Any Howa Mini 6.5 Grendel owners out there? I have owned several of the minis in 223 and love them. Just put a heavy barrel Grendel on layaway at Whitakers. What kind of accuracy are you getting from them?

Nobody?

It's going to be all on you. I'm expecting a full write up on the gun and the caliber. I've got a heavy barrel 223 and will buy the Grendel and the 7.62x39 when I can catch them on sale. No hurry. I think the 6.5 is close to the perfect first deer rifle for a kid or a gun for a woman. If your going to hunt whitetails only it's probably all you would ever need.

I have just taken possession of a Grendal Mini Howa in 6.5 with the 20" liteweight barrel.

Will test drive on Monday, not impressed with the stock or the magazine and it's release.

By the way they are $799.00 here but that's better then $1200.00 for a CZ.

F

I too have been waiting for some REAL WORLD write ups and reviews on this rifle. I've watched a few of them on Youtube, but I always take the "sponsored" reviews with a grain of salt. Sometimes a teaspon !

Still waiting on the floorplate model. The pic on the Whittaker site looks like a conventional box mag, but a call revealed that its a stock photo of something else.

I ran a heavy rubber band through my trigger guard, looped it through itself then flipped it over the mag. I have seen pics of the mag release filed down also.

Tagging this thread. Just picked up a mini youth 6.5 for my daughter. Need to figure out what scope for her. Probably won't be able to get her out shooting till after school gets out.

I bought one when they first came out and shot one box of ammo through it. Grouped great. However, I decided not to start reloading and really testing until I picked up a better stock. Unfortunately, it's been on the back burner ever since.

I have two of the 223s, one with 20" lightweight and one with 22" standard sporter weight barrels. I am very pleased with both of them so far. Both are accurate and I happen to like the stocks as they fit me well and seem pretty rigid. I do agree that the magazine release is a serious design flaw. I plan to replace with bottom metal/floor plates when they become available one day. I have the 6.5 Grendel on layaway so it may be 90 days before I get to test it out. Glad to hear some are getting good accuracy from their Grendels.

What sort of speeds are people getting with 6.5 Grendel handloads in bolt guns?

Oh and what are the Howa Mini Grendels twisted at, can anyone tell me?

What do you think of the difference in the Barrels? I've got the heavy barrel gun.

Until they come out with a flat bottom drop box mag its a no thank you from me.

I had high hopes for this rifle, but I agree. Until the floorplate model comes out I will not buy one.

I like the 22" barrel better than the 20" lightweight, but not by much. Both balance really well and I have not seen a difference in the accuracy. The 22" is just a tad easer to shoot accurately offhand.

That's what I was thinking just by looking at the specs. Thanks for confirming that.

It's kind of funny that Howa makes a trigger guard with a clip for a Remington but doesn't make a floor plate for there own rifle.

I bought Howa mini's in 6.5grendel several months ago, the 22" sporter, and also a 20" .223.

stock design was bearable, so i didnt alter it (yet)....

my grendel seems to like lighter weight class bullets, and several powder/bullet combinations have been less than MOA with no alterations to the rifle.......i scoped them, and took them shooting.

mine likes the Nosler 100gr BT best of the various 85/95/100/120/123/129 bullets i've shot.....tried several powders, ended up staying with 8208xbr mostly.

i put Leupold 2x7's with ballistic plex type reticle on both; with the grendel sighted at 100, the next crosshair down is pretty much dead on at 250 yards, which is the farthest i have shot it so far.

the action is pretty smooth, mag feeds well....mag release must be designed to keep you buying extras, when the first one falls out....

Any chrono data on your loads FPX?

I picked up one of the heavy barreled Grendels to go with my standard 22" .223 Mini. I really like both rifles- especially after slimming/lightening the stocks. The Grendel has noticeably more recoil than the .223. I like the contour and resulting balance of the slightly heavier and shorter barrel. Factory ammo was slow- around 2400 fps. I took handloads with 123's up over 2600, but haven't shot the rifle much since then. Accuracy of both has been good. The triggers wouldn't adjust light enough for my personal taste until I took them apart and cut 1.5 coils off the springs. What else do you wanna know? There are a lot of threads over on the Grendel forum.

7mm, thanks for the info. What components you using in the handloads?

I bought 100 rounds of Hornady ammo on sale for the brass, CCI 450 primers, 123 amax, AR Comp powder. I also have some loads with TAC and 8208 that I need to go shoot. Loaded them up a couple months ago. I tried 140's with Ramshot Big Game, thinking maybe since it's a ball powder that I could fit enough in the case for a good load, but it's just too slow-burning. I ran into really compressed loads and velocities were still low. AR Comp still provided decent results with those heavier bullets, though. Everyone dotes on CFE223 and LVRevolution for the Grendel, but I personally don't have much interest in acquiring either of those two to try.

Also, in case no one else has answered, the Howa Grendels are 1:8" twist.

Ok thanks that's all good info!

Howa REALLY dropped the fhuqking ball with this platform,by going with a Goat Fhuqked proprietary magazine. ALL they had to "do",was simply incorporate an AR-15 mag fed DBM and let the ball roll. If they had,I'd of scored a few to build some more 22 and 6mm Grendels.

Chamberings left to right: 223,6.5 Grendel,22 Grendel/75 ELD Smooch and 6mm Grendel/108 ELD Smooch.




While certainly not all AR mags are "equal",all will capably house same...though I bleed ACS(due COAL latitude).




Pass the Lapooey brass.



Too bad they fhuqked up soooooo miserably.



Pass the Krunchenticker and hold the Howa Fluff.

Thinking MDT Chassis here.

Where did you get this info? I looked it up recently and found specs stating that they are 1:10" twist.

Anyone try the Wolf ammo in the Grendel?

Can the Howa be "converted" to an AR magazine system somehow? Will it feed?

I agree that the proprietary "idea" would have been the last idea from that guy if he worked in my company. Talk about a swing and a miss.

Can only think Howa got greedy on the mag design.

Nice rounds there.

For a Bolt rifle, the Grendel is a nice round with factory ammo, falling shy of a BR or 47 case, also using Lapua Brass.

I have read reports about the stock and Mag arrangement..........

As to the OP question, from reports I read, it should do well under MOA, if you get 1/2 you might be getting most potential out of the factory set up.

Good luck as you develop loads. Personally, I would choose 100-130 weight bullets for trajectory and expansion at common distances.

I did not care for the idea of a plastic stock, or magazine so waited for the CZ 527. UPS has the one I ordered in weekend hold over in Fort Worth. It is supposed to be delivered here tomorrow.

Bingo.

If I get one, it'll be the CZ, DM and all,

or an upper...

Got my CZ yesterday. Spent last night slicking up the action and this morning adjusting the trigger pulls more to my liking.

I have two of the Howa Mini rifles, a 223 and a 6.5 Grendel Heavy barrel. I also didn't like the looks of the magazine but after shortening the release accidently dropping the magazine wasn't a real problem anymore. My 6.5 is somewhat more accurate than the 223 lightweight. I have shot the Grendel 225 times and run several powders but only a couple of bullets, the 140 gr. Sierra Gameking and the 123 gr. AMAX. I ended up with a very accurate rifle that shoots into .7 regularly. The stock is too wiggly at the forend and for some reason makes it hard to get good groups with a bipod attached. My real complaint about the stock has to do with the wiggly forend not the magazine witch feeds smoothly and flawlessly. I got a bit over 2500 fps with the 123 grain bullets but never chronied the 140 grain bullets though they shot very well using Leverevolution powder. I suspect I am getting around 2300 fps with the 140. I figure the 6.5 Grendel is a very nice 300 yard deer gun.