6.5 Grendel barrel length

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fgunnr

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I am going to get a Grendel upper for my Les Baer receiver. My primary use of this gun will be as a short range hunting rifle for hogs and coyotes. It will get a lot of time as a truck gun and as a companion on my Kubota RTV.

I have a Remington 260 bolt gun for still hunting and longer distances.

What length barral is best for this use.
 
I'm running a 20" barrel on my Grendel; the rifle performs great and is very accurate. My longest shot to date is on a coyote I took at about 275 yards but I am sure it will do just as well at much longer ranges.
I am also running heavy bullets out of mine; she really seems to like the 129 grain SST's.
 
I just built one, 20" Satern bbl. The way I understand it is that the 6.5 doesn't show a significant increase in performance with barrel length. It was designed to be used in a 14.5" bbl. Anyway, the short barrel is good if you want a short barrel, and if you want max performance, I understand the 24" is the way to go. The 18" and 20" versions don't do much to performance, but add weight and length. Keep that in mind. If you think the short barrel is a good idea for your use, use it. If barrel length is no problem, get the 24".

On my charts, the Grendel out of a short barrel performs just under a 7.62 and the 24" barrel just outperforms the 7.62 at long ranges. Great round. I love it.

Don't know if they sold out already, I imagine they have, but I got my Satern with no wait! They didn't sign the AA contract and so they quit making them for the public. As far as I know, they are one of THE best barrel makers, and were the best Grendel barrel maker period (they'd cut the rifling to .001"!). Check 'em out, see if they have any left over. They used to make a double fluted 16" including an integral flash hider (he cut it into the barrel blank!) that was only one pound!!!

Les Baer makes his own version now, the only difference in all the Grendel copies is that the chamber on the Grendel is supposed to be optimized for a greater range of projectiles, and the others are optimized towards a more narrow range of bullet weights. I don't know how much truth there is to that, I just know folks don't like signing AA contracts.

Shame, because it isn't Bill A. that is the cretin here. Bill's a great guy and I've talked to and dealt with him since '03 when I tested his Beowulf in the army (fine 200m or less weapon, just awesome at short range). The company that bought into and controls the business now is very greedy and hellbent on running that company into the ground in order to get maximum short term profits.

If you go Grendel, I hope you reload. The ammo is VERY expensive... If you don't reload though, keep me in mind, I'll buy or trade you stuff for your brass as long as it is Lapua or Hornady.
 
wow my impression was EXACTLY the opposite, that it was very beneficial to use a longer barrel.

I must be.. very VERY mistaken.
 
fgunnr said:
I am going to get a Grendel upper for my Les Baer receiver. My primary use of this gun will be as a short range hunting rifle for hogs and coyotes. It will get a lot of time as a truck gun and as a companion on my Kubota RTV.

I have a Remington 260 bolt gun for still hunting and longer distances.

What length barral is best for this use.
Click to expand...
The 6.5G is primarily a long range caliber. From a 24" barrel it is capable of keeping the 123amax super sonic past 1200yds. There is a lot of factory ammo for the 6.5G and it has become very affordable, the Wolf Gold is almost cheap. Wolf is reported to be working on steel case plinking ammo for the Grendel that well be in the .30 a round area.

For a short range hog getter there are better calibers, the 6.8 would shine in this role.

24" Overwatch barrel and bolt started this Grendel build for me last winter.
paracord03.jpg
 
madcratebuilder said:
The 6.5G is primarily a long range caliber. From a 24" barrel it is capable of keeping the 123amax super sonic past 1200yds. There is a lot of factory ammo for the 6.5G and it has become very affordable, the Wolf Gold is almost cheap. Wolf is reported to be working on steel case plinking ammo for the Grendel that well be in the .30 a round area.

For a short range hog getter there are better calibers, the 6.8 would shine in this role.

24" Overwatch barrel and bolt started this Grendel build for me last winter.
paracord03.jpg
Click to expand...
Nice G! Were I to build a .264 or maybe a 6mm SPC AR like that, I would be leaning towards a 22-24" barrel too.

I like the forearm/550 cord application. I will be copying that on my 6.8 this weekend. :evil:
 
I have a little experience with the 6.8 and 6.5. My personal opinion is that the two are so close in performance that it won't matter which one you get. I took an elk last year with the 100 grain barnes TTSX so it isn't like the Grendel sucks at taking game. If I were to build another Grendel I would use a 18" Black Hole Weaponry barrel and aero precision parts from surplus ammo and arms. My Grendel is a target gun that I just so happened to use for hunting, but I specifically designed my 6.8 to be a lightweight hunting rifle. So, though I love my Grendel a lot, my 6.8 will be going into the woods with me this year. Sadly, I was unable to get a chance to hunt elk in the same area I did last year.

Hoping to get me a wolf this year but they are mostly a target of opportunity.
 
I put together a 6.5 grendel with a 24" J&T upper that I am very, very happy with. I'd recommend the same for you.
 
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