Thinking about building a 18-20" Grendel. Will be shooting with my son at a local 1000 yard range and was thinking of building a upper for those ranges. I see stuff out there for Grendel but it sure doesn't seem to have taken off quite like 300 blackout or similar.
Is it worth the squeeze?
If 124 factory loads = not taken off, what does that mean for every other cartridge besides 5.56/.223 Rem?
The 1000yd capability has been there from the start. 123gr Scenar and 123gr SMK do well out to 1100yds+, depending on what elevation you shoot at. The lower you are, the more barrel length and BC you will want to have.
I’m in the Mountain West region, so shorter barrels work surprisingly-well out to 1000yds+. I have personally rapid-fired sub-MOA groups from a really lightweight 17.6” Grendel at 1000yds. My group was 8” vertical, 4” horizontal with 123gr A-MAX. I’ve also made 1st-round hits with my 12” Grendel at 780yds and 900yds on 2-3 MOA plates, which is very difficult to do even with magnums at 900yds.
If you want the basic 6mm experience from a 6.5 Grendel, shoot 110gr PPU, 107gr SMK or the new 105gr Blitzkings, which will be faster from the muzzle but don’t have as high of BCs as the 6mm does. In practice, it’s really hard to notice a difference unless winds are at 7 mph or higher, which is why 6mm makes sense for competitors. The 105-110gr 6.5mm loads shoot really flat compared to 120-123gr Grendel.
Here’s one of the ranges at the range complex I prefer to shoot. Buffalo Canyon has all kinds of UKD steel to detect and engage from 175-900yds. The thing about Grendel vs .260 Rem/6.5CM/6.5x47 is that you can easily maintain your sight picture throughout the shot, and spot your own impacts, from a firearm that weighs 1/2-2/3 the weight of an AR-10.
I take the 12” Grendel out of the case, rack the action, and immediately start putting rounds on the bison steel silhouette at 780yds, right below that red dot marking 800yds. The benefit with the 120gr and higher class of bullets is that you can really hear them impact, whereas 110gr and lower sound about like Mk.262 does at 400yds (weak and anemic). You get more positive feedback with the heavier bullets, but they of course have more arc and drop for trajectory. From shooter’s perspective, it’s a matter of holding or dialing your data.
For all the people who said for years how 6.5 Grendel doesn’t do well from shorter barrels and you aren’t able to reach its ballistic potential, they clearly are repeating things they haven’t experienced. In fact, I don’t think there is anything that does as well from a short barrel, to include the new 6mm Max. 6.8 SPC was the closest, but doesn’t have the projectile selection. Bore ratio favors the 6.8, but its case design is nowhere near as efficient in burning the propellant column.
12” Grendel real world velocities for me have been:
2698fps with 90gr TNT Federal factory load
2393fps with 120gr Federal OTM
80gr Hammer HTs will do 2831fps from a 12” barrel and 2609fps from an 8.5” barrel.
2024 is going to be a big year for 6.5 Grendel. When you see what it will do from PDWs, it really separates from the 6mm bores. They are too constrained for velocity and it really walks away from them by several hundred fps. The difference in muzzle velocity between 6mm and 6.5 Grendel really surprised me when looking at the lighter bullets. 12” Grendel generates the upper end of speeds for an 18” 6mm with 80-90gr, for example. A 10.5” Grendel will match 18” 6mm speeds with the same bullet weights.
The biggest practical difference I enjoy is being able to throw a suppressed short blaster into a small carbine case, grab it, move it around, pack it in the SUV with no real consideration for space. When I step up to my 18” Grendels, the case size is something much harder to lift, pack, and find space for.
I’m going even smaller now with an 8.5” barrel on the way, after 6 years of shooting the 12” more than anything else. The internal ballistics engine I’ve been using (that is often within 4fps of real world mvs), shows some jaw-dropping numbers for the 8.5” and 7.5” barrels.
