Any review? PSA 12” 6.5 grendel

[mason.ostrom]

Just wondering if anyone has any first hand experience with the PSA 6.5 grendel upper? Interested in picking one up as a short hunting upper for my SBR. Interested in what the accuracy is like with this upper. Thanks everyone!
Mason

 

[awonder]

I got 1” with 90gr Speer TNTs 2315FPS

 

[sea2summit]

Tag

 

[mason.ostrom]

I got 1” with 90gr Speer TNTs 2315FPS

Any chrono data with other Ammo? 123 Hornady or the like?

 

[shlouf]

Get one and don't look back. Very good value for the price. The guy I hog hunt with uses one with his thermal. He really likes the 123 American gunner.

He likes it enough he convinced me to get one. I'll be using it with regular scope and thermal. I haven't shot it with the day scope yet, but zeroing my XP38 at 50 yards I easily got nickel sized groups with the american gunner.

The adjustable gas block is nice bonus, especially if shooting suppressed.

No feeding issues between either of us yet using 17rd E-landers.

 

[CrabsandFootball]

Psa and accuracy don't belong in same sentance

 

[mason.ostrom]

Psa and accuracy don't belong in same sentance

Have any first hand info that would backup that statement? Not saying your wrong, just wondering if I can get more details if you have some first hand experience with their stuff.

 

[awonder]

Any chrono data with other Ammo? 123 Hornady or the like?

Roughly 100FPS slower if I remember correctly. I was shooting Hornady black 123s

 

[G22OneShot]

I picked one up last year and just finished it off. Overall goal was a fun gun that is a Jack of all sort of rifle. I got the 12" SS barrel with 10" rail complete upper and the a psa lower with parts kit. Got everything cerekoted and kept it stock except for a SiCo ASR Flash Hider. Running factory 123 SST and 123 ELDM I was getting 2180 and 2200. Accuracy was what you would expect from a budget AR at 2-3 MOA.

I worked up some 95gr Vmax over CFE223 and get consistent 1 MOA and just a couple fps shy of 2400. I topped it with a Vortex diamondback tactical and a Leupold deltapoint pro I had laying around on a 45 mount.

My Omega showed up last weekend and just started playing with that. I am toying with some 147gr ELDMs over trailboss (1050fps) just to see if it can be done. Wide open with the gas block and still wont cycle but crazy quiet. The barrel is just a touch slow as they show a little wobble at 100yds.

For what I was after and what I paid I couldn't be happier. Fun little gun that shoots well and looks cool. For the price you cant go wrong. My only negative comment is the factory finish is pretty poor. I set the old birdcage on the work bench and a month later noticed it was starting to rust from me handling it. So a coating of some sort is recommended.

 

[Yondering]

One of my buds bought the 12.5" PSA 6.5 grendel upper and brought it over for me to go through it. Only issue I found is the chamber was a little rough, so I honed that and it's been good to go since then. He hasn't tested it for accuracy yet but it seems to shoot well enough.

I can comment on ballistics a bit if someone wants the info from my own 12.5" Grendel, but it's not a PSA.

 

[groves]

I picked one up last year and just finished it off. Overall goal was a fun gun that is a Jack of all sort of rifle. I got the 12" SS barrel with 10" rail complete upper and the a psa lower with parts kit. Got everything cerekoted and kept it stock except for a SiCo ASR Flash Hider. Running factory 123 SST and 123 ELDM I was getting 2180 and 2200. Accuracy was what you would expect from a budget AR at 2-3 MOA.

I worked up some 95gr Vmax over CFE223 and get consistent 1 MOA and just a couple fps shy of 2400. I topped it with a Vortex diamondback tactical and a Leupold deltapoint pro I had laying around on a 45 mount.

My Omega showed up last weekend and just started playing with that. I am toying with some 147gr ELDMs over trailboss (1050fps) just to see if it can be done. Wide open with the gas block and still wont cycle but crazy quiet. The barrel is just a touch slow as they show a little wobble at 100yds.

For what I was after and what I paid I couldn't be happier. Fun little gun that shoots well and looks cool. For the price you cant go wrong. My only negative comment is the factory finish is pretty poor. I set the old birdcage on the work bench and a month later noticed it was starting to rust from me handling it. So a coating of some sort is recommended. View attachment 7313749

Not trying to hijack the post but if you get that subsonic load to cycle I'd really like to hear about it. Digging the setup.

 

[Strykervet]

I have one with an 11.5" Lilja barrel, so not a PSA, it's actually a very nice rifle.

Super soft shooting, really too soft but a lighter buffer would probably be the fix, it's got an H2. I guess I just don't care. See, .300 BLK supers do a better job out of short barrels, same weight with bigger hole, and well, there ain't no subs for the Grendel, not that I know of or any I'd wanna put through a can. Velocity for a 123 is about 2000fps from an 11.5" IIRC and with a .300BLK and 8.5" bbl. firing 115's it's close to 2300fps.

If you're invested in 6.5 heavily and/or have no .300BLK or desire to add another caliber, don't require suppression or subs, then do it. I have SBR'd 5.56 rifles and they ain't exactly the best either but ammo is plentiful and an 11.5" 5.56 rifle is actually my go to rifle. They all get the job done short of 300m.

If anyone is interested, I'll sell or trade my Lilja for a Trijicon micro reflex. OR a high end 16" 6.5G barrel. Barrel, AA enhanced bolt, Geissele bomb proof gas block. Maybe 50 rounds following the break-in instructions have been fired. I just won't be getting the use out of it I thought I would.

11.5" Lilja 6.5G SBR. 6.5 Ultra 9 does keep it quiet. Very nice rifle and I love Grendel, I just prefer it in a longer barrel myself.

8.5" Noveske bbl., 3" shorter with better performance, especially when suppressed. Capable of ~2300fps w/115gr. --near AK47 level performance:

 

[Reload10]

I have a 12.5" that is shooting 100gr eldm's at 2365 and holds around moa. It is tough to drive consistently for me though, being a pistol and all. Just need more practice.

 

[Yondering]

11.5" Lilja 6.5G SBR. 6.5 Ultra 9 does keep it quiet. Very nice rifle and I love Grendel, I just prefer it in a longer barrel myself.


8.5" Noveske bbl., 3" shorter with better performance, especially when suppressed. Capable of ~2300fps w/115gr. --near AK47 level performance:

Yeah... we've discussed this before. You're either running some really weird loads, or have the velocity numbers mixed up between those two. 2000 fps with a 123 in that Grendel is a super light load or using the wrong powder; that does not represent normal Grendel ballistics for that barrel length.

And 2300 from that 8.5" 300 Blackout is a hot load, certainly at if not well over max.

Either way, those numbers really don't sound right, and don't jive at all with my Grendel and Blackout experiences with similar barrel lengths; the numbers are pretty much the other way around. It also seems unuaual to expect or claim a case holding 18-20gr of powder to outperform a case holding 30-31gr of powder.

 

[Yondering]

FWIW, my 12.5" Grendel with the 123 ELD-M does ~2310 fps with 8208, and around 2400 fps with Lever. No other powder is capable of the Lever velocity in this setup, but several match or beat 8208.