mikegideon

Real sorry to hear about this, Robert. 

  6.8AR can tell you everything you wanna know about the SPC. I've shot one of his rifles.   The Grendel is a long range caliber. IMO, you're wasting it if you don't go all out.   The .458 is a beast, but fairly short range (150ish). Expensive to shoot, and in my opinion, prohibitive if you don't reload. It got me started with reloading. Will put a hog on his ass.   .204 Ruger is a varmint cal. Fast, flat, and light. I'm guessing it's hard on barrels.   The .300 Blackout, again IMO, is the best alternate caliber for the AR. Relatively cheap compared to the others.

Somebody needs to be sending dies back to Lee. That just seems such a fundamental screwup for those guys, especially with a hard SAAMI spec. 

Here's what I got with the mic. Plain ole Lee sizing die   Neck diameter: .3335 Base diameter: .373 Shoulder: .357 ish

.344 has to be an error. The chamber is only .335. I'm guessing .334 like the blackout.

The outside neck diameter of the Blackout is like .004 larger than the whisper. I think I read that it was done so you could neck down military brass. That's enough to make for some possible stickiness in a whisper chamber. The case length is .013 longer, be that has nothing to do with dies. 

  That's what you get for talking to an old senile guy on the phone :). I'll edit my post

  When I get a chance, I'll grab my micrometer and compare my loads to factory loads, and to the blk spec. I have a cheesey barrel, so it may just be cut loose. I won't be able to measure the necks on fired brass, because my rifle dings the necks on the brass deflector.

  All chambers are reamed. That's how they make chambers in barrel blanks. Dolomite bought a blank, and had it chambered with a Whisper reamer.   I was wrong. See Dolomite's post coming up.

  Mine came reamed. That would be Dolomite :)

  I'm waiting until they come out with orange bullets. No drab colors for me :)

G,   Regarding Lee dies. My loads work fine with Lee dies and a chamber that was reamed to Blackout spec. I think we discussed this the last time we were on the phone. Don't you have a barrel that's reamed to Whisper specs? I haven't had a chance to dig, but do know that the Whisper was a wildcat, and specs varied a little. That's probably the main reason AAC was able to make a "new" SAAMI caliber out of such an old wildcat.   I don't have the data to debate it, so I'm just going to say that the Lee dies seem to match up just fine with a true Blackout chambered barrel. 

These...

The Grendel performs that way because of the high ballistic coefficient of the bullets. I haven't priced 6.5mm, but those kinda bullets are usually pricey. I don't have a problem with the cost of good bullets. Just pointing it out.

  I have an RRA upper. Lancer Advanced Warfighter mags. They make two grades. You need the good one.

  Precision reloading. Whole new level of geeky (and gear quality). :).

  Can't beat RRA's .458 uppers.

  I have one for carbine and one for rifle (I think). If the recoil isn't bugging you, I wouldn't mess with it.

That stock is helping you more than you know. You can't get a decent recoil pad for a Magpul stock. I finally put a brake on mine. Are you using the heavy spring that comes with the upper? Mine is a middy, so I'm using a stock carbine spring.

Well. I guess I got here too late.

  Gotta let Erik go first. It will spin him around like a top. Fun to watch :)

  .458 SOCOM! We'll get Erik to shoot it first :)

  Gotta give you credit... you can put a serious smack-down on a man without ever having to break out the word "asshole". :)

  7.62 x 39 is bad juju in an AR because of the straight mag well. I know... some folks do it.

If I do go with the Grendel, it will have all the high cost and wait time of a true long range rifle. Long heavy barrel, expensive glass, and a heavy PRS stock. It won't be well suited to a stroll in the woods.