6.5 Grendel or 308?

[SBBW]

I have had both. I really like my Grendel. I have two, one for me and one for my 19yo daughter. I have had no problem finding ammo as of late. Two local stores have it and at least two major distributors that I know have cases of it. My daughters 16" shoots almost as accurate as my 20" bull barrel from Les Baer out to 300 yds. The Grendel is soft shooting enough that kids can shoot it, but has enough energy to shoot deer out to 5-600 yds. Some may shoot further, but that's my personal limit. It is as accurate as most of the better AR10's and better than a lot of AR10's out of the box. Three more folks at my hunting club are building Grendels after shooting mine and my daughters. Seems like I am out numbered, here but I love mine. There is another good forum dedicated to the grendel. Lots of good info there. MHO.

[rockrivershooter]

Ive made my mind up I'm building a Grendel I'm using a 22" satern or lothar barrel and yes I'm on the other forum dedicated to the Grendel

[Klem]

I'm going out on a limb here to say 260Rem, 6.5Creedmore, 6.5*47Lapua and 6.5*284 are the medium range calibers of the future.

I competed in a Sporting Rifle match (200-900yards, mostly tactical type bolt-actions) at Raton recently. They had a special box to tick on the scorecard if you were shooting 308, like a handicap division and they all felt sorry for you. All the regular shooters have long since gone to 6.5mm for its higher BC flatter-shooting trajectory. More forgiving in wind (less windage required), more forgiving when judging distance to target and slightly longer range before it goes transonic than 308. Bullet technology being what it is nowadays you can achieve the same knock-down potential as a 308 in the 6.5 calibers.

If going a larger AR10 I'd go 260Rem (Lilja makes match grade drop-in barrels for the AR10)

If sticking with the more compact AR15 then 6.5Grendel

I agree, if you you're not into handloading you're at the mercy of what the shops stock.

[curious sam]

I have a 6.5 Grendel and had a POF-308 (AR-10).

I sold the POF. The Grendel is exceptionally accurate, there are plenty of factory loads, etc. Buy a case of ammo and be happy in your work.

[Klem]

6.5Grendel is an intermediate calibre between the Blackout and .308.

260Rem is a slightly less recoiling, flatter shooting calibre than 308 but still needs the larger AR10 platform. 260Rem will be slightly more accurate than 308, taking into consideration the previous sentence and current trend in the Sporting Rifle discipline. 6.5 rounds have higher ballistic coefficients than the 308 but still with reasonable knock-down power.

If you're not into reloading then ammo for calibres like the Grendel and 260Rem might be harder to come by, but not impossible with some forward planning/stockpiling. I don't think this concern should be a deal breaker.

You could get an AR10 in either 260 or 308 to span the gap in capability with your Blkackout, then down the track get the Grendel to fill the gap.

[NordicG3K]

While I don't currently own an AR in .308, I do have both a 12.5" and 18" Grendel AR. The Grendel gives you an amazing amount of performance from a standard AR15 receiver, but there are some shortcomings. If you don't reload, you are going to have a much more limited selection of ammunition. In addition to this, as already mentioned, you can buy .308 just about anywhere while 6.5 Grendel is pretty much internet only (at least in my neck of the woods). Also, magazines continue to be an issue for the Grendel. There aren't that many manufacturers of Grendel mags, and most are still not 100% when it comes to reliability. I'm still tinkering with my C-Products mags, swapping out various followers and springs, to see what works best. I have no intention of giving up my Grendels, but if I were in your position I'd go with a 16" .308.

[SBBW]

Nordic, You are correct on the magazine issue. My LB Grendel will only function reliably with the 30 rd mags. But it has been flawless in almost a 1000 rds down range. The rifle I built my daughter using a CSS 65 barrel shoots every mag i have 5 rd, 10rd, 20rd and the 30's. Go figure LOL.