u/JBMT86

These were all shot with an 18" faxon match gunner barrel on an ar that I built. I think its excellent that s and b ammo groups so well. The first pic is hornady black. Which I always thought was the best but my rifle consistently groups s and b better. Is there a premium ammo line I should try that uses a bullet like the s and b uses?

I have tried 90 grain tnt. and frontier. they are not great.

What would you try if you knew this info? what is different about the s and b bullet that my rifle likes better? Ill tell you what I am going to buy a few 600 round cases of the s and b.

My ruger american groups the s and b better as well. Does anyone know what bullet they use? I am sure its nothing available commercially.

I'm just posting for discussion, my goal is consistent sub moa groups of 5 at 200 yards. I did hit a 10' gong at 560 yards last night on 2 out of 3 tries. I thought that was awesome. Definitely the furthest I have shot.

This is a Ballistic Advantage 16" semi auto gas gun @ 200yds, shooting Hornady black 123 grain. This is the absolute best I can get this gun to shoot. I shot a better group with s&b ball ammo with my Ruger American the very same day, on the target next to it. To add insult to injury I can shoot my 22-250 Tikka without trying, better than moa, or pretty dang close, at the same distance.

Short story:

I got into the Grendel around 2017 I guess because of all the reasons everyone gets into grendel. You have much better ballistics and energy and all that blah blah blah in an AR-15 then with 556. I know I don't need to sell the people in this sub.

Many years ago I sold a Grendel Hunter upper because I didn't feel like it was precise enough, I'm paying for 6.5 g ammo to shoot tight groups and then stretch the legs. Looking back it's shot pretty well with factory loaded ammo. It was never quite MOA but only slightly.

I kind of let It go for a while and then in the last two or three years I've been accumulating parts and uppers and whatnot. I have a Palmetto State 12.5 inch upper that shoots terribly. It's fine for a pistol but it was worse than I expected. It was on sale, you know one of those daily deals or whatever. Oh well.

I had some leftover parts, some of it decent some of it middle of the road, and ended up with the ballistic advantage 16 inch barrel. I built a rifle that's got a decent buffer setup a decent trigger, a decent stock BCG etc. it's all middle of the road stuff and realistically it's a 2.25 MOA gun at best. I guess now I know BA doesn't have the best reputation.

I have 2 faxon match barrels sitting in the safe.

I think I'm going to replace the PSA barrel in muzzle device with a faxon 12 in and the 16 inch ba barrel will get replaced with an 18 inch faxon. I am going to take them to a gunsmith to remove a variable and that maybe I'm just not a good gunsmith.

My Ruger American predator shoots MOA it shoots really good with s and b ball ammo. You win some you lose some I guess lol.

I guess my questions are as follows:

How much can a gunsmith affect the performance of a rifle? I follow the directions, I use a torque wrench and a gun vise, but maybe it's me.

am I expecting too much out of budget parts?

If these faxon barrels don't shoot well, what is considered a good barrel producer for 65 Grendel gas guns these days? I don't mind spending money if something will perform I'm not looking for cheap, I want to shoot sub MOA gas guns out to 800 yards.

Does anyone sell a complete 65 Grendel gas rifle? I'm not usually a gun snob but I would like to have a couple 65 guns that are semi-auto and capable of medium distances towards long range (400 to 800 yds). I have one complete rifle, it is a BCM recce and I absolutely love the rifle. I can tell it is being put together better than I can do it, it feels more solid and it is quieter. Is there an option like that for six five grendel? I'm thinking LaRue but I don't love the way they look as stupid as that sounds.

If you have experience with the faxon match barrels, what ammo did they like?