I first became fascinated with the dandy
little 6.5mm Grendel cartridge about twelve years ago while
visiting the Alexander Arms booth at the 2003
SHOT Show. Bill Alexander is probably one of the most
interesting people that you will ever meet, if you get the
chance to do so. He is a wealth of information on all things
ballistic, and is always willing to discuss the ballistic
characteristics of one cartridge or another, or several at once,
if you prefer. Bill is a Brit, and his accent testifies to that
fact with every word. I find that after I talk with Bill for a
while, whether in person or by phone, that by the time we are
finished, I have developed a British accent as well. It was at
this show that Bill pulled from his pocket the
little cartridge that changed the way that I think about
long range shooting.
The Grendel is a very efficient cartridge,
far outclassing the oft-compared 6.8 SPC. The 6.5 Grendel was
designed for long-range shooting, and that is the field in which
it excels above its competitors. At long range, the 6.5 Grendel
flies better than the 308 Winchester. I will not go into all the
same details here as I did ten years ago, nor do I intend to
plow that same ground again, but instead
refer the reader to that previous article for those details.
Here, we are looking at one of Alexander
Arms' latest versions of their 6.5
Grendel rifle; the eighteen inch Hunter. The Hunter model
is, in my opinion, the perfect configuration for an all-around
6.5 Grendel rifle. The barrel is a fluted matte-black stainless
steel with a medium profile, .700 inch at the muzzle, offering
plenty of stiffness for fine accuracy, without being excessively
heavy. The bore is button-rifled one turn in 7.5 inches. The
muzzle is threaded 9/16x24 TPI for the attachment of a
suppressor or brake, if desired. The barrel is free-floated
inside a smooth two-inch diameter synthetic handguard which
measures approximately twelve inches in length. There is one
three-inch section of accessory rail at the forward end of the
handguard, which may be removed or relocated every ninety
degrees around the tubular circumference.
The telescoping buttstock is a B5 SOPMOD
BRAVO unit, and all furniture is finished to match the upper and
lower aluminum receiver halves, which wear the standard Kryptek
camouflage pattern. The camo finish contrasting with the black
bolt, mag, barrel, grip, buffer tube, and trigger gives the
rifle a quality appearance. While on the subject of the trigger,
this rifle has the superb Alexander Arms Tactical Blade
trigger/hammer unit. This is absolutely one of the best triggers
available for an AR. I have this trigger unit on my personal
Alexander 6.5 Grendel, and it has served me very well for the
past ten years. This trigger enables the user to take full
advantage of the rifle's accuracy capability. The trigger does
not make the rifle any more accurate, but makes it much easier
for the shooter to shoot the rifle well. This trigger has a very
crisp single-stage release, with no slack nor take-up, releasing
on this rifle with an average of two pounds, ten ounces of
resistance, as measured on my Lyman gauge. Perfect. The upper
receiver wears an integral Picatinny rail, and the rifle ships
without mechanical sights. The upper is fitted perfectly and
tightly to the lower.
I wanted to set this rifle up correctly to be
used as a hunting rifle for taking whitetail at close range, as
well as to serve for long-range predator hunting, and for
shooting targets at distances out past eight hundred yards, so
the selection of an optic is as important if not more-so than
the selection of the rifle. I wanted an optic that has the
quality and precision to take full advantage of the rifle's
accuracy, while not being so large and heavy that it made the
package uncomfortable to carry and to use in the field. The
Nightforce SHV 3 to 10 power scope shown here fits both the
rifle and the task very well.
Many shooters flinch a bit when the name
"Nightforce" is mentioned because of the price, but I
have never heard anyone argue about Nightforce quality.
Nightforce has a stellar reputation for building some of the
best optics available at any price, and also for the quality of
the people at the company. This new SHV riflescope maintains
that reputation, and the price will surprise those who think
that Nightforce is priced out of their budget. This SHV scope
sells in the $900 US range, which is quite a bit less than I had
anticipated when I went searching for the price on this optic.
It is hard to describe the difference in the optical qualities
of a riflescope such as the SHV compared to a lesser scope to
someone whom has not looked through the scopes. The difference
in optical clarity is easy to detect, even by a novice.
In a scope that is mounted merely to provide
an aiming point to harvest a deer at eighty yards, most any
scope sold these days will do the job. However, as distance and
accuracy requirements increase, the precision of the aiming
instrument must increase as well. Many shooters spend a lot of
good money on a rifle, but then cheap-out on the scope, and to
me, that is the opposite of how it should be. There are some
really accurate three-hundred-dollar rifles available these
days, and if I had $1200 to put together an accurate long-range
package, I would prefer to put $300 into the rifle and $900 into
the optic, as I believe that I could shoot better with such a
package than I could by spending the bulk of that sum on the
rifle, leaving too little for the scope.
The Nightforce SHV scope is an instrument
worthy of being mounted atop such a rifle as this Alexander Arms
6.5 Grendel, and I am glad that it was available to me to use
for this review. I am fortunate enough to own a few quality
scopes from Leupold and Trijicon, but until now, I had not spent
much time behind a Nightforce scope, and am glad to have the
chance to do so. The side focus is easy to reach and easy to
operate, as is the power magnification ring. It turns smoothly
with minimal effort. The turret adjustments are graduated in
quarter-minute intervals, and are precise and predictable. I
also like the fact that the turret adjustments have covers, to
prevent the adjustment from being inadvertently screwed up by
careless handling or by some goober-smoocher messing with the
turrets.
In my previous review of the Alexander Arms
rifle and cartridge, I discussed handloading the Grendel, as
well as the factory loads which were available to me at that
time. In the firing of this rifle, I have since acquired three
other factory loadings that I ran through this weapon, in
addition to some handloads that I use in my own Grendel. The new
factory loadings performed very well, and accuracy photos
accompany this review, showing pictures which are representative
of the ammo as fired from this particular rifle.
The Wolf Gold 123 grain softpoint load
performed admirably, with an average velocity of 2388
feet-per-second (fps), recorded ten feet from the muzzle of the
AA Hunter rifle. The Alexander Arms 129 grain SST and 130 grain
Sirocco ammunition clocked 2293 fps and 2133 fps averages,
respectively. All velocity testing was done at an elevation of
541 feet above sea level, with an air temperature of sixty-seven
degrees Fahrenheit and a relative humidity in the fifty-five
percent range.
For accuracy testing, I placed the AA Hunter
rifle into my Target Shooting, Inc. Model
500 rifle rest. I have a couple of different versions of
their heavier Model 1000 as
well, but find that I prefer the Model 500 for ARs. Firing
on targets to check for accuracy at 100 yards, the rifle turned
in a stellar performance, as I fully expected it to do as I
approached this project. The Alexander Tactical Trigger, which
is standard on this model, is one of the absolute best triggers
for accuracy work available on any AR, at any price. It allows
me to shoot as close to the rifle's potential as I am capable of
doing, and is the perfect trigger for this six and three-quarter
pound rifle. Again, the Nightforce scope only served to enhance
my ability to place the bullets precisely where I wanted. The
rifle, scope, mount, and empty magazine weighed in at exactly
eight and one-half pounds on my scale. The rifle ships with one
ten-round magazine, but four-round and twenty-four-round mags
are available from Alexander Arms as well.
For those who are interested in the
highly-efficient 6.5 Grendel cartridge, I think that one could
do no better than this Alexander Arms Hunter model for a superb
all-around rifle, suitable for hunting medium game, predators,
and vermin, as well as for long-range precision shooting and
social work. The Hunter is well-balanced, accurate, reliable,
and easy to carry afield. The Nightforce SHV scope enhances the
rifle's capability and precision, without being too large or
burdensome.
Check out this and other Alexander Arms
rifles, parts, ammo, and accessories online at www.alexanderarms.com.
For a closer look at quality Nightforce
optics, go to www.nightforceoptics.com.
To
order quality ammunition online, go to www.midsouthshooterssupply.com,
www.luckygunner.com,
www.doubletapammo.com,
and www.lehighdefense.com.
Jeff Quinn
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