6.5 Grendel AR Options

Mine is pieced together around a Lilja barrel, it will shoot! And easily worth 1000+. The barrel itself is around $400ish.

Barrel, bolt (not BCG), and mags are the only thing not compatible with 223/5.56.

The only two Grendel bolts I would buy are Young manufacturing or JP. Radicals are dirt cheap, but I would not trust their bolts, personally. Also, be sure you match your bolt to your barrel/chamber, as two Types exist, and do not interchange.

I sent you a PM. If you're interested in having an upper built or building one yourself and would like a bit of help in either, let me know.

I just wanted to chime in that after having owned two complete Radical uppers, i believe they build a very good product for the price. Were i going to be buying a complete upper on the 4-500 dollar range again, id probably chose another Radical.

With all the research and recommendations ive read, I also agree with VT. If for some reason i DO another AR Grendel build, ill use a bolt from those guys, or perhaps ARP bolt/barrel combo.

Honestly, with a cartridge that runs so close envelope for the platform i feel that buying a higher quality complete upper, having a knowledgeable person (could be you if your comfortable with it) build an upper from good quality components to be a safe bet and good idea.

The Larue ultimate upper kit will give you every part you need except the lower receiver for $800. Added lower receiver of your choice for $50-100 and your are under your budget with the best option by far. Their complete rifles are like 2k do this is a great deal.

If you want reliability and accuracy I would stay away from CBC, classic, radical etc. You could get lucky maybe not. If you do decide to go value based bear Creek probably had the best feedback from what I have seen. Places like JSE surplus and dsa arms sell decent uppers you could pin to lower of your choice. Word has it PSA is going to start offering 6.5 as well. Probably announce something at shot show

Here is an option from DSA for a complete upper with Odin works barrel and bcg which are high quality. https://www.dsarms.com/p-16456-dsa-...pper-receiver-assembly-with-18-ss-barrel.aspx get a complete lower from PSA for $130 and good to go https://www.dsarms.com/p-16869-dsa-...ndguard-complete-barreled-upper-receiver.aspx . They also have some with ballistic advantage barrels that are accurate as well

This is a piggyback of the OP.

Background:

I have a spare Ruger AR556 complete lower lying around. I am very fond of 6.5mm bullets and cartridges. They are my favorites (guess you can say I am a slut for 6.5mm’s) and I am beginning to collect them as shooters. I load and shoot both the .260 Remington and 6.5 Creedmoor, so have a crap load of 6.5mm bullets in different weights lying around. I hunt with them. So for my birthday, I want to add a 6.5 Grendel to the stable. My whimsy.

1) I do not shoot in organized competitive matches...no interest.

2) I have no interest in the other boutique AR15 cartridges out there (300 Blk, 6.8 SPC, etc)...only the 6.5 Grendel...Less other junk to warehouse. Those other cartridges are non starters, period.

3) I have zero interest in building a rifle or an upper from scratch, so that is a non starter. Don’t want parts...want to drop in a complete functional upper.

I noted that no one has mentioned Alexander Arms’ complete 6.5 Grendel uppers. I have no experience with the company or their product line but I am interested in the looks of their complete upper with 20” barrel. The price does not scare me. That length looks to be a good optimization of the cartridge’s ballistics without being ungainly. So.....to my question.

Does anyone have actual experience in dropping an Alexander Arms complete upper in 6.5 Grendel on a standard lower and then shooting it? I am looking for feedback from real product users.

Are they reliable?

Easy to install?

Are they accurate?

I do not want to end up with an expensive POS.

Thanks all.

Can' t understand the reluctance to build your own AR. You get to choose exactly what you want, and can build a great rifle for less than you could buy those specific parts already assembled. Only takes about two hours to assemble if you have the vise blocks, a few gunsmithing tools and all the gun parts. You can get complete lower and upper kits, so it's easy to ensure all the little springs and pins, etc. are there.

IMO, the 6.5 Grendel is the best caliber available for the AR platform.

@Varminterror: the magazine follower is the only part (other than bolt and barrel), not compatible. Magazine dimensions are identical; not really sure if you can buy the follower separately(??) though.

There is no reason you can't drop a Grendel upper on an AR lower you're using for a different caliber. I own one lower and use it without any changes to it for two different caliber uppers.

Crowman said:

This is a piggyback of the OP.

Background:

I have a spare Ruger AR556 complete lower lying around. I am very fond of 6.5mm bullets and cartridges. They are my favorites (guess you can say I am a slut for 6.5mm’s) and I am beginning to collect them as shooters. I load and shoot both the .260 Remington and 6.5 Creedmoor, so have a crap load of 6.5mm bullets in different weights lying around. I hunt with them. So for my birthday, I want to add a 6.5 Grendel to the stable. My whimsy.

1) I do not shoot in organized competitive matches...no interest.

2) I have no interest in the other boutique AR15 cartridges out there (300 Blk, 6.8 SPC, etc)...only the 6.5 Grendel...Less other junk to warehouse. Those other cartridges are non starters, period.

3) I have zero interest in building a rifle or an upper from scratch, so that is a non starter. Don’t want parts...want to drop in a complete functional upper.

I noted that no one has mentioned Alexander Arms’ complete 6.5 Grendel uppers. I have no experience with the company or their product line but I am interested in the looks of their complete upper with 20” barrel. The price does not scare me. That length looks to be a good optimization of the cartridge’s ballistics without being ungainly. So.....to my question.

Does anyone have actual experience in dropping an Alexander Arms complete upper in 6.5 Grendel on a standard lower and then shooting it? I am looking for feedback from real product users.

Are they reliable?

Easy to install?

Are they accurate?

I do not want to end up with an expensive POS.

Thanks all.

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Ive never owned an AA upper, and ive never shot a AA grendel.
I have handled and shot a 50 Beo AA complete rifle. I found it to be a well built gun. Im unsure as to the steels and processes used in the AA grendel bolt, which is the "weak link" in the system. Again Id realy recommend looking at having an upper built for you using specific components, especially if you plan on running it hard.

bangswitch said:

Can' t understand the reluctance to build your own AR.

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Some people, myself included, have no desire to build an AR. I’d buy a separate upper and lower if they were complete but that’s not a build. I’ve installed a couple of Timney triggers and that’s it. And if someone I trust had offered to install them I would have gladly let them do it. I’m not very good with my hands and it sucks, tasks that are simple for others can be very difficult for me. I want to know how things work though. Most of the shooters I know want their firearms ready to rock and do not want to mess with any assembly. Most of them don’t belong to and have never read a firearms or hunting forum either.

Explanation:

I bought a complete lower from Ruger so I could have a dedicated rifle. I do not plan to “run it hard”, though not sure what that means...no context.

My planned use is casual plinking and hunting from a blind. I already stock powder, primers and 6.5 bullets. These things are way too heavy to tote up and down the timber covered ridges around me. Will use it from a fixed location in a blind. I already have light bolt action stalking rifles. My bolt guns are a couple of pounds lighter, with scopes.

I don’t want to piece one together...don’t have the ambition or patience anymore and fingers getting stiff with age. Things were different when I was younger. Then I worked on my guns. Got enough necessary repair projects around here already. I live in the sticks. Of the last two decent gunsmiths I used, one’s dead and the other one is critically ill. And they were both over an hour away from me. I wouldn’t trust the young kids passing for “gunsmiths” around here to install a set of grips on my 386, let alone cobble together what would end up being a “bubba gun”.

I saw informative posts about other makers but didn’t see any on AA; hence, my inquiry. I read that they invented the Grendel, just wanted to know from firsthand users whether their stuff sucked or was the bomb.

By running it hard, i meant loading the round hot or even using regular loads alot. If your only firing a few rounds here and load there unlikely youll get a broken bolt.
Its a small case but its wide enough to weaken the standard bots enough that bolt thrust, even with regular loads, is high enough to cause what would be considered early failure.

Thats specifically why VT suggested the bolts he did. The ARP bolt and extension are also designed to increase the "meat" in key areas, as well as are made with better steel. The down side is that they have to be used together.

Again from my experience with that one Beo rifle i would be willing to tentatively recommend an AA upper.

I also feel from my experience with the Radical Uppers, which are lower cost options, that id be comfortable with MOST manufacturers uppers as long as i know they arnt using the type 1 bolt and or made from carpenter 158 (i honestly dont know if anyone still is). This is in terms of reliability. Accuracy im honestly not sure how much better the higher tier factory uppers are.

Personally, I wouldn't buy a rifle from Alexander Arms. I do buy their E Lander mags, mostly because there aren't that many mags on the market, but overall, I'm in the boat which isn't happy with how they do business, and how long they chose to jerk all of us around when the Grendel was released. They do build good rifles, absolutely not an "expensive POS."

bangswitch said:

@Varminterror: the magazine follower is the only part (other than bolt and barrel), not compatible. Magazine dimensions are identical; not really sure if you can buy the follower separately(??) though.

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I've been down that road, and there's a reason I said "mag" instead of just "mag follower." There's a long gap between "will fit into," and "will reliably feed from," or frankly even "will actually function." It depends upon the 5.56 magazine. "Deep groove" 5.56 mags will bulge after about 5-6 rounds and won't fit into the mag well, and won't feed reliably as the mag lips spread. Similarly, despite lacking grooves, I've had the same distortion problem with Pmags. Forget about weak walled aluminum bodies... Even in "shallow groove" mags, feeding isn't typically great and the bodies want to bulge when rounds get deep because of the case shape vs. the relatively straight mag bodies - but these are the only ones which can KINDA work reliably enough to say they work. So the external dimensions are the same, but the grooves and materials aren't all compatible, and looking like a duck doesn't mean you can swim. I have a couple Bushmaster 20rnd mags with shallow grooves and home modified followers which run fine, but I've never been satisfied with converted 30rnd magazines of any brand - not satisfied enough to go buy followers and bother with it. Feeding can be improved a LITTLE by opening the mag lips (or drawing them back a bit), but again - I never have found it worth the trouble.

Deep groove mags like these don't work AT ALL, even given a 6.5 G follower:

@Crowman shoot me a PM

Varminterror said:

@Crowman shoot me a PM

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What’s a PM?

A private message.

Everready73 said:

Here is an option from DSA for a complete upper with Odin works barrel and bcg which are high quality. https://www.dsarms.com/p-16456-dsa-...pper-receiver-assembly-with-18-ss-barrel.aspx get a complete lower from PSA for $130 and good to go https://www.dsarms.com/p-16869-dsa-...ndguard-complete-barreled-upper-receiver.aspx . They also have some with ballistic advantage barrels that are accurate as well

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I built a DMR rifle using and Odin Works 18" 223 Wylde barrel that is an absoulte tack driver. No problem to shoot empty snuff cans at 300 yards.

cdb1 said:

A private message.

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Never done that before. How?

You SHOULD be able to click on my name (or any other user) in a thread, it pops up a window which will say "start a conversation." Not sure why, but when I click on yours, I don't have the option to send you a message. MAYBE you'll be able to send one my way.