12.5" 6.5 Grendel Deer Rifle Catastrophic Failure!!!

Watch attempting to do load development with my SBR hunting rifle and experience a catastrophic failure!!! Dead rifle
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[@Rickkari7]

I use factory hornady black eld match for deer hunting in my 20” BCA Grendel upper. Sub moa. 3 for 3 with deer, one at 70 yards and 2 at 175 plus yards. 1 for 1 with a 30 yard coyote that showed up on a morning deer hunt, poor girl. Basically just been shooting straight out of the box. Hopefully it continues to hold up. I only paid $212 with free shipping a few years ago for the upper. Prices have changed for sure. Love the round.

[@cherrycitygunsandammo1011]

@@Rickkari7 it’s a great round. I also have a 20” BCA upper and it shoots great. I just wanted an ultra lite handy rifle for way back behind the gates.

[@roccofiori1961]

Commenting for the algorithm subscribed for more shorty Grendel content. Currently building a 13.9 sons of liberty 6.5G. Interested in seeing how the hornady 100 grain ELD-VT performs

[@johnoakley5544]

bca has been having an issue with bcg breakage. Specifically with the pins for the 7.62x39 bcg (6.5G parent case).

[@timvest8141]

Anytime you have a catastrophic failure you should disassemble your firearm and do a thorough inspection. The top right group when you called the fourth shot as next to the center was actually almost off the paper. That's where your trouble started.

[@cherrycitygunsandammo1011]

You are right. And the hit is far easier to see on film than in the moment. I saw it as well while editing. I could have edited out, but I don’t have an ego that makes me hide my mistakes. It was a learning experience. Hopefully for someone watching as well as myself.

[@bluwells3615]

I wanna say one thing. Remember grendel operates at maximum pressures so foolin w powder loads and usin a cheap ass upper n bcg is where the problem began. I wont run anything but billet and high end jp, or so equipment in my grendel builds. Buy once cry once. Just from seein problems my brother and friends have had w budget grendel building... At least odin works. Ya dig...

[@thesaint1517]

I have BCA 6.5 18" side upper and I finally got it where I wanted after thoroughly polishing the chamber. I had a couple of firing pins broken from BCA and got the enhanced ones from another vendor. BCA has the worst firing pins as I had failures with my 7.62 rear charging upper as well. My 6.5 locked on me several times and it cleared after polishing it. You seemed to be a little flustered and forgot to turn the camera pointing the targets. I would have felt the same way. Thanks for sharing.

[@jimbos5.7x28]

I had major issues with their stock default 6.5 grendel side charging BCG all together! I had to replace the one that my upper came with to get my can to work correctly. I decided to buy 2 sets of their sidecharger BCG kit because after hours of time wasted looking online for any other offering of ar-15 6.5 grendel side charging BCG kit there just aren't any other companies that make them as far as I know other than BCA.

[@cherrycitygunsandammo1011]

@jimbos5.7x28 I don’t know of any others. I’ve used the bca side charging upper and bcg in several builds and this is the first time I’ve had issue at all.

[@michaellewis5624]

I hear people say i built the upper, did you buy the upper complete or buy the bcg, barrel and gas tube and assemble it? That's what build is to me. Attaching a upper to a lower is not a build to me.

[@kamikazekunze]

My BCA side charger in 300 did the exact same thing about 100 rounds into testing some 195gr ELD w/ 12.6 of Lil’gun. Getting the whole upper looked at now. Dropped a secondary BCG in to finish the day and it was flawless. 😮 dang firing pin retaining pin was bent and the face of the firing pin where it mates to the carrier had the shit beat out of it. Sub’d 😊

[@55Magnetic]

Have a 12.5” I’m working up shortly. Curious if you found a favorite powder/bullet combo that has worked well for you so far in your 12.5. (I Don’t recommend posting the exact load recipe - just the bullet and powder) thx keep up the great content

[@cherrycitygunsandammo1011]

@@55Magnetic so far I’ve been experimenting with 100gr Barnes ttsx and benchmark. I’m going to be trying some different combos with that bullet and some other powders. I just got some ballistic gel so make sure you are subscribed. I’ll be doing videos with the different powders and how that bullet performs in gel.

[@55Magnetic]

Funny i was looking at load data for benchmark + TTSX when you replied :) sub’d and looking forward to seeing what you find. I’ll share my results as well 🤙🏻

[@cherrycitygunsandammo1011]

Thank you! I’m looking forward to comparing notes.

[@PineyJustice]

Swap out the bolt and the firing pin. The BCA carriers are okish, but the firing pins and bolts are pretty junk.

[@cherrycitygunsandammo1011]

@@PineyJustice thanks for the tip. It’s already a different bolt because the bcg came with a 5.56 bolt. I always keep spare firing pins and a few other parts. Luckily I had a spare cam pin.

[@VASCAR2]

When reloading the 6.5 Grendel you have to bump the shoulder back about .003” when sizing your brass. It is very easy to put your sized brass in your chamber to see if easily falls out when the muzzle is raised if you don’t have a case gauge. It is easy to load a bullet to ling where the bullet sticks in the lands. The bullet profile vary significantly on .264/6.5 bullets and many you can’t load to an overall length of 2.260”. I couldn’t see the ejection pattern but I bet the cam pin did not have proper heat treat. Curious which brand bolt and carrier you used.

[@cherrycitygunsandammo1011]

I’ve been rolling my own ammo for a long time. There is no issue there. The it’s a bear creek side charging upper and bcg. Faxon barrel. I said this in the video.

[@jimbos5.7x28]

Bro we might as well be blood related the way our rifles are almost identical in build and brand lol I wanted 6.5 grendel as well so I got the side charging upper from BCA . After much of teh google I eventually found a small e-shop that sold side charging handles (not to knock the bca default) so I went with a cynclindrical/barrelstyle , knurled aluminum anodized handle that screws directly in as one piece. I have although in FDE the same can, super similar ultra light handguard, exact same Vortex cantilever mount and scope, and a very similar Magpul sopmod stock. I didn't catch your lower model/brand but I have a similar Anderson AM-15 lower ported that I actually got to watch get manufactured during a tour I was part of at Anderson Firearms Armory in Kentucky. I have a Geissele Super Bushmaster M4 stainless, drop in, 2-stage, 4.3lb, flat trigger and spring kit. Magpul basic 10 and 5 round mags. PSA generic adjustable low-pro gas block. Spec's out of the way - when it came time to shoot my 6.5grendel AR suppressed I was so stoked...only to have constant gas issues with brass either not ejecting or spent brass being jammed into the barrel feed ramp. Then I realized that it wasn't an issue with this half decent gas block ...it was my bcg and extractor failing on me. It just goes to show you to check out other avenues of problems when gassing in a new can or mounting a fancy new optic, etc. - great video home slice.

[@cherrycitygunsandammo1011]

Thank you for taking the time to comment. That sounds like a great build. My lower is Aero. I’ll do another video on this rifle as it seems like I’ve got everything dialed in now. And I’ve got some ballistic get to see how the barnes ttsx performs out of such a short barrel.

[@jimbos5.7x28]

@@cherrycitygunsandammo1011 awesome bro thanks for the response!

[@bluwells3615]

Good video enjoy grendel its a beast!

[@nosyarg1997]

Man you gotta chase your brass down and check it while doing load development. You also gotta have a chronograph. You're going to hurt yourself doing it this way. Go watch 2 or 300 Johnny's reloading bench videos before doing your load development again please. You'll blow your face off.

[@cherrycitygunsandammo1011]

No I won’t. I’ve been doing load development far longer than Johnny has had a channel. I know how to do load development. This had nothing to do with the load and only due to poor metallurgy of the gas key. There are zero pressure signs on the brass.

[@nosyarg1997]

Jammed action/stuck case and you kept going??? Wow dude be careful.

[@cherrycitygunsandammo1011]

Brass showed no pressure signs.