Third Generation Battle Rifle

[Tony Williams]

We may have to go to a longer case. I am not sure whether the current Grendel specs is maxing out the available space in the M4 Magazine. But then there is little reason to go to the longer case that the 260 Rem or 6.5 Creedmore have unless you plan to use the full sized 140 gn bullet.

The .260, 6.5mm Creedmore and 6.5x47 Lapua of course all use the same 12.0mm diameter case as the 7.62x51, so an 11.3mm-diam Grendel case would still be smaller and lighter even at comparable lengths. Having said that, I would think that stretching the Grendel case from 38mm out to 43-45mm should provide the performance needed.

I doubt that a 140 grain bullet would be feasible, given that the military want lead-free bullets - it would probably be too long to stabilise. Then a tracer version will be required, which is usually longer still.