The six.5mm Grendel is surely an intermediate cartridge jointly built by British-American armorer Bill Alexander, competitive shooter Arne Brennan (of Houston, Texas) and Lapua ballistician Janne Pohjoispää, being a minimal-recoil, higher-precision rifle cartridge especially for the AR-15 System at medium/extended range (two hundred–800 yard). It is an enhanced variation of the six.5mm PPC. The 6.5mm Grendel cartridge was 1st unveiled in Might 2003 for the Blackwater Instruction Facility in North Carolina, where it remained supersonic at 1,two hundred yd (1,one hundred m) range and out-shot the 7.62mm NATO with only 50 % the recoil. Considering that its introduction, it's got established to be a versatile cartridge which is now expanding into other firearm style and design platforms such as bolt-action rifles as well as Kalashnikov procedure.
The name "Grendel" is motivated via the mythical monster antagonist through the Aged English epic poem Beowulf. It was a trademark owned by Alexander Arms (Invoice Alexander's corporation in Radford, Virginia) and produced at Radford Arsenal, till legally unveiled in 2010 for SAAMI standardization with collaboration from Hornady. The purpose on the 6.5mm Grendel style and design was to create a highly effective STANAG journal-size cartridge with the AR-fifteen platform that may get to two hundred–800 yd (a hundred and eighty–730 m) and surpass the performance from the native 5.56mm NATO/.223 Remington cartridge. Constrained with the dimension on the STANAG Journals, the Grendel's designers made a decision to utilize a shorter, larger sized-diameter case for greater powder quantity when allowing for space for the lengthy, streamlined, higher ballistic coefficient 6.5mm (.264 cal.) bullets. Firing factory-loaded ammunition with bullets ranging from ninety to 129 grains (five.eight to 8.4 g), its muzzle velocity varies from 2,500 ft/s (760 m/s) with 129- and one hundred thirty-grain (eight.4 g) bullets to 2,900 ft/s (880 m/s) with 90 gr (five.eight g) bullets (very similar in velocity to the seventy seven-grain (5.0 g) 5.56 mm spherical). Based upon their circumstance product and bullet body weight, six.5mm Grendel cartridges weigh 14.7 to seventeen.eight grams (227 to 275 gr).
The case head diameter from the Grendel is the same as that of the five.six×39mm check here (.220 Russian), 7.sixty two×39mm and 6.5mm PPC cases. This diameter is larger than the five.56×45mm NATO, thereby necessitating using a non-typical AR-fifteen bolt. The improved case diameter brings about a little reduction within the journal ammo capacities. A six.5mm Grendel magazine with the exact dimensions as being a thirty-round STANAG journal will maintain 26 rounds of Grendel ammunition.
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