Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles First season with the 6.5 Grendel

Last year I had some not great results with the oldest kid shooting deer with the 5.56 so during the off-season I scrounged the parts for a 6.5 Grendel pistol upper. It is a 12.5” Ballistic Advantage Hanson barrel. All I’ve shot through it is 123 eldm Hornady Black.

First kill was a coyote pup in September at ~385 yards.


Second was my daughter’s buck at ~150 hard quartering to her. He ran ~50 yards and piled up.


Third was my extra doe at ~80 yards. Head shot. No real test or surprises.


Fourth was my son’s first deer. A doe at ~100 yards. It was a great first kill with a “high shoulder shot” which shocked the spine but didn’t ruin the back straps but destroyed the lungs. She went straight down and it was quickly over.


Overall I am very pleased with this little round for relatively close deer hunting. In the AR platform and suppressed there is very little recoil and has been great for the kids.

I have my fingers crossed that the 224 and 243 Grendel wildcats will become standard but for now the 6.5 will do fine.

Well done, Nimrod!

Nice. That 12.5" Grendel is a good way to roll, I've been doing the same.

Nice work! I have only taken one doe with my Grendel. 123 Grain SST worked fine, but the shot was taken at spear range. I hoped to do more shooting with it, but the season went through my fingers.

My second Grendel is in the pipe for next season. My first, a CZ, was a bit disappointing, though very pretty. This one is one of Darrik's special Howas. The grandson will likely get first crack with it. He's done well with its 7.62 twin.

Sweet!
How do you like the suppressor?
Who's is it?

Thanks everyone! It was a good season the kids both left a deer tag unfilled but that’s ok. I filled my buck tag and my elk tag with a muzzleloader cow. So much meat cutting!



I wish I had gotten into the suppressor game earlier. This one is a Yankee Hill Machine Resonator. It was exactly what I needed. The price makes it accessible and palatable to the spouse and you don’t lose performance by it being cheaper.
Hunting suppressed is the only way to hunt. My oldest started without the suppressor two years ago wearing electronic ear protection and that didn’t help her be quite and kids aren’t quite to begin with. Being able to whisper and not be blasted at the shot is really nice. It also allows you to hear the bullet impact. The coyote in the first picture was not a first round hit, as I had not shot the round past 200 yards, but shooting suppressed allowed me follow up shots and he was undisturbed.

Why do folks wrap the suppressors with something?

I've can almost always hear the bullet hit non suppressed but sub suppressed is much eaisir.

About to fire the first super sonic suppressed round 6.5 Creedmoor in my life tommorrow if not raining. Took us 3 hours to get the barrel threaded perfectly to where it all lined up to half of 5/10,000 of an inch. Cutting threads was simple compared to centering the bore.

Good shooting, great job with the kids!

helps reduce the heat signature coming off the can. sometimes you can see the 'glow' in the bottom of thermal scopes

also keeps you from scalding yourself or melting something (floor mat) after a mag dump

This. Suppressors get hot with multiple shots; same reason you don't want to touch your car muffler after driving it.

It's not an issue with just a shot or two for hunting though (not talking about pig culls like djones, but normal deer hunting etc); suppressor covers are unnecessary there. Personally I don't use one at all, but I don't have thermal, and I don't do mag dumps. I do pause my target shooting when my suppressors start to get hot.

I leave the suppressor cover on for all of the reasons listed above and don’t hunt with it usually when hunting by myself. I do leave it on for protection of the suppressor when handing it over to the kids or traveling. As difficult as they are to acquire it has to last me the rest of my life!

Great Pics Nimrod!

Guys tell me they get heavy mirage off them if they don't wrap them.

Good to know all that. I had no clue. I can't recall shooting more than 2-3 shots max with a suppressor so far.

I could see the thermal and mirage issues. I know a barrel gets hot it will throw the mirage. Of course in service rifle mirage bands were not allowed so we just shot through it as it was. But I digress.

I was thinking some kind of new fashion statement.

I'd certainly not want to touch a barrel or a can after a mag dump.

Yep, a big part of good machining work is the setup, and sometimes it takes longer than the actual job. 3 hours seems a bit much, but it's worth taking the time to do right regardless.

I hope the threads were single-point cut and not threaded with a die?