While I am new to the forum I am not new to the 6.5 Grendel and I wanted to share this story about Alexander Arms with you guys. I think you will find it very interesting and will let you know what kind of company you are dealing with in Alexander Arms.
About 7 years ago I purchased a complete Alexander Arms 6.5 Grendel with a carbon fiber handguard and a 24 inch Shilen barrel. It was installed on a complete Rock River Arms lower.
I know that you guys are not interested in my personnel business but it plays heavily into this story. About the time the rifle was finished my mother and father both fell very ill so for the next 6 Years or so it sat in my gun safe and there wasn't much shooting on my "things to do" schedule for a long time. But' a couple of years ago i was finally able to get back into shooting. And about a year ago we finally broke out the Grendel scoped it and put through some break-in rounds. Cleaning the barrel left more questions than answers. The barrel was very hard to clean and running a patch through the barrel gave the impression the barrel was very rough.
After another thorough cleaning it was back to the range for some serious bench time. With my son, who is a competitive shooter, behind the rifle the best he could do after shooting several 5 shot group at 200 meters was groups about 6" wide and 4" high. Ammo used 123 grain Hornady SST and 129 grain Alexander Arms branded ammo.
I called Alexander Arms and gave them the details: How long I'd owned the rifle, the ammo I'd used and how many total rounds that had been fired through the rifle. I also told them that because of how long i had owned rifle I was not expecting this to be handled as a warranty claim, but that I just wanted the rifle repaired. They were pleasant to deal with but explained that I would need to ship it to them at my cost to which I agreed.
I shipped the upper to them after thanksgiving 2016. They notified me a few days later they had received it. Because it was the holidays it took several weeks for them to get back with me but just after the first of the year one of their tech service reps called me.
He didn't mix any words. He said straight up that the barrel was very rough and that they had hand lapped the barrel and that the test groups were coming in at 1" at 100 yards. They shipped it to me right away at no cost for all the work they did.
Needless to say we were anxious to get it back to the range. We mounted the scope and headed to the range. The shooting conditions the day we chose to go to the range went from bad to worse with gusty winds coming up and deteriorating light conditions. After sighting the scope I ran three 5 shot groups with 123 grain Hornady SST that measured 1 1/4" at 100 yards.
I was hoping for something about half the size of the groups I shot but considering the conditions I'm satisfied with that and believe there is improvement to be had. And it goes without saying that I'm very happy with Alexander Arms.
It also is proof that even top companies like Shilen can have a quality escape now and then. And it is also proof that your companies' quality reputation is also dependent upon the quality of your vendor's product.
About 7 years ago I purchased a complete Alexander Arms 6.5 Grendel with a carbon fiber handguard and a 24 inch Shilen barrel. It was installed on a complete Rock River Arms lower.
I know that you guys are not interested in my personnel business but it plays heavily into this story. About the time the rifle was finished my mother and father both fell very ill so for the next 6 Years or so it sat in my gun safe and there wasn't much shooting on my "things to do" schedule for a long time. But' a couple of years ago i was finally able to get back into shooting. And about a year ago we finally broke out the Grendel scoped it and put through some break-in rounds. Cleaning the barrel left more questions than answers. The barrel was very hard to clean and running a patch through the barrel gave the impression the barrel was very rough.
After another thorough cleaning it was back to the range for some serious bench time. With my son, who is a competitive shooter, behind the rifle the best he could do after shooting several 5 shot group at 200 meters was groups about 6" wide and 4" high. Ammo used 123 grain Hornady SST and 129 grain Alexander Arms branded ammo.
I called Alexander Arms and gave them the details: How long I'd owned the rifle, the ammo I'd used and how many total rounds that had been fired through the rifle. I also told them that because of how long i had owned rifle I was not expecting this to be handled as a warranty claim, but that I just wanted the rifle repaired. They were pleasant to deal with but explained that I would need to ship it to them at my cost to which I agreed.
I shipped the upper to them after thanksgiving 2016. They notified me a few days later they had received it. Because it was the holidays it took several weeks for them to get back with me but just after the first of the year one of their tech service reps called me.
He didn't mix any words. He said straight up that the barrel was very rough and that they had hand lapped the barrel and that the test groups were coming in at 1" at 100 yards. They shipped it to me right away at no cost for all the work they did.
Needless to say we were anxious to get it back to the range. We mounted the scope and headed to the range. The shooting conditions the day we chose to go to the range went from bad to worse with gusty winds coming up and deteriorating light conditions. After sighting the scope I ran three 5 shot groups with 123 grain Hornady SST that measured 1 1/4" at 100 yards.
I was hoping for something about half the size of the groups I shot but considering the conditions I'm satisfied with that and believe there is improvement to be had. And it goes without saying that I'm very happy with Alexander Arms.
It also is proof that even top companies like Shilen can have a quality escape now and then. And it is also proof that your companies' quality reputation is also dependent upon the quality of your vendor's product.
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