Help with Custom Grendel

[Deerm@n75]

Please pardon my ignorance and lack of experience with this subject.

I would like to get a custom or semi custom rifle made for hunting Texas deer and hogs: 6.5 grendel bolt gun with 22 or 24 inch barrel.

So far I am looking at trying to use a Bighorn origin action. I haven't found many custom bolt gun makers offering rifles in 6.5 grendel.

Can someone point me in the direction of a gunsmith or gunmaker who can help me out?

Thanks,
Brett

[jbmarshtx]

If you are using a bighorn origin, I think that you can get a savage style barrel with a nut or even a pre-fit. The other parts should be plug and play with the trigger, stock, etc. since it is a remington footprint.

There are several smiths in Texas that could do it, it would depend on where you are, how long you want to wait, and how you want to get the parts, etc. There a bunch of smiths outside of texas that could do it as well.

Edit: by prefit I mean shouldered without the nut.

[Stinky Coyote]

I had a smith stuff a 24" proof carbon sendero contour barrel onto a cz 527 American, did the stainless and the Leupold scope in a medium grey cerakote and it was shooting hornady black into 2.5" pretty easy at 500 yards for 3 shot groups. It was also a fast barrel, spitting them out at 2605 fps, rated at 2580 fps but the factory 23.5" barrel only spat them out at 2552 fps. My smith was a wizard with the channelling of that fat barrel in that skinny stock, work of art. Trigger at 2 3/4 lbs only hint o creep, not noticeable in field conditions, pillar bedded and I worked the action over a few hundred times with jb bore paste to slick it up. Then decided the dang thing was entire too fancy for me and sold it after a couple kills. Now I run Ruger American Ranch in MDT Chassis and love it, no gunsmith required, built the thing on the kitchen table, shoots 3/4 moa to 500 with same ammo. You could get timney trigger and proof carbon barrel for that and in a chassis be pretty sweet semi custom. Lots you can do with the Howa, Pendleton stock, hinged floor plate bottom metal or cz magazine conversion bottom metal, timney trigger as well and you'd have a major ultralight with the right barrel. The problem with full size actions then you can do aics mags with the kits I believe.

If you're after a longer bomber bean field go Ruger, 24" proof barrel, mdt chassis, timney trigger, custom cerakoting when done, be a sweet set up.

My cz American with that barrel and Leupold 4.5-14x40 (30mm tube side focus) was exactly 8.0 lbs fyi, it was a beauty.

Other idea I've had is watch for the old Ruger M77 boat paddle stock 7.62x39's and a simple rebarrel and restock to make an awesome stainless 6.5g. Trick is finding those. Any 7.62x39 is just a barrel swap away. Savage had some, Ruger had some, I believe Sako had a 6 ppc pretty sure that's just a barrel swap also as same parent case. There is one outfit that will do custom Sako's on their .223 length (XS action) in 6.5 Grendel...googe sako 6.5 Grendel and it should pop up.

I wish sako would chamber their 85 XS action rifles in 6.5 Grendel, a finnlight or carbon light or even walnut stainless would be incredible and drool worthy little rigs.

I'm not giving up my 10 round mags with the Ruger Ranch though so it's my platform now, will finish one custom Howa but I'd bet anything it'll be just for fun and I'll sell it and keep the Ruger. Oh and the new CZ 600 will be a platform to watch going forward, they haven't chambered the Grendel yet but they will, it could be a good place to do a custom barrel and set up on?

[jbmarshtx]

I should elaborate. I had a howa mini I used for hunting, and I liked it so I had a semi-custom/custom built on a remington 700 after that. I use it for high power silhouette. I simplified my duplicate rifles so I use only the grendel for silhouette and have a 6.5 creedmoor I hunt with. Seems backwards to some, but the lighter recoil of the grendel is better for shooting 40+ rounds off hand in a couple of hours during a match.

I purchased a bare R700 action with no bolt and found a R700 ppc bolt to use for it. I have a 26" mullerworks #4 contour barrel I bought from bugholes. I had a local (Tumbleweeds Rifles) gunsmith chamber it and put it in a mcmillan stock. My stock in an ADL since I single load. I have a bix-n-andy 2-stage trigger. I don't have good velocity data with my barrel, but I don't think that it is particularly 'fast'.

If I were building another silhouette rifle or one that I wanted to do custom/semi-custom, I'd get a bighorn origin with a ppc bolt head. I'd get one of the savage style barrels from criterion or bugholes for a more custom one. I'd get a trigger tech trigger and a R700 compatible stock and bottom metal, though I don't know how well some of the normal 308/223 bottom metal followers would work. If I got tired of this set up, I could get a 308 bolt head from bighorn and find another pre-fit/nutted barrel to have a different caliber.

If it were going to be used strictly for hunting, I'd probably get the Howa Walnut with one an aftermarket hinged floorplate or look at the Ruger options.

[grayfox]

A little more off the shelf but would be easy to do, get an upper from Uintah in6.5 Grendel, they are typically 22" or so and custom bolt action (their own bolt design) even though they are "AR"-like as an upper, using only your supplied AR lower or you can even get the whole thing from them.
I have one but in 6 ARC and it's a really nice setup.
Bolt action.

[Deerm@n75]

Those Uintah bolt action uppers definitely look good. That would probably be a simpler way to get what I want.

[Dinny]

Call Wayne York at Oregunsmithing. He's a Howa dealer and may have a barreled action that he can make a lightweight stock for. Mine weighs 6lbs and shoots like a dream.

Thanks, Dinny

IMG_20201128_10663.jpg

[Old Bob]

Call Wayne York at Oregunsmithing. He's a Howa dealer and may have a barreled action that he can make a lightweight stock for. Mine weighs 6lbs and shoots like a dream.

Thanks, Dinny

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Wayne has 18oz. drop-in stocks for Howa minis & the bottom metal for it as well.

Dinny: What are you using for scope mounts? Concerned about having enough room for single-round loading from the top with my fat fingers.

[monkeybutler]

I would be really interested in knowing how difficult it is to top load with a scope as well...

[Stinky Coyote]

[Dinny]

Talley 930734- lows for a Weatherby Vanguard are what I use. I have no problem top loading with my fat fingers.

Thanks, Dinny

[monkeybutler]

Talley 930734- lows for a Weatherby Vanguard are what I use. I have no problem top loading with my fat fingers.

Thanks, Dinny

Muchas gracias.