Once you go below ~$350, you’re rolling the dice on whether or not you’ll get MOA/sub MOA.
I rolled the dice with one of the early Faxon group buy 12” Grendel pipes, which has a really heavy shank and overall heavy-for-length mass. It consistently puts 5rds of 123gr ELD-M into an inch at 100yds, and I regularly use it for shooting steel out to 800-900yds. 1st-round hits are pretty easy at 600-780yds on 2 MOA steel. I would not expect this performance from most $200-$250 pipes.
I have a 16” Lilja lightweight Wasp profile barrel that shoots bugholes, from the original Lilja group buy we did. It’s just one of those hummers.
For a 16” hunter, you’ll be fine with 1.5 MOA 5rd group performance anyway for a lightweight.
Either relax your requirement or up your budget a little as mentioned, but I would lean on scope budget more than biting it out of the barrel if it’s just for hunting medium game.
Now if you’re planning on extending the range a bit for coyotes, you really need a good shooter due to vital zone size and how skittish/fidgety they are.
Right now, there’s an excellent deal on
Sons of Liberty Gun Works 13.9” MLGS Grendel barrels, but I have no experience with them firsthand to say how they shoot.
There’s also a good deal on some
13.9” Grendel pipes from Craddock.
My go-to sources for a while have been
Precision Firearms and Lilja. I have at least 8 Grendels right now. I’ve been shooting it since 2009, starting with a 16” AA that I later gave to my brother. The main ones I take out are 18” LaRue, 17.6” Lilja, and my 12”. The 12” has been shot the most over the past 6 years.
Get a
Rexus 6.5 Grendel Ultrabolt.