Did I say this already?

One of the best shooting factory rifles I've ever seen is my buddy's Howa mini 6.5 Grendel and THE worst shooting rifle I've ever seen is one that I own.... which is soon to have a new barrel from Lilja so generally if it won't shoot now, it's ME.

Irrelevant to the discussion, I know.

I'd like to try some cast in it too, sounds yummy. Suppressed with sub-sonic jacketed, it should be a blast to plink with.

Zeke

quote:

Originally posted by ZekeShikar:
Did I say this already?

One of the best shooting factory rifles I've ever seen is my buddy's Howa mini 6.5 Grendel and THE worst shooting rifle I've ever seen is one that I own.... which is soon to have a new barrel from Lilja so generally if it won't shoot now, it's ME.

Irrelevant to the discussion, I know.

I'd like to try some cast in it too, sounds yummy. Suppressed with sub-sonic jacketed, it should be a blast to plink with.

Zeke

Zeke you can do suppressed with cast as long as you use powder coated bullets. I have a friend in TX that does just that.

quote:

Originally posted by PJS50:

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:
You're on your way PJS50. Looking forward to seeing your handload groups.

Don't know how many of you shoot cast, but I do and was shooting my 6.5 Grendel with two cast bullets Wednesday. One is a 140 grain Saeco and the other is called the 6.5 Kurtz designed by a good friend of mine and it weighs in at 135 grains. Of course you can't push these weighs at the same velocities of the 123 jacketes, but you can move them along pretty decent. With the 6.5 Kurtz I got a tad over a 1/2 inch group and the Saeco went 1 inch and these are at 100 yards. I can get in a lot of shooting with cast from my Grendel.

I shoot cast bullets in many of my handguns, especially the .454Casull and lately the 10mm I'm tuning for deer hunting, but I've never loaded any rifle rounds with cast projos.

I'm assuming you are using a harder alloy projo?
You using gas checks as well?
What is you velocity limit with cast projos in 6.5G?
Would using gas checks allow you to push them at full speed like it does in my handguns?

I'm using two alloys, one is 50/50 and the other is 60/40. I'll explain, 50/50 is 50% wheelweights mixed with 50% lead. I drop the bullets from the mould right into a 5 gallon bucket of water to water quench them and thus making them harder after they age then air cooled. By the way the ageing is minimum of two weeks. 60/40 alloy is just 60% wheelweights with 40% lead and it's harder as you can imagine.

Yes I use gaschecks. You can push the cast bullets as fast as you do jacketed providing they are the same weight as the jacketed.

It's a very decent caliber for cast bullet use.

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:
I'm using two alloys, one is 50/50 and the other is 60/40. I'll explain, 50/50 is 50% wheelweights mixed with 50% lead. I drop the bullets from the mould right into a 5 gallon bucket of water to water quench them and thus making them harder after they age then air cooled. By the way the ageing is minimum of two weeks. 60/40 alloy is just 60% wheelweights with 40% lead and it's harder as you can imagine.

Yes I use gaschecks. You can push the cast bullets as fast as you do jacketed providing they are the same weight as the jacketed.

It's a very decent caliber for cast bullet use.

Interesting...
I'll have to try it out some time.

Curious to your other response, the lead projos need to be coated for suppressor use? Will they load up the inside of the can with lead if not coated?

quote:

Originally posted by ZekeShikar:
Did I say this already?

One of the best shooting factory rifles I've ever seen is my buddy's Howa mini 6.5 Grendel and THE worst shooting rifle I've ever seen is one that I own.... which is soon to have a new barrel from Lilja so generally if it won't shoot now, it's ME.

Irrelevant to the discussion, I know.

I'd like to try some cast in it too, sounds yummy. Suppressed with sub-sonic jacketed, it should be a blast to plink with.

Zeke

Zeke, same twist rates between the 2 barrels (1:8")?
Have you bore scoped your barrel to look for severe fouling/frosting? Maybe hand-lapping or even fire-lapping it would help?
Dan Lilja certainly can build you a nice barrel, but if you don't need to replace it...
Just sayin'.

Zeke what make/brand rifle to you have in 6.5 Grendel. I haven't seen any that didn't shoot really well.

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:
Zeke what make/brand rifle to you have in 6.5 Grendel. I haven't seen any that didn't shoot really well.

It's a Howa Mini. My buddy's is a tack driver and my 223 in the mini is also (just shot a couple groups on Saturday and both under .5 MOA) but my 6.5 Grendel was a lemon or something. It was the worst shooting rifle I've ever personally owned but by next weekend it will have a brand new shiny Lilja on it. I'll bet it shoots!

Yes. it was and 8 twist factory barrel. The one I bought from Dan is a 6 groove, 9 twist which is sufficient for my "up to 120 grain" loads.

I suspect there are several things I could have done to see if I could have made it shoot better but I have no patience with horribly inaccurate rifles, especially when a new barrel is a relatively easy fix for me.

Thanks for the tips, tricks and interest gents!

Sorry to the OP if this sidetracked the thread.

Zeke

quote:

Originally posted by ZekeShikar:

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:
Zeke what make/brand rifle to you have in 6.5 Grendel. I haven't seen any that didn't shoot really well.

It's a Howa Mini. My buddy's is a tack driver and my 223 in the mini is also (just shot a couple groups on Saturday and both under .5 MOA) but my 6.5 Grendel was a lemon or something. It was the worst shooting rifle I've ever personally owned but by next weekend it will have a brand new shiny Lilja on it. I'll bet it shoots!

Yes. it was and 8 twist factory barrel. The one I bought from Dan is a 6 groove, 9 twist which is sufficient for my "up to 120 grain" loads.

I suspect there are several things I could have done to see if I could have made it shoot better but I have no patience with horribly inaccurate rifles, especially when a new barrel is a relatively easy fix for me.

Thanks for the tips, tricks and interest gents!

Sorry to the OP if this sidetracked the thread.

Zeke

Yes that 9 twist will work as you can't shoot the real long heavy bullets in the Grendel anyways. You'll get a little more velocity with less pressure then if it was an 8 twist.

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:

quote:

Originally posted by ZekeShikar:

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:
Zeke what make/brand rifle to you have in 6.5 Grendel. I haven't seen any that didn't shoot really well.

It's a Howa Mini. My buddy's is a tack driver and my 223 in the mini is also (just shot a couple groups on Saturday and both under .5 MOA) but my 6.5 Grendel was a lemon or something. It was the worst shooting rifle I've ever personally owned but by next weekend it will have a brand new shiny Lilja on it. I'll bet it shoots!

Yes. it was and 8 twist factory barrel. The one I bought from Dan is a 6 groove, 9 twist which is sufficient for my "up to 120 grain" loads.

I suspect there are several things I could have done to see if I could have made it shoot better but I have no patience with horribly inaccurate rifles, especially when a new barrel is a relatively easy fix for me.

Thanks for the tips, tricks and interest gents!

Sorry to the OP if this sidetracked the thread.

Zeke

Yes that 9 twist will work as you can't shoot the real long heavy bullets in the Grendel anyways. You'll get a little more velocity with less pressure then if it was an 8 twist.

Yessir,

I'm not looking for a real speedster but I do want a fun, little, accurate, plinker capable of thousands of rounds down the tube (with care) before accuracy falls off.
It should be fun!

Thanks,
Zeke

quote:

Originally posted by ZekeShikar:

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:

quote:

Originally posted by ZekeShikar:

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:
Zeke what make/brand rifle to you have in 6.5 Grendel. I haven't seen any that didn't shoot really well.

It's a Howa Mini. My buddy's is a tack driver and my 223 in the mini is also (just shot a couple groups on Saturday and both under .5 MOA) but my 6.5 Grendel was a lemon or something. It was the worst shooting rifle I've ever personally owned but by next weekend it will have a brand new shiny Lilja on it. I'll bet it shoots!

Yes. it was and 8 twist factory barrel. The one I bought from Dan is a 6 groove, 9 twist which is sufficient for my "up to 120 grain" loads.

I suspect there are several things I could have done to see if I could have made it shoot better but I have no patience with horribly inaccurate rifles, especially when a new barrel is a relatively easy fix for me.

Thanks for the tips, tricks and interest gents!

Sorry to the OP if this sidetracked the thread.

Zeke

Yes that 9 twist will work as you can't shoot the real long heavy bullets in the Grendel anyways. You'll get a little more velocity with less pressure then if it was an 8 twist.

Yessir,

I'm not looking for a real speedster but I do want a fun, little, accurate, plinker capable of thousands of rounds down the tube (with care) before accuracy falls off.
It should be fun!

Thanks,
Zeke

Zeke unless you're using super light bullets the 6.5 Grendel isn't a speedster, but then again it doesn't have to be. If you need more from it and/or a heavier bullet then go to the 6.5 Creedmore. The Grendel definitely is that...fun!!

The Grendel is indeed a fun cartridge on all of the platforms I’ve worked with: AR, TC Encore, and bolt.

quote:

Originally posted by JASmith:
The Grendel is indeed a fun cartridge on all of the platforms I’ve worked with: AR, TC Encore, and bolt.

Ooooooohhhhhhhh!
TC Encore, pistol?
What length barrel? What kind of velocities are you getting?

I have an old Contender pistol with many different barrels, one of which is a 14" .30-30 Win. with a nice brake on the end of the tube. I've never been able to get the thing to shoot super accurate though.

I've considered getting it rechambered to .30GNR which look like it would increase the cartridge's efficiency and send the projo down the tube quite a bit faster, but I've never talked to anyone who could actually confirm these summations of mine.

6.5G IS a nice efficient little round, so it may do pretty well in such a platform, no?
I wonder if I could rechamber say a .223 barrel to 6.5G? I have one of those that I never use...

quote:

Originally posted by PJS50:

quote:

Originally posted by JASmith:
The Grendel is indeed a fun cartridge on all of the platforms I’ve worked with: AR, TC Encore, and bolt.

Ooooooohhhhhhhh!
TC Encore, pistol?
What length barrel? What kind of velocities are you getting?

I have an old Contender pistol with many different barrels, one of which is a 14" .30-30 Win. with a nice brake on the end of the tube. I've never been able to get the thing to shoot super accurate though.

I've considered getting it rechambered to .30GNR which look like it would increase the cartridge's efficiency and send the projo down the tube quite a bit faster, but I've never talked to anyone who could actually confirm these summations of mine.

6.5G IS a nice efficient little round, so it may do pretty well in such a platform, no?
I wonder if I could rechamber say a .223 barrel to 6.5G? I have one of those that I never use...

You would need to do more to that 223 barrel then just rechamber it to 6.5 Grendel, you would have to have it bored out to 6.5 and rifled!!!!

The Encore has an 18” barrel. My velocities are consistent with those reported by others.

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:
You would need to do more to that 223 barrel then just rechamber it to 6.5 Grendel, you would have to have it bored out to 6.5 and rifled!!!!

Duuuhhhhh....
LoL... I can't believe I actually said that...
LoL...
Corona is getting to me!

The freaking ranges are all closed, so I can't even go out and shoot...

quote:

Originally posted by PJS50:

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:
You would need to do more to that 223 barrel then just rechamber it to 6.5 Grendel, you would have to have it bored out to 6.5 and rifled!!!!

Duuuhhhhh....
LoL... I can't believe I actually said that...
LoL...
Corona is getting to me!

The freaking ranges are all closed, so I can't even go out and shoot...

It happens to all of us LOL. If you lived in my area you'd be welcome to come shoot at my place.

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:
It happens to all of us LOL. If you lived in my area you'd be welcome to come shoot at my place.

I have a @10,000 SF warehouse for my business and I actually have a bullet trap that I made which I designed to take even rifle rounds (I figured probably all the way up to .308/7.62X51 would be doable; I have fired 5.56mm & 12Ga. slugs into it with absolutely no problems) but where I have it situated, the max distance I can shoot into it is 25 yards.
I was going to try and work up a Grendel load back there using my chronograph. But, the old school optically triggered chronos do not work very well under artificial lighting. So, I'm afraid the only good that may come out of firing the Grendel back there would be that I would have fire formed brass to reload with, which is not a big enough "plus" to waste the money on components when I can easily kill 2 birds with one stone otherwise.

I was looking into getting one of those magnetospeed chronographs. But, I've never seen one in use personally, so I'm not sure about them. That, and I think they would be very difficult to use on handguns, or if my .50BMG rifles would rip the crap out of the muzzle bayonet, let alone it it can fit on those barrels with the exceptionally large muzzle brakes on the end of them?

Any of you guys run those?
Like 'em?
Accurate?

quote:

Originally posted by PJS50:

quote:

Originally posted by vzerone:
It happens to all of us LOL. If you lived in my area you'd be welcome to come shoot at my place.

I have a @10,000 SF warehouse for my business and I actually have a bullet trap that I made which I designed to take even rifle rounds (I figured probably all the way up to .308/7.62X51 would be doable; I have fired 5.56mm & 12Ga. slugs into it with absolutely no problems) but where I have it situated, the max distance I can shoot into it is 25 yards.
I was going to try and work up a Grendel load back there using my chronograph. But, the old school optically triggered chronos do not work very well under artificial lighting. So, I'm afraid the only good that may come out of firing the Grendel back there would be that I would have fire formed brass to reload with, which is not a big enough "plus" to waste the money on components when I can easily kill 2 birds with one stone otherwise.

I was looking into getting one of those magnetospeed chronographs. But, I've never seen one in use personally, so I'm not sure about them. That, and I think they would be very difficult to use on handguns, or if my .50BMG rifles would rip the crap out of the muzzle bayonet, let alone it it can fit on those barrels with the exceptionally large muzzle brakes on the end of them?

Any of you guys run those?
Like 'em?
Accurate?

I'm interested in your bullet trap. Would like to see pics of it or diagrams. I want to build one. What kind and thickness of steel plate did you use, it you made a steel trap?

quote:

Originally posted by kk alaska:
I had best accuracy and velocity with AA 2520 120 to 123 gr. Went to Alexander Arms for data they developed cartridge as I recall.

http://www.alexanderarms.com/i...l_reloading-2018.pdf

http://www.alexanderarms.com/i...endel-Ballistics.pdf

I finally started reloading some 6.5G rounds this evening (lately I've been loading a crap-ton of handgun rounds and 5.56mm for the corona-zombie apocalypse which is sure to hit soon... LoL...).
I have a LabRadar unit on the way, so even if the outdoor ranges stay closed, I can do some accurate chronograph work indoors.

In looking at those Alexander loads and even at others posted on the net, why are so many people using magnum primers?
I've never had a problem getting any of the normal Grendel powders lit with either standard or match/bench rest primers... With the 6.5 cartridge's broad shoulder, I can't figure why a mag. Primer would be that beneficial in this range of powder speeds...

Also, have you seen the start to max load ranges for some of those powders? There's a couple where the start load for powder like Win748 is 30g, and the max charge is 30.7. YIKES!
According to my Quikload data @29g of 748 is max for a 123g projo, so for chronograph testing, I've loaded two different sets of 16 rounds each; 26g to 29g in .2g intervals. One set using CCI BR4 primers and the other using Fed205M.
Gonna try ARComp next but I'll probably go from @24.4G to 27g in the same .2g intervals using both primer brands again.

For projos I have 123g Horn SST's, 120g Barnes TSX's and 120g Speed Gold Dot SPs to try out for now. Luckily this corona induced ammo & reloading component pinch hasn't seemed to affect 6.5mm proof so bad right now (knocking on wood).