I received my new 20 inch 6.5 Grendel complete upper receiver from BCA yesterday. Appearance of it is nice enough. I mounted it on a Rock River A2 lower, with Geissele SSA-E trigger. This came off of one of my service rifles. Scope taken from one of my AR 308's, Super Sniper 10X. Fortunately I have a short range to shoot on(300 yards), so this morning got her zero'd at 100, then shot a ten round group.
Ammunition was Hornady ELD 123's. Target, the ol' SR21. Range wet and muddy, had to limit my trips up and down range to avoid rutting my field, hence the limited amount of shooting today.
I shot this ten round group, it's exactly two inches. Not exactly something to write home about, but for a bargain basement upper, I'm not going to complain, maybe I was just having a bad day. I'm more used to shooting with a sling. Anyhow, it's ok, should be fine for deer hunting and ringing the AQT sized KD steel targets out to 400 yards. I'll continue to shoot it, probably try some of the steel cased ammo next time. Not ready to call it good for homestead defense yet, have to shoot it quite a bit more, make sure it's reliable, but that 6.5 Grendel round should be awesome for that.
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4570govt Wrote:I received my new 20 inch 6.5 Grendel complete upper receiver from BCA yesterday. Appearance of it is nice enough. I mounted it on a Rock River A2 lower, with Geissele SSA-E trigger. This came off of one of my service rifles. Scope taken from one of my AR 308's, Super Sniper 10X. Fortunately I have a short range to shoot on(300 yards), so this morning got her zero'd at 100, then shot a ten round group.
Ammunition was Hornady ELD 123's. Target, the ol' SR21. Range wet and muddy, had to limit my trips up and down range to avoid rutting my field, hence the limited amount of shooting today.
I shot this ten round group, it's exactly two inches. Not exactly something to write home about, but for a bargain basement upper, I'm not going to complain, maybe I was just having a bad day. I'm more used to shooting with a sling. Anyhow, it's ok, should be fine for deer hunting and ringing the AQT sized KD steel targets out to 400 yards. I'll continue to shoot it, probably try some of the steel cased ammo next time. Not ready to call it good for homestead defense yet, have to shoot it quite a bit more, make sure it's reliable, but that 6.5 Grendel round should be awesome for that.
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Congrats on the grendel sir, glad your liking it.
I personally could not in good faith hunt with are loan a rifle to someone to hunt with that shot groups like that.
Game animals deserve better, self-defense 2moa should work perfectly.
A5BLASTER Wrote:Congrats on the grendel sir, glad your liking it.
I personally could not in good faith hunt with are loan a rifle to someone to hunt with that shot groups like that.
Game animals deserve better, self-defense 2moa should work perfectly.
I've killed a lot of deer and varmints, two MOA is plenty of accuracy for killing deer. I've never shot a deer past 225 yards, two MOA is certainly accurate enough for the kill zone of a deer. I usually shoot 'em in the shoulder, they drop like a rock, even when hit with a 5.56.
4570govt Wrote:I've killed a lot of deer and varmints, two MOA is plenty of accuracy for killing deer. I've never shot a deer past 225 yards, two MOA is certainly accurate enough for the kill zone of a deer. I usually shoot 'em in the shoulder, they drop like a rock, even when hit with a 5.56.
You do you. Not arguing with you. I'm just not going to do it, game animals deserve better in my book.
A5BLASTER Wrote:You do you. Not arguing with you. I'm just not going to do it, game animals deserve better in my book.
I'm not arguing either, just speaking from experience, never lost a deer.
Since I'm new here, I'll display a target shot with my AR Match Rifle, used in NRA 600 yard competitions. Shot with sling, no bipod or other rest. Load development, 75 grain BTHP's, ten round group, .75 MOA.
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As your barrel breaks in with continued use it is likely to get better accuracy. There as some threads on the forum on things to check on BCA rifles that can help out. BCA has pics on their web site of some great groups they got, using the ammo they listed may get better results.
My BCA did best with Sierra 120 Match King and Sierra 120 Pro Hunter. http://www.65grendel.com/forum/showthrea...hlight=bca
I agree with lemonaid, it will probably get better as you shoot it. We have seen many bca products not start out as good as yours did. Good luck with it
Knowing everthing isnt as important as knowing where to find it.
Thanks all, Im sure it will probably settle in and shoot a little better. Im actually fine with it. No disappointment here at all. All depends on your perspective and what you want to use it for.
The barrel is 1/8, 20 inch heavy, rifle length gas system, Mlok handguard.
For $223.00 its less expensive than a bolt in one of my M14 service rifles. I think its a good value.
The good thing about a BCA upper is that they dont cost much.Down the road if youre not happy with the accuracy of your BCA barrel you can just swap the barrel for a quality barrel. Ive never had problems with BCA upper receivers,parts or hand guards. Never could get the barrels to shoot consistently for long.
03-26-2020, 04:45 PM (This post was last modified: 03-26-2020, 04:49 PM by 4570govt.)
Last night, I was thinking about the accuracy of this rifle, maybe I was just having a bad day, hasn't been shot enough to call it inaccurate so early in the game! So tried again today at 200 yards. My 200 yard line is relatively dry compared to the 100 line, so shot from there.
The results were pretty good. First large group is 1.5 MOA, second, the last three rounds was one MOA. Easily accurate enough for deer hunting, also coyotes, we're overrun with 'em here. I did find that my windage was off, had to adjust, no big deal, I like a solid 200 yard zero.
I think she's a keeper.
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Just to add, I did fire a group in between these two, it was a three round 2.5 jnch group, forgot to take a pic of it. I think the rifle is solid. Maybe the barrel won't last, but we'll see.
4570govt,
i picked up a BCA upper just like you did. mine was the 24" tube because that's what i wanted. steel is 4150 which is good barrel steel. unless you do mag dumps i'm not sure why it won't last.
i'm still working on load development too. but with real work, i don't get out much so still testing bullets/powders etc. i think as you break the barrel in, it'll group a bit tighter. my next up bullet to try is the 120gr. SMK as it's been highly touted here.
some 85gr. Sierra varminters or equivalent should make great coyote rounds if you don't care about the hide.
by the way, nothing wrong with 1 - 2 MOA for hunting big game if the range is kept short like you're saying. of course smaller groups are always nicer. but sometimes you pick the bullet you want to use for big game first, for it's terminal performance, and work up the best load you can with that bullet and whatever group size result that is, you use it within it's grouping limitations.
have fun!
-tdbru
tdbru Wrote:4570govt,
i picked up a BCA upper just like you did. mine was the 24" tube because that's what i wanted. steel is 4150 which is good barrel steel. unless you do mag dumps i'm not sure why it won't last.
i'm still working on load development too. but with real work, i don't get out much so still testing bullets/powders etc. i think as you break the barrel in, it'll group a bit tighter. my next up bullet to try is the 120gr. SMK as it's been highly touted here.
some 85gr. Sierra varminters or equivalent should make great coyote rounds if you don't care about the hide.
by the way, nothing wrong with 1 - 2 MOA for hunting big game if the range is kept short like you're saying. of course smaller groups are always nicer. but sometimes you pick the bullet you want to use for big game first, for it's terminal performance, and work up the best load you can with that bullet and whatever group size result that is, you use it within it's grouping limitations.
have fun!
-tdbru
Yes, I think it's worth tinkering with, hard to beat the price as well, admittedly, that's why I bought it. While this caliber in this rifle would not be my favorite for hunting, it would certainly do the job.
To get into the Grendel I also went with BCA 20" but mine would not keep 5 Hornady 123 SSTs on the target you used for your 10 shot group. Every shot was a flier. After wasting quite a bit of ammo, factory and hand loads, it dawn on me to check the crown. It looked like it was done with a side grinder. Sent the upper back to BCA and they replaced the barrel. Turned out that this rifle as well as my 18" Oden Works barreled rifle I decided to build while dealing with the BCA shipping back and forth do not like the Hornady 123 SST bullet in either factory or hand loads. When I got the BCA back it shot much better out of the box but still was nothing to brag about. After firing around 70 rounds it started to settle down. With my hand loaded 120 Speer Gold Dot and Sierra Pro Hunter using IMR 8208 it will shoot sub MOA. So keep shooting. By the way the 120 Speer Gold Dot is an AWESOME deer bullet.
Looks pretty good to me for a first time group, damn sure good enough for hunting a large animal like a deer. Not sure what real benefit a 1" group would be for deer hunting. Still laughing here!
1Shot Wrote:To get into the Grendel I also went with BCA 20" but mine would not keep 5 Hornady 123 SSTs on the target you used for your 10 shot group. Every shot was a flier. After wasting quite a bit of ammo, factory and hand loads, it dawn on me to check the crown. It looked like it was done with a side grinder. Sent the upper back to BCA and they replaced the barrel. Turned out that this rifle as well as my 18" Oden Works barreled rifle I decided to build while dealing with the BCA shipping back and forth do not like the Hornady 123 SST bullet in either factory or hand loads. When I got the BCA back it shot much better out of the box but still was nothing to brag about. After firing around 70 rounds it started to settle down. With my hand loaded 120 Speer Gold Dot and Sierra Pro Hunter using IMR 8208 it will shoot sub MOA. So keep shooting. By the way the 120 Speer Gold Dot is an AWESOME deer bullet.
I'll shoot it some more this next week, just take my time with it, may try 300 yards next. Your load sounds like a good one!
DeanD Wrote:Looks pretty good to me for a first time group, damn sure good enough for hunting a large animal like a deer. Not sure what real benefit a 1" group would be for deer hunting. Still laughing here!
I'm also awaiting a BCA Grendel. 20" fluted stainless. Made a run to Black Sheep this afternoon for a Lyman #50 loading manual. None of my older books have the 6.5 G in them. Picked up a thousand CCI 200s and a box of 120 gr Sierra Pro Hunters. Dies and brass should arrive anytime too.
Les Staley there is all sorts of data from the bullet makers free on the web for the 6.5 Grendel. Also the preferred primmer is the CCI 250 mag, but you can use the 200 safely with the ARs or I should say that I have never had or seen a problem with them. The 120 Sierra Pro Hunter is a pretty good bullet and is not hard to get it to shoot really accurately. I smoked a deer with one this past season with one of my 6.5 Grendel's.
