18 inch 6.5 Grendel ballistic data

[20nickels]

FYI, Hornaday is now producing 6.5 Grendel ammo and I assume brass too. Never found out if it was Large or small primer.

[Chris Conley]

I saw that recently and went to Mid South Shooters Supply to order some and still out of stock. I hear the 120 grn A-Max is really good. I can't wait until some gets out and on the market.

On another note I took a nice buck a shade past 400 yards this week with the Grendel. I'd post some picks but not allowed on this sight. Good down range terminal performance.

Chris C.

[Chris Conley]

Here's how the build finally finished out. The Magpul UBR made all the difference in the world. Rifle is still a little dirty from hunting season but I'm not finished yet.

If I do a future build I'm going to try a 20 inch barrel and see how it does. I'm pleased with the 16 inch none the less.

Chris C.

Edited November 21, 2009 by Chris Conley

[20nickels]

Very cool, I am envious. Hopefully building one in the next coupla yrs just like it. Any Idea what expected barrel life is for the Grendel?...... Sorry for any thread drift.

[Chris Conley]

Very cool, I am envious. Hopefully building one in the next coupla yrs just like it. Any Idea what expected barrel life is for the Grendel?...... Sorry for any thread drift.

Not really sure but I'm not too worried about wearing right now with the way the ammo conditions are right now. I'm sure it depends on where you buy the barrel from.

Chris C.

[Jadeslade]

Here's how the build finally finished out. The Magpul UBR made all the difference in the world. Rifle is still a little dirty from hunting season but I'm not finished yet.

If I do a future build I'm going to try a 20 inch barrel and see how it does. I'm pleased with the 16 inch none the less.

Chris C.

That is a smoking little deer hunter! Any dirt on your face from the comp?

[Chris Conley]

Here's how the build finally finished out. The Magpul UBR made all the difference in the world. Rifle is still a little dirty from hunting season but I'm not finished yet.

If I do a future build I'm going to try a 20 inch barrel and see how it does. I'm pleased with the 16 inch none the less.

Chris C.

That is a smoking little deer hunter! Any dirt on your face from the comp?

Yeah I've had my share of that during the break in and testing part. With the barrel being 16 inches I'm sure I'm getting all I deserve. Once I get some free funds my plan is to use a 6.8 SPC comp from Surefire or DNTC. Anyone know of other comps that will work on a 6.5 Grendel?

Back to the original topic before the thread drifted in a fun direction....... I have noticed that the Wolf 120 MPT and 123 SP has considerably more drop at longer ranges than similar loads from Alexander Arms. Difference in ballistic coefficient maybe???? I don't know. Out past 400 yards the hold overs while hunting do the Jedi mind trick on you. Sometimes I can't believe it's that much but the down range terminal performance is devastating.

Chris C.

Edited November 21, 2009 by Chris Conley

[Sterling White]

I've seen the Arredondo comp on a grendel recently. Took a little machining to make it work from the original 556 starting point but the owner likes its. Depends on how much your willing to put into it.

Edited November 22, 2009 by Sterling White

[Flexmoney]

I just read this on Wikipedia (under "external Ballistics): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6.5_mm_Grendel

As noted above, the Grendel case is very closely related to the PPC case. When sufficient load data was made available, a thorough study of the Grendel case, which constitutes a precisely dimensioned combustion chamber when the round is chambered, was done with the following results. In general, each additional grain of bullet weight will reduce muzzle velocity by 10 ft/s (47 m/s for each gram) and each additional inch of barrel length will increase muzzle velocity by 20 ft/s (2.4 m/s for each centimeter). Therefore, a handy rule of thumb is "one inch of barrel length equals two grains of bullet weight (1 mm → 5 mg)". Specific details are available as graphs derived from Alexander Arms' public domain load table linked below.

[Chris Conley]

Very true Flex. I have read that before. I also called Alexander Arms today for find out the BC of certain types of bullets to plug into my First Hit software. If I was ever to shoot this rifle in a 3 gun match (cha-ching) I would like to have some info for a 100 yard zero. Plus I'm just curious. No such luck getting any info until Monday at the earliest. Holidays always have their ups and downs.

Thanks for posting the info Flex.

Chris C.

Edited November 24, 2009 by Chris Conley

[bieryun]

I know this is an old topic but i was wondering if anyone is still working up loads in the 18" barrel. I am currently loading 123gr Hornady SST with Hornady brass and 29.7gr of CFE223. right now i am getting an average of 2400fps with a bear creek heavy fluted barrel and getting .8 5 shot groups at 100 yards. Max loads for CFE223 is 31.2gr of CFE223 (according to the book) but not sure how much extra velocity i will get with going up in the powder since i might run into unburnt powder as well so not really helping just wasting powder.