6.5 Grendel Casting and Loading

Hi,

I have a 6.5 Grendel 18" BCA upper I want to load and cast for. I haven't found a good inexpensive mold in .265 or .266 that isn't back ordered forever. However, I already have a Lee .277-135 FN mold for my .270 and 6.8 SPC. I have those gas checked and powder coated. They come out at 141.6gr. So I tried running them through a Lee .265 Sizer, and it worked. They come out at 1.007" in length. I saw another thread were a guy says he is loading a 140gr bullet from a Seko mold, that is longer, with IMR 4198 at 17gr. 4198 is the sweet spot powder for my .270. So I do have it on hand. Its not cheap now days. Even 4895 has gotten outrageous. With the COL of 2.26 regardless of cartridge in the AR platform, I might give that a try for mine. I was hoping that maybe a cheaper pistol powder like Unique or HS-6 might do the trick. The problem being the action in the gas-gun. I would like to hear what some of you good folks might have to say on this, and if you have any loads you've tried that are in the ball park.

Thanks,

Rodney

Interesting stuff!

Anything new?

Rodney, I have a rcbs 270 mold I want to try for my Grendel too. I saw a deal where they filled the lube groves up with lube to keep them from crushing down when you resized them, sounds messy. Have you any idea how deep it's ok to have that bullet down into the case?

I run the NOE 266-126-FN GC and PCx2 sized to .265"

With CCI-400s and 26.0gr of IMR3031 I get 2300fps (@6') out of a 20" AR and 5 shot groups between 1" and 1 1/4" at 100yds.

Damn, I've been thinking about building a 6.5 Grendel, and now thinking about casting for it put that urge into high gear. Thanks again to you "Enablers"! Lol