03-26-2014, 01:41 PM
PigOPs Wrote:My concern has been this idea lately that the Grendel cartridge isn't quite hot enough so lets make longer throats so we can have longer bullets so we can have more powder capacity, ad naseum... MY OPINION MY OPINION MY OPINION is that this comes from a misunderstanding of what makes the Grendel so great: BCs The Grendel has delivered everything that drew me to it... maintained velocity over an extended range with fantastic wind fighting capability. For me this means I can take the 300 yard shot and know what my bullet is going to do when it hits a given animal. Muzzle velocity isn't the only number to look at when forming opinions on ballistics.
That seems to have been the rallying call of late in certain circles who had a vested interest (financial?) in defending the Liberty barrels. Some of which had short throats and had to be "fixed". So now it's turned into finding every example in the last 10 years where someone had a stuck cartridge and using it as an example of design deficiency. And now it's shifting to bolt design as well. Same actors, and same (presumably) motive.
Lost in the posturing is some well intentioned desire to shoot heavier bullets for hunting. Bullets which normally have to be seated too deeply. So they are willing to go mag length or longer (6.8 mags, etc) and need deeper throats.
Personally, that is not of interest to me. Nor am I convinced the benefit will be as large as they think. 120/123 is the heaviest I will go in Grendel, and based on performance of the factory & reload 123g SST the cartridge is doing everything I want it to.
And keeping decent accuracy with current and future factory ammo is important to me. Which for me is where the Grendel shines.
I chuckle at some of the "I modified my throat, and it's shooting great, getting .75 or 1 MOA at 100 yards" comments. I've never seen a factory Grendel do worse than that. And one of mine was 1/2 moa with cheap glass and service trigger.