SAAMI Chamber or Not?

[SixFive87]

Trying to decide what barrel to get.I was gonna get Wilson but have been advised there are better bangs for my buck.I have a Faxon BCG and I have heard Faxon makes a good lighter weight barrel that is suppose to be accurate.But they are SAAMI chambered and others I have looked at are type 2 chambered.Whats the difference and would Faxon be good to go with since I already have their BCG?

[mdram]

precision firearms criterion is 300-350, depending on your add ons

[SixFive87]

precision firearms criterion is 300-350, depending on your add ons

Yeah I looked into them for what I want it would be $625 and 8-10 weeks before it shipped.Im looking for a 20” barrel black in color, Sub MOA,And fluted would be nice and I don’t want to spend over $500 or wait 2.5 months for it to ship

[mdram]

Yeah I looked into them for what I want it would be $625 and 8-10 weeks before it shipped.Im looking for a 20” barrel black in color, Sub MOA,And fluted would be nice and I don’t want to spend over $500 or wait 2.5 months for it to ship

fluting will raise the cost from anyone,

[VASCAR2]

The SAAMI chambered barrels produce good accuracy with most any bullet if your using a quality barrel. There has been considerable confusion on the nomenclature surrounding the 6.5 Grendel. The SAAMI chamber uses a compound angle throat compared to many traditional tapered throats in rifle barrels. The compound throat proved to be the most accurate and versatile chamber when Bill Alexander was doing product research before releasing the 6.5 Grendel.

A traditional chamber is used in the 264 LBC but this chamber is open source non SAAMI accepted design. Les Baer introduced the 264 LBC and advertised it was optimized for the 123 grain SMK. Black Hole Weaponry (BHW) now Columbia River Arms has sold a lot of 264 LBC barrels. BHW coined the term Type I for barrels chambered to use .125” bolt face depth (7.62x39 bolt) and Type II for .136 6.5 Grendel bolt.

To add confusion Satern/Liberty released Grendel II barrel with traditional throat with long free bore to accept long 6.5/.264 bullets. In my opinion the tolerances are not as critical on the traditional chambers and might be why some manufacturers turn out numerous out of spec 6.5 Grendel SAAMI chambers.

Lothar Walther sell a 6.5 CSS barrel, Model 1 Sales offers a 6.5 Sporter chamber plus Anderson sold a Grendel 1 chambered barrel for a short time. All these barrels shoot 6.5 Grendel ammunition but the market has been moving to the SAAMI spec 6.5 Grendel chamber. Bear Creek Arsenal who has produced a lot of 6.5 Grendel barrels has quietly quit using the SAAMI Spec 6.5 Grendel chamber.

If a manufacturer uses quality reamers and hold to close tolerances they can manufacture accurate SAAMI spec 6.5 Grendel barrels. Mass produced high volume manufacturers tend to have a lot more out of spec chambers with accuracy problems in the 6.5 Grendel barrels compared to 5.56/223 barrels.

[SixFive87]

fluting will raise the cost from anyone,

The Faxon and the Wilson were already fluted and way under $625

[VASCAR2]

I was looking on some vendor web sites over the last few days and there are an abundance of out of stock AR-15 products. There has been a run on firearms and related products like we saw when the Democrats won big a few years ago. When I started looking at the 6.5 Grendel in 2009 it was very difficult to find any 6.5 Grendel barrel in stock. Up until the first of March the availability and prices were very favorable for 6.5 Grendel shooters. The Covid 19 and civil unrest has sparked a buying frenzy in firearms and ammunition.

Everybody talked about how toilet paper and cleaning supplies disappeared off store shelves. The same thing has happened to firearms, ammunition and gun parts.

[mdram]

The Faxon and the Wilson were already fluted and way under $625

understood, but remember the criterion is at least 300 from any source, add in the fluting would take it up.

you can check out the reviews on various barrels all over the site.

[VASCAR2]

Precision Firearms is basically a custom shop like Rock Creek, Les Baer, and a few others. Your always going to have to pay more from a custom shop because they are not into mass produced volume sales. Criterion, Lilja and Wilson Combat tend to have more production capacity and could be found in stock and ready to ship. With the pandemic and civil unrest most inventory has been sold in the firearms industry.

Right now it is going to be difficult to find anything 6.5 Grendel related in stock and I suspect you’ll see price increases because of the demand.

[SixFive87]

Precision Firearms is basically a custom shop like Rock Creek, Les Baer, and a few others. Your always going to have to pay more from a custom shop because they are not into mass produced volume sales. Criterion, Lilja and Wilson Combat tend to have more production capacity and could be found in stock and ready to ship. With the pandemic and civil unrest most inventory has been sold in the firearms industry.

Right now it is going to be difficult to find anything 6.5 Grendel related in stock and I suspect you’ll see price increases because of the demand.

I may just for the time being order an upper assembly from Grendel Hunter minus BCG and just use it since I can get the entire package for $580 and then later down the road save up and get a Custom Shop barrel downer the road or heck I may build another one if this one works out.

[VASCAR2]

There are a lot of forum members who have numerous 6.5 Grendels. Grendel Hunter uses Liberty button rifled 1:8 twist SS barrels last I heard. Grendel Hunter uppers get good reviews on this forum.

[ricsmall]

Wilson combat barrels are shooters. I’ve put together 5-6 now with WC barrels and they’re great.

[SixFive87]

Wilson combat barrels are shooters. I’ve put together 5-6 now with WC barrels and they’re great.

That makes me feel a lot better.I’ll either go with that or Grendel hunter Upper without the BCG

[SixFive87]

There are a lot of forum members who have numerous 6.5 Grendels. Grendel Hunter uses Liberty button rifled 1:8 twist SS barrels last I heard. Grendel Hunter uppers get good reviews on this forum.

Yeah I talked to the guy that owns Grendel Hunter he seemed super knowledgeable for sure.I wanna say I heard his uppers used Aero receivers but I forgot to ask him.I may just go that route for simplicity.Im ready to shoot this dang thing

[hill37]

Wilson Combat is out of 20"Recon barrels. Still shows 20" Hunter barrels , if you don't want a muzzle device. They have a black coating for $40. I think BFT has Monster bolts for $55.

[SixFive87]

Wilson Combat is out of 20"Recon barrels. Still shows 20" Hunter barrels , if you don't want a muzzle device. They have a black coating for $40. I think BFT has Monster bolts for $55.

My BCG came in mail today.Aero M4E1 should be here tomorrow.Im prolly just gonna go with the Grendel Hunter setup with the muzzle device with it.Should shoot well enough and then later down the road I’ll get a better barrel perhaps but this setup will probably be fine to hunt with.Maybe I’ll splurge on an expensive barrel when I build a light weight AR-10 rifle.

[mel]

1000y 3 rd group out of my 20inch wilson recon
a random 5rd group at 100

and this was a 10 rd group at 175Y iirc


squares on the paper targets at 1/2 inch
the 10rd group was shot with factory hornaday black eld-m

[SixFive87]

1000y 3 rd group out of my 20inch wilson recon
a random 5rd group at 100

and this was a 10 rd group at 175Y iirc


squares on the paper targets at 1/2 inch
the 10rd group was shot with factory hornaday black eld-m

Looks every bit worth the $300 for the barrel to me

[SixFive87]

Got the AERO M4E1 in today also.Starting to come together