Upper Arrived.....

[KC_Joe]

Dipping my toe into the world of the 6.5 Grendel! Yesterday, an 18" PSA upper arrived and I've mated it up to a PSA lower I already have. I ordered this guy on Black Friday, and over the last couple weeks I've also grabbed up dies, bullets, brass, magazines, and ammo. First 100 rounds will be 123gr fmj Frontier, and I'm planning to save all the brass and remove the primer crimps for later reloading.

Have been reading about scopes for hours and hours, and finally gave up.......will eventually buy something nicer, but for now, installed a fairly inexpensive (but fairly nice) Bushnell lpvo. While not super high-end, their Drop Dot reticle is my favorite.....nice and simple and allows for easy holdovers at the shorter ranges I shoot.

Work in progress for sure....the goal will be to get this cleaned up today, hit the range tomorrow, and over the next 11 months develop a deer hunting load for my son's first hunt.....gonna get him plenty of practice as well.

While nothing fancy, I'll get a pic added once I figure that out

[KC_Joe]

Oh yeah.....I'm also "that guy" that doesn't like flash hiders or brakes, so I threw a knurled thread protector on there as well!

[VASCAR2]

Congrats, range reports and pictures are always welcome.

[KC_Joe]

Made it to the range today with the kids. Zeroed at 25 yds, and worked on getting our first 40 rounds down the barrel. Not much to say about accuracy, as we were close, but 37 rounds went into 1 ragged hole (with 3 shooters)......took 3 shots to get zeroed.

Ran into a little issue with the bolt locking back on empty......shot several single and 3 shot strings, and only had the bolt lock open on empty 3 times. Hoping it just needs some break-in, as running the bolts charging handle by hand feels a little sticky. No burrs that I could find, and everything was cleaned and lubed....wondering if the finishes just need to slide against each other to smooth out.

I also adjusted the gas block a bit and didn't see any improvement, so set back to factory setting and decided I would shoot my remaining rounds and see if things have gotten better at the 100 rnd mark.

I'm open to suggestions, so please send them my way.

Kids had a good time, they also shot a 20" .223 and chewed up the targets.

[KC_Joe]

Only pic I took during our trip....

[VASCAR2]

Thanks for the Range report KC-Joe. As long as your not seeing any gas leakage around the gas key on the bolt carrier or gas block you might just need to open the gas block more. PSA has used two different style of gas blocks on their 6.5 Grendel uppers. Each gas block has an adjustment screw and a retention lock screw. There always seems to be confusion as to which screw increases or decreases gas. My PSA 6.5 Grendel upper came with no instructions on the gas block settings. You can do a search on this forum as this topic has been discussed a few times.


It is not uncommon to get a little gas leakage on new gas block but these usually seal up with carbon from shooting in a few rounds.


Here is a link for the google custom search for the 6.5 Grendel forum. This is a great tool for finding information in this forum.

https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=016368947416500061353:paqd_0xcu1o&hl=en

[KC_Joe]

Thanks.....thinking back, I may have been adjusting the gas block the wrong direction. Seems like a good reason the head back to the range and try it again!

I appreciate the insight.

[Koda]

my first Grendel too. I wasnt impressed with the adjustable gas block... also had bolt hold issues and the gas block didnt change anything. I was dissapointed to learn the only thing an AGB does is decrease gas flow.
So I ended up replacing the heavy duty buffer spring and buffer for a milspec one and it solved the problem.

I've been curious on the accuracy of the PSA uppers as Im thinking of buying one for a second rifle build. It sounds like yours is grouping 1moa?

[KC_Joe]

I'd say 1 MOA is correct, but I've only shot at 25 yrs so a little tough to tell.

[KC_Joe]

Interesting observation.......I pulled the BCG and charging handle last night. I'd planned to reapply lube and work the bolt by hand for a while to see if things started to smooth out. I had the upper receiver upside down and notice some white-ish residue in the channel the charging handle rides in......added a drop of CLP and rubbed a patch across it several times with a pick. Not sure what it was, but it was fairly hard and kinda crusty. Once removed, running things by hand felt a lot smoother. Not sure this really changes my failure to lock open on empty situation, but I sure feel better about things. That crust was slowing things down enough that the bolt would not go completely into battery when working things by hand.....once removed, slid right into place like it should.

[KC_Joe]

Made a 2nd range trip today and shot through another 40 rounds of Frontier 123gr FMJ.

After stripping, cleaning and lubing the bolt again, as well as scraping whatever crusty stuff was living along the charging handle track, I had no issues with the function of the rifle. On each empty mag, the bolt locked properly, and I was even able to turn down the gas a little and get this guy shooting soft (at least in terms of a low recoil cartridge).......I started at "full open" and you can definitely notice the difference when the gas was turned down a bit.

Found a spot on the 50 yd line, and in true "Hornady Podcast" fashion, I shot a 20 round group........just under an inch off a bipod, I'd call it 1.5 MOA at this point. The first 5 looked a little tighter, but as groups do, it opened up a little with a longer string of fire.

Pretty happy so far, and I'm anxious to get my son back behind this rifle to work on some shooting fundamentals. I have access to my sister's farm, with wide open spaces, so will probably try to get him in a position to shoot some steel at longer distances by Spring.

[Koda]

Found a spot on the 50 yd line, and in true "Hornady Podcast" fashion, I shot a 20 round group........just under an inch off a bipod, I'd call it 1.5 MOA at this point. The first 5 looked a little tighter, but as groups do, it opened up a little with a longer string of fire.

Sounds like a good rifle from PSA. Sometime next year I might buy another Grendel upper so would love to hear how your new one turns out. It sounds like once you get to the 100yd range it will be a moa rifle.

[KC_Joe]

I hope so. My plan is to get 200 rds down the barrel before starting load development. I have quite a bit of H335 on hand, and picked up some 123gr SST bullets to try, so will start there.

[SDW]

Oh yeah.....I'm also "that guy" that doesn't like flash hiders or brakes, so I threw a knurled thread protector on there as well!

Just sharing that I'm the same way. But one step further maybe. I hate the knurled TPs. Just looks wrong to me, like the end of some hand tool out there on the barrel. I only use the smoothy types of TPs. That way it scarcely looks like a TP at all.

GrenelMuzzleDetail.jpg

[LRRPF52]

Only pic I took during our trip....

What is that thing that looks like a brass catcher blended with a magazine?