Howa is selling out of their 6.5 Grendel mini-action bolt guns and barreled actions just about as fast as they can make em'.  Is that mainstream enough?

Probably more people pushing their limits than the rifle's limits.  It takes a lot of skill to be accurate enough to cleanly kill something at long range.

The easy out is for people to buy way too much gun so they can shoot in the lower hind leg and hope to still cause enough hydrodynamic shock to kill the thing.

With no experience using it... the 5.56 does seem less than ideal for deer though.

Right or wrong, but IMHO things don't become too mainstream until one or more of the following happens:

Ruger offers a firearm chambered in it.........fudds love Ruger. (see 300blk Min 14 + American Ranch Rifle)

Walmart sells ammo for it...............so neckbeards can get in on the action. (300blk is now at Walmart)

Cheap steel case ammo is every where................so it's not a reloader centric round.

6.5 Grendal has the steel case ammo thing going for it, but it's still not widely available.

Having a major company pick up and run with it is what it's going to take.

History is littered with cartridges that were vast improvements over their standard host platforms original offering that had little bursts of popularity, but failed in the long run due to the big boys not jumping on board. For example the 5.7mm Johnson Spitfire in the M1 carbine (probably never as popular as 6.5 Grendal, but used as a rough example)

Those and the CZs are sold before they arrive in the States, from what I've been able to gather.

I was only able to get my Howa Mini from the importer for a review, which I am working on currently.

I think the dynamics of the market have changed enough to not include the China-Mart metric anymore.

For people that shoot a lot, we order online and hand load.

There is an entire new generation of shooters who learned to buy ammo and their gun parts online, rather than the traditional model of going to the gun counter, asking Cleatus and Fester what's a gud raffle of huntin', and getting told everything from .243 Win. to .378 Weatherby Magnum.

The only necessary interaction they have had with FFL dealers is the inconvenience of transferring in a lower.

They'll simply walk past the sporting goods aisle at China Mart and chuckle at whatever it is that they have there behind the counter.

Hornady already picked it up and ran with it to SAAMI years ago, and there are 42 factory loads for it, including everything from steel case to Federal Gold Medal Match.

There are very few cartridges with that type of support, .223 Rem, .308 Win, and .30-06 being the only ones I am aware of.

Nothing else has both steel cased and Federal Gold Medal Match.

Well said.

You might be right, as things are changing

BUT....the people you speak of are still a low % of the general shooting population.  A growing %, but still not the driving force.

I am all for having lots of options and would love for some of these newer offerings to  be mainstream enough that where ever I go, it's there, and just accepted as one of the "go-to" calibers instead of niche or enthusiast gear. Of the three more popular "non standards"...6.5, 6.8, and 300blk..............300blk seems to be breaking from the pack and inching closer to .223 and .308 levels of acceptance, for lack of a better argument than the half serious/half tongue in cheek points I made in my other post.

The shopping online is a good point for AR stuff.  I buy a couple small things from chain stores (like for my Grendel Sheels has the furniture the same price as everyone online I can find... so why pay freight?) but most of my builds have came from online.

But like for bolt guns... I dunno about that.  If you shop around you can usually find a dealer that can get you close to online pricing and just let him worry about the freight and getting it to his door.  Freight and transfer fees are a nasty price leveler.

Grendel factory ammo offerings are GETTING BETTER!!!!!

I'm just being picky, Barrier blind 110 to 115(APROX) gr 2750 fps from a 16 inch tube(Hornady super performance line?). A buck a round!!

Shoot hogs, deer, and predators through Windshields, vehicle steel, and doors.

For giggles, .550 BC wouldn't suck.

More ammo... More better

6.8 Flourished when 1 shop offered great barrels and bolts, The Grendel could use a shop like that, but timing might be bad for the next 4-8 years on that project.

My Daughters have 6.8s, but they need Grendel's too.  16 inch Melonite's, why do they need Grendel's, 2 reasons

Hornady 123 SST ammo
Wolf steel cased ammo!!