factory ammo discussion

[warped]

That's huge news that the Grendel has finally gotten SAAMI specs. As we see more and more waves of shooters doing what their great-grandfathers and grandfathers did after WWI and WWII: choosing the most popular military-style service rifle and sporterizing it, we will see more and more demand for the Grendel for hunting. As with the Mauser action, yesteryear's battle rifle design-copied by armies all over the globe...then sporterized by smiths and the big rifle companies, the same is happening with the AR15. Since many shooters don't want to or are not legally permitted to hunt deer with a .223 Rem, they will naturally want a different caliber for their AR15.

As they go through the caliber debate, looking over all the available information and bullet selection for the AR15 frame, most will settle on the 6.5 Grendel. That is just the simple reality of it. AR10 frames are heavier and at least twice the price to get into when building your own, and have way more recoil with the .308-based cases. The Grendel just makes a ton of sense looking at all these factors for the AR15 hunter.

When I go into the big gun stores, the sales reps are doing everything they can to throw bolt guns out the door at prices that are less than what I can buy a Remington 700 short-action receiver and bolt assembly for, yet the AR15 market is on-fire. Every 2 or 3 months, a new AR15 company appears out of the blue, and common components are usually back-ordered from companies that have established themselves as a reputable provider with good customer support. We will see continued dominance of the rifle market by AR15's, but not just for practical rifle shooting, LE, and security applications only...but increasingly in the hunting market. I would wager that the Grendel is the main general purpose cartridge currently-available to fill most of people's hunting needs right now in the AR15 platform.

I agree with your assessment, the Grendel fill a niche that no other cartridge can in a package the size of the AR15, there are others that can accomplish some of the Grendels attributes but not across the board.

It is simply as versatile as the .30-06 and .308win were in their day, in the firearms that were native to those cartridges.

Times have changed and the ability to perform well, in a smaller package has advanced in turn.

[ss355]

To answer the original question, about whether one of the "big three" will begin manufacturing Grendel ammo, with SAAMI acceptance, perhaps this will occur.

I do wonder how the Grendel market compares to, for example, the .257 Roberts or .35 Remington markets. There are probably thousands of owners of bolt guns in those calibers, but how often do those owners buy ammo? Do they buy a couple boxes per hunting season and call it good? I just can't imagine many owners of guns in calibers like these buying ammo by the case, unlike the popular evil black rifle calibers such as 223, 7.62x39, and 308. Certainly the Grendel market isn't as large as the 223 market, and maybe it doesn't have the sheer number of owners in the standard bolt gun calibers, but surely the volume of ammo going down Grendel tubes helps make up for the relatively small market size. One would think that the Remingtons and Winchesters would take this into consideration when considering ammo runs.

If Bill is hinting that the steel case FMJ Grendel is about to be announced, I'm thrilled. I can't wait to lay in a tidy little supply.