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This started in Early 2017 at the Dulles Guns show. 1500 tables. If you can't find it at Dulles you're not looking. Precision Firearms always has a both there, I've purchased a 5.56 AR barrel from them in the past and it is simply amazing. Albeit a bit spendy, around $950.
So Early last year I decided to build a Grendel. The Precision Firearms 18" barrel and bolt carrier cost about $450. And the rest of the parts and well, it gets expensive.
It took about a month to accumulate all the parts. And the first outing with Precision Firearms own ammo was to say the least disappointing. In fact it was horrible with about a 2" - 2 1/2" spread at 100 yards with "Match" ammo.
It was only after I really looked at the cases that was sick to my stomach. Just under the shoulder there was almost a complete circular bulge. On top of that, it looked like someone had hit the case with sand paper on the way out of the chamber. In 50 years of shooting I've never seen a case like that. It appears that during the reaming of the chamber a chip had lodged into the mix and had gouged out the chamber wall. It was not caught in the QC process. I phoned Precision and talked to Mark, he requested I send the barrel back to him. They would send a shipping label.
The label never arrived and I simply ate the $40 or so in shipping. He indicated they would look at it and either fix it or replace it. I had my doubts about it getting "fixed". To my surprise the barrel showed up about a week later. I took it to the range and put out a three shot group. Same results. It appears one of his "techs" simply polished the chamber and returned the upper. Mark never saw it. From what I understand the tech was no longer working for Precision.
At the next Dulles show I handed the upper to Mark and requested it get fixed. On top of that I agreed to go the next step up and have a Bartlein Barrel installed, another $450. Next show, nothing. Next show nothing, and I asked for my money back and went and found another builder. I understand that mistakes sometimes happen in the build process. It's not about what happened, it's about the outcome. And I had a bad outcome. If our places had been switched, I would have pulled a barrel from stock or a completed upper/rifle and fixed it. Had that happened, I would probably still be a customer.
Instead, I went looking for another builder. Performance Firearms is local to where I live and Ted agreed to use my upper, against his better judgment. He would not supply just a barrel, only a fully assembled upper. But at least agreed to use some of my parts. One being the Upper. It was a less than tight fit and the results while better than with the Precision Firearms barrel, was not as it should be. When I talked him into using my upper I also agreed that if I was not satisfied, I would swap out my upper with his. I did that and about a week ago I finally got the range with a the assembled rifle. Topped with a Nikon 20 MOA Rail and a Leupold 4.5 - 14x50 Mk 4 scope. The results were good but not necessarily spectacular, with Factory ammo. Around 1.2", 0.666" and the best at 0.533".
I loaded my own and the results were a bit more "encouraging" one two shot group was 0.194" Another 3 shot group was 0.316". I would call that promising.
The barrel now sports a Smith Industries flash suppressor so I can mount my WindTalker can on it, but quite frankly the results with "Match" ammo and a 30 Cal Can were dismal. The Can has thrown the harmonics of the system WAY out. If I shoot suppressed with this I'll have to work up loads from scratch. My "Match Target" loads do not work.
But to say the upper is over gassed is an understatement. The cases come out of the port and end up about 15-20 feet to my 5 O'clock. They are also a bit beat up if they get near anything. Friday afternoon I tried to adjust the gas block - but no luck and I gave up after 5 rounds. When I got home I ordered a Superlative Arms Bleed Off Adjustable AR15 Gas Block from CPWSA and will see what that does to drop the pressure down a bit.
Lesson learned, the next time I decide to go down this path I'll simply call Bartlein and order a barrel and put the upper together myself. If I had done that I probably could have hunted with the Grendel last year. In fact I'm considering ordering a 20" - 24" Bartlein Grendel barrel at some point in the future.
That and a 26" Palma barrel for my Ruger 6.5 Creedmoor RPR. This thing out of the box is amazing. My best load so far is 0.409" with factory Hornady 147 ELD Match ammo.
We'll see what happened when I can drop the gas flow a bit.
Bryan
So Early last year I decided to build a Grendel. The Precision Firearms 18" barrel and bolt carrier cost about $450. And the rest of the parts and well, it gets expensive.
It took about a month to accumulate all the parts. And the first outing with Precision Firearms own ammo was to say the least disappointing. In fact it was horrible with about a 2" - 2 1/2" spread at 100 yards with "Match" ammo.
It was only after I really looked at the cases that was sick to my stomach. Just under the shoulder there was almost a complete circular bulge. On top of that, it looked like someone had hit the case with sand paper on the way out of the chamber. In 50 years of shooting I've never seen a case like that. It appears that during the reaming of the chamber a chip had lodged into the mix and had gouged out the chamber wall. It was not caught in the QC process. I phoned Precision and talked to Mark, he requested I send the barrel back to him. They would send a shipping label.
The label never arrived and I simply ate the $40 or so in shipping. He indicated they would look at it and either fix it or replace it. I had my doubts about it getting "fixed". To my surprise the barrel showed up about a week later. I took it to the range and put out a three shot group. Same results. It appears one of his "techs" simply polished the chamber and returned the upper. Mark never saw it. From what I understand the tech was no longer working for Precision.
At the next Dulles show I handed the upper to Mark and requested it get fixed. On top of that I agreed to go the next step up and have a Bartlein Barrel installed, another $450. Next show, nothing. Next show nothing, and I asked for my money back and went and found another builder. I understand that mistakes sometimes happen in the build process. It's not about what happened, it's about the outcome. And I had a bad outcome. If our places had been switched, I would have pulled a barrel from stock or a completed upper/rifle and fixed it. Had that happened, I would probably still be a customer.
Instead, I went looking for another builder. Performance Firearms is local to where I live and Ted agreed to use my upper, against his better judgment. He would not supply just a barrel, only a fully assembled upper. But at least agreed to use some of my parts. One being the Upper. It was a less than tight fit and the results while better than with the Precision Firearms barrel, was not as it should be. When I talked him into using my upper I also agreed that if I was not satisfied, I would swap out my upper with his. I did that and about a week ago I finally got the range with a the assembled rifle. Topped with a Nikon 20 MOA Rail and a Leupold 4.5 - 14x50 Mk 4 scope. The results were good but not necessarily spectacular, with Factory ammo. Around 1.2", 0.666" and the best at 0.533".
I loaded my own and the results were a bit more "encouraging" one two shot group was 0.194" Another 3 shot group was 0.316". I would call that promising.
The barrel now sports a Smith Industries flash suppressor so I can mount my WindTalker can on it, but quite frankly the results with "Match" ammo and a 30 Cal Can were dismal. The Can has thrown the harmonics of the system WAY out. If I shoot suppressed with this I'll have to work up loads from scratch. My "Match Target" loads do not work.
But to say the upper is over gassed is an understatement. The cases come out of the port and end up about 15-20 feet to my 5 O'clock. They are also a bit beat up if they get near anything. Friday afternoon I tried to adjust the gas block - but no luck and I gave up after 5 rounds. When I got home I ordered a Superlative Arms Bleed Off Adjustable AR15 Gas Block from CPWSA and will see what that does to drop the pressure down a bit.
Lesson learned, the next time I decide to go down this path I'll simply call Bartlein and order a barrel and put the upper together myself. If I had done that I probably could have hunted with the Grendel last year. In fact I'm considering ordering a 20" - 24" Bartlein Grendel barrel at some point in the future.
That and a 26" Palma barrel for my Ruger 6.5 Creedmoor RPR. This thing out of the box is amazing. My best load so far is 0.409" with factory Hornady 147 ELD Match ammo.
We'll see what happened when I can drop the gas flow a bit.
Bryan
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