Howa Mini-Action 6.5 Grendl

[vtmarmot]

Anybody got one of these and care to comment on it? Any reason to own one beyond the "cool factor"?

I need another hunting rifle like I need another orifice, but still I yearn. One thing holding me back is the protruding magazine right where your hand should go for easy carrying. I'm also thinking that a Ruger American in 6.5 Creedmoor would be a better use of my money.

I've also thought of buying a Grendl upper receiver to go on my Rock River varmint lower with Magpul target adjustable stock, but again, why?

 

[pablo]

Anybody got one of these and care to comment on it? Any reason to own one beyond the "cool factor"?

I need another hunting rifle like I need another orifice, but still I yearn. One thing holding me back is the protruding magazine right where your hand should go for easy carrying. I'm also thinking that a Ruger American in 6.5 Creedmoor would be a better use of my money.

I've also thought of buying a Grendl upper receiver to go on my Rock River varmint lower with Magpul target adjustable stock, but again, why?

Well, know what you struggle with--me too. I've built several 6.5 grendal ar's and would say they are very impressive on that platform. For an autoloader they are surprisingly accurate not to mention easy to shoot at ranges out to 800 yds or so. Out here in the west they get blown around real bad beyond 800 but for a deer rifle they are very good to 600 or so. I've been screwing around with a Fat Rat which is the same thing as a Grinch in the BR world except the reamer has some added neck clearance to function in an autoloader, in 6mm I think is the best mousetrap with the Grendal cartridge. We were fooling around with ours Saturday and it would show us 3250 with 80 grain Bergers and a stiff load of N135.

I'm also fooling around with a Howa Mini that I'm waiting for an answer from the Legacy armorer about the primary fire control. It cocks on close appx .050 with both a stock and a Timney trigger, it has .310 firing pin fall too. Compared to what we usually have on bench guns I think I need to grind .050 off of the cocking piece but really wanted an answer on what the spec is. So far no joy with that Comm. but it is the holidays. I've also been fooling around with a .020 long 6 Grendal shooting 80 grain pills from Bart and some 80's made by a friend of mine. I left a line in the chamber with the boring bar when I first chambered it. Didn't hurt a thing except my feelings when I loaded my brass so I set it back and screwed something up, wouldn't shoot after that. Have a new Lederer in the shop now and hope to get back to it in the next month or so. The fascinating thing about the cartridge is it will get you very close to Dasher velocities with less powder and Bart thinks its a more accurate cartridge.

 

[msalm]

The Howa Mini is a nicely made rifle, good trigger, well machined components. So far every one I've bought or sold in 6.5 Grendel has been a sub MOA shooter. For a 5.75 lb rifle in a Tupperware stock that's impressive to me. Very smooth action an good trigger also. You just have to be OK with the plastic bottom metal. I also clip off a bit over half of the mag release also so it's harder to inadvertently dump the mag while handling.

 

[pablo]

A little update on the Howa Mini action. Turned a mandrel yesterday and did some checking on the receiver face where the tenon faces up, had .002 TIR the bolt face in the receiver had .001 TIR. Don't think I'll do a thing to the bolt lug recess except to lap it in, a light cut on the receiver face will square that up to. Haven't checked the bolt yet but will do that soon.
This rifle comes with plastic bottom metal (sounds goofy) the interesting thing is that remington 700 bottom metal for a short action can be made to fit. A little opening up of the back of the trigger cutout and a plug for the front hole, then re-drill will fix that up. This is necessary because a longer than stock ten-round box is needed for tactical shooting with the Grinch and 105's. This rifle will be fired in local tactical rifle club matches against some stiff competition to test the theory if it will compete with a bunch of guys shooting high end BRX, Dasher and 6.5 X47 rifles. I know the Grinch will produce close to Dasher Velocities with 105's weather or not this thing will cycle well enough to compete remains to be seen.

 

[flatlander]

I bought couple of these Mini bbl'd actions in 6.5 Grendel from Legacy - one with the std wt bbl, the other with their hvy bbl. Have yet to fire a single round of 6.5 Grendel ammo through either of them. I pulled the 6.5 bbl from the std wt model, and replaced it with a Bartlein 1-8tw 6mm bbl in light Palma contour that I finished at 24", chambered for the 6RAT, which is very similar to the Grinch. The biggest obstacle was getting a stock, which I was finally able to order from McMillan. They initially told me there would be a $500 charge to model the inlet for this action, but when I checked back with them a few months later, they said they'd had so many requests for stocks for the Mini that they'd do it at no additional charge, if I'd send them a bbl'd action to work off of. Eventually, I received a Sako Varmint model stock from them, which fit the action & bottom metal (plastic) really well. I put the hvy bbl bbl'd action in a Boyds ProVarmint laminated stock w/adjustable cheekpiece - did have to remove a minor amount of wood in the bbl channel, but otherwise, it was also a great fit, and made a really sharp-looking minature tactical rifle. However, I sold it before ever taking time to shoot it, so can't comment on the accuracy of the factory 6.5 bbl.

The little rifle in the McMillan stock is accurate enough to be a lot of fun to work with - used a Warne 20 MOA scope rail to mount an Athlon Ares 4.5-27x50 mil scope, and swapped the OEM HACT trigger for a Timney, which required a bit of plastic to be cut out to make the trigger slot longer in the DBM. Really looking forward to getting the stock back for this rifle - had to return it to McMillan to repair some bubbles that had come up through the gel coat.

CDI is now making DBM that is actually made of metal - and that uses MDT magazines that may allow loading rounds a little longer than the OEM DBM. It also moves the mag release latch to a spot behind the mag well, which would be a big improvement over the former point just in front.