Predictions for 2014

[stanc]

MY prediction is that MagPul will commence R&D on Grendel magazines with production commencing in 2015. Yes, they will find a way.

Ah, I just love the human capacity for self-delusion. The only way to ever get a Grendel P-Mag is to get somebody to make an enlarged mag well receiver a la the LWRC Six8. And the only way that will happen is for a military to adopt the cartridge and require P-Mags as necessary to the contract.

[stanc]

The one prediction I WANT to make, is the one I do not DARE make: steel-case 6.5 Grendel.

Ironic, isn't it. That's the one prediction that actually came to be!

The 6.5 Grendel, instead of 7.62x39, really should be the world-wide standard assault rifle cartridge.

Yeah, well (IMNSHO) to make that happen it really needed a much different marketing approach than was actually done.

Shoot, one of the very first 6.8 SPC loads available was FMJ. In contrast, it took a full decade to get military-type Grendel FMJ ammo on the market. And now it may be too late to matter, since in the interim the US Army has gone beyond FMJ.

And the name is all wrong to attract serious military interest. I mean, a cartridge named after a mythological monster? Something more martial would've been better, not only for appeal to the military, but to the civilian market. Perhaps something along the line of 6.5mm General Purpose Cartridge, for example, or 6.5mm Standard Combat Cartridge, or any of a number of other possible military-sounding nomenclatures.

[blofeld42]

Ah, I just love the human capacity for self-delusion. The only way to ever get a Grendel P-Mag is to get somebody to make an enlarged mag well receiver a la the LWRC Six8. And the only way that will happen is for a military to adopt the cartridge and require P-Mags as necessary to the contract.

Has anyone tried the Six8 with a Grendel barrel and bolt and Magpul 6.8 magazine? It would be interesting to see if it fed correctly. 6.8 and 6.5 mags are sometimes compatible.

[stanc]

Has anyone tried the Six8 with a Grendel barrel and bolt and Magpul 6.8 magazine?

A few people have discussed the possibility of that idea, but I haven't heard of anybody actually trying it, yet.

[LRRPF52]

The Six8 is one of the first indications from the industry that someone is taking ownership over the cartridge, but they also pulled it far away from any kind of standard that was shaky already with the SAAMI submission and the chamber variants that push more to a hand loader's niche, rather than an industry standard for factory ammo.

LWRC also spec'd a magazine that allows 2.320" raw internal length, which is again very appealing to hand loaders, but now there is a new receiver set and magazine that are incompatible with existing magazines.

LWRC took the approach of how this should be done to work as a system, to include dictating the specific 90gr load from Federal, which runs optimally in their gun. The problem for everyone else goes back to commonality of parts with the AR15. The market is already well established and entrenched on the modularity, flexibility, and ease of access to AR15 parts. For tens of thousands of people, the 6.8 has already been working just fine, so why should they change for something slightly different? That's the response I have seen. I still applaud them for doing what they felt necessary to make the cartridge compatible with a polymer magazine, and somewhat engineering the gun around the cartridge, although there are more critical areas that I would have addressed as well.

[stanc]

For tens of thousands of people, the 6.8 has already been working just fine, so why should they change for something slightly different? That's the response I have seen. I still applaud them for doing what they felt necessary to make the cartridge compatible with a polymer magazine...

As I understand it, the Saudis insisted upon having a P-Mag, which made a redesign of the receiver completely unavoidable.

That it gets away from the industry standard receiver design is not, IMO, something to be even the least bit concerned about.

[HuntTXhogs]

What is the status of the Remington 30AR? I saw some ammo at academy but no rifles. Is there brass available? Why hasn't anyone necked that sucker down to 6.5? Its got 44 grains of case capacity!

This is all my opinion - - -

The 30 RAR probably won't see any additional support from DPMS/Remington for a few years in terms of putting out uppers or complete guns. Over the last year there were about 100 Remington R15s sold on GunBroker by a few dealers, sales were slow but steady.

Ammunition wise you will probably continue to see support from Remington here, unfortunately Barnes cancelled their 2014 announcement of a 30 RAR specific bullet (for reloaders) because Remington didn't commit to turning loose any brass.

With the advent of the GII - it pretty much is useless for DPMS/Remington to offer customers a 30 RAR when the weight of the system is less and doesn't have as many proprietary parts, in essence they'd be competing against themselves and possibly losing additional customers due to the lack of brass and ammo availability.

I believe that when the market is saturated with G2 and the prices stabilize, barring another gun craze, that Remington will realize that turning out additional 30 RAR guns/ammo/brass would be viable to the niche market who seeks to shoot guns other than .308 and .556 and/or the wildcatters.

I just received a custom, McGowen barrel in 30 RAR - it'll use standard AR15 parts except for the bolt and barrel extension BUT the magazines are still limited to 9-10 rounds as I haven't found any other magazine that reliably feeds more rounds in either the DPMS/Rem or custom profile. If a magazine was developed that did 20 rounds I think 30 RAR would flourish.

I have 2000 pieces of brass so if anybody wants to do a 6.5 RAR hit me up for a bulk buy.

HTXH