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Wandering in from the WI chill - Morvandium - 11-15-2021
TL;DR
Greetings. I'm a sarcastic, verbose SOB. I hail from the freezing American marches of WI, where we attend religious services at Lambeau Field and bravely stand between the rest of the country and the primeval sea monsters in Lake Superior.
I just put together a 24" 6.5 Grendel (1-9) AR upper. (X-Caliber 416R stainless custom barrel, Rubber City Armory bolt, Jard side charging (reciprocating) upper receiver, Troy Alpha Rail handguard, Vortex Strike Eagle 5-25 MRAD scope, American Defense Manufacturing QD scope mount, JP enterprises adjustable gas block.) While not sufficient for the sea monsters that break through when the ice is thin, I hear tell it might slay a whitetail.
Then I found this forum when searching around the net. Signing up seemed like a "duh, of course!" move. So here I am.
The Long Version
I learned to shoot young as a little kid on pellet guns, then .22lr bolt gun and pistol. My dad gave me a .270 Win for deer a couple years into my deer hunting career (some time ago), but most of my hunting has been bird hunting with shotguns -- 20ga, then 12ga, occasionally a 16ga. I shot more when I was younger, including a fair bit of muzzle loaders in my 20s. I still prefer bolt and pump action firearms to semi-automatics.
During the pandemic I discovered I love the flexibility of the AR platform for building guns. I started with buying an AR 9mm pistol because of ammo prices, and familiarized myself with the platform. I researched, and moved on, building uppers and lowers (including trying a couple 80% lowers). Now, I like having a few stocks, a few lowers with different triggers, safeties, and pistol grips (which include Glock lowers (for 9mm), two of which are legally pistol lowers w/pistol buffer tubes), and being able to match them with an upper for use (carefully minding the NFA, of course). My uppers, in order of acquisition, are: (3) 9mm luger (2x < 16 in.), (1) .300 BLK, (1) 5.56, (1) .50 Beowulf, and (1) 6.5 Grendel.
(I also built a .223 Wylde chambered pseudo-M4 clone as a gift for a veteran friend of mine. )
Why Grendel?
I started my AR builds with a 300 blk. That filled a short-and-quiet role. I wanted uppers that filled other roles including a big bore upper for short range stopping power, and a high bc chambered upper for longer distance shooting.
The 6.5 Grendel fills the role of a good long distance upper on the AR platform, and another AR option for deer hunting. The 6.5mm and 6.8mm projectiles have familiar ballistics, having grown up shooting a .270 which I now consider overkill for the short ranges (most < 75 yards, absolute max probably 160 yards) I typically hunt whitetail in. While for short distance deer hunting I will favor my .300 BLK, I wanted something good for deer out further. And, if I improve my skills, I'd like to try putting holes in paper at 1,000 yards with a round that doesn't pound the blue end of the color spectrum into my shoulder. (I am really good at bruising.) Enter designing and building a 24" 6.5 Grendel upper to go in my AR platform collection.
The decision was really made by Bill Alexander having the class to give his rounds names from quality literature. Beowulf and Grendel are a pair in literature, a pair in design, and they are a pair in my collection. Neither has a contemporary (similar AR-platform) round "better" enough in any way that I'd notice a difference, nor would my likely targets. (I've been shooting a long time, but don't claim to be a great shooter--my own deficiencies are many.)
My barrel arrived earlier this week, I put together my upper, and then I discovered this forum. It's seems that when I needed an audience for pictures of my new build, it appeared in the form of me finding this forum. Now I just need to figure out the right places to post what as I familiarize myself with "here".
Wandering in from the WI chill - sundowner - 11-15-2021
Welcome to the horde from SE Wisconsin .
Wandering in from the WI chill - VASCAR2 - 11-16-2021
Welcome to the forum Morvandium! The easiest way to post pictures on this forum is to use a free web hosting service like Imgur, Flickr or postit. Basically you upload your picture to the website then cut and paste the BBC code into the narrative of your thread. You can upload your pictures directly from your computer, lap top, tablet or phone but the file size permitted are small.
Wandering in from the WI chill - just_john - 11-17-2021
Welcome to the clan, mvm, from the great nation of Texas! My first Grendel was a 24"er also. Shot scary accurate!
Wandering in from the WI chill - Rufjustis - 11-18-2021
Welcome from South Mississippi! My two are 20" and 24". Love them both!