05-08-2011, 03:54 PM
LR1955,
I think there will always be better and lesser cartridges, just as is the case with sports teams, professional fighters, auto racing, and so on. A poorly built rifle in any caliber will hamper performance. You are absoutely correct about malfunctions making it almost impossible to win against rifles that don't malfunction. If shooters of equal performance compete and one has a malfunction, while the other shooter's rifle works perfectly, the outcome is not in doubt (at least not to you and I).
The Army marksmanship unit recently found that if they compared Grendels shooting a 123 grain bullet against a 30 caliber 123 grain bullet at the same velocity, the 30 caliber rifle has less recoil, and this helped them win more matches. Obviously, the 30 caliber 123 grain bullet won't have the long distance performance of the 6.5mm 123 grain bullet because of the vastly superior ballistic coefficient of the 6.5mm bullet. However, the Army teams found that the 30 caliber bullet is adequate out to around 300 yards where the majority of action type/practical rifle shooting takes place.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I have no disagreement with your statement. I have used my Grendels to win at both practical rifle, and precision rifle matches. Probably because my Grendels didn't malfunction while I was at the match.
I have been fortunate in that regard, as I have had bolts break on my Grendels. Since having the upper receivers trued, I haven't had any bolt breakage. But, for all I know, my bolts will break again the next time I shoot them...or they may last forever. I doubt anyone can predict when a bolt will break. Bolt replacement is even recommended for the 5.56 cartridge, so I guess there isn't any bolt that is immune from the possibility of breakage. The only thing we can say is that the 5.56 bolts are less likely to break, and that is significant.
But performance comes at a cost. Either short barrel life with the 6.5x284, or with the Grendel bolt failures. I think the "big bolt" marketed by AR15performance will do a great deal to increase reliability...when it is generally available.
In any case, I'm still a fan of the 5.56, the Grendel, the 308, the 260 Remington, and the 300 Win mag. Every one of those cartridges has it's downside. If the 260 Remington Ackley Improved would feed better out of a semi-auto rifle, it would be very close to perfect. But, again, the downside is relatively short barrel life. All cartridges have their shortcomings, and their advantages.
There isn't a single cartridge that is "universally wonderful" at all shooting events. We pick our cartridge based on what we perceive it's advantages and disadvantages to be for the shooting event we are planning on competing in. Even opinions about which cartridge is "best" for a given event is usually a hotly debated issue.
But I'm not quite clear on how this discussion stays on the originally posted topic about Bill Alexander having local meetings. So, for now, I'm going to err on the conservative side of not getting into further off topic discussions here. I would like to avoid a scolding for straying too far off the original topic of the thread.
I think there will always be better and lesser cartridges, just as is the case with sports teams, professional fighters, auto racing, and so on. A poorly built rifle in any caliber will hamper performance. You are absoutely correct about malfunctions making it almost impossible to win against rifles that don't malfunction. If shooters of equal performance compete and one has a malfunction, while the other shooter's rifle works perfectly, the outcome is not in doubt (at least not to you and I).
The Army marksmanship unit recently found that if they compared Grendels shooting a 123 grain bullet against a 30 caliber 123 grain bullet at the same velocity, the 30 caliber rifle has less recoil, and this helped them win more matches. Obviously, the 30 caliber 123 grain bullet won't have the long distance performance of the 6.5mm 123 grain bullet because of the vastly superior ballistic coefficient of the 6.5mm bullet. However, the Army teams found that the 30 caliber bullet is adequate out to around 300 yards where the majority of action type/practical rifle shooting takes place.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that I have no disagreement with your statement. I have used my Grendels to win at both practical rifle, and precision rifle matches. Probably because my Grendels didn't malfunction while I was at the match.
I have been fortunate in that regard, as I have had bolts break on my Grendels. Since having the upper receivers trued, I haven't had any bolt breakage. But, for all I know, my bolts will break again the next time I shoot them...or they may last forever. I doubt anyone can predict when a bolt will break. Bolt replacement is even recommended for the 5.56 cartridge, so I guess there isn't any bolt that is immune from the possibility of breakage. The only thing we can say is that the 5.56 bolts are less likely to break, and that is significant.
But performance comes at a cost. Either short barrel life with the 6.5x284, or with the Grendel bolt failures. I think the "big bolt" marketed by AR15performance will do a great deal to increase reliability...when it is generally available.
In any case, I'm still a fan of the 5.56, the Grendel, the 308, the 260 Remington, and the 300 Win mag. Every one of those cartridges has it's downside. If the 260 Remington Ackley Improved would feed better out of a semi-auto rifle, it would be very close to perfect. But, again, the downside is relatively short barrel life. All cartridges have their shortcomings, and their advantages.
There isn't a single cartridge that is "universally wonderful" at all shooting events. We pick our cartridge based on what we perceive it's advantages and disadvantages to be for the shooting event we are planning on competing in. Even opinions about which cartridge is "best" for a given event is usually a hotly debated issue.
But I'm not quite clear on how this discussion stays on the originally posted topic about Bill Alexander having local meetings. So, for now, I'm going to err on the conservative side of not getting into further off topic discussions here. I would like to avoid a scolding for straying too far off the original topic of the thread.