POTD: The Smurf Gun

by Steve Johnson

Published: May 20th, 2015

TFB writer Timothy Yan sent us a photo of a Short Barreled AR-15 chambered in 6.5 Grendal he recently shot. The gun was being used to demonstrate the new high capacity 6.5 Grendel steel magazine by Elander. I like it.

Thanks Tim.

Steve Johnson

I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!

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10 of 18 comments

Peadair on May 20, 2015

I personally think that 6.5mm Grendel is overkill for hunting Smurfs. Hell, 0.22 is probably overkill for something the size of a mouse.

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Wolfgar on May 20, 2015

I have 4 Grendel AR rifles.2-16" barrels,1-18'barrel and 1-20' Lilja barrel. I'm in the process of getting a 12.5' barreled Grendel. The Grendel is my favorite cartridge in the AR platform. I have shot close to 3000 rounds through my rifles and I have had no bolt issues to date. It is a great hunting round and accurate to 1000 yards where I compete at a local precision match. My family hunts almost exclusivly with our Grendels. I can recommend the Grendel from first hand experience.

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- See 7 previous
- Timothy G. Yan on May 21, 2015
  
  @Wolfgar For Grendel shooters, need to get the bolt from AA and their new steel mag. The AA bolt is more expensive but it's made from special steel. The cheap 6.5G bolt offers by others are just milled out 7.62x39mm bolt. There's at least 1 or 2 companies that offer a properly made 6.5G bolt, and those priced about the same as the AA bolt.
  
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- Iksnilol on May 21, 2015
  
  @Wolfgar I really want a CZ527 switch barrel, one barrel in 7.62x39 and one in 6.5 Grendel (or just a necked down 7.62x39 without the fireforming).
  Problem is, I haven't really worked with those guns and I haven't seen any 10 round mags for them.
  
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- Wolfgar on May 21, 2015
  
  @Timothy G. Yan From what I can tell from Alexander arms web site, they don't sell their bolts anymore. I have had excellent results with Maxim Firearms Grendel bolts.
  http://www.maximfirearms.co...
  
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- Wolfgar on May 21, 2015
  
  @Timothy G. Yan There are 2 types of bolts for the Grendel. The type 2 is for the original Alexander chamber and the type 1 is used for a 7.62X39 bolt. Make sure you know which chamber the Grendel barrel you are purchasing has so you get the correct bolt and head space.
  
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- Timothy G. Yan on May 21, 2015
  
  @Wolfgar NO, you should never use the 7.62x39 bolt in a Grendel.
  
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- Wolfgar on May 21, 2015
  
  @Timothy G. Yan I agree, but there are barrel makers out there who sell so called Grendel barrels chambered for the type 1 AK bolt with a .125 spacing vs the Alexander Arms type 2 bolt with a .136 spacing. . This is why Maxim Firearms sells both kinds of bolts. Newbies to the Grendel have had problems with this confusion in the past. Buyer beware!
  
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- Timothy G. Yan on May 22, 2015
  
  @Wolfgar Ok, I need to add this info on my up coming write up.
  
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- Wolfgar on May 22, 2015
  
  @Timothy G. Yan There are also 2 different chambers being made. The true spec SAAMI Grendel chamber designed by Bill Alexander which has a compound throat and the other is the .264 LBC which some manufactures are calling a Grendel 2 chamber, which has a conventional target lead. Great debate has occurred over which is best and some outright angry name calling has occurred over this debate. I wont even try to get into that fight but I do have both chambers and have had great accuracy with both but have found the original Bill Alexander chamber to be more accurate with varying bullet weights.
  
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