1st Hog Kill w New Grendel Build

[Double Naught Spy]

https://youtu.be/Qq2--N-5IaA

Previously, I had won several components (not all) that went toward the building of a new rifle. A buddy of mine up in Minnesota helped me with the upper.

Liberty 22" fluted barrel
Aero Precision upper with 15" Enhanced M-Lok handguard
Plastic M-lok rails (quiets the handguard that tended to ring when struck)
Bolt and carrier with boron nitride treatment
Syrac adjustable gas block
Magpul ACS-L buttstock
Legend Armory lower
Geissele 3.5 lb 2 stage trigger

Despite being a longer rifle, it is fairly lightweight. The fluted really reduced the weight of the barrel. Interestingly, the Liberty barrel at 22" gets more velocity from the Hornady SST 123 gr ammo than Hornady's 24" test barrel does.

This weekend, I mounted an Armasight Zeus 2 1.5-12x42mm 640 thermal scope on the rifle and got a quick 100 yard zero. The POI in the video is a bit off from the POA and so I will need to reverify the zero.

The Hornady SST 123 gr bullet zipped right through, as is typical. No dissection as this hog was collected by a buddy for consumption.

[Brett A]

KAP!!!! Nice job.

[am4966]

Nice job, so is the 22" Grendel going to be your main hunting rifle or is it going to depend on the style of hunting? What is your speed from your 22" barrel?

[Double Naught Spy]

My 20" Shilen barrel on my AA upper was getting me about 2500 fps or a little more from Hornady SST 123 gr. ammo. The 22" Liberty barrel gets me ~2675 fps. Hornady claims just 2580 fps from their 24" test barrel, so I am really pleased with the extra velocity.

This upper was built to run suppressed. So when I get my first suppressor (should be very soon), I will be hunting with this rifle quite a bit, at least until I can make some modifications to my other Grendels (adjustable gas blocks).

[customcutter]

130# should be a good eating pig for your friend. Interesting to hear you are going suppressed, no more pinging....

[kmon]

[QUOTE=customcutter;132599]130# should be a good eating pig for your friend. Interesting to hear you are going suppressed, no more pinging....QUOTE]

Saw the going suppressed and figured Angry Bird must be tired of hearing protection

[LRRPF52]

Sweet video again.

Hornady's published velocity on the website is about 70fps slower than what you typically see with a 24".

If you look on the actual boxes of the Horandy 123gr ammunition where the drop chart is, they show 2620fps mv.

Also, they show very slow speeds for a "16" on the website. I called and confirmed with their tech department that the 2350fps mv for 123gr was actually measured from a 14.5" AA Grendel, which has a pinned muzzle device for legality. 2350fps is pretty slow for a 14.5", but is a reasonable speed to assume for colder weather during hunting season.

There are 13" barrels that get 2380fps average with 123gr Hornady, and Saber 14.5" barrels that average 2420fps. This all makes sense looking at all the barrels I have chronographed.

Looking in Volume II at the Barrel Length & Velocity Graph, you see:

10.5" ~2200fps
14.5" 2350-2420
16" 2420-2470
18" 2450-2500
20" 2520-2590
24" 2590-2640

Barrel-to-barrel, you can see variances of up to 100fps from the same shop, sequential samples. 2675fps is pretty fast for a 22" factory load, and will cause more rapid expansion in the closer ranges.

Great video again.

[bwaites]

And it is a Liberty, and they have always claimed that they are faster than other barrels.....not sure how that works.

[Double Naught Spy]

You know, I chrono'd the ammo at two different locations, on different days, using the chronographs of two different people, and both averages were close to 2700 fps. So I believe the additional velocity is real.

I am in the same boat with you. I don't know how this happening.

[LRRPF52]

You know, I chrono'd the ammo at two different locations, on different days, using the chronographs of two different people, and both averages were close to 2700 fps. So I believe the additional velocity is real.

I am in the same boat with you. I don't know how this happening.

What kind of accuracy are you getting?

[Double Naught Spy]

I only had the daylight optic on this rifle for one session and mostly that was for functionality testing and a very quick assessment of accuracy. I shot .75" with the Berger 130 gr. VLD-Hunting, about about 1.25" with the Hornady SST 123 gr. and about 1.5" with Wolf Gold 120 gr. These were quick sets and not fully braced.

Sighting with thermal is a bit trickier. You can use reflective tape, chemical warmers, or other thermally distinct items of which I like to use my steel targets. Images are a bit fuzzy at distance and so precision is a bit lacking. I don't shoot for groups, but for getting the impacts under the dot or crosshairs. I don't usually video my shooting sessions, but here is something I put together for Instagram when somebody asked me about this. Here, I am verifying the zero on the rifle (my AA 20"). As you can see, it was about 3/4" left. I made the correction, then forgot to video that part, LOL.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BA56NjyKx2Y/?taken-by=carpesus

I can and have shot for groups with thermal. It is a bit of a pain in the butt to do so as not only does the rifle, ammo, and sight need to be right, but so do the conditions of the target. A lot of folks will shoot a chemical warmer or reflective tape, general a 2x2" square at 100 yards or a 1x1" square at 50 yards. As the edges tend not to be exactly defined, one's point of aim can wavier quite a bit when trying to find the center on a consistent basis, especially relevant to the size of the reticle dot or crosshairs which are digital, not actual and so are thicker than real life crosshairs. So a shift in aim of a 1/3 of an inch could go unnoticed, which would bugger group size.

[customcutter]

And it is a Liberty, and they have always claimed that they are faster than other barrels.....not sure how that works.

We know one way they were doing it was by not being a SAAMI chamber, possibly short throats increasing pressures. Any evidence of the lands contacting the bullet when chambered?