Which way to go with 2 different rigs...

[Dpr64]

Building 2 separate uppers to shoot wolf steel 6.5 ammo for fun and then the factory Hornady/Etc. ammo for hunting...
I have just built one using the AA 6.5 lite fluted barrel and was intending on using that one as my hunting setup with premium factory Hornady, Winchester, etc.. ammo. Would this SAAMI spec barrel be best for this type of ammo or will it be better suited for the Wolf steel cased ammo? The compound throat has had a few issues according to some with certain ammo and I don't want to push it and have issues myself while hunting..

Would the Grendel II with the longer freebore be best suited for this or which way should I go with my 2 separate setups?

[Bigs28]

I have the aa 16" barrel with a bolt bought from aa to go with it. I run both hornady and ppu through it without any issues at all.

[keystone183]

Building 2 separate uppers to shoot wolf steel 6.5 ammo for fun and then the factory Hornady/Etc. ammo for hunting...
I have just built one using the AA 6.5 lite fluted barrel and was intending on using that one as my hunting setup with premium factory Hornady, Winchester, etc.. ammo. Would this SAAMI spec barrel be best for this type of ammo or will it be better suited for the Wolf steel cased ammo? The compound throat has had a few issues according to some with certain ammo and I don't want to push it and have issues myself while hunting..

Would the Grendel II with the longer freebore be best suited for this or which way should I go with my 2 separate setups?

Stick with SAAMI. End of story. ESPECIALLY if you ever plan on reloading. But even if not....

Also, out of curiosity, where are these reports of the compound throat causing issues coming from?

[Dpr64]

Stick with SAAMI. End of story. ESPECIALLY if you ever plan on reloading. But even if not....

Also, out of curiosity, where are these reports of the compound throat causing issues coming from?

Lots of internet searching.... Much talk of the longer loads binding and having issues. I will try to get some links to them later when I have a minute to sit down..

[LRRPF52]

Chamber design alone is not the culprit when you have lands that are creeping closer to the case mouth.

Running reamers beyond reasonable life without maintenance, or just general lack of attention to detail are what cause short chambers.

The idea of using a long leade for the AR15 that asks for projectiles to be loaded beyond magazine length just doesn't make a bit of sense, unless a reamer-maker is trying to buy some insurance for shops that don't pay as much attention to detail and want more reamer life.

That's my opinion on it.

Yes, if you load a tangent ogive bullet to 2.260", you are going to jam the lands, so you will notice in the data for most of your varmint and older generation hunting or target bullets that the COL is usually around 2.200" or less.

Some will bring up the subject of loading certain 140gr projectiles longer, but it really isn't the projectile weight, but the shape.

Since we are confined to the AR15 magazine well dimensions, and would really like to get magazine-fed, semiautomatic fire, it doesn't make any sense to try to chase long COL that exceeds magazine length restrictions.

Performance advantages between 2.260" and 2.300" are negligible downrange, if even present.

The benefit to the compound throat is that it shoots everything really well, and I have yet to see a chamber that beats the compound throat, shooting a wide variety of bullet shapes and weights.

I have shot a lot of different barrels, to include ones labeled ".264 LBC", ones with unidentified chambers with long free-bore and .295" necks, and who knows what else.

Only one has shot close to what a SAAMI chamber is capable of, and it's a Lilja 16" Wasp profile, super light barrel, printing repeated .8" or less 3rd groups consecutively with 2 types of ammunition right out of the gate.

The other SAAMI Lilja barrels shoot 10 rounds into an inch, or 5 rounds into the .3s.

Same with Satern. Satern with SAAMI chamber from back in the day? 8 rounds into the .2s, 700yd IPSC flasher is boring, with both a 28" and a 20".

Satern with unknown chamber? Hard to get it to hold MOA in many cases.

I've about lost count of how many different barrels I have tested when building uppers for friends, my own, and guns that friends and fellow forum members have brought to my courses or we have shot at other courses.

There is something to the SAAMI chamber.

There were some older 120gr Nosler Ballistic Tip factory loads that had a longer COL (2.260") that should have been 2.245" that would jam the lands in some rifles, but that was a mistake with the COL, not the chamber design.

Every single company in this market and any market will have product in the margins that should not have made it past their internal QC. How they take care of it determines their reputation.

[Dpr64]

LRRPF52, that is a boatload! Thanks for the info/knowledge.... I was just concerned after reading a few different articles where in some cases people were having issues and it made me reflect back to what type of ammo I would be using with what barrel..
Here is one: http://www.msrhunt.com/post/grendel-...3926?&trail=15

[keystone183]

LRRPF52, that is a boatload! Thanks for the info/knowledge.... I was just concerned after reading a few different articles where in some cases people were having issues and it made me reflect back to what type of ammo I would be using with what barrel..
Here is one: http://www.msrhunt.com/post/grendel-...3926?&trail=15

I would mark that source as "Questionable".......ymmv.....

[Dpr64]

That was just one of many different I found and used it as an example... All that damn reading made my head spin and question my choices!!

[keystone183]

Ask yourself this question and your answer to it will probably make up your mind. It did mine.

Of the most reputable companies out there making Grendels.......say, JP, Lilja, Saturn, Precision..........what chamber are they using? Still to this very day....