07-16-2020, 03:26 AM
I think the early problems stemmed more from the manufacturers cutting corners with material, heat treat, or using cheap X39 bolts. The Grendel bolt still isn't perfect, they seem to come mostly with sharp edges, extractor corners, ejector holes, and machining marks that other bolts (5.56) don't. But the materials, heat treatment, and machining issues that led to brittle lugs early in the game seem to have been all but eliminated. I found it funny that back when a lot of the complaints of this were common, guys had used the cheapest bolts (to be fair, there was also a rather significant wait time for many of the good bolts at the time) in their builds, ran hotter loads than they probably should have, and immediately assumed it was the Grendel's problem. It wasn't. Funny how JP was able to build a bolt that worked, and didn't seem to fail, regardless of how hard some early testers pushed their builds...
It was the common issues that come with development; and some market T&E that every cartridge that pushes the limits of it's platform like Grendel does in the AR will have. Manufacturers had to figure a lot of this out, and early on it was more challenging making Grendel bolts than running a batch of 5.56 bolts which was so well understood by then that it's production processes were on cruise control... Growing pains so to speak. In most everything I've read, the only guys that had issues getting replacements or service were the type of assholes that I wouldn't want to deal with either...
It was the common issues that come with development; and some market T&E that every cartridge that pushes the limits of it's platform like Grendel does in the AR will have. Manufacturers had to figure a lot of this out, and early on it was more challenging making Grendel bolts than running a batch of 5.56 bolts which was so well understood by then that it's production processes were on cruise control... Growing pains so to speak. In most everything I've read, the only guys that had issues getting replacements or service were the type of assholes that I wouldn't want to deal with either...
Nothing kills the incentive of men faster than a healthy sense of entitlement. Nothing kills entitlement faster than a healthy sense of achievement.