02-06-2012, 06:29 AM
With the Prvi Partizan at $12.95 a box, the Grendel is cheaper to shoot than 6.8, since everything else is the same cost-wise. There are more and more factory hunting loadings available, and coming onto the market, and Grendel ammo from Hornady is on the shelves at Cabella's and a growing number of gun stores. There are 3 within 15 min of me that carry it on the shelves.
There are more companies who jumped on the bandwagon with 6.8, and in the rush, an unsafe chamber got SAAMI-spec'd somehow, and you have to figure out which one you have or make sure that you DON'T get a SAAMI chamber in 6.8, or it could kaboom on you since it has an 80 degree leade-to-rifling hand-off. This is why the 6.8 SPC II chamber is the one everyone is pointing out to go with, rather than the dangerous one. That makes ammo manufacturers really leary about loading higher-pressure loads, and many 6.8 owners have noticed that their 115gr bullets aren't going the speeds claimed by the makers on the box, or in the original guns that had correct chambers. Many report 200fps less MV, so guess what...they resort to hand-loading, and stick to...small rifle primer brass to handle the pressures. I would do the exact same thing if I owned one, so factory ammo is out for me either way with these calibers, especially if you're an accuracy nut and get a warm and fuzzy when your bullets fly through a hole where your aiming reference is.
In the long run, it was prudent for AA to insist on the exact chamber dimensions of the Grendel, rather than let everyone and their brother to make "their improvement" on it, since so much R&D had been performed by AA on more chamber dimensions than we can shake a stick at.
There are more companies who jumped on the bandwagon with 6.8, and in the rush, an unsafe chamber got SAAMI-spec'd somehow, and you have to figure out which one you have or make sure that you DON'T get a SAAMI chamber in 6.8, or it could kaboom on you since it has an 80 degree leade-to-rifling hand-off. This is why the 6.8 SPC II chamber is the one everyone is pointing out to go with, rather than the dangerous one. That makes ammo manufacturers really leary about loading higher-pressure loads, and many 6.8 owners have noticed that their 115gr bullets aren't going the speeds claimed by the makers on the box, or in the original guns that had correct chambers. Many report 200fps less MV, so guess what...they resort to hand-loading, and stick to...small rifle primer brass to handle the pressures. I would do the exact same thing if I owned one, so factory ammo is out for me either way with these calibers, especially if you're an accuracy nut and get a warm and fuzzy when your bullets fly through a hole where your aiming reference is.
In the long run, it was prudent for AA to insist on the exact chamber dimensions of the Grendel, rather than let everyone and their brother to make "their improvement" on it, since so much R&D had been performed by AA on more chamber dimensions than we can shake a stick at.