As far as I know after doing a lot of searching on the internet and YouTube, what I'm about to say I have done, has never been done before. On the other hand if it has I wish I would have found it long before now as it would have saved me a lot of trial and error.
I've seen a lot about the new Ruger American Gen 2 rifles so I picked up a couple. The first is a 5.56 NATO Ranch that I installed a Timney single stage trigger in and then dropped the barreled action into a Magpul Hunter stock. The 5.56 has done well which leads to the topic at hand. I picked up the 20" 6.5 Grendel and decided to do the same thing to it only I installed the two stage Timney trigger in the 6.5 Grendel.
The initial Magpul stock was set up for STANAG magazines which wouldn't feed 100% reliably for nothing. Different magazines and even trying to adjust the feed lips of the magazine helped but wasn't a 100% fix. So, after doing some looking I discovered that MDT makes an AICS magazine for 6mm ARC/6.5 Grendel. I also after much to do was able to get the AICS magwell from Magpul. Getting the magwell and then getting it set up and installed so it would work was an absolute dumpster fire and there's no reason for it to be as difficult as it ended up being. My advice if you want to go the route I'm going to continue to explain, buy the Magpul AICS stock or the MDT LSS-XL Gen 2 AICS chassis.
After getting the magwell put together and filing off three tabs on the aluminum skeleton chassis in the Magpul stock I could then effectively use the MDT AICS magazines.
Initial testing was better than expected and got better as I continued to reload the magazine and cycle rounds through the action. There was still a hangup here and there which I was still less than pleased with. It was always the last round that would not feed reliably. Since I load 6.5 Grendel I decided to take advantage of the increased OAL the magazine will accommodate. I determined that a 123 gr ELD-M touched the lands at 2.368" OAL. I then loaded up a dummy round at 2.338" OAL, 0.030" off the lands. I then spent the next five minutes at least loading that dummy round in the magazine and then chamberig that dummy round. It works reliably now without fail.
The long story long of this is, this does work and does indeed improve the rifle. Is it worth it? I can only answer that for me and for me it's definitely worth it. Granted in the end with the magazines, trigger, stock, 20 MOA scope rail, rings, scope, scope level, Area 419 Hellfire brake (I despise radial brakes), I have effectively turned a $550 rifle into a $2,000+ rifle. The added good news though is it shoots various loads quite well and it's not even broke in yet. I'm looking forward to redeveloping loads being able to take advantage of the longer OAL the MDT magazines will accommodate. Hope this possibly helps someone figure out how to make their Ruger American 6.5 Grendel reliable.
I've seen a lot about the new Ruger American Gen 2 rifles so I picked up a couple. The first is a 5.56 NATO Ranch that I installed a Timney single stage trigger in and then dropped the barreled action into a Magpul Hunter stock. The 5.56 has done well which leads to the topic at hand. I picked up the 20" 6.5 Grendel and decided to do the same thing to it only I installed the two stage Timney trigger in the 6.5 Grendel.
The initial Magpul stock was set up for STANAG magazines which wouldn't feed 100% reliably for nothing. Different magazines and even trying to adjust the feed lips of the magazine helped but wasn't a 100% fix. So, after doing some looking I discovered that MDT makes an AICS magazine for 6mm ARC/6.5 Grendel. I also after much to do was able to get the AICS magwell from Magpul. Getting the magwell and then getting it set up and installed so it would work was an absolute dumpster fire and there's no reason for it to be as difficult as it ended up being. My advice if you want to go the route I'm going to continue to explain, buy the Magpul AICS stock or the MDT LSS-XL Gen 2 AICS chassis.
After getting the magwell put together and filing off three tabs on the aluminum skeleton chassis in the Magpul stock I could then effectively use the MDT AICS magazines.
Initial testing was better than expected and got better as I continued to reload the magazine and cycle rounds through the action. There was still a hangup here and there which I was still less than pleased with. It was always the last round that would not feed reliably. Since I load 6.5 Grendel I decided to take advantage of the increased OAL the magazine will accommodate. I determined that a 123 gr ELD-M touched the lands at 2.368" OAL. I then loaded up a dummy round at 2.338" OAL, 0.030" off the lands. I then spent the next five minutes at least loading that dummy round in the magazine and then chamberig that dummy round. It works reliably now without fail.
The long story long of this is, this does work and does indeed improve the rifle. Is it worth it? I can only answer that for me and for me it's definitely worth it. Granted in the end with the magazines, trigger, stock, 20 MOA scope rail, rings, scope, scope level, Area 419 Hellfire brake (I despise radial brakes), I have effectively turned a $550 rifle into a $2,000+ rifle. The added good news though is it shoots various loads quite well and it's not even broke in yet. I'm looking forward to redeveloping loads being able to take advantage of the longer OAL the MDT magazines will accommodate. Hope this possibly helps someone figure out how to make their Ruger American 6.5 Grendel reliable.
