King of the Grendel round count

[Lemonaid]

Asking forum members with high round count barrels to post here with their results to get a rough idea as to barrel life.
Greatly interested if any have actually shot out a Grendel barrel? Anyone? What was the accuracy or performance degradation that signaled you needed a new barrel? Thanks!

[GregP42]

Well, I have put two cases of wolf steel case through my 12" this year. And I haven't seen anything bad with it, I have also shot some regular ammo in it and it still groups well. I have only put about 400 rounds through my contender this year, and I am up to just over 1300 rounds in it, it still shoots just fine, shoots better than I do. I have no idea how many rounds have been down the barrel of my original Grendel, I bought the barrel in a group buy on the first Grendel board back when we were still making brass out of 7.62x29. And it still shoots better than I do as well.

Greg

[A5BLASTER]

I have shot out 4 alexander arms 16 inch fluted barrels. The ones they dont make anymore. While doing my own bolt breakage testing.

First barrel-13,541 rounds combo of wolf fmj and handloads.

Second barrel-15,167 rounds almost all wolf fmj.

Third barrel-13,478 nearly half and half wolf and handloads.

Forth barrel-11, 041 every single round was a hot handload

[VASCAR2]

You opened the door A5B, how many bolts did you have to use to get to those round counts? The cost of the ammo sure exceeded the price of those barrels and bolts, lol.

[A5BLASTER]

You opened the door A5B, how many bolts did you have to use to get to those round counts? The cost of the ammo sure exceeded the price of those barrels and bolts, lol.

No one would believe me if I told you.

[Lemonaid]

Thanks A5B, amazing! So 13K or so on average. It must be good to be the King.

[StoneHendge]

I had a Satern Liberty that could print 5/8 to 3/4 groups on a good day. That got harder and harder to and it would shoot a little better than MOA on a good day so I retired it at around 6k. I was never crazy about the barrel and a BHW 243 LBC at 50% off and was yelling, screaming and jumping up and down waving at me on True Sporting Arms, so I retired the Grendel barrel. I did run the Grendel near maxes. I had the same type of experience with a 5.56 that shot a little tighter (1/2 to 3/4) that I retired at around 8k. In that situation, the BHW 6x45 was 75% off! That was my main practice rifle at the time but also my Prairie Dogger, so I considered retirement ethical. Which is was since 70s at 2990 out of the 6x45 make 'em splat a little more.

Sounds like those undersized Wolf bullets are easy on a barrel!

[VASCAR2]

No one would believe me if I told you.

I figured the bolts lasted as long as the barrels but I base that on there being no visible wear on my current 6.5 Grendel AR-15 bolts and a couple have been shot a fair amount.

[Kswhitetails]

A5 - shhhhh. Don't feed the trolls. Most of the "knowledgeable" among Grendel aficionados know that steel cased Grendel is bad for your barrel... which leads most folks to avoid it like the plague. Thusly ensuring it's low price and availability!

You're far ahead of me. Out of curiosity, did you keep track of throat erosion during your testing?

Very interested in any other variables you may have found interesting on your own as well.

- KS

[tdbru]

My biggest question, A5,is where did you find time to run over 53,227 rounds down the tubes? that's over 7 boxes a day for an entire year!! did you shoot through a zombie apocalypses or something?
-tdbru

[A5BLASTER]

My biggest question, A5,is where did you find time to run over 53,227 rounds down the tubes? that's over 7 boxes a day for an entire year!! did you shoot through a zombie apocalypses or something?
-tdbru

Life smiled on me with all the time and money I could ever dream of too do as I wish.

And I was averaging well past 7 box's a day and I did it in a lil over 9 months.

[StoneHendge]

A5, what's the threshold for degraded accuracy with Wolf? Going from Minute of Pie Plate to Minute of Dinner Plate?

[A5BLASTER]

A5, what's the threshold for degraded accuracy with Wolf? Going from Minute of Pie Plate to Minute of Dinner Plate?

All the barrels averaged 1.5 are just under to start with wolf, I ran the barrels till everything was at 5 inches at 50 yards.

So well past any usable accuracy with any ammo.

[LRRPF52]

[maximus83]

Dude that is a great story, and a crazy round count!

You are definitely the 6.5 G guy who makes the persuasive case for it, I read your posts for years on M4carbine.net and you converted me to 6.5 G. I'm liking my 18" PF upper so much that now I'm looking to add a 12.5" pistol. Haven't decide yet whose barrel to use, I know AA sells barrels and uppers but 11.5", but I don't know how accurate their barrels are plus it sounds like 12.5" is really the sweet spot for a Grendel pistol. PF will spin a custom 12.5 using their house PF barrel, a Criterion, or Bartlein or Krieger, already pinged Mark about that. Back to the topic of this thread, I'd expect barrels like Proof, Bartlein and Krieger to have a longer lifespan than most. Would be interesting to learn how much longer in terms of round count, but I haven't seen a direct comparison with data on barrel life between these premium barrels and other ones.