Best off the rack bolt Grendel

[Wethepeople]

Here's my conundrum. I broke the stock on an Interarms .308 a few years ago. Ordered a replacement stock from Numrich. Needed to do some additional inletting for the side tang safety plus a little more to allow the action to be centered in the stock and achieve good alignment of the action and bottom metal. Not having bedded an M98 style action before and fearing I might bond the two halves together, I visited a local Smith to ask if he would be willing to bed it for me. Showed him the inletting mods I did and why. He said it all looked good and he'd be happy to bed it. He took delivery on 8-9-19.

Planned to give the rifle to my grandson for his birthday end of this month. The Smith still hasn't started it. So I'm going to buy my grandson a bolt Grendel since I don't know when the Smith is going to get around to it. Seems a bit long for a bedding job but don't want to get pushy and I do like the guy.

So what's the best off the rack bolt Grendel I can buy for his bday?

[A5BLASTER]

Howa or CZ is going to be the best 2 in my mind.

[tarrack]

stock howa has a shit stock better to get a action and put a decent stock on it

gary

[Drillboss]

I'll be a little sacrilegious here. Don't get me wrong, I love the Grendel and have three of them. But if I was going to buy a bolt action 6.5, it would be a Creedmore. The Grendel is an awesome round for the AR-15 platform. I've got no use for an AR-10, but for a boltie, I'd go Creedmore.

[tarrack]

6.5 creedmore in a compass good gun and not very expensive. I love me 223 556 in a compass

gary

[A5BLASTER]

But then again he didn't ask anyone a single thing about a creedmoor did he gents.

Let's let the OP make is own mind up about what he buys his grandchildren. And stop trying to convince him he should buy what you like in a bolt action rifle.

[Wethepeople]

His Dad has an RPR Creedmore in their trust. Wanted to do something different.

[Drillboss]

But then again he didn't ask anyone a single thing about a creedmoor did he gents.

Let's let the OP make is own mind up about what he buys his grandchildren. And stop trying to convince him he should buy what you like in a bolt action rifle.

I'm not trying to convince the OP of anything, just stating an opinion. Aside from slightly more recoil, the Creedmoor looks like a more versatile option for a 6.5 boltie. If you're already reloading for the Grendel, then sure, get a Grendel boltie. If you're looking for a higher potential option in a bolt action, I'd buy a Creedmoor.

[Wethepeople]

Easy fellas. No offense taken. I'm just getting setup to reload for my Grendel AR, so I can reload for the kid too.

[tarrack]

beach stock 6.5 Grendel cz 527

gary

[Drillboss]

Easy fellas. No offense taken. I'm just getting setup to reload for my Grendel AR, so I can reload for the kid too.

Like I said, just sharing an opinion. I'm not trying to push you one way or another.

[FLshooter]

Ruger American predator. Shoots pretty good out of the box. And there’s plenty aftermarket parts if he gets bored with it in the future.

[Wethepeople]

No worries drillboss. "Drillboss"? You work the rigs?

[grayfox]

Howa, Ruger Predator, CZ... you have basically these choices, all pretty economical too.
How-some-ever..... for my grandsons' first hunt (2 guys close in age), I'm breaking them in on a 6 Creed, 90 gr TGK, lite but potent load.
This 6CM is I guess a slight step up but it's so sweet to shoot with so little recoil... well the promise is already made so they're countin' the days!

But for the Gr bolt, each one of the above has things folks like and dislike. I like a better cheek weld and better stock so I've upgraded stocks no matter what; the factory Howa/Ruger ones basically tupperware.

[Wethepeople]

Just for clarity. Between the 2 of them, they own alot of bolts in many calibers. His Dad has been talking about having Dan Dowling build him a Dasher. I know they have a 6.5x47 Lapua. I just want to get something I know they don't have that I already load for. Thanks for the replies.

[kmon]

I wanted a Grendel boltaction before they were available, so I had one built from a CZ 537 7.62X39 carbine, to my specs. I have quite a few other rifles and did not really need another but loved the way the Grendel does in the AR platform and the cartridge serves my needs for hunting whitetails and hogs. I have 4 other 6.5s but wanted a Grendel in a light weight well balanced rifle for hunting. That little 527 has become my favorite hunting rifle by far.

CZ has stepprd up their game with the Grendel after thay finally decided to get in the game with it. A5Blaster seems to be enjoying the one he gor recently. I would get one og those in a heart beat. '

If doing a Howa I would probably go with a barreled action and a LSS Chassis for the stock. Not sure the age or size of the Grandson but if adjustable butstock would be handy for him I would go that way with a bolt action.

The RUger American Ranch has caught mu attention lately, handy sized little light weight rifle with a threaded barrel if they already have a can.

[grayfox]

Didn't mean to take you too far afield.
But yeah, just to mention that howa has 3 barrels, 16" youth, 20 threaded HB, and 22" sporter.
Ruger has both a threaded 22 (predator) and a threaded 16 (Ranch) for the Grr.
That is, if my memory is working right this late at nite.
And IIRC B&C has a lite wt sporter stock for the howa, you can see 'em on their website.

[tdbru]

well, here's my 2 cents are worth, and that's probably all it's worth. LOL. i looked at the cz 527. a friend had one and i wasn't really keen on how they did the back end of the bolt. the handle, etc. it's not one piece bolt. and the safety works backwards from what most other bolt guns here in the USA work. and i didn't like the mag hanging below the action. on the other hand many here say the CZ527 shoots quite well.

i have two bolt Grendels. long before the Grendel became popular i was looking for a light handy carbine in 7.62x39. bolt gun. back when you could get really cheap chi-com plinking ammo. about all i could find was a Rem 799 which is/was actually a Zastava M85. liked the bottom metal a lot. hinged floor plate. but it wouldn't keep 5 rounds on the side of a barn from inside the barn. finally got a throat slug and it measured 0.338" despite Rem's insistence that they adhered to the SAAMI chamber spec. bah! so i rebarreled it to 6.5 Grendel. now Zastava is direct importing and maybe they'll bring in the M85 in 6.5 Grendel. who knows. the pluses are one piece bolt. fixed ejector. to me the fixed ejector is a plus for a range gun. the recoil lug on the M85 is not much. that's a minus. and the extractor is pretty lame. with the fixed ejector, the extractor HAS to keep side pressure on the round to keep the case on the bolt face or it just comes out of the chamber and then lays there on the follower. mine had little to no side pressure so once it got the case out of the chamber it would come off the bolt face and just lie there on the follower. i've had to file and tweak the extractor to get it to somewhat work. so for a field rifle, it ended up being a no-show so to speak. had the extractor put enough side tension on the case head to keep the case captured against the bolt face until the fixed extractor hit it, i would have been happy. so it's fine for a range rifle. not so good if you positively need to get cases ejected clear of the action. couple years ago i got excited when Howa announced the mini howa in 6.5 Grendel. i found a fully camo'd 22" bbl 6.5 Grendel and took it home. pluses are one piece bolt. also plunger ejector and a better design extractor than the M85 so it never has a problem clearing the case from the action. good for hunting / field work. not so great at the range if you want to keep your brass to reload. also in both of these designs, the recoil lug is part of the action. that's a plus to me. and the mini howa has a nice big recoil lug. the front action bolt on the M85 goes through the action into the bolt lug recesses like on a Winchester Model 70 or a Rem 700. if the screw is ever too long or the stock compresses over time there's a small risk of the end of the front action screw sticking up in the bolt lug raceway enough to bind up the bolt. the Howa front action screw goes into the center of the big recoil lug like the Mauser Model 98 does. never a risk of binding up the action due to stock compression over time. both have a nice triggers though the howa is a 2 stage trigger and the M85 is single stage. well, both can be nice if adjusted. both had pretty heavy trigger pulls out of the box. at least mine did. but they were both adjustable and so they're much nicer now. another plus with the mini howa is it's pretty light weight overall. i don't like the mini-howa tupperware stock, but it is quite rugged. it does have aluminum pillars in it. but the forend is a bit flexible. another dislike on the mini howa is the bottom "metal" that's plastic and when you tighten the action screws you crack the "bottom metal". and the magazine release is right where you'd carry the rifle and if you're not overly careful, you'll drop the magazine out of the rifle when you don't want to. and the magazines are plastic. the CZ's were metal. i prefer metal. but the plastic ones are working so far. because the ejection on the mini-howa is much more reliable than my M85 it makes a much better field rifle. the rugers i've not seen or handled yet. looking at the reviews i don't particularly like the way the action recoil is dealt with, milling slots in the action and the stock and dropping a steel plate in that fits in the slots in both the action and the stock and calling it a recoil lug. but that's just me, there are good reviews of the rifles performance. again it has a tupperware stock. rugged but not super stiff. and the ruger can take AR magazines, and that can be a plus or minus depending on what you think of that. in the cz's you can get in wood stock. they too have had good reviews on their performance. the cz tend t be a bit pricier than the Howa around here.

so there you go. 3 commonly available actions/rifles. perhaps Zastava will offer the M85 in 6.5 Grendel in the near term and make it 4. none of them are "perfect" to me. all have their pluses and minuses. in terms of the action alone between the 3 common one, i personally prefer the Howa in design and execution, but have no experience with the Ruger so take that for what it's worth.

one thing all these mini bolts have an issue with, of the 3 i've handled, is that the bolt handle has also been made petite like the rest of the action. this makes it more of a two fingered operation rather than your whole hand. they're short in length, with small knobs. so getting a good grip on them, quickly, isn't as easy for me as a full size bolt action bolt. again i can't comment on how the Ruger feels in that regards. another thing with the small bolt handles and knobs, they also come quite close to the scope eyepiece rather than stick out past it. this also makes operating the bolt a 2 finger finesse kind of thing. you won't get your whole hand on the knob and then past the scope eyepiece. littler hands may not have as much of an issue. so in the end due to the more modest price, light weight and design of the action/bolt i'd recommend the mini howa. members on this forum have all 3 of the major bolt offerings and i've heard both good and bad about all three.

so you pay your money and take your chances.
-tdbru

[A5BLASTER]

well, here's my 2 cents are worth, and that's probably all it's worth. LOL. i looked at the cz 527. a friend had one and i wasn't really keen on how they did the back end of the bolt. the handle, etc. it's not one piece bolt. and the safety works backwards from what most other bolt guns here in the USA work. and i didn't like the mag hanging below the action. on the other hand many here say the CZ527 shoots quite well.

i have two bolt Grendels. long before the Grendel became popular i was looking for a light handy carbine in 7.62x39. bolt gun. back when you could get really cheap chi-com plinking ammo. about all i could find was a Rem 799 which is/was actually a Zastava M85. liked the bottom metal a lot. hinged floor plate. but it wouldn't keep 5 rounds on the side of a barn from inside the barn. finally got a throat slug and it measured 0.338" despite Rem's insistence that they adhered to the SAAMI chamber spec. bah! so i rebarreled it to 6.5 Grendel. now Zastava is direct importing and maybe they'll bring in the M85 in 6.5 Grendel. who knows. the pluses are one piece bolt. fixed ejector. to me the fixed ejector is a plus for a range gun. the recoil lug on the M85 is not much. that's a minus. and the extractor is pretty lame. with the fixed ejector, the extractor HAS to keep side pressure on the round to keep the case on the bolt face or it just comes out of the chamber and then lays there on the follower. mine had little to no side pressure so once it got the case out of the chamber it would come off the bolt face and just lie there on the follower. i've had to file and tweak the extractor to get it to somewhat work. so for a field rifle, it ended up being a no-show so to speak. had the extractor put enough side tension on the case head to keep the case captured against the bolt face until the fixed extractor hit it, i would have been happy. so it's fine for a range rifle. not so good if you positively need to get cases ejected clear of the action. couple years ago i got excited when Howa announced the mini howa in 6.5 Grendel. i found a fully camo'd 22" bbl 6.5 Grendel and took it home. pluses are one piece bolt. also plunger ejector and a better design extractor than the M85 so it never has a problem clearing the case from the action. good for hunting / field work. not so great at the range if you want to keep your brass to reload. also in both of these designs, the recoil lug is part of the action. that's a plus to me. and the mini howa has a nice big recoil lug. the front action bolt on the M85 goes through the action into the bolt lug recesses like on a Winchester Model 70 or a Rem 700. if the screw is ever too long or the stock compresses over time there's a small risk of the end of the front action screw sticking up in the bolt lug raceway enough to bind up the bolt. the Howa front action screw goes into the center of the big recoil lug like the Mauser Model 98 does. never a risk of binding up the action due to stock compression over time. both have a nice triggers though the howa is a 2 stage trigger and the M85 is single stage. well, both can be nice if adjusted. both had pretty heavy trigger pulls out of the box. at least mine did. but they were both adjustable and so they're much nicer now. another plus with the mini howa is it's pretty light weight overall. i don't like the mini-howa tupperware stock, but it is quite rugged. it does have aluminum pillars in it. but the forend is a bit flexible. another dislike on the mini howa is the bottom "metal" that's plastic and when you tighten the action screws you crack the "bottom metal". and the magazine release is right where you'd carry the rifle and if you're not overly careful, you'll drop the magazine out of the rifle when you don't want to. and the magazines are plastic. the CZ's were metal. i prefer metal. but the plastic ones are working so far. because the ejection on the mini-howa is much more reliable than my M85 it makes a much better field rifle. the rugers i've not seen or handled yet. looking at the reviews i don't particularly like the way the action recoil is dealt with, milling slots in the action and the stock and dropping a steel plate in that fits in the slots in both the action and the stock and calling it a recoil lug. but that's just me, there are good reviews of the rifles performance. again it has a tupperware stock. rugged but not super stiff. and the ruger can take AR magazines, and that can be a plus or minus depending on what you think of that. in the cz's you can get in wood stock. they too have had good reviews on their performance. the cz tend t be a bit pricier than the Howa around here.

so there you go. 3 commonly available actions/rifles. perhaps Zastava will offer the M85 in 6.5 Grendel in the near term and make it 4. none of them are "perfect" to me. all have their pluses and minuses. in terms of the action alone between the 3 common one, i personally prefer the Howa in design and execution, but have no experience with the Ruger so take that for what it's worth.

one thing all these mini bolts have an issue with, of the 3 i've handled, is that the bolt handle has also been made petite like the rest of the action. this makes it more of a two fingered operation rather than your whole hand. they're short in length, with small knobs. so getting a good grip on them, quickly, isn't as easy for me as a full size bolt action bolt. again i can't comment on how the Ruger feels in that regards. another thing with the small bolt handles and knobs, they also come quite close to the scope eyepiece rather than stick out past it. this also makes operating the bolt a 2 finger finesse kind of thing. you won't get your whole hand on the knob and then past the scope eyepiece. littler hands may not have as much of an issue. so in the end due to the more modest price, light weight and design of the action/bolt i'd recommend the mini howa. members on this forum have all 3 of the major bolt offerings and i've heard both good and bad about all three.

so you pay your money and take your chances.
-tdbru

I too was worried I would have issues with the backwards saftey on my CZ grendel.

But it wasn't a issue, smooth transition from American style to it, basiclly after on range session it was second nature already.

There is a company you can send the CZ bottom metal and mags to and they will mod them for a flush fit.

[Wethepeople]

You guys saved me a ton of research. I didn't know alot about these mini action bolts until now.

A few tradeoffs to consider. My son will be up from Texas late tomorrow. We'll drive into town probably day after and take a look at the 3 offerings. I'll discuss this thread with him and get him up to speed.

Interestingly, the interarms Mark X I mentioned is an M98 style Zastava action. It's a large ring and apparently barreled by Zastava and stocked in Manchester, England. The reciever ring has a Whitworth roll mark, so I assume it was Whitworth that added the stock or was just a mix of parts Zastava used in building the barreled action. Dunno. It shot a legitimate moa with Rem Core-lokt. I slid down a scree slope elk hunting quite a few years ago and broke a huge chunk of the stock off at the bottom portion of the butt plate. I put a slip on recoil pad on it and it sat in the safe ever since. My grandson shot it last summer and liked it alot. Asked me why the heck I didn't fix it. Told me if it was his he would have done something about it. So I guess he's getting a Grendel this year and have the Mark X ready to give him next year. That's how this whole saga got started.

Anyway, thanks alot. Jeff