6.5 Grendel on it's own merits

[Double Naught Spy]

I think I've read on this subforum or a couple of the other subforums, statements that say that w/o the AR platform, the 6.5 Grendel would cease to exist as one would go to the 6.5 CM, 260Rem, 6.5x55, 6.5 PRC, or other higher performance 6.5.

If ARs went away, 6.5 Grendel might not cease to exist, but its popularity would decline substantially. That isn't apt to happen, however. If ARs went away, I don't see a whole lot of manufacturers clambering to make other types of guns to fill the void for 6.5 Grendel. 6.5 Grendel has been all that popular with non-AR platforms.

Now, had the statement been that 6.5 Grendel would never have existed without the AR15, I would have to say that the claim is correct. I don't know, maybe somebody somewhere would have come up with a non-AR15-based chamber cartridge that uses the same amount of powder and gets the exact same performance. People are wildcatting all sorts of cartridges and all claim some sort of superiority over existing cartridges, LOL. However, it would likely have been called something else.