6.5 Grendel issues WT#^*++

[Juanjo322]

I was out at the range a month or two ago and some of the weirdest stuff happened to me that day.

I bought this rifle about a year ago and since then maybe ran about 200 rounds through her, but this last outing at the range I had FTF, FTE, misfires and all.. I had purchased some 1000 rounds for this rifle and I have had nothing but great results, well I changed ammo twice and still same issues, rounds that failed to fire when cycling the action the bullet would stay stuck.!! Powder everywhere what a mess! So I called the manufacture and they said it may perhaps be that it was dirty.. I didn't think that was the case but agreed to give her a once over and back to the range! 4 shots went fine, the fifth didn't fire and as I cycled the action guess what? The projectile stayed in the the lands..

So I check the ammo with a Wilson gage and it checks out perfect no issues going in coming out.. So I called the manufacture again and they sent me an RMA, and off it went. I got a call today that it was a headspace issue and that the barrel may be out for 6-8 months, they said that they can attempt to fix but that it hasn't been a repair that they can consistently do with great confidence, it has happened in the past but that wasn't a guarantee that it would work.

First, this blows. I have a few rifles that I can shoot and hunt with but I wanted to test the magical 6.5 cal pill on some deer this year! Doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Have any of y'all had to go through this? If so what was your outcome ? I'd like to know what can be done at this point. I surely don't want to wait up to 8 months and I just checked their website and they are not offering this caliber no more.. What would you do?


Thanks ,

Juanjo

 

[-Snyper-]

Re: 6.5 Grendel issues WT#^*++

How far off the lands were your bullets?

 

[Juanjo322]

Re: 6.5 Grendel issues WT#^*++

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Snyper</div><div class="ubbcode-body">How far off the lands were your bullets? </div></div>

I am not real sure but, the bullets stayed stuck when I tried to cycle the action with an unfired round. All ammo used was factory ammo no reloads.

 

[Norskone]

Re: 6.5 Grendel issues WT#^*++

I have had the same problem with mine and I never really could understand why the bullet would get stuck. I was not running them up to far into the lands. Not sure what I even did to fix it but I broke them all down and ran them through the die again and never had the problem again. Only thing I can think of is my turret was lose and I was not bumping the shoulder back all the way.

If I remember right there are some bad lots of ammo out there and some reports of problems with factory ammo in the not "true" grendel chamber. Might want to head over to http://www.65grendel.com/ and see what they have to say.

 

[mjh30]

Re: 6.5 Grendel issues WT#^*++

Juanjo, you must tell us more, whats the history of the rifle, did you buy her new or used, when you fired the first 200 hundred rounds were there any problems, what ammo were you using. Is the rifle chambered in the orginal 6.5 Grendel or one of its many clones. Not that theres anything wrong with a clone I shot one myself. Thee was a minor problem with some Hornady ammo that was a little out of spec, or perhaps the chambers werea little of spec when they went from the type 1 to type 2 bolt. Anyways it seemed to effect only a few in the grand scheme of things. As for a headspace issue, well all AR's are basically built around strict tolerances, and a new barrel would be probably cheaper than machiining, but 6-8 months out waiting, wow.

 

[Juanjo322]

Re: 6.5 Grendel issues WT#^*++

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: mjh</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Juanjo, you must tell us more, whats the history of the rifle, did you buy her new or used, when you fired the first 200 hundred rounds were there any problems, what ammo were you using. Is the rifle chambered in the orginal 6.5 Grendel or one of its many clones. Not that theres anything wrong with a clone I shot one myself. Thee was a minor problem with some Hornady ammo that was a little out of spec, or perhaps the chambers werea little of spec when they went from the type 1 to type 2 bolt. Anyways it seemed to effect only a few in the grand scheme of things. As for a headspace issue, well all AR's are basically built around strict tolerances, and a new barrel would be probably cheaper than machiining, but 6-8 months out waiting, wow. </div></div>

I bought her new, I don't even think it went 200 rounds, the ammo used was Alexander arms 130gr swift and also hornady 123gr none were reloaded ammo, also used some of precision firearms ammo and didn't have any issues. So I really can't say for sure what went wrong.. I did use some reloaded ammo but was blowing out holes on the ring side of the case, didn't do it often it just happened a couple of times. This ammo was reloaded by a respected builder .. So I don't suspect it was the ammo either.

The rifle builder said that they too tried several pills and that it was doing the same thing to them. So I'd have to see what I am going to do as I don't really want to wait 6-8 months for this to be sorted out .. And changing caliber as an alternative is good idea but what about the 800+ rounds that I have? I am happy that the builder is working with me on this and more importantly that no one has gotten hurt while using this rifle ..

If it came down to it should I change frame and caliber to an AR10?? Or the whole rifle as an option to say a .243, .308, .338 fed, 6.5CM?

 

[bustin]

Re: 6.5 Grendel issues WT#^*++

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Juanjo322</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I was out at the range a month or two ago and some of the weirdest stuff happened to me that day.

I bought this rifle about a year ago and since then maybe ran about 200 rounds through her, but this last outing at the range I had FTF, FTE, misfires and all.. I had purchased some 1000 rounds for this rifle and I have had nothing but great results, well I changed ammo twice and still same issues, rounds that failed to fire when cycling the action the bullet would stay stuck.!! Powder everywhere what a mess! So I called the manufacture and they said it may perhaps be that it was dirty.. I didn't think that was the case but agreed to give her a once over and back to the range! 4 shots went fine, the fifth didn't fire and as I cycled the action guess what? The projectile stayed in the the lands..

So I check the ammo with a Wilson gage and it checks out perfect no issues going in coming out.. So I called the manufacture again and they sent me an RMA, and off it went. I got a call today that it was a headspace issue and that the barrel may be out for 6-8 months, they said that they can attempt to fix but that it hasn't been a repair that they can consistently do with great confidence, it has happened in the past but that wasn't a guarantee that it would work.

First, this blows. I have a few rifles that I can shoot and hunt with but I wanted to test the magical 6.5 cal pill on some deer this year! Doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Have any of y'all had to go through this? If so what was your outcome ? I'd like to know what can be done at this point. I surely don't want to wait up to 8 months and I just checked their website and they are not offering this caliber no more.. What would you do?


Thanks ,

Juanjo </div></div>
Is it a stainless barrel? If it is anyone that really makes a barrel can fix it in about 5 minutes. 1-2 samples of each kind of ammo should be sent along with the barrel so it can be checked out.
Handloaders don't always get it right especially if they don't have the barrel in hand when developing the ammo.

 

[Nocalphoenix]

Re: 6.5 Grendel issues WT#^*++

Or neck tension was not high enough and when slammed into battery the bullet jumped just enough to grab the lands. Had a friend using some of my match ammo in his AR-10 and the same thing happened. My ammo was set up for a bolt gun with minimal tension and it was disaster.

 

[drakeky]

Re: 6.5 Grendel issues WT#^*++

I have a grendel and never had any issues with about 750 rounds down the pipe. I am thinking of another 6.5 build. Who is the maker of your barrel and upper?

 

[Juanjo322]

Re: 6.5 Grendel issues WT#^*++

Well, great news!! They have a new barrel (shorter) and they are going to install test and send back, they changed their pitch on their threads and they will install a new surefire muzzle brake for my surefire supressor and send me back my old one at no cost to me.. So I am a bit happy but will ultimately be very happy when this comes back with no issues.. The barrel is carbon wrapped " hint hint"

I hope that this is the end of the troubles with the Grendel..

 

[Desert_Racer]

Re: 6.5 Grendel issues WT#^*++

I had the same issue when I built my 6.5 Grendel a while back. I have a Satern 18" barrel and used the supplied bolt.... The damn thing would FTF, FTE, ect ect consistently with any ammo I put through it. I mainly used AA 123g Lapua Scenars. Most of the time, I would have to slam the butt of the rifle on the bed of my truck while pulling the charging handle just to get the round to come out.... I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it until a friend of mine suggested that the bolt might be bad. I sent it back to Satern and they sent me a new one, and upgraded it to a chrome bolt free of charge. Ever since I put the new bolt in, she shoots perfectly with zero issues (and accurately too!).