Someone else's thread has cost me a bunch of money. It AIN'T my fault that I've got a new 6.5 Grendel upper on the way.


Anyway, the only .264" bullets I already have on hand are some 140-grain Accubonds I use in my .264 Mag (great duo, right there), but I think that's just way too much bullet for the little Grendel so I went shopping. I needed dies and brass also. I could not get 123-grain SSTs with everything else all in one shot and I didn't want to make multiple orders so I decided to try 129-grain SSTs and 100-grain Partitions first. They're on the way with my brass and dies. I think either should work well on pork.

So...having a bit of powder on hand, I ran QuickLOAD to see what I could see. It appears that Re17 will give very good velocity IF you can get enough of it under a bullet...but I just do NOT like that stuff. I really should get rid of that jug. Another that looks very promising is AR-Comp which I have plenty of...in fact, it looks ideal for the Grendel. A few other likely powders I have on hand I could try are X-Terminator, TAC, H335, Re15, Benchmark, and IMR4064.

In the interest of not reinventing the wheel, what do you guys who have loaded for the Grendel think?

Like you surmise AR-Comp is a good powder for the Grendel. Your list of powders is one I see fairly often used.

8208 XBR for 123gr and lighter bullets above that they spike quite fast nearing max pressures.

CFE223 works with all bullet weights and is what I use with the 129g and 130gr bullets. Hornady lists 31.7 grains as max and that will be a compressed load if you get to it in a workup.

Leverevolution has its following with the heavy for Grendel bullets but most say it is quite dirty burning in the Grendel.

to help you spend more $ Grendel specific load manuals are available at http://www.ar15buildbox.com

What length barrel did you get?

Some of the powders you listed work and 4064 and Varget work for it just expect to have to settle the powder to get enough in the case and listen for the crunch.

Thanks Kevin. I was gonna PM you on this, but decided to just toss it out there. This forum's gotten a bit slow anyway.

I considered 18- and 20-inch barrels, but went with a 16-inch. Given its intended purpose, I put weight and handling ahead of velocity. It's going to cumbersome enough already with my thermal on top of it. I don't envision ever using it to shoot much past 300 yards, and most of my shooting will likely be 100 yards or less.

Sounds like setting up for hogs and yotes. Double Naught Spy sure puts his Grendels to work that way. I have killed a few hogs with it and so far haven't had to look further than 10 yards to find them.

You will find most powders that work well for the 223 and 308 will work for the Grendel

This is consistent with what QL says, but it's good to get human experience on the line.

I just now am recalling something you mentioned about QuickLOAD in regards to the Grendel. It seems you indicated that QL will over-state pressures and velocities unless the user knows what to tweak. Do I have this right? So, what needs tweaking, case capacity? Do you recall this?

Case capacity is part of it, start pressure with the compound throat is another.

Try this use the bullets you are getting and put in 31.7 grains of CFE223 and see what it tells you. That is the Hornady max load and was tested by them at 50,000 PSI.

6.5-284 is another round that pressures are off in quickloads only the other direction. I will not go anywhere near max loads according to QL in my rifle.

Or at least that has been my experience with my old version of QL. I need to update to newer version

51.7 of CFE 223 in the Grendel? You must have meant 31.7?
I used XBR 8208 to load 123gr bullets but they shot so well that was the extent of my searching.

My understanding is that the original Grendel had the compound throat, but when SAAMI drew it and standardized it it was a shorter throat...then when they (Alexander Arms, I presume?) came out with the Grendel II, it with the compound throat restored. I am not at all sure I've got all that straight.

Somewhat close. The real difference between Grendel and Grendel II is the boltface recess depth. The original one used the same bolt as the 7.62X39 .125 inch recess the Grendel II uses a boltface with a .136 inch recess. More room for the extractor to catch the brass rim difference between the 2 cartridges or something like that.

Several companies that chamber the Grendel do not use the compound throat but a conventional rifling setup.

Somewhere along the line the compound throat led was changed in the angle but remained there.

When building a Grendel it is important to make sure your bolt and chamber match.

Been real pleased with IMR 8208 XBR, in every gas gun I've loaded it for. It would be the first powder I would try for the Grendel.

I'm seeing lots of 8208 comments wherever I loik. If I already had it, I'd sure try it. Got too much powder already, though.

Thanks for the catch there, yes 31.7.

With the Berger 130 AR Hybrid 30.6 for an accuracy load is what several of us have settled on and Black Hole Weponary has listed as the accuracy load for that bullet.

8208 is the go to powder for many for sure and for a reason. With the 129gr and heavier bullet CFE223 is the powder of choice for man, it does get you a bit more velocity than most other choices.

for primers the ones most use are CCI 450 small rifle magnum for their thicker walled cups in the ARs

I hadn't even considered primers. I've used Federal Small Rifle in my AR loads since forever and never had any issue whatsoever. I do have a few thousand CCI #41s, though. Those were to be used for future "rainy day" AR15 loads, but I can spare a few hundred for the Grendel. Maybe I'll try both. I don't anticipate Grendel loads limited to 50000 psi giving me any problems where I've used Federal SR at 55000 to 57000 psi---estimated, of course. But then again, you don't really KNOW until you know.

Jason, have you tried anything else besides 8208?

I doubt you will have any issues with the Federal Primers. I got a few thousand CCI 41 and use those for the AR. Have just been using WLSR in the boltaction and have run loads up to 2700fps with the 123gr SST in it. that load was a bit hot though with a little sticky bolt lift even that primer was flattened some but no cratering.

H-335

Meh.

Any loading project, when it comes to powder, I look for two things, first.

1. Temperature stability
2. Most efficient velocity production.

After that, I look for case fill. Chad has educated me more than once about burn rates. When it came to .308 Winchester out of a stubby 16" barrel, in a gas gun, he pointed me toward IMR 8208. Due to a more rapid burn rate than my normal go-to of H-Varget, it would produce more usable bullet velocity prior to passing the gas block. And it is temperature stable. So it checked my boxes, and I gave it a go. After a short load development trial, it did exactly what I wanted it to do, and I never looked back.

Due to kernal size, a great side effect is that it also meters very well.

Lots of winning with that powder.

Those are the things I consider also, but I also look for completion of burn, case filling, and other stuff. Sometimes, though, there are just those "magic" powders you would never suspect based on burn rate charts and ballistics software. LT-32 in the .222 Remington with 50-grain bullets is an example...several good powder choices to go to, but LT-32 is the nuts for accuracy.

In the Grendel I intend to try out AR-Comp first, and if it's satisfactory that's where it's likely to stop---I have more of it than I currently need. I guess I'm really just fishing for the kind of thing you don't expect sometimes, or suggestions for alternatives if it doesn't work out. Or maybe the "magic powder" if one exists. I think TAC would be my next stop if there's some problem with AR-Comp.

No such thing!!!

You're right. I obviously need more rifles to match up with my component supply!

I have added to the gun collection because I got dies that I had no gun for.



At 25 to 32 grains of powder per shot it might take a while to deplete some of that powder supply.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1...iew?hl=en#gid=0

There's some grendel loads

Now you're cooking with Crisco!