Just finished my first complete build...

[Fried Chicken Blowout]

Ended up with a scratch build in 6.5 Grendel. That caliber was chosen after a lot of research and the desire to stay in the AR15 platform. I'm in the process of leaning eight friends and family members through the building of sixteen AR15 rifles. I did all the wheeling and dealing with suppliers to do group buys on lowers and other parts to try to save some money. We ended up getting Aero Precision lowers for $60 each delivered and uppers for $64 each delivered.

I then went on to use information that I've leaned from m4carbine.net to obtian the rest of my parts from Palmetto State Armory, BCM, Brownells, MidwayUSA, Satern Custom Machining and a few others. Preferance was given to site supporters of m4carbine.net and all of the venders did an excellent job fulfilling my orders and providing good customer service.

I'll be headed to my 100 yard indoor range to shoot it for the first time on Wednesday. The goal with this build was to build an AR15 platform rifle that could be used for hunting as well as Long Range Practical rifle compeitions that require hits on steel targets from 250-875 yards. Hopefully I've set this gun up to get me going in the right direction. I'm sure there will be a stiff learning curve and I will end up replacing some parts as I go, but that's how these things go.

To keep things simple I've decided to order a bunch of Hornady 123gr AMax ammo that I will then hand load after shooting. I'm going to try to match the Hornady round best I can with my handloads so I can fall back on factory loads if needed at times. All of my needed reloading parts are on the way. This will be my first attempt to reload anything outside of .223 and 9mm. So if anyone has tips on reloading the 6.5 Grendel for precision use, please post them up here.

Special thanks to Dflores22 for the suggestion on the YHM Todd Jarrett hand rail. This is the first item I've bought of YHM and I must say I'm EXTREMELY impressed. Nice design, excellent quality barrel nut and locking system. I would have to say that this is MUCH better than the quality of my Troy Extreme rails on my other two ARs. I'll be headed back to YHM for future builds and for the parts on my fellow builders guns.

Here's the break down on the parts that I used for the build. If anyone has questions about the build or about how to build their own 6.5 Grendel, please ask away. I'll be posting update on it's function on Wednesday. If it shoots as good as it looks, I'll be extremely happy. So far it's hand cycled loaded ammo without issue and everything seems to fit together very well. Hopefully it actually works and shoots well...

Lower Build
- Aero Precision Stripped Lower
- Palmetto State Armory Lower Parts Kit
- DSA Ambi Safety - Would not recommend as it's a full auto safety that will rotate 180*. Not sure why they did that and didn't state it on the PSA website.
- Houge Grip - I prefer the Ergo Grip in the large size and will be switching this one out.
- DPMS A2 Buttstock - Very nice quality
- Chip McCormick 3.5 Pound Trigger - Very nice for $140. I will buy more for my other guns. Not quite as crisp as my Wilson Combat TTU but for $100 less I like it more!

Upper Build
- Aero Precision Stripped Upper
- 18" Satern Machining Barrel, Bolt, with Bead Blasting
- Vortex Flash Hider
- DPMS Mid-Length Gas Tube
- Yankee Hill Todd Jarrett hand guard - Wow!
- Bravo Company Bolt Carrier, Firing Pin, Firing Pin Retaining Pin, Cam Pin
- DPMS Upper Build Parts
- Troy Gas Block

Optic, mount, bipod and Sling
- Harris Swivel Bipod with Notched Legs in 6"-9" length on a YHM mount.
- Blue Force Gear - Victory Sling
- Vortex Viper 6.5-20x44
- ADM Recon-S Mount - I ran into an issue with getting the right eye relief with this optic. I initially ordered the normal Recon as I was expecting to need the extended eye relief. I was wrong. After playing with the Recon for a while I decided that this optic actually has shorter eye relief that most. Most likely because it's a cheaper optic, but also because it's build a little different than most. The rear section of the optic behind the turrets is pretty short. This requires the mount to be a little more rearward than most optics. Combine that with the 3.1" eye relief and you need it really far back. The way it is in the photos is as FAR as it can get it and still feel like I can use the optic. I may end up moving it back some while at the range the first time, but I wanted to start it out as far as I could and work it back from there as I shoot.

There are more photos at THIS LINK for those that are interested.




Sorry for the long post, but I try to give back as much as I can to others on the forum when I have the opportunity.

[Dflores22]

Congrats on the build, its looking nice..

[ZX672]

Hope it shoots as good as it looks! Very nice.

[Fried Chicken Blowout]

Well the day has finally come. I got this pony to the range to see how it was going to ride... In the two hours at the range, I fired 29 rounds. The ammo being used was the Hornady 123gr AMax Match ammo for the 6.5 Grendel. There were zero mechanical malfunctions with the firearm. I used all 3 mags that I had on hand and they all cycled fine. The 3.5# Single Stage Chip McCormick trigger was good. The optic was clear and easy to use. All rounds were fired from a bench with the use of the Harris Bipod and a set of sandbags at the rear. I would estimate recoil to be at least 50% greater than the standard .223 rounds out of my short AR15 rifles.

Normally all of my shooting is done at close range to simulate a defensive situation. The pistol classes I teach are shot to pretty much a limit of 25 yards and the rifle classes max out at 65-75 yards. Those longer range shots in the rifle classes are all shot on steel targets from a standing, kneeling or prone position. I have no real experience beyond those distances with any firearm. So with that in mind I didn't know what too expect from this rifle or from shooting at 100 yards. Now for long distance shooters, 100 yards is a SHORT distance so don't get me wrong... I'm not trying to do anything fantastic, I just didn't know what to expect considering that I've fired maybe 25 rounds in my life at targets 100 yards away.

So after feeling that I had the optic pretty much on target after my 5 strings of single shots and cleaning and a 3 shot string then a few more rounds to make up my last 5 shot string to finish the cleaning/break in of the barrel and to sight in the optic I fired three 5 shot groups from 100 yards. Each group got noticeably better as I'm sure I was settling into the gun and the barrels was continuing to break in somewhat. From what I have heard barrels will continue to improve over the first 100-200 rounds fired through them. Clearly I did not get that far today.

Group number one totals just under 2" as you can see in the data box at the bottom... At this point I made a few more adjustments to the optic. The top left was a flier. The bottom three were a group and the bullseye hit was after making an adjustment to the optic.







Group number 2 drops about a 1/4" as I'm feeling a little better about my trigger control and sight picture. I completed this group and then made a final adjustment left and up a tad. I was aiming for the bottom left corner of the sold orange.








All I have to say before you see the last 5 shot group is... Who's a Sub MOA AR builder?? Apparently I am! I'm very happy with the results of my "from scratch build" and I expect to be able to shrink the groups a bit as I begin to shoot better and the gun breaks in some more. But even if it doesn't get any better than this, I'll be happy with this 5 shot group of 0.779" Yah!!!

[hunt_ak]

Very, very nice looking build!

Do you mind asking the cost of your barrel? I was leaning toward finding a Sabre barrel to build an upper on, but I do like the Satern barrel idea also. Long wait?

I think we need more pictures of this girl...

[hunt_ak]

Nevermind, read the OP again and saw the gallery...I'm DROOLING!

[mikecon75]

nice rifle

[Fried Chicken Blowout]

So after zeroing it and playing around with the amount of adjustment I had on the straight up mount from ADM I had I realized that I would only have enough adjustment to get out to about 550 yards before I ran out... So I ordered a Nightforce 20MOA mount from Primary Arms. It arrived in 3 days from the time of order and IS clearly a much higher quality mount. Weighing in a 4.8oz vs the ADM's 8oz that was a little plus. The scope fit was much better and easier to get installed level with the right eye relief.

With the ADM I could not move the scope once I had it pressed into the rings and had the bolts in place. It needed to be lapped to smooth it out, which I wasn't into doing since I'v never done it before and didn't have the stuff. The Nightforce was a perfect fit right out of the box.

[SimonZayne]

Very cool build, I might have to use that forend for my next build.
Thanks for showing it off for us.

P.S. Sorry for the Necro.