Wildcat appreciation thread

[Von Gruff Knives]

Seeing the 6.5's mentioned lets me include my own 6.5Grendel-max.
I Had a very real interest in the 6.5 Grendel but because it was developed for the AR platform had to be kept to pressure and length parrameters that worked for the AR but I felt there was enough left on the table with the cartridge to gain from a re design so got the reamer specs and drew up a case with the shoulder pushed .05 further forward and tightened up the chamber neck to BR clearances, lengthened the freebore for my desired cartridge OA length for the 123gn A Max and later the SST. I sent the print off to mansons and when it arrived I had a match barrel chambered for it. To do the loading I wanted to be able to use the standard Grendel dies and to do so all I had to do was epoxy a .05 spacer on the shell holder bump faces so it would hold the case that same .05 from full engagement with the sizing die. I expanded the necks of the grendel brass to 30 cal then added a .006 tempory spacer to the permanent .05 spacer to give me a crush value when chambering for the first fire-forming loads after which I neck sized only and loaded in a Wilson BR die using an Arbor press but my pest shooter friend who eventually bought the reamer and has chambered 3 barrels for it so far is simply using the Forster FLS die and load dies for very good results. My Grendel-Max gains over the standard Grendel with 2700fps for the 123gn bullet and 2950fps for the 100gn TTSX. I bought a mini mauser action and removed the mag holding screw so I could add length to get the 2.470 internal length to hold the2.405 OAL cartridge with the 123gn bullet seated out to that length. Changed the bolt handle to give a decent length to it and made a stock to hold it all and in testing with CFE223 giving me excellent accuracy I have used this little rifle that weighs in at 6 1/2 lb with sling, scope and ready for the hill where it has taken a great number of animals mostly goats but with the last one a big red at 235m early this year.
My reamer print.


This is the standard Grendel on the left with my Grendel-Max


New bolt handle and tempory mag extension to make sure it all worked before doing the final extension.


Rifle with a barrel weight to replace the much longer suppressor but I found I didn't need the suppressor or the weight so now the barrel is bare with thread protector only.


Testing loads and settled on the 32.6gn CFE223