Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles If you built a 6.5 AR15 today, what would it be?

It's very mild even with a thin profile barrel.

The WSSM maybe nice for some but everyone I've ever seen has a bull barrel on it which is something I personally have no interest in.

I have no speed obsession, the 6.5G works fantastic for me.

Terry

What does your upper weight? The 6.5 has more interest to me, I mean if your going to be shooting 100-130 grains of bullet I would think the 6.5's penetration would be better than the 6.8 or 300 blackout. Can you get to a 6 pound rifle?

I'm not sure about just the upper. The whole rifle, scope and mount included comes in at 7lbs 12oz. It's a light handy setup and very accurate even though it's light.

Terry

I'd do a 6.5 SPC.

Not quite, because the 6.5 has a much higher BC than the 30cal, so it "catches up" downrange, comparitively. Pushing those high BC bullets so slowly is still like buying a 6cyl mustang, why would you do that?

It appears the WSSM's are fading to black and I'm not holding out hope that Remlin will be smart enough to neck their 30AR down, if they do it'll be something brain-dead like .270 (0.277)

The easy button here is the Grendel. The 6.5 BRX if you want to work at it a little bit.

It only runs about 300FPS slower than a .260 Remington and in my case does it in a rifle that's about 3 1/2lbs lighter than most AR-10 style rifles. For a rifle that's actually going in the field IMO, it's a pretty good trade off.

The 6cyl Mustang is a good analogy. When a deer gets hit by a Mustang on the road I don't think he cares what size motor the car had in it. Pretty much the same with the Grendel. The animals I've taked with it couldn't have died any faster than they did.

Terry

The wssm calibers may be dead in bolt guns, but they are making a comeback in ARs. Several thousand wssm ARs have been sold over the last few years and their popularity is growing.

I understand that. Should have kept my mouth shut and just watched. Never considered a black gun running at 2400 fps a long range gun. Was thinking yall were talkin out to 200 or so. Were BC's are not gonna play any real role. But after I relized yall were talking much further, I shut it.

Hey Bro, no problem, we all come here to learn and discuss. My whole issue with the Grendel and the SPC is they are both loping along too slowly to take back that 500m range that the 30/03 and 308 could dominate. Newer projectiles have solved the lethality issues out to 300m for sure but that distance from 3-500m is still no man's land with the 5.56.

A 6mm launched from the Grendel or SPC case looks like the way to go to me pushing a 95gr VLD. That would be a man-stopper, deer stopper, and reach-out there round, IMO.

For hunting deer in the forest, if you want to use an AR but not the 223, the 300 Blackout makes a lot of sense for up to 200m shots.

I went with the 6.5 DTI which is a 6.8 SPC improved a bit. DTech(Mike Milli) built it for me. I selected a 19" 1/9 twist barrel. I have killed a coyote and 4 deer with it thus far and it has performed admirably. A 6.8 would have done the same thing but I like the 6.5 bore and it is nice to have something a bit different. Bullet is a 100 Nosler partition, 2 were pass throughs and 2 stayed in deer. PH

Take a Knee I love all of the arguments about these cartridges! In the end there is not a huge amount of difference between them. Having conservatively shot somewhere north of 50 deer with "Oh so many different cartridges" like any true rifle looney I have formed a few impressions regards performance etc. I would take a good bet that shot in the same place at under 100 yards with a 223 cal 55 grain TSX at 3100 FPS vs a 30 cal 110 grain TSX at 2400 that the edge would go to the 223. Stretch it to 200 and I have to scratch my head and am not so sure. Again I read your point regards if you want to or have to shoot with something bigger.

Les Bear claim's 1/2 MOA out to 900yds with thier "slow" .264LBC. Also, the The BC's of the .264 doesn't allow it to "catch up" up to the .308. That's a complete mis-statment. It never falls behind. I'll be taking mine out to the 600 yd range after hunting season and I'm sure the results will be good. It's like I said before, the 6.5 Gredel or 6.5LBC makes a fantastic choice for the hunting field or the range. It's not all about speed, IT NEVER WAS. If it was we'd all be shooting 6.5STW's and the like but we aren't.

Terry

PH, I like that cartridge. My main reason for going with the Grendel over the SPC is I really like the 6.5 bullets. It looks like Mike has solved that. Nice choice.

Terry

TC1, you are wrong, it IS about a certain baseline of SPEED. For a long range cartridge, which is the Grendels' claim to fame, 2400fps doesn't cut it. I'm glad you like your Grendel, I never said it couldn't be a fantastic deer cartridge as it obviously is, but the Grendel has been touted as mid-range/600yd DM/sniper cartridge and I just don't see it. Now, neck it down to 243........

No, I'm not wrong. There is no set number at which a cartridge becomes a "mid-range sniper round." They are just numbers in your head and all you're doing is just mental bench racing. Funny thing, I don't remember ever calling it a sniper round in the first place. If so, show me where I did but yet I'm wrong? Did the OP ever state he wanted a mid range sniper rifle in the first place? If you don't like it that's fine, you're opinion is noted but it's just your opinion.

Terry

You didn't say that and I stand corrected. I was erroneously attributing to you "Grendel hype" encountered elsewhere.

Like I said it is probably a cracker-jack deer cartridge and I hope you enjoy yours.

Merry Christmas

Terry

What recoil? In shooting a 9lb gun in the grendel next to a 10.5lb 243 wssm and an 8lb 223, the recoil difference is barely noticable.

Good post Terry.....

It's NEVER about a race if you want to decide on a round - either it WORKS, or not.

If it works, and a 6.5 does, then the shooter is the deciding factor - as most always anyway.

I like the 6.5 and plan to get one/build one.