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[LRRPF52]

Welcome aboard!

PSA are hit and miss, mostly hit. BCA are miss and hit, with a very high return rate for defects. Some people roll the dice and land, many don’t.

If you really want 1 MOA or less, it’s best to just pay for it out of the gate and increase your odds.

Brands I have had success with over the past 13 years:

Bartlein turned and chambered by Precision Firearms, which is more for surgical target work.

Krieger from PF, same as above.

Satern offered by Alexander Arms in their top-end rifles, no longer available.

Lilja from PF, generally in the 3/8s to 3/4 MOA range, better price point.

Lilja directly from Lilja, which I have 3 of myself, and have built many using, ranging from 16” to 23”.

Criterion from PF

Alexander Arms 16”, 18”, 20”

Group Buy Faxon 12”

A 10.5” and longer will cover 150yds easily. 400yds I would lean on bullet selection, or a combo of bullet and barrel length built on top of a lot of quality training, not one-off shots.

With all but one of your cup and core hunting bullets, your expansion threshold will be limited to 350yds assuming 2400fps mv with a 123gr SST and a more accurate BC of .462 (advertised BC is .510, which is pre-doppler radar/pre-Litz).

At 2300fps mv (more common to 11.5”-12” Grendel with 123gr SST factory), you’ll have 1800fps expansion out to 275-300yds.

There are different barrel length max effective expansion ranges you can base off this way, assuming 123gr SST:

10.5” ~260yds
11.5” ~300yds
12.5” 300-350yds
14.5” 330-400yds
16” 380-420yds
18” 400-440yds
20” 430-490yds
24” 500-520yds

Here’s a basic image that shows each at the bottom end performance where they hit 900ft-lbs:


This kind of data and much more are included in the 6.5 Grendel Handbooks:



If you use the 129gr ABLR, you’ll have expansion much farther than any of those, even with the short barrels, but it’s a premium bullet. It expands down to 1300fps, so even at 2300fps muzzle velocity, it has 852ft-lbs at 400yds, 1725fps impact velocity.

More important that anything though is training from field positions at 400yds for those occasional long shots across farm fields.

For the rest of the time, you’re fine with a short barrel, compact hunting Grendel.

I have become quite fond of my 12” 6.5 Grendel, just got another 12” barrel from SixFiveArms. I’m almost exclusively shooting steel targets with it for fun.