Shot the SD Grendel today

MPFD

Active member
Went and did some shooting with the Grendel this afternoon. When I first got it I shot 123g. Amax and 28 grains of xbr8208, it shot some really good groups with that load. Since then I tried CFE223 and the same Amax bullet and also saw really good groups with it as well. The CFE223 load was slower but showed very consistant speed with SD in the single digits in cold weather. Today I decided to load some up with 8208 and give it another shot since I'm getting low on CFE. Don't know why I ever quit using 8208!' It shoots great in everything I try it in, and today showed 2700 fps on the chrono from my 20" barrel.
This is three shots from a lazer'd 100 yards.
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Backed up to 300 and used my Nikon spot on app to hold over one mil. It's hard to see my dot against the shoot and see stickers so I held just over so my dot touched the top of the sticker and tried to center my wire on the red dot.
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App showed 3" of wind drift at 300 yards.
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Wasn't real steady but managed to shoot a 2" group at 300 off a bipod with a rear bag.
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I know a lot of guys don't like hold over points, but I have to say that the Nikon app is pretty close! I pulled the first shot left but I'll take the second two any day of the week.
Needless to say I came home and loaded up 50 more rounds of this combo. I think next time I'll take some bigger card board and use an X instead of round stickers, on 10x it's hard to get it centered at 300+

I'm running an Specialized Dynamics 20" 6.5 Grendel upper with a a Weaver 3-10x tactical, the sub tension at mil setting is the same as my Nikons allowing me to use my app with it. Lower today was a standard mil spec Essential Arms with a Geissele SSA-E.
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Great day to get out and burn powder!
 
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Looks like it is working for you pretty well. We have a little rain shower going on right now, hopefully I can give my Grendel a go here this evening. I will be tickled if I have as good a range session as yours. My daughters figure that it is 'their' deer rifle, so I better have it dialed in good come deer season.
 
It's a great deer rifle, almost no recoil and with this load holds 1000 ft/lbs of energy out to 450 yards! Love the Grendel, real rifle power in a small frame AR with very little recoil...
 
Or as my 10yr old daughter told her grandpa about it " I shoot it really good, it's easy to carry, it kills 'em good, and it doesn't push me very hard". Ours is just a frankengun with a 16" barrel; handiest rifle I have. The Grendel can be a little rough on coyotes if you're a hide hunter, though.
 
Nice shooting. I am just starting to work up loads for my 20" SD Grendel. I have a couple questions:

I am shooting 123 sst, have only gotten up to 27.5gr 8208, but only saw around 2475fps. Accuracy good with this load, but I'll try 28 gr next time out. If you're getting 2700, that's a big jump from where I'm at. Did your velocities increase much after you got some rounds down the tube? Are you seing higher velocities from 123 amax than sst?

Edit: I think you've had yours for a while, it could just be different barrels I guess.
 
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Great shootin man!

It's a super fun round to suppress as well. It quiets down nicely and that "almost no recoil" turns into NO recoil. SilencerTech is making a really small lightweight 308 can that is a perfect match for the Gendel IMO. I think he's calling it the Rhino. I'm a 1 month into my Form 4 wait on one!
 
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It has seemed to get more muzzle velocity as it got shot more. Last time I used that load I thought it was around 2620 fps but it could be different ambient temp as well. My rifle handles 28 grains of 8208 ok but yours may not take that much, just watch the primers and ejection angle. This is the first time I've seen it shoot 2700 but I used a CCI 400 on these loads and federal match sr primers previously.
 
it seems to like 95gr VMax (this was using Benchmark/Federal 205 primers) fairly well, I'll be working with them some more:

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The first group (top left) was 123gr Hornady factory loads. I shot that group just to foul the barrel as I had given it a good cleaning after the last trip:

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Nope, don't have a chrono. That's the best group I've gotten with it so far.

We have a strange range. You have to shoot through steel pipes about 20' long. This is from down range:

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This is from the bench, looking though the pipe:

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Wow! I bet that pulls in a lot of weird light and makes it hard to shoot as certain times of the day... Interesting...
 
Should make that clear:

It's the best group with that ammo so far. Less than 100 rounds through the rifle & 35 of those were doing a JB Bore Paste breakin, not shooting groups.

Today was the first crack at handloads for it.
 
Originally Posted By: MPFDAny idea what the speed was on the Hornady factory stuff?

Mine did 2525 avg the first time I took it out shooting factory 123 SST. Haven't tried any other factory loads.
 
don't know the history, but I do think it's the only one of its kind in the state.

Fairly safe -though nothing is foolproof, there will always be a better fool- in design. There are steel plates hanging from a rail. Pulled to the left, the plates expose the holes to shoot through & the rail blocks the gate in a chain link fence, nominally preventing people from going down range when anyone could shoot. Pulled to the right, the pipes are blocked, you have no clear view from or near a bench through which to shoot at anything & the rail is clear of the gate.

One station has no bench & is high enough to practice shooting from a standing position. The other 7 are benches.

There is no way at this range that I can practice from hunting positions, ie a chair & sticks, unless I want to shoot through the fence. Which I'm pretty sure is against the rules & might get me banned for good...

There is a field to the left where people throw calys & use shotguns, but as it has no solid backstop I don't think setting up with a rifle there would be a good idea either.
 
I can't wait to get my grendel out and finish load development.. One more week for class to be over. I'm pretty sure I have my 123 scenar load worked up, next is the 95vmax or 100 amax. I couldn't get the 100gr ttsx to shoot worth a [beeep] before, perhaps I'll try some benchmark with it.
 
Originally Posted By: Anton ChigurhNice shooting. I am just starting to work up loads for my 20" SD Grendel. I have a couple questions:

I am shooting 123 sst, have only gotten up to 27.5gr 8208, but only saw around 2475fps. Accuracy good with this load, but I'll try 28 gr next time out. If you're getting 2700, that's a big jump from where I'm at. Did your velocities increase much after you got some rounds down the tube? Are you seing higher velocities from 123 amax than sst?

Edit: I think you've had yours for a while, it could just be different barrels I guess.

I run 28.5gr of 8208 in my SD Grendel and I can say it is max. It is a 20" bbl Scott built with the Lilja barrels and with 28.5gr of 8208 I am only getting 2590 FPS. I shoot 123 gr SMK. The same load with a 123gr A max produced 2600 FPS.
 
Originally Posted By: Stu FarishI haven't found the magic for mine yet. Some loads show promise.


Keep trying Stu, eventually, bet you will have groups like the OP`s.
Even though 3 shot groups don`t really count.lol
 
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