From top to bottom: 1902 Carcano M91 TS, 1915 Carcano M91 Cavalry Carbine, 1901 M96 Swedish Mauser, and last but not least my new Grendel, which is just a 20" PSA upper on a Ruger MPR lower. Just got the optic mounted, hoping to get to the range to sight it in soon. I gave the upper a thorough cleaning and lubing. Also bonus picture of 6.5 Grendel, 6.5x52 Carcano, and 6.5x55 Swede.
Very nice! I always wanted a 6.5x55 Swedish Mauser but never found one. I did buy a Type 38 Arisaka 6.5 which is in pretty decent shape. When I was in my late teens a Friend used to hunt ground hogs with a Arisaka carbine in 6.5x50. He let me shoot it and I have been a fan of the 6.5 ever since. My Dad brought back an Arisaka from Japan after the war but gave it to his brother in law. The Arisaka was gone before I was ever old enough to shoot and I never new if it was a 6.5 or 7.7.
I would love one, I handled an old Mannlicher-Schönauer at Collector's Firearms and that has to have been the smoothest bolt action I've handled. I do have an 8x56R Mannlicher long rifle that's the pride of my milsurp collection, it's pretty smooth too.
Took the Grendel to the range for the first time this weekend, managed to get minute of pig accuracy which is about what I was hoping for with a cheap upper like that. Big accuracy difference between the PSA upper and the 5.56 Ruger MPR upper, I was shooting Hornady ELD-M and SST so decent ammo but it'll get the job done. The ASC 10 rounder I was using at first was not feeling reliably at all, but the new 10 and 20 round Duramags ran flawlessly so I'll stick with those.
VASCAR2 Wrote:Thanks for the update on your PSA. Hopefully the accuracy improves with use.
I also put a box of Wolf through it, do you think with another box of Wolf + some more Hornady groups will tighten up? I wish there were some other plinking level ammo available at the moment besides Wolf, just need to be patient I guess. I'm saving my brass for the eventual day when I can start reloading.
Perhaps some day the good old days will return. The days when Hornady sold American Gunner at $.70 a round and Wolf was round $.30. Not likely though. Were it not for reloading I'd shoot very little. I've found that reloading has added to my enjoyment of shooting.
Paul Peloquin
Did government credibility die of Covid or with Covid?
65Carcano Wrote:I also put a box of Wolf through it, do you think with another box of Wolf + some more Hornady groups will tighten up? I wish there were some other plinking level ammo available at the moment besides Wolf, just need to be patient I guess. I'm saving my brass for the eventual day when I can start reloading.
I dont think I or anyone else can predict what a barrel will do with regards to accuracy in relation to early round count. It seems high end barrels shoot good almost immediately. With cheaper barrels its luck of the draw on how good or bad it shoots. Most reports Ive seen on PSA stainless steel 6.5 Grendel barrels is good.
Having a buddy close by that has a supply of reloaded ammo is handy. I have a friend whos had an FFL as long as Ive known him. My favorite phrase at guns shows or visiting other gun shops. Hey buy that Id like to shoot it. Thing that surprised me, he almost did when he had the opportunity to buy two model 18 Glocks.
Sad thing is age is creeping up on me and my Friends. Unfortunately Ive lost a couple of my close shooting companions.
Lice the 1903 6.5X54 MS and agree they have the smoothest actions I have ever handeled. I like the 6.5 caliber, started with a 264 WinMag, then 6.5-284, 6.5'54 and finally a couple Grendels. The grendels get shot more than the others combined.
I think I've shot about 50 rounds total through it, I'll try to make it to the range again here soon and send some more Wolf down range and see how the ELD-M and SST group after that. I shot one promising group with the SST last time, but I only have 15 rounds left so need to conserve. Have a good amount of ELD-M at least for hunting purposes. My Swedish mauser gets shot a good amount, I've killed two hogs with it and it is fun at the range too. 6.5x55 has managed to stay fairly inexpensive and available too thankfully.
When to the range again today, shot some pretty decent groups at 100 yards with SST but ELD-M continued to be rather mediocre. Shot a lot of Wolf too. ELD-M seems to be somewhat readily available but haven't seen hardly any SST so just going to wait until more appears. My Swedish Mauser and my 30-06 will handle the hogs in the meantime.
Took my PSA Grendel upper in its new PSA lower, it was shooting pretty mediocre (1.25-1.75 inch at 50 yards with PPU 120, Hornady SST and ELDM) until the last few groups when it suddenly tightened up to .75 inches. A lot of the groups are decent with 1 or 2 spreading things out, I am suspicious that maybe those are ones where tips are getting deformed in feeding. I'm curious how Federal Fusions or similar will do. Also took it to the range with another 6.5, this time an old M94 sporterized 6.5x55. It shot pretty good, should make a handy little woods gun.
LOVE the 6.5 rounds. To me, the 6.5 Cm and 6.5 Grendel are my favorite general purpose AND special purpose rounds. Interestingly, I really want a 6.5 Grendel Bullpup, which is not an option, though there is a 6.5 Creedmoore bullpup MDRx. Which I have. Unfortunately, that rifle is sensative to heavy loads, and shoots ppoorly. I basically have to download to nearly 6.5 Grendel power level, to get acceptable accuracy (light bullet, fast powder, medium to lower charge). Interestingly, to get a 6.5 CM to shoot teh same bullet at the same velocity as a 6.5 Grendel, takes almost 10 more grains of powder, to do that. That's how efficient 6.5 Grendel is. Its one Hell of a round, and to me, 6.5 Grendel is the ultimiate optimized general purpose small frame AR15 round.
I agree, 6.5 is great. I was impressed with how light the 6.5x55 recoil was in that little carbine, I think an older elementary schooler could handle it no problem and it would have a lot more horsepower than a 243 or 223. I may be adding a 6.5 PRC to the inventory sometime to go along with the 6.5x55, 6.5x52, and 6.5x39s I have already. Would love a classic 6.5MS and need a 6.5 Arisaka for the milsurp collection.
Ive got the 6.5x50 Arisaka covered and my ten year old Grandson really likes shooting it. I bought some PPU 6.5x50 brass and some H-380 powder. I loaded some 123 grain SMK factory seconds with a light load of H-380. Ive always wanted a 6.5 Swedish Mauser but they arent commonly seen in my area.
Reloading has been the main reason I can shoot 6.5 Grendel or Arisaka especially if I had to find factory ammo on the shelf. I was in a gun store last week that had a few boxes of 6 ARC. I almost bought four or five boxes even though I dont have a 6 ARC.
I think the PSA barrel accuracy will improves with fewer fliers as it passes 200 rounds. Ive seen this trend in cheaper barrels before but with current ammo prices it really looks like the more expensive barrels are cheaper in the long run.
6.5 PRC kinda makes 6.5 Creedmoor, .260 Rem, and even 6.5x284 pointless when looking at performance.
A guy I ran a private course for before his elk hunt last year had a carbon fiber 6.5 PRC rifle that weighed almost nothing. Whatever the rifle builder did when assembling that stick, it had almost no recoil.
22 barrel, 143gr ELD-X at 3150fps. Thing is a laser. Hornady factory ammo varied greatly by lot though. One lot would shoot .75 composite groups between the 2 of us. The other lot shot 4 low, 4 right of that, 1.7.
Trade-off is barrel life.
NRA Basic, Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, RSO
CCW, CQM, DM, Long Range Rifle Instructor
6.5 Grendel Reloading Handbooks & chamber brushes can be found here:
LRRPF52 Wrote:A guy I ran a private course for before his elk hunt last year had a carbon fiber 6.5 PRC rifle that weighed almost nothing. Whatever the rifle builder did when assembling that stick, it had almost no recoil.
22 barrel, 143gr ELD-X at 3150fps. Thing is a laser.
The US Government should have had him build the XM-7.
Paul Peloquin
Did government credibility die of Covid or with Covid?
