6.5 Grendel or 6.8 SPC?

[Scott Hearn]

That is the question.

At yesterdays 3 gun match Mike had some 1/3 scale targets setup with no-shoots involved. One array we shot offhand and the other array we shot prone through a port so thin that you had to rotate the gun 90 degrees or your scope was useless. These targets were the upper A-B zone only, the rest were covered with no-shoots. I shot the stage clean and afterward was looking at the arrays and thinking that there is no way I could make those same shots with my hunting guns with anything even remotely close to the "ease" that the AR gave me.

So I'm thinking about selling my bolt gun (.270WSM) and lever gun (.375 Winchester) and just using an AR platform gun for hunting. Mostly because ARs are just easier to hit with for me. So if you were building a AR gun for hunting deer 25 out to 400+ yards what caliber of these two would you pick? Something else?

 

[drmitchgibson]

Good topic

 

[Squid]

The 400+ yards makes it easy. Grendel all day. I have a couple of them currently let me know if you want to take one for a test drive.

 

[dennishoddy]

I agree, the Grendel would/will be my pick as well.
I've killed a bucket load of deer with an AR in .55 grain SP, but I do realize the limitations that round has at longer ranges.
Hell, you can even get a custom upper in .300 Win mag for elk now.

 

[Scott Hearn]

Appreciate the offer Tony G.

Dennis, I thought you had one? I would have sworn I saw a post that you had a 6.5 once.

 

[Tuflehundon]

Been wondering the same thing myself. Would the Grendel be good for elk as well?

 

[Wildcat]

I had a 6.8 for awhile but ended up selling it because I was offered more than I had in it and I wasn't a fan of the configuration. I really like the cartridge and will more than likely build another. I took a decent bodied whitetail at 280 yards with it 3 years ago using 120 grain sierra pro hunters. The added benefit is that there may be more commercial 6.8 available than 6.5.

 

[Squid]

Google "mark larue 6.5 grendel elk" if I remember right he dropped it at 400 yards with an 18 or 20 inch barreled grendel

 

[Squid]

I would have to agree with Matt on the commercial availability side of the house but grendel has been rising in popularity. I buy hornady 123 sst at academy from time to time and sgammo has it in stock now at a decent price.

 

[dennishoddy]

Appreciate the offer Tony G.

Dennis, I thought you had one? I would have sworn I saw a post that you had a 6.5 once.

I have a barrel, just too busy to
finish it.
Plus, I have the .243WSSM, that shoots 100 grain really well.

 

[Scott Hearn]

I have a barrel, just too busy to
finish it.
Plus, I have the .243WSSM, that shoots 100 grain really well.

That must have been what I was thinking of.

 

[Scott Hearn]

I'm leaning towards the 6.8 for several reasons.

1) No special mags needed
2) Nosler has their E-Tip bullets all the way across the usable weight spectrum plus a couple of Accubonds. Hornady, Sierra also have good ones.
3) I have a bunch of powder(s) that look to be the ones to use in it.
4) Complete uppers - they seem to be vastly more AVAILABLE right now. Wilson Combat, Daniel Defense and others seem to be in stock at various places.

If I were going to build an upper (which isn't totally off the table) I'd probably go 6.5. But getting a quality barrel and the required headspaced bolt is kind of looking like it's going to be a wait. And it's kind of a turn off when I can just order up a complete upper 6.8. If anyone has any suggestions as to suppliers for 6.5 stuff I'm all eyes, I'm kind of striking out.

 

[Wildcat]

Scott - 6.8 DOES require 6.8 magazines (PRI, ASC, and CPD make good ones). You can't use standard ar15 mags as the cartridge is slightly larger in diameter.

 

[Scott Hearn]

Scott - 6.8 DOES require 6.8 magazines (PRI, ASC, and CPD make good ones). You can't use standard ar15 mags as the cartridge is slightly larger in diameter.

Well crap. There's that "it's on the internet" thing. I read something today that I thought was reputable that regular 30rd mags would work, they just wouldn't hold the full 30.

Things just evened up a little bit.

 

[Wildcat]

You can get 5-6 rounds into a 30 round pmag before it bulges too much to fit in the mag well. I'd advise against it thought. There are 6.8 pmgs, BUT they require that you use a 6.8 specific upper and lower fro LWRC (it's called the six8)

 

[Squid]

I don't know if they have them for immediate shipping but I got a bartlien from precision firearms in 3 weeks time with a matched bolt. Saturn has also had them rrecently. And I believe JP has them in stock now. Take a look at the BC on the bullets that you will be using if you are serious about the 400 yards or better you are really gunna shine with the 6.5.

 

[Scott Hearn]

I don't know if they have them for immediate shipping but I got a bartlien from precision firearms in 3 weeks time with a matched bolt. Saturn has also had them rrecently. And I believe JP has them in stock now. Take a look at the BC on the bullets that you will be using if you are serious about the 400 yards or better you are really gunna shine with the 6.5.

That's what the real draw to it is IMO. Those .264 bullets just flat fly great down range in any caliber I've ever looked at. But I've never needed anything in this bore size. Seems the BC really wrings all the powder capacity out of it well in this caliber.

 

[mike cyrwus]

all the ballistics Ive seen for the grendel is out of a 24" barrel. if you were to keep it 16-18" in an ar15 platform, and rein in your max shot to 300yd, then the 300 blackout is a better idea, imo.

if you want easy 400yd accuracy with very easy to load/find/get ammo, Id get a remington r-25 in .243 or .260 and call it a day

 

[Scott Hearn]

all the ballistics Ive seen for the grendel is out of a 24" barrel. if you were to keep it 16-18" in an ar15 platform, and rein in your max shot to 300yd, then the 300 blackout is a better idea, imo.

if you want easy 400yd accuracy with very easy to load/find/get ammo, Id get a remington r-25 in .243 or .260 and call it a day

I've always thought of the .300BO as a one hit wonder. Subsonic 220 grain OTMs out of a suppressed SBR. It would solve several issues tho. Bolt/BCG the same, mags the same. Factory ammo is out there. Maybe I should go look at the lighter weight supersonic charts.

 

[hunter_dmw12]

Grendel is the way to rock. My buddy and I had this conversation a year ago. Once we looked all the books over and ballistics he went with the grendel and has never looked back. Biggest issue is you have to hand load to tune your gun.