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Question .224 Valk or 6.5 Grendel in 2025?

Between the two I'd pick 6.5G.

The .224 Valkyrie is a poodle shooter. The 6.5G can be pushed into service as a real deal hunting gun with better weight hunting bullets and is more versatile IMO.

The major problem for 6.5G is at that bore diameter getting really sleek bullets is impossible with that size case. This is where 6 ARC shines in being abl to use higher BC bullets.

If all I was looking to do was use the "cheapest, decent" ammo to "hit steel targets" (of non-specified size, so, what, car sized? person sized? 1MOA?) out to 750 yards I'd stick with a .223 Rem/5.56. And I'd learn to reload.
 
I shoot 6.5 Grendel in a 20" AR as well as .308win in a 26" barreled Remington 700. With hand loads I got the 6.5G to about 2500 fps with a 123 grain bullet but that was really pushing the max pressure to where I had to switch to magnum primers as in hot weather they would punch through. At 2500 on a 123grn bullet I could hit the 750 but I was at 26 moa drop and in my christmas tree reticle at 22 power I can only see the 22 moa hold. I've started to develop a load for 107 grain TMK's to help with that but still only get to 23 moa of drop. Interestingly enough the drop for a 175 grain TMK at 2500 in the bolt gun is 24 moa. Working the numbers on 6.5 Creedmoor factory ammo the hold for 750 yards is 18.3 moa. I know it can be pushed a bit faster with handloads but the 6.5 Creedmoor is hands down the winner for elevation drop, wind drift and not to mention it stays supersonic past 1300 yards. Now I'm just waiting for 10 days to be up.
 
6.5Grendel...

If you ever get tired of 6.5 Grendel a simple barrel change can get you into the "ARC" (6mm ARC, and 22 ARC) world. The "ARC" calibers' parent case is the 6.5 Grendel necked down. If you choose the Valkyrie and get tired of it a lot will need to happen to your AR for a caliber change, a new barrel, bolt, and magazines.

Either way you cant go wrong, best of luck.
 
Put me in the 6.5CM camp. Cheap, available ammo. Light recoil. Long barrel life. Lots of positives for someone dipping their toe in this pool.
 
6mm arc is better ballistically than grendel because you can use the heaviest bullets of the diameter which gives you a better ballistic coefficient. In 6.5 you get good BCs up around 140-150 while grendel is only getting up to 123 grains.
 
Deleted member 16735 said:
6mm arc is better ballistically than grendel because you can use the heaviest bullets of the diameter which gives you a better ballistic coefficient. In 6.5 you get good BCs up around 140-150 while grendel is only getting up to 123 grains.
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huh? Heaviest 6ARC is in the 108 grain range. Are you talking Creedmore with the 147s?
 
DuckDawg22 said:
huh? Heaviest 6ARC is in the 108 grain range. Are you talking Creedmore with the 147s?
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yes I'm talking about creedmoor vs grendel. With grendel you can't use the heaviest in caliber bullets and therefore missing out on the ballistic advantage. Grendel is still a good cartridge but between grendel and arc I chose 6mm arc for my own build.
 
Deleted member 16735 said:
yes I'm talking about creedmoor vs grendel. With grendel you can't use the heaviest in caliber bullets and therefore missing out on the ballistic advantage. Grendel is still a good cartridge but between grendel and arc I chose 6mm arc for my own build.
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Yeah 6 ARC seems to be a better than 6.5 Grendel for AR 15 applications. Though there seems to be a lot more ammo choices for 6.5 Grendel compared to 6 ARC. I do notice that with 6 ARC you can use the same bullets as 6 Creedmoor, but the 6.5 Grendel doesn't seem to be able to run the heavier 6.5 bullets that the Creedmoor can.
 
TheAverageShooter said:
Yeah 6 ARC seems to be a better than 6.5 Grendel for AR 15 applications. Though there seems to be a lot more ammo choices for 6.5 Grendel compared to 6 ARC. I do notice that with 6 ARC you can use the same bullets as 6 Creedmoor, but the 6.5 Grendel doesn't seem to be able to run the heavier 6.5 bullets that the Creedmoor can.
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Between the two I'd prefer 6 ARC for less windy areas or hunting in CA with non-lead. Otherwise, 6.5 Grendel and the increased bullet weight would be better for hunting IMO.
 
TheAverageShooter said:
Yeah 6 ARC seems to be a better than 6.5 Grendel for AR 15 applications. Though there seems to be a lot more ammo choices for 6.5 Grendel compared to 6 ARC. I do notice that with 6 ARC you can use the same bullets as 6 Creedmoor, but the 6.5 Grendel doesn't seem to be able to run the heavier 6.5 bullets that the Creedmoor can.
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Yeah exactly, you are closer to the upper range of the 6mm bullets vs the mid range of 6.5mm bullets
 
NapalmCheese said:
Between the two I'd prefer 6 ARC for less windy areas or hunting in CA with non-lead. Otherwise, 6.5 Grendel and the increased bullet weight would be better for hunting IMO.
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6.5 grendel is likely a touch better for hunting but neither are ideal in a gas gun, and if you aren't in a gas gun you may as well go creedmoor or prc for hunting. Target-wise 6arc or even 22arc are pretty interesting.
 
Deleted member 16735 said:
6.5 grendel is likely a touch better for hunting but neither are ideal in a gas gun, and if you aren't in a gas gun you may as well go creedmoor or prc for hunting. Target-wise 6arc or even 22arc are pretty interesting.
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Creedmoor and PRC are on an entirely different level, why are we even talking about them in a thread about .224 Valkyrie and 6.5 Grendel? We might as well just suggest a .30-06 at that point.
 
Why are people talking about hunting at all when OP said it was for target shooting? I'm talking about hunting in response to someone talking about hunting
 
I think 6.5G was amazing for it's day, but that day has passed. I think I'm actually going to drop it and try and sell my guns,ammo,reloading stuff as a bundle.
 
Thank you for the replies everyone, lots of good insight in this thread. The issue of being able to score targets in a match due to insufficient bullet energy is not one I had considered. If 6.5grendel is significantly better in that regard that .224 Valkyrie, that is something to steer me in that direction.

As an update - while I still have not finalized which caliber to pursue for this build, I did put together a Howa 1500 barreled action build in .308. I saw enough top competitive shooters recommend .308 for learning in comparison to 6.5 Creedmoor since its flight characteristics are less forgiving and force good fundamentals... We'll see if I'm just a masochist but hoping to learn well with it.
 
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