Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles 6.5 Grendel shooter I need your advise please

Dear 24HCF Family,

I am building my first AR platform rifle. I decided to go with a 6.5 Grendel. I have all of the parts for the lower but now I'm looking for a barrel, BCG, and GB/GT combination. I have found ever single pieces and a few from the same vendor but none matching the components I want.

Barrel:
20" length
SS either 410 or 416R
fluted
Type 2 chamber
rifle length gas port

BCG:
Nickke Boron
6.5 type 2 bolt

Low profile Adjustable Gas Block
Rifle length gas tube

The remaining pieces:
Prefer billet Ambidextrous Side-Charging Upper like Davidson Defense XRS3 Receiver Assembly

I can find a complete upper from Odin but their BCG is Nitrie treated and they won't sell me just the bolt

Spikes doesn't make a 6.5 Grendel bolt

Alexandr Arms is really confusing. They sell a 16" or 18" barrel and state they will not make custom lengths. Fair enough but then their products FAQ section states the barrel length for the 6.5 should be either 20" to 24". They will sell you a bolt (type II) barrel and gas block and tube all separately for a lot of money.

Shaw (where I get my barrels for my bolt guns) don't sell AR barrels yet they will flute one if I need them too.

JP Enterprise has both the bolt and barrel. This is perfect as I can add a Nickel Boron BCG and a GB/GT. But I really do not wish to spend almost $530 dollar for three components.



The lower receiver currently has:
Quentin Defense lower receiver
Elf Drop In Trigger
Rifle length buffer tube
Magpul PRS Gen 3 stock

Thank you in advance

-HaYen

Have you called black hole weaponry?

I would call white oak armament, they are really great people and they supply a good chunk of the High power competition shooters so they are not about being fancy, they are just about being good.

I know they have 6.8 SPC bolts. . And they sell all the piece parts you'll ever need.

I'd suggest buying a fitted bolt and barrel from the same vendor so you don't run into a headspace issue. Everything else is pretty much just building blocks.

Black Hole Weaponry will sell me a 264 LBC. I'm not opposed but stilling looking. May be an option if I can't find what I'm looking for

White Oak (nice folks by the way) said they had issues with the barrel / bolt combination years ago and decided to not develop anything based on the 7.62x39 cartridge

Is there another source I can try?

Alexander Arms will only sell me a 16 and 18" barrel and bolt.
Odin Works is out of BCG and doesn't know when they will get any back in.

oooh FYI After speaking with White Oak and the talking about the 264 LBC (they had barrels just no bolts) I called Les Baer customs and spoke with the man himself Mr. Les Baer. Really nice guy. They may have a barrel but again no bolts.

223 Wylde is looking pretty good right about now

Out of stock right now but here- - - barrel plus bolt:

http://www.brownells.com/rifle-part...5-m16-6-5-grendel-barrels-prod69785.aspx

take a look at ar performance .

Ed

You are where I was a decade ago... in love with the grendel... at war with all the suppliers. I never got my project completed, ended up cashing it all in on an STI pistol for IPSC competition. The round is still appealing, but all the proprietary stuff from small time (and in my case there was one who at best was in a perpetual state of getting screwed himself, or at worst an outright liar) is a turn off.

On second thought if you are going 20" barrel, weight sholdn't be an issue... why not go with a larger platform AR-10 and 6.5 creedmoor or something?

I did look at the Creedmore and I may still build an AR10 type platform gun. I was never really interested in owning a black, but instead building one. The gun is being setup as a rifle length distance shooter. The Grendel and a few other calibers are kind of ... odd balls in the AR platform because of the bolt to barrel requirements. Yes and magazines too.

Good news I was able to procure a barrel and bolt (from JSE Surplus), which so far have been the hardest pieces to find.

Since the lower is a Quentin Defense QD15 billet, the upper will also be from Quentin. It will have an adjustable gas block and free floating handgaurd. For optics I am looking at a Vortex Viper HS-T 4-16x44 - VMR-1 MOA w/ Vortex Optics 30mm Tactical Picatinny-Style Ring. I also recently added a 338 Win mag to the family and if the Grendel doesn't work out, I will be replacing the old Nikon with that Viper.

Have a great day!!!

HaYen

Oh and I recently found a load using the new 129gr NAB LR and IMR 4166 Enduron for the Grendel. So, I may not have the rifle ready for this years Javelina hunt but there is still Coyote's and the Avian Rescue Center does feed their birds seed :-)

Try giving JSE Surplus a call they may have what your looking for.

Please see 2 posts above yours.....

Well she is done. The final build came in around $1600:

Barrel and bolt(BCG) - JSE Surplus
Upper/Lower - Quentin Defense
15" rail - Quentin Defense
Rifle length stock - Luth-AR
Buffer tube and Spring - DPMS
Lower parts kit - CMMG
Adjustable Gas Block - Black Rain Ordinance
Rings - Burris QD Extreme 1" rings
Scope - Vortex 3-9x40
Gas tube/charging handle/grip - generic - given to me

The BCG is a Type I LBC/Grendel configuration. The scope, if I decided to keep the gun, will get replaced with one that has an MOA reticle. Took it to my indoor range to adjust the gas block. Was able to get a group out to 75 feet. I was shooting unsupported so it wasn't my best work but two rounds went in the same hole while a third went one inch to the left. I may sell the gun cause ... well ... I put the components on a credit card and I really can't afford it. Truth be told, I just wanted to build one. But it looks cool as hell.

During my Grendel build, the hardest parts to source were the bolt and barrel combination. With the 300BO and Creedmore in such high demand, barrel manufactures weren't doing a whole lot of Grendel turning. But I did get an email from Mark Hostetter over at Precision Firearms:

Precision Firearms, LLC
Mark Hostetter
74 Dupont Rd
Suite A
Martinsburg WV 25404
www.precisionfirearms.com or www.pf15.com
Email: pf15pf15.com
Phone: 240-217-6875
Hrs: M-S - 10am-9pm
"Precision - the Pinnacle of Perfection"
https://www.facebook.com/MarkHostetterPrecisionFirearms
https://www.facebook.com/PrecisionFirearms15

If you are planning a 6.5 build for you AR15 platform, here is another source for a barrel / bolt combination.

Oh and for my build, I've placed 10 rounds in the space of a half inch with factory Hornady ammunition (100yards). The rifle itself is pretty boarding and there is a lot of untouched target space being wasted. Time to push it out to 300+ yards.

HaYen

I built one with 14.5" barrel just because I could.

With 8208 I'm getting 2350fps with 123gr sst. I found Hornady brass ok, but the brass that came with Hornady ammo I bought to get started all had loose primer pockets. I'm not sure hornady loads them hot or it's a different lot of brass. Laupua brass has been the best. It's a honest 1 MOA gun in a short little package. When the snow melts I'll push it out to 1k, so far I've run it out to 600yds.

Thanks Storman. Nosler has a load for the Gendel using their 129gr NAB and one of the IMR Enuron powders. I will be tring that load first.

HaYen

Have you taken a look at this site?

http://www.65grendel.com/forum/

There is a wealth of info and a couple of the guy's have put together a reloading manual of 6.5 Grendel data and info about the Grendel, well worth the money. Hope this helps. I have it in an AR and a Mini Mk X, the AR is very accurate but the bolt action is unbelievably accurate.

Steve........