number of reloadings on Grendel brass

[outlaw45]

I'm thinking of getting a Grendel, but I've heard that when reloading it works the brass more than the 264lbc. How many reloading are you getting from your 6.5 Grendel brass?

[Bwild97]

I'm averaging 8 reloads on Hornady brass, I just received my first batch of 100 Lapua cases, and I will see how many more I can get from them.

[leopard6.5]

outlaw45: First welcome to the Horde!

Hopefully bwaites will jump in here since I remember him stating that he has gotten upwards of 20+ reloadings from his Lapua brass.

Also, I don't think there has ever been any definitive proof shown that one chamber is any worse on brass life than the other.

I have heard people "claim" the .264LBC chamber is more accurate than the SAAMI spec. Grendel chamber but they have never provided any proof.
I have two Grendel rifles with the SAAMI spec. chamber that shoot .3" consistantly and sometimes less.
So my question is " How much more accurate is anyone really going to get?".

Good luck.

Lee

[stokesrj]

I have owned rifles with both 264 LBC and 6.5 Grendel chambers, there is no difference in brass life. I could see where in theory it could be claimed the LBC would provide longer case life because of the .005" tighter neck. In reality it doesn't pan out that way. Every time the AA Lapua brass for the Grendel has been on sale I've bought 500 or a 1000 of them so I have over 6,000 cases and about 800 or so have not been fired yet. So I don't know the real case life of the Grendel, but I have several batches of 500 that have been loaded more than a dozen times and one batch of 50 that was loaded 18 times in the 6.5 Grendel chamber before I retired it, there were no case neck splits, which is where there would be a difference between the two chambers. The reason I retired the lot was because the rims were so beat up that I got a couple of failures to extract but other than that they could be used longer. And they were producing sub half minute angle groups up until I retired them.

Who whoever is telling you that the LBC will provide better brass life may think this is the case, but they have not had sufficient experience to really know.

Bob

[outlaw45]

Thanks for the quick responses. I think this made my decision and I'll be going with the Grendel chamber.

Now who has barrels in stock?

[bwaites]

The problem with theory and real life is that one is theory!

I have 20 plus reloads on some of my original brass. I used to use Lee dies and after 10-12 reloads I'd get 5-6/100 case neck splits each time I reloaded. Since I switched to bushing dies, that problem has pretty much resolved.

I still shoot some of my original Lapua brass from 6+ years ago. It still has tight primer pockets, even though the headstamp is barely there.

My more recent Hornady brass seems to hold up better than the brass in the first couple batches I had, so I'm wondering if it has improved as Hornady has gotten more experience with the Grendel.