6.5 Grendel Preferred Loads

[Kikn]

Bump back into relevance

[davidj]

After reading this old thread over several times I decided to try 8208 and the 123 Amax.

Very impressed with 8208 load, works better than factory Hornady Amax in my gun.

Settled at 28.4 gr at. 2595 ave speed. Shot really well in the wind this morning.

What brand barrel and length please.

[SG4247]

This was from a 22" Broughton 6.5mm 5C Rifling blank, that I chambered in 264 LBC.

Ported to rifle length. Medium throat depth.

So, a little longer than the typical Grendel. With the supposedly "faster" rifling lands.

Hope that makes sense....

[Kritter]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5377[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]5378[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]5379[/ATTACH]After load work ups
My best groups with IMR XBR 8208 28.5gr 2.245 coal .005 jump lapua brass
CFE 223 31.5gr 2.250 coal 0 jump (according to my hornady gauge)
Cfe group with lbc hornady brass
Both loads with cci 450 primers
100yard groups off bipod and rear bag
Lilja AR740 20" Grendel chamber
Sorry no fps my chrono is broke for the moment

I tried nosler 123 cc also they group we'll but there is always flyers
28.2 XBR works well with cci450s in lapua brass (pic group minus flyer)
groups c-c

[jbliii]

Guys - I shoot a customer built (Precision Firearms) AR15 6.5 Grendel (Top) and a customer built (Precision Firearms) 5.56 piston driven AR. Both are incredible shooting experiences but I'm a huge fan of the Grendel. The post provides some really great info on 6.5. I have two loads that work well, 120gr Nosler Spitzer with 29gr's of Varget and 123gr A-MAX and 25.4gr's of Vihtavuori N530.

I hunt mule deer and Antelope in Montana with my AR's and have taken both with both the 5.56 and 6.5 - The 6.5 performs incredibly well out to 800 yards - beyond that the drop is off my scope. I have an very nice Browning A-Bolt 30-06 with the BOSS - have never missed but much prefer hunting with the 6.5 - HUGE HUGE HUGE Grendel fan - can't beat the BC for the 6.5 - am actually looking at AI AXMC 6.5 Creedmore which can really extend the 6.5 effective distance.

Thanks for the posting on 6.5 reloading - I have 8lb's of IMR8208 XBR and plan to try with the A-Max's

JB

[m16inhand]

Just tested the 123gr A-Max, 2.250" COL, with 28.5 grains of IMR8208XBR, Lapua brass, CCI 450 primer...definitely works in my rifle with 18" AA barrel. No signs of excessive pressure either.

[Lonehill]

I don't think it is the process of building the match rifles, in fact I was surprised to see how simply they are put together. no lapping, truing or anything like that, just a high quality barrel, and freefloat tube is all that is required.
I won a few hundred 69 and 77 Scenars this year. They shoot really well but no better than the 77 SMK's or 75 Hornady BTHP, even at 600 yards. The AMU used the 77 Scenars at 600 in 2010 and 2011 for 600 yards after running into a bad lot of 80 SMKs but then moved to the Berger 73 grain VLD this year. Didn't seem to matter, they posted pretty much the same results. Six of the AMU members made it to the Presidents shoot off but five of them along with the All Guard team were disqualified for refusing to shoot in the shoot off in honor of two first time ever perfect scores shot. So we will never know for sure how the shoot off at 600 would have turned out. As it was a guy from California won shooting Sierra 80 SMKs against the Ty Cooper of the AMU using the 73 Bergers. I suspect that any of the bullets could have won, depending on the skill of the shooter.
I can't help but wonder if the real reason we get such different results with the 6.5 Grendel, is that we have such a wide variety of barrels. By far the most popular barrel in the national matches is the Wilson 1:7 followed by the Kreiger 1:7.7 and the Douglass 1:8 a far distant third. There are Satern, Pacnor, and Green mountain. But you never see a Shaw or Shilen, at the national matches. And everyone knows not to bring a chrome lined barrel.
Bob

This is definitely an interesting read. In all of my barrel research, this is the only negative I've ever read about a Shilen barrel. Also, on other forums I've read that Wilson is not a reliable shooter. I trust your info is valid though. Thanks for the info on 77 SMK, gonna give that one a try in the .223 Wylde

[KentuckyBuddha]

Too bad Wilson apparently does not make 6.5 Grendel barrels.

Thanks for the protip that the truing and whatnot is superfluous Stokesrj!

[Drifter]

Too bad Wilson apparently does not make 6.5 Grendel barrels.

While standard Grendel barrels from J&T Distributing might be ER Shaw blanks, seems like their stainless barrels were from Wilson blanks (or used to be). Might be worth an inquiry if someone is interested.

http://jtdistributing.net/store/page144.html

[KentuckyBuddha]

I just got off the phone with them. While they said they might well have been in past, all of their Grendel barrels are from ER Shaw nowadays. They mentioned some of their stainless tubes in other chamberings are still from there, so that might have caused the confusion.

Either way after a little looking into it, it appears there are no Wilson Grendel barrels made as of now.

[gjpollman]

Well I need to solicit the fine advice of the Grendel reloading gurus... just loaded up some SSTs in once fired Hornady brass. Trimmed to 1.520 (when I could... a lot was under after sizing at 1.516ish) Loaded with 28.5gr 8208 to 2.250 OAL... well after cleaning the brass today from firing off these loads many of the cases have split and the dreaded belted magnum. The barrel is a Lilja chambered by Mark at PF, with his loads and factory Hornady there are no signs of case damage... Does anyone have any advice on what the culprit might be? Is this load too hot for a couple reloads with Hornady brass? Or is there something I should check into in my reloading process? All the brass was checked in a L.E. Wilson Case gauge prior to loading. Other than brass destruction the SSTs with 28.5gr were all very accurate and have 300 Amax to load up next.

[NugginFutz]

You are right at the hairy edge with 8208 and a 123(?) grain pill, friend.

Most of the people who've reported their results have said that load is definitely hot. Did you see any pressure signs as you worked up to 28.5, or is 28.5 the only charge you tried? It bears mentioning that any new load should be approached in a series of controlled steps to avoid running into such problems, working up from a lower, safer charge.

Either way, consider that not all rifles will tolerate such a hot load, and yours seems to be one. It could be unlocking early, which would account for the belting and split cases.

Not knowing what your setup looks like limits what advice or analysis can be offered. What length barrel and gas system? Rifle or Carbine buffer/spring? Suppressed or unsuppressed?

By providing this information, I am certain some of the boards reloading whiz kids will be more likely to lead you to the source of the problem.

[BjornF16]

What NF said...if you look at Hornady's Reloading Manual, you will see they don't list 8208 as a powder to load for 120-123 grain class bullets (although they list it for 129 grain bullets). Try CFE 223 or AA2520...

See http://www.65grendel.com/forum/showthrea...#post49823

[Nukes]

...am actually looking at AI AXMC 6.5 Creedmore which can really extend the 6.5 effective distance....

May I suggest that you consider the Desert Tech SRS A1? The cost of 1 chassis, 1 bolt/barrel, 1 highend scope, and 1 can will compare in price to your AI plan. but then subsequent barrel/bolt chamberings will be in the $1,300 ball park.

http://deserttech.com

[Nukes]

When I first joined here, before Grendel Vol. 1, I polled for favorite powders and 8208XBR was the most mentioned as relatively temp insensitive, so I ran with it.

6.5 Grendel AA brass
28.5 gn 8208XBR
123 gn SMK G7 BC 0.260, bearing surface 0.407"
2472 fps high
2464 fps low
8 fps ES
2467 fps mean of 5
3 fps σ
98°F 29%
28.53 4322'DA
20" 1-8.5 Krieger barrel, .264 LBC reamer

Hodgdon's online reloading data page lists 28.5 gn 8208XBR as a max load at 50,000 psi, but I stopped at 27.0 gn with the 123 gn AMAX:

6.5 Grendel
27.0 gn 8208XBR
123 gn A-MAX
2433
2397
36
2414
14
97°F 30%
28.59 4134'DA

The 123 gn AMAX is not listed in Litz's new Ballistic Performance of Rifle Bullets, but the allegedly "same" 123 gn SST has G7 BC 0.236 and bearing surface of 0.430".

[gjpollman]

The setup is 20" w/ rifle length gas and a JP silent capture buffer (rifle buffer on a PRS stock) I have dialed down the gas block to the min setting for functioning but I have been looking at changing out the spring to a heavier option and see what that does to slow things down. I do understand 28.5gr is on the limit and I did work up to it, I did loads from 28.5 down to 27.7 and like mentioned in this thread the 28.5 was the most accurate. Other than the belting and a handful splitting there were no pressure signatures on the primers at all which is why I found the case issues odd, I haven't seen that happen to brass without issues on the primers too.

[37L1]

03/07/15
123 Amax
27.3 8208 XBR
Tula 5.56M primer
Hornady Brass
COAL 2.255
.291 Neck Bushing
Velocity: 2500 fps.
24" 1/8 twist Liberty/Satern barrel (throat reamed)
Temp: 34-47F
Humidity: 57%-33%
Barometer: 30.47 - 30.44
Elevation: 800'+
Wind 3 mph from West switching to 9 mph from South

Used virgin brass and the group opened up to .445 next 3 shots, two touching and one outside. Took it out to 200 yards and shot .497. Pretty consistent.

[mnhntr]

I really like the idea of this but have a request either for a new sticky load development post or to ease the use of this one. Can a format be done so one does not have to read through a lot of talk were we can just compare loads with each other? Some thing similar to this:

Barrel:
Chamber:
Brass:
Primer:
Powder:
Bullet:
OAL:

[JASmith]

...or you coul use GrendelData.com where there is a consistent format.

[mnhntr]

No thanks I will get it for free elsewhere. if people are too greedy to help others out, that's a shame. I will post my load data when I get it.