Help with buying a 6.5G AR requested!

[LRRPF52]

Lots of goods posts so far.

You basically have to decide on how serious you are about accuracy.

Are you $250 “serious”, $350, $475, $525, $675, or $725-$745 serious? That’s just for the barrel.

For me, I have a general rule to stick to the $475-$745 if I really want a shooter, but I have taken some risks with the more economical barrels and lucked-out most of the time.

Those economical options were Alexander Arms button-rifled barrels, and some group buy barrels we did here on the forum.

I think the best bang for the buck have been the Lilja and Precision Firearms Criterion barrels in the $340-$450 range if you want to ensure MOA or less.

I have found that bedding the barrels tightens up their grouping behavior, when combined with a good trigger and shooter, using upper quality mounts and optics.

If you want to return to the firing line with your bughole targets, to the delight and envy of your shooting buddies, pay and wait to get a Lilja, Bartlein or Krieger barrel from Precision Firearms.

If you’re happy with .6 to .9 MOA, you can select from the mid-range price points from Lilja and PF Criterion.

The lower price options might be .75” pipes, or they might be 1.2-1.5”, roll of the dice.

For hunting within ethical ranges for Grendel, you mainly want a reliable barrel/bolt/upper/lower combination that will hold 1.5”.

I have my misgivings about many of the lower price point companies mentioned to produce a consistent, aligned, correct chamber.

Exceptions to that have been the Faxon and Green Mountain group buy barrels you can find in the Group Buy section of the forum.

I have built 2x 12” Grendels with the original Faxon Group Buy barrels, and both consistently shoot 5rd 1 MOA groups or less with various target loads.

For a hunting set-up, I really like my 17.6” Lilja Wasp profile Grendel, but I primarily use it for target work.

I have a 16” Lilja Wasp Grendel that is also very lightweight that shoots .5” with 123gr A-MAX, actually shoots really well with 120gr PPU at ~.6”, and 123gr SST into .75”. All of the first set of groups I shot with it brand-new were .75” or less. It’s a hummer, but I never shoot it.

Here’s a chart/graphic that can help you decide about barrel lengths: