My 20" SAOD 6.5 helped me win a match this weekend.

[LRRPF52]

Amen to that! One advantage of that light recoil is the ability not to lose the sight picture when attempting timed precision events like our Drop 8. The accuracy just enhances the whole deal. BTW, that was the clubs first win with the 6.5 in the 27 matches we have held since 2006. No one else has though to use one. My son shoots a 6.8 SPC II and is soon to threaten a win. His is accurate and like the 6.5, easy to shoot fast.

At 200yds, the plates will not know the difference between the 6.8 and the Grendel when running the same relative bullet weight class. A fast 100gr load in both of them would be good for getting on the next target quickly for splits.

I was bitten quite hard by the retro bug with AR15's, to the point that I have participated in group projects where we invested in having a foundry make us the old prototype front sight base seen on the very early Armalite AR15's from 1957. Nodak Spud already makes a trigger charge handle upper, and I haven't gotten my barrel yet for that project, which will be a .875" diameter with flutes under the handguard like the original Armalites. Here's a reproduction that a very talented smith did:



The main giveaway that's it's a repro is that it doesn't have what we call the "Type A" stock. The lower also has the channel for the mag catch bulge, which didn't exist on the tool room guns. Here's another he did with the correct lower receiver profile and a home-made 25rd magazine: