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I wanted to share this info with all of you kind and wise forum dwellers and get some feedback on helping me reach my goals with the 6.5 Grendel.
A quick background: I've really been learning a lot about various guns over the last year and a half and I am thoroughly enjoying the exciting sport of firearms. The 6.5 Grendel got my attention as something I could slap on my AR lower and shoot out to long distances (relative to my 7.62x39 upper that came with my first AR purchase). Being a cheapskate (without much disposable income), I took the gamble to get a Bear Creek Arsenal (BCA) 6.5 Grendel upper (backed up by the 1 MOA guarantee) when it was on sale. After breaking it in and taking all the care I could, it shot about a 12" group at 100 yards (only slightly exaggerating). BCA customer support was great and I ended up with another upper with a nice looking stainless steel barrel. The first time I went out with it, I had some pretty good luck plinking metal targets going out to almost 500 yards. But my excitement for the 6.5 Grendel started to wane. I became frustrated with how difficult it was to get ammo I could afford that the relatively picky 6.5 Grendel barrels "like" and I really wasn't shooting any tighter groups than I could shoot with my 7.62x39 using Tula ammo. I went ahead and broke down and got one of the group barrels recommended here in this forum. As it turned out, I ended up with two BCA uppers so I kept the SS Grendel from BCA on one and put the group barrel on the other. I "accurized" both barrels by lapping and gluing in the barrels to upper. But I still wasn't seeing great results. Having really tight groups at 100 yards is nice, but my goal was to use my Grendel to master the skills involved in long range shooting (well, at least out to 1000 yards). Well I wasn't getting any where near nice groups on paper and around 300 yards I would consistently start missing my 12" metal target on the couple of occasions I was able to shoot it. I'm still not sure all that was going on to cause this, but that is the background.
I recently was able to get a Radical Firearms BCG for 6.5 Grendel. (My 7.62x39 upper and lower are from Radical Firearms and I have been very pleased with this setup.) I also bought a bulk buy of the American Gunner ammo from Hornady on a Black Friday deal and some affordable Nosler ammo. (Got those tips from this forum - Thanks!) I also switched to the same scope and mount that I use for my 7.62x39 (trying to reduce variables, even though this scope is low magnification suited better for close range and the scope rings are of lower quality). I went out to shoot this weekend and I was ecstatic with the results. Here are some pics. (All are 3 shot groups with one really tight group with 2 bullets going through the same hole.)
I was only able to get out to 200 yards for the day since I also was shooting 6.5 Creedmoor and 243 (they both shoot great, but will do some work to improve the 6.5 Creedmoor) and gathering data for multiple things. I had the new RF BCG on the BCA SS barrel and the group barrel was using the original BCG from BCA. I got some acceptable sub MOA groups for the group barrel at 100 yards but got some fantastic groups both at 100 and 200 yards for the BCA SS barrel (and I'm sure I can improve on the 200 yds with better scope). I'm no longer feeling like my hopes (and time/money spent!) for 6.5 Grendel were in vain. I know I have a good combination that can shoot consistently - at least to 200 yards.
So, it appears that the BCA barrel, with the right conditions, has the potential to be very accurate (although this is very small sample size). I still have a lot more things to test and swap to get that straight shooting AR semi-auto that can get me out to 1000 yards. I still don't have enough data to come to definite conclusions, but it appears that switching out the BCG helped a lot (although it could have been the scope - don't think so since I am using that scope now on my 6.5 Creedmoor and it shoots great; the mount - a nice Leupold integrated AR mount; a loose screw in the scope mount - although I would regularly check for any scope wiggle; or the ammo I was using - Hornady ELD Match).
My plan is to get both 6.5 Grendel uppers to shoot great and sell one of them and enjoy the heck out of the other to go out to longer distances.
A quick background: I've really been learning a lot about various guns over the last year and a half and I am thoroughly enjoying the exciting sport of firearms. The 6.5 Grendel got my attention as something I could slap on my AR lower and shoot out to long distances (relative to my 7.62x39 upper that came with my first AR purchase). Being a cheapskate (without much disposable income), I took the gamble to get a Bear Creek Arsenal (BCA) 6.5 Grendel upper (backed up by the 1 MOA guarantee) when it was on sale. After breaking it in and taking all the care I could, it shot about a 12" group at 100 yards (only slightly exaggerating). BCA customer support was great and I ended up with another upper with a nice looking stainless steel barrel. The first time I went out with it, I had some pretty good luck plinking metal targets going out to almost 500 yards. But my excitement for the 6.5 Grendel started to wane. I became frustrated with how difficult it was to get ammo I could afford that the relatively picky 6.5 Grendel barrels "like" and I really wasn't shooting any tighter groups than I could shoot with my 7.62x39 using Tula ammo. I went ahead and broke down and got one of the group barrels recommended here in this forum. As it turned out, I ended up with two BCA uppers so I kept the SS Grendel from BCA on one and put the group barrel on the other. I "accurized" both barrels by lapping and gluing in the barrels to upper. But I still wasn't seeing great results. Having really tight groups at 100 yards is nice, but my goal was to use my Grendel to master the skills involved in long range shooting (well, at least out to 1000 yards). Well I wasn't getting any where near nice groups on paper and around 300 yards I would consistently start missing my 12" metal target on the couple of occasions I was able to shoot it. I'm still not sure all that was going on to cause this, but that is the background.
I recently was able to get a Radical Firearms BCG for 6.5 Grendel. (My 7.62x39 upper and lower are from Radical Firearms and I have been very pleased with this setup.) I also bought a bulk buy of the American Gunner ammo from Hornady on a Black Friday deal and some affordable Nosler ammo. (Got those tips from this forum - Thanks!) I also switched to the same scope and mount that I use for my 7.62x39 (trying to reduce variables, even though this scope is low magnification suited better for close range and the scope rings are of lower quality). I went out to shoot this weekend and I was ecstatic with the results. Here are some pics. (All are 3 shot groups with one really tight group with 2 bullets going through the same hole.)
I was only able to get out to 200 yards for the day since I also was shooting 6.5 Creedmoor and 243 (they both shoot great, but will do some work to improve the 6.5 Creedmoor) and gathering data for multiple things. I had the new RF BCG on the BCA SS barrel and the group barrel was using the original BCG from BCA. I got some acceptable sub MOA groups for the group barrel at 100 yards but got some fantastic groups both at 100 and 200 yards for the BCA SS barrel (and I'm sure I can improve on the 200 yds with better scope). I'm no longer feeling like my hopes (and time/money spent!) for 6.5 Grendel were in vain. I know I have a good combination that can shoot consistently - at least to 200 yards.
So, it appears that the BCA barrel, with the right conditions, has the potential to be very accurate (although this is very small sample size). I still have a lot more things to test and swap to get that straight shooting AR semi-auto that can get me out to 1000 yards. I still don't have enough data to come to definite conclusions, but it appears that switching out the BCG helped a lot (although it could have been the scope - don't think so since I am using that scope now on my 6.5 Creedmoor and it shoots great; the mount - a nice Leupold integrated AR mount; a loose screw in the scope mount - although I would regularly check for any scope wiggle; or the ammo I was using - Hornady ELD Match).
My plan is to get both 6.5 Grendel uppers to shoot great and sell one of them and enjoy the heck out of the other to go out to longer distances.
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