Here comes LaRue Tactical...

[m796rider]

Just saw this on ARFCOM. Pretty cool, IMHO.

[KentuckyBuddha]

How long has he almost been going to make a grendel?

[bwaites]

How long has he almost been going to make a grendel?

Before he had no reason, he was so busy with 5.56 and 7.62. Now those are dying faster than snowballs in July melt, and he needs another niche.

[KentuckyBuddha]

Boy howdy I hope you are right Doc. It would be nice to have yet another quality purveyor in the business.

[m796rider]

Plus he now has a complete precision barrel making capability in-house.

[olde sarge]

Maybe someone that is a member of ARFCOM forum could invite him to join us?

[LRRPF52]

Yes, 5.56 has turned into "meh" as far as market growth goes. Sure, everybody should have one, but people have been wanting more performance from the AR15 since the program started in 1957. The AR15 was originally chambered in .222 Remington, but the .30 caliber nazi's of Army Ordnance Board were trying to kill the AR15/Small Caliber High Velocity program, and kept moving the goal posts when it out-performed their expectations. Thus was born the .222 Remington Special, aka 5.56x45.

When you look at the .308 AR market, you have this colossal quagmire of incompatibility of parts, recoil systems, handguards, different thread patterns, different pin dimensions, different receiver heights, different barrel nut threads, different gas system lengths that are called the same thing, and massive BCG's that beat the freaking snot out of optics, all culminating in very heavy and unbalanced rifles that are simply not fun to carry around on a hunt or action-based competition.

Colt and DPMS have addressed this with the Colt 901 series, and the DPMS G2, however, neither is supporting the designs currently with parts. Another problem is that much of the higher performance .308 Winchester ammunition has been designed with use in turn-bolt action rifles, with absolutely no consideration for use in gas-operated firearms.

The 175gr SMK loads are one of the biggest culprits in this regard, since they have a lot of projectile weight, bearing surface, and use slower-burning powders to extend the gas pressure curve down the pipe. When introduced into a gas-operated rifle, that higher pressure curve arc farther down the barrel hits the gas port hard, causing early, violent unlocking. It also rears its head on the common firing pin hole diameters of the DPMS LR308 and copies all over the market, by causing primer flow into the cavity around the pin, which shows up as a crater even with pressures below the .308 Win. max of 62,000psi.

With the 6.5 Grendel, we have none of those problems.

* All the factory ammunition is specifically meant to work in the AR15.

* All the existing AR15 after-market components and compatibility are enjoyed by the Grendel. It's a barrel, bolt, and magazine away in the AR15.

* Performance increase is substantial, and not just on paper. It impacts steel just about like a 168gr SMK from the observer's perspective, but has less wind drift, with 50% less recoil.

* Mark LaRue used a little 20" LaRue Stealth 6.5 Grendel back in 2007 to kill a large bull elk up in Wyoming, at a distance of 407yds. When he met his guide and showed him what he was going to use for the hunt, the guide's morale started spiral downwards, thinking that if this guy hit anything, it was going to be a long hunt composed of tracking a wounded animal at best. When he saw that he didn't even have his scope mounted, his impression of this hunter started to tank even more. Mark shrugged it off as he clipped on his little Burris 1-4x scope, and said it should be fine.

When the 120gr TSX load from AA blew through the bull elk's vitals, it whirled to the left and traveled 10yds before going down.





We've seen a broad expansion of the AR market, and different calibers are the main heat in the industry. Everybody and their brother is making some type of AR10-like rifle. Everybody is making little 300 BLK pistols and SBR's.

A few are making huge receiver set 300 Win Mag AR's. Big bore AR's are slowly becoming more popular, with several .45 caliber wildcats working their way into the AR world.

The short story is that people want more out of this design, and the market is responding. The 6.5 Grendel has the best balance between affordable ammunition availability, parts commonality, SAAMI standardization, and increased performance, with minimal recoil increase.

[Walter]

LR just so you know, I was going to do a AR10 gas gun. After reading a few of your posts about AR10s I made a Remington 700 6.5 Creedmoor bolt gun. Write up will follow.