05-16-2019, 12:17 AM
Ha! Well first off, you have to admit asking here has a little bit of selection-bias!
But all the same, the short answer is Grendel remains an outstanding choice at essentially any distance out to 1000+ yards. Everything it does at 800 yards it will do at 200 yards even better. At that distance, the shorter pistol configuration will allow a performance at 200 yards that even a standard 20" .223 AR15 just can't do; all while in the same size receiver set and small package.
I'd say BCHunter's reply pretty much nails it for my own thoughts (but I'm just one guy sharing his opinions). .308 is a large-frame rifle, and it's a whole other category of rifle, in weight and handling. Grendel is light and handy, yet hits harder than almost anything else in that sized gun. As distance increases, that differential gets even stronger; but the Grendel is more powerful at 100 yards, than it is at 300 yards; so there's no loss only shooting it 200 yards. yet, on the rare opportunity to stretch out to 400 + yards (single friend has the world of opportunities at his finger-tips); the Grendel can do it; and ethically drop a deer doing it. You can't do that with pretty much anything else in that size of rifle.
And at the same time, when your friend is just shooting in that 100-200 yard distance, he can shoot cheap Wolf Steel and just enjoy himself, plinking away with ammo in the .223 price spectrum doing it. Cheaper even than .308. Grendel is a Russian based cartridge dimension (unlike .308 and .223), and from what I can tell, a Grendel AR holds up and shoots steel much more pleasantly, than either of those cartridges will.
I would advise your friend get the 6.5 Grendel in a 16" or even pistol or SBR configuration, before the 6.5 Creedmoor. In my own progression, I'm not even sure if I would have bothered with a 6.5 CM AR10, had I started with the Grendel in the first place.
But all the same, the short answer is Grendel remains an outstanding choice at essentially any distance out to 1000+ yards. Everything it does at 800 yards it will do at 200 yards even better. At that distance, the shorter pistol configuration will allow a performance at 200 yards that even a standard 20" .223 AR15 just can't do; all while in the same size receiver set and small package.
I'd say BCHunter's reply pretty much nails it for my own thoughts (but I'm just one guy sharing his opinions). .308 is a large-frame rifle, and it's a whole other category of rifle, in weight and handling. Grendel is light and handy, yet hits harder than almost anything else in that sized gun. As distance increases, that differential gets even stronger; but the Grendel is more powerful at 100 yards, than it is at 300 yards; so there's no loss only shooting it 200 yards. yet, on the rare opportunity to stretch out to 400 + yards (single friend has the world of opportunities at his finger-tips); the Grendel can do it; and ethically drop a deer doing it. You can't do that with pretty much anything else in that size of rifle.
And at the same time, when your friend is just shooting in that 100-200 yard distance, he can shoot cheap Wolf Steel and just enjoy himself, plinking away with ammo in the .223 price spectrum doing it. Cheaper even than .308. Grendel is a Russian based cartridge dimension (unlike .308 and .223), and from what I can tell, a Grendel AR holds up and shoots steel much more pleasantly, than either of those cartridges will.
I would advise your friend get the 6.5 Grendel in a 16" or even pistol or SBR configuration, before the 6.5 Creedmoor. In my own progression, I'm not even sure if I would have bothered with a 6.5 CM AR10, had I started with the Grendel in the first place.