All About The 6.5 Grendel
BY Herschel Smith
3 years, 4 months ago
Some of you will say “I told you so” concerning the brilliance of the 6.5 Grendel when we’ve discussed this in the past. But one nice thing about this cartridge is that an upper swap combined with another magazine gives you another rifle. Buying a 6.5 Creedmoor rifle, for example, means switching to a completely different rifle, i.e., an AR-10 rather than an AR-15, with all of its recoil, weight and nonstandard parts lists.
There is this recent article from Recoil. Here is a fairly recent video. AR15.com does a gell test with the 6.5 Grendel.
And finally, near the end of last year, Ryan Muckenhirn did a very good discussion of the cartridge.
Anyway, it seems like a good upper to have, as well as a legitimate White Tail cartridge. It didn’t seem to catch on as fast as the 6.5 Creedmoor, but it wasn’t a “flash in the pan” either.
On August 17, 2021 at 11:39 pm, BRVTVS said:
It has roughly the ballistics of the 6.5 Arisaka of WWII, which was certainly no slouch.
On August 18, 2021 at 6:10 am, Wes said:
We’re really seeing benefits of bullet development over the years; this is very good performance. Having an early 7mm-08 carbine as my “meat” gun I’d inquired of Nosler many years ago about their 120gr Ballistic Tip while looking for some more velocity in my loads to cover that long cornfield vs. my usual 139-140gr woods load.
The Nosler tech was delighted to talk and mentioned that they’d beefed up that bullet (and mentioned that other companies were starting to do the same). This was due to velocity-geeks out west wanting to shoot that bullet in their 7mm STW or Rem Mag, cross-canyon at Coues Deer & stuff like that. Traditional light-for-caliber offerings would just blow up.
This is how we now get some lighter but much higher-performing terminal results nowadays. 6.5mm clearly getting the benefit as well; sectional density, good BC, what’s not to like? While it may not be your thing, sometimes them guys pushing the envelope spawn other developments.
On August 18, 2021 at 7:27 am, Whynot said:
My daughter uses the 6.5 Grendel to devastating effect deer hunting.
The obvious advantage was placing the upper on her AR platform which she already knew inside and out. For her, she only needed to learn the ballistics.
On August 18, 2021 at 9:10 am, Bradley Suhr said:
The tendency is to compare 6.5 Grendel ballistics to other 6.5’s. What 6.5 Grendel really does is to place .308/7.62 NATO ballistics into an AR-15 sized package, with reduced recoil. As Herschel has alluded to, that is something the other 6.5’s cannot do, though they are ballistically superior to the Grendel.
On August 18, 2021 at 12:19 pm, George 1 said:
It is certainly compelling to have a close to, do it all rifle, in an AR15 size package. Of the 6.5 Grendel, 224 Valkyrie and 6.8 SPC, the Grendel looks like the best all around. The 6.8 SPC does have the advantage of performing well with shorter barrels. It’s not going to have the BC of the Grendel though.
On August 18, 2021 at 3:07 pm, Ned said:
Howa makes a bolt rifle in 6.5 Grendel that weighs under 5 lbs with a 22″ barrel. I saw a test on it recently – looks to be very good.
https://www.howausa.com/carbon-stalker/
On August 19, 2021 at 2:11 am, Georgiaboy61 said:
Looks to be a great cartridge, but nowhere I checked online had factory ammo or even reloading components. Plenty of firearms and uppers for sale chambered in it, but without ammo, might as well be a paperweight.
On August 19, 2021 at 7:20 am, George 1 said:
Georgiaboy61. I see that too. Might be an advantage for the 6.8 SPC or 224 Valkyrie. I do see some ammo available in some places for those.