the better cartridge as well, but idk if I’d say it has better factory support yet. Hornady is doing a really good job of supporting the grendel already, I see plenty of SST and ELD factory loads for it in stock at most gun stores I go to. Plus more grendel-specific 6.5 projectiles from barnes, Sierra, and hornady have been introduced just in the last year.
6ARC on the other hand is still a unicorn, at least where I live. I hope that changes

 

[redneckbmxer24]

The Grendel has been on the market for 20 years and Hornady has 4 offerings for it currently, one of which has only been announced (ELD-VT) and hasn't actually hit shelves. The ARC has the same already and it hasn't even been out 3 full years. The SST bullets kind of suck and one of their offerings is a FMJ which is nothing but blasting ammo. They currently have one good load and that's the ELD-M in the black line, not even their match line. That load is going slower than the ELD-M 6 ARC load and has a lower BC.

As to bullet manufacturers making grendel specific bullets, it's only because they have to in order to get something that will be somewhat efficient into an AR mag. With ARC you can load literally any 6mm match bullet without stuffing it way down into the case so there's no need to ARC specific bullets.

ARC will continue to gain traction because of its ballistic superiority and Grendel will continue to fade away like it has been doing for basically a decade now. You'll see multiple ammo manufacturers roll out ARC ammo this year, I wouldn't even be surprised if it has more offerings at the end of the year than Grendel.

 

[Ozarkansas]

The Grendel has been on the market for 20 years and Hornady has 4 offerings for it currently, one of which has only been announced (ELD-VT) and hasn't actually hit shelves. The ARC has the same already and it hasn't even been out 3 full years. The SST bullets kind of suck and one of their offerings is a FMJ which is nothing but blasting ammo. They currently have one good load and that's the ELD-M in the black line, not even their match line. That load is going slower than the ELD-M 6 ARC load and has a lower BC.

As to bullet manufacturers making grendel specific bullets, it's only because they have to in order to get something that will be somewhat efficient into an AR mag. With ARC you can load literally any 6mm match bullet without stuffing it way down into the case so there's no need to ARC specific bullets.

ARC will continue to gain traction because of its ballistic superiority and Grendel will continue to fade away like it has been doing for basically a decade now. You'll see multiple ammo manufacturers roll out ARC ammo this year, I wouldn't even be surprised if it has more offerings at the end of the year than Grendel.

In terms of number of offerings, the ARC might match the grendel, but in terms of availability of offerings, it’s still behind. Will it catch up? Hopefully, but there’s no guarantee that it will just because it’s the ballistically superior cartridge. As you pointed out, the grendel has been around for 20 years, it’s a known entity. And from what I’m seeing it’s been growing in popularity for the last decade, not slowly disappearing. The ARC might kill it but we won’t know for another few years

 

[wirehead]

Marketing drives cartridge battles... been that way for 60 years. Hornady's marketing machine behind the 6 ARC over Alexander Arms (?) marketing will drive 6 ARC popularity over 6.5 G quickly... the 6.5G may linger around... I don't know.

I've been a 6.5G fan and got lucky to have a silly accurate 6.5G and I am seriously considering swapping barrels/bolts to a 6 ARC because of the superiority. If I didn't have load development time and reloading components invested, I'd switch asap. I may end up with both and the 6.5G will probably gather dust or be the backup to the 6 ARC.

 

[redneckbmxer24]

I was actually mistaken, the ARC has one more Hornady load than the Grendel since it has the TAP load as well for a total of 5. I know of two major manufacturers that will be dropping ARC ammo this year.

The Grendel absolutely has not been growing in popularity, it has been falling off. There are several manufacturers that once had offerings that have cut them and more than have reduced them. If you take out all of the AA loads which has been the Grendels umbilical cord from the start and the garbage from Wolf the Grendel has few good factory loads and the ARC isn't far behind with not even 20% of the time on the market.

The marketing point is also moot, Hornady was the marketing machine behind the Grendel to get it SAAMI approved, without Hornady I doubt AA would have ever made that happen so Hornady has money invested in it and a dog in that fight too. The ARC came about because a military unit wanted something that currently wasn't available and the Grendel couldn't do. Being offered commercially was after the fact and look hows its taken off. The Grendel was also developed for military use for basically the same parameters as the ARC and released at blackwater and to my knowledge never got adopted and was a flop as far as military use and took like 10 years to get SAAMI approval only after Hornadys help.

Like I said, ARC is superior and will continue to grow while the Grendel fades.

 

[Ozarkansas]

@redneckbmxer24 i don’t disagree that the 6 ARC is likely going to overtake the 6.5 grendel, But right now the grendel is more readily available in stores and most places I’ve seen online. I want to buy a Howa mini 6 ARC, so I’m on team ARC, but right now midway has 1 in-stock load for it compared to 5 for the grendel, and there is none here locally. My concern is that the ARC would join the pile of innovative but unsuccessful cartridges that are released every year.

IMO you’re really down-playing the grendel, but maybe you have some market data I don’t that you’re going off of. I just have anecdotes, but I know several people who hunt with the grendel, none who hunt with the ARC. They all shoot SSTs, all love them, and all but one guy has adopted it in the last 5 years.

Hornady markets both rounds, and would probably prefer they both succeed, so it’s going to come down to which one has more consumer demand.

 

[redneckbmxer24]

Midway is a poor example to use for availability, they're out of shit all the time that everyone else and distributors have in stock. All of the loadings are available at other retailers and for better pricing than midway.

As for local availability, that's a huge variable. I've been into a few local stores and Bass Pro recently and 3 have had ARC, two of them both had ELD-M and Bass Pro had ELD-M and Black. None have had Grendel ammo.

 

[doty_soty]

It’s a great way to lob a bigger bullet from a small frame. Ammo isn’t the cheapest but it’s not a 5.56 so it’s kinda unfair to compare to 5.56. I hear PSA will be releasing ammo for it soon and I’ve been a big fan of their prior releases.

 

[wirehead]

Hornady marking both? Have not seen that at all. Maybe I've missed something... I have not seen Hornady do any splash marketing for the 6.5G.

This is what I'm referring to from Hornady: https://www.hornady.com/6mmarc#!/

Heck, they even compare the 6 ARC to the 6.5G on their 6 ARC marketing sheet and state a reason for superiority. I don't agree with the "comparable performance" piece - that's not objectively true - but their statement clearly shows their intent.

 

[redneckbmxer24]

Like I said, Hornady is the one behind the Grendel getting SAAMI, they spent money on that and marketing. It's not even disputable.

 

[Tl15]

Because it has no effect on terminal ballistics. Wound channel size is wound channel size. The Grendel is a good cartridge, but the 6 ARC is better in every measurable way than the Grendel- less recoil, higher MV, less wind drift, and way better factory support with Hornday.

But is it better in a 16” suppressed hunting rig? With the velocity penalty, I’d suspect the two are a wash, with the terminal giving an edge to the Grendel.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

123 ELDMs are great

Got 2 new boxes of Hornady Black 123 ELDM's waiting in the wings. Have had great success with ELDMs in other calibers.

 

[Damian48]

Built a gas gun in this. Works good on deer. Only 2 so far first one didn’t take 3 steps the other ran an was a little difficult to track

 

[NRA4LIFE]

One thing to consider, Grendel specific mags are slightly different than the standard PMAGs. I read that there can be some sort of feeding problem trying to use PMAGs.

 

[Mike D Texas]

One thing to consider, Grendel specific mags are slightly different than the standard PMAGs. I read that there can be some sort of feeding problem trying to use PMAGs.

Yes the follower is different because the cartridge is fatter than a 5.56 case. They have to stack differently in the mag.


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