12" 6.5 Grendel Update 5 month Review

If you keep having issues with Elanders and some troubleshooting with the mags themselves doesn't resolve it (checking follower, making sure spring is 'broken in', feed lips issues, etc.), you might try a CPD mag. When I was researching mags a couple months ago, that came up a few times for folks having Elander issues.

Here's one of the threads where somebody resolved an Elander FTF issue by switching to CPD. Also just noticed that LRRPF52 posted in one of the other threads recommending CPD. Will be interesting to hear when he drops back in here, if CPD is still giving best reliability. :cool:

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Originally Posted by maximus83

If you keep having issues with Elanders and some troubleshooting with the mags themselves doesn't resolve it (checking follower, making sure spring is 'broken in', feed lips issues, etc.), you might try a CPD mag. When I was researching mags a couple months ago, that came up a few times for folks having Elander issues.

Here's one of the threads where somebody resolved an Elander FTF issue by switching to CPD.

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Awesome, good info.
Thanks, maximus. Gonna dive into that forum.

Wolf steel cased is all that I use. I think that I've only tried three magazines.

I've been shooting Grendel for many years and have never had any magazine related issues. I have a bunch of c products and now elanders.

Early on when cartridge was relatively new in ARs there were some C products magazines that had feed lip issues. This would have been 2007 time frame or before.

But between my brother and I we probably have two or three dozen C products magazines in Grendel and have never seen an issue. Ours were bought a couple at a time over several years.

The elander stamping is crisper and I believe a higher-quality magazine.

Then again I have not found the Grendel to be finicky at all, though I've always used rifles with m4 feed ramps, etc.

When I'm just shooting from the bench for fun I often use 5.56 pmags, which work fine for up to 5 to 10 rounds. (Beyond 10 rounds gets wonky)

Glad to see this thread, love the 6.5 Grendel, built one last year, and just begun to shot the snot out of it, mostly the 123eld, load from Hornaday, but just received the 95 grain pills and will start working a load on those. The Wolf seems to run well. Mine is a 16" mid length , and so far the coyotes can't tell difference :D

Wanted to give an update on the mag situation.

Based on maximus' advice, I picked up two 26 round CPD mags for my 12.5" Faxon barrel in 6.5 Grendel. I was able to put approximately 200 rounds through them without a single malfunction.
In comparison, the high capacity E-Lander magazines I used would often have some variation of a failure to feed at least once a mag cycle.
This is all with the super cheap Wolf ammo.
Only a sample of one, I know. I'll continue to pick up more CPD mags throughout the year and put more rounds on them.
Just on the appearance of a loaded mag, CPD mag's feed lips seem to position the rounds with a slight upward cant, whereas the E-Landers I have either position the rounds straight, or even angled down toward the forward wall of the mag body.

I went through and deburred all my grendel mag feedlips and gave them a slight polish as they were very sharp and left visible marks on the brass. They work much better now. I have a bunch of 15 round asc mags and 5 24-25 round ones I used in a run and gun. No problems with them except the finish was flaking off pretty bad. They are stainless so no biggy.

While we’re on the subject of mags, I recently picked up a Ruger bolt action in 6.5g that takes AR mags, and picked up some 10 round elanders, CPDs, D&H, and 15 round ASCs.

They all fed fine but the elanders took more effort to strip a round, no surprise as they have heavy steel and strong springs. If you’re setup is undergassed or has a weak buffer spring that might be a cause of failure, at least til break in.

All ammo was Wolf steel so that’s not gonna strip as effortlessly as brass. The D&H mags were a nice surprise, very heavy steel but less effort to chamber. Probably the tightest fit in my ARs as well (PSA & Anderson lowers) and didn’t drop free when empty but they’re only for the bolt action anyways and provided the snuggest fit. I’ve heard the same about D&H 7.62x39 AR mags as well.

All of this has me thinking of a project. Two shorties, 6.5G and 5.56 stainless match barrels, in the same toolbox. Furthest within one hour is 600, option is to take them with me up north at work and go to 1200. Just for fun, nothing more.

If the elander feed angles are substantially different that the c-prod, then something is wrong.

My elanders have been great, I'll try to find a pic.