This upper is brought to you by Olympic Arms.
Olympic .25 WSSM Upper Link
My journey to get to this point has been a long and at times frustrating prospect. I do not take a $800-$1,000 purchase lightly. Well, after careful consideration and a lot of deliberation I finally decided on a new upper for my AR15 family. As you can tell, since the name of the new page is the .25 WSSM page, I decided to go with this cartridge. Like I said, I had a difficult time deciding where I wanted to go with the new purchase. I considered a lot of different cartridges that are available on the AR-15 platform. Some are offered as factory loadings and some are available as a custom made upper/barrel only. For my purposes I decided to stay with factory offered cartridges so that I didn't have to deal with all the wildcat components that go along with a non-standard options. I really wanted something in .264 caliber (6.5mm) because I really like that caliber and believe it to be almost perfect for hunting anything in North America, unless you get into big bears, but I don't have to worry about that though anytime soon. The only cartridge offered in a factory loaded cartridge with a 6.5mm round is the 6.5 Grendel. The Grendel is also made by the same manufacturer as my .50 Beowulf, Alexander Arms. However, the Grendel just doesn't give me the ballistics that I am looking for. If you would like to see a comparison between the two cartridges you can view it here.
I also looked at the 6.8 SPC offered by Remington. However, ballistically the 6.8 SPC is very similar, even identical out to about 300 yds with the 6.5 Grendel. If I had to choose between only these two rounds it would be the Grendel hands down. I have the Grendel chambered in one of TC Encore barrels and it is an impressive round for what it is, but just not enough oomph for my purposes at this time. So, the 6.8 SPC is out for the same reasons as the 6.5 Grendel.
This led me to the next level of cartridges that have been chambered for the AR-15. Olympic is currently the only big name company manufacturing uppers
for use that are chambred in the WSSM line of cartridges. There are a few Custom builders out there who are making them, but it is my
understanding that Olympic pioneered the process to convert the AR15 upper to accept the WSSM line of cartridges. I have learned a lot about the WSSM
cartridges and the uppers from Mike at Dtech. You can visit his site by clicking
here. Mike is an awesome guy. He has been in the business of
making accurate AR rifles for 17+ years. I have heard nothing but complimentary comments about his uppers. I had planned on getting an upper from
DTech, but he is so good that he had an 8-month backlog! If I ever decide I want a custom barrel made for the AR I will definately be contacting Mike.
Anyway back to the WSSM family of cartridges. DTech could have made a 6.5 WSSM for me, but there comes the wildcat cartridge rub, so I decided
to stick to what is currently available, for component and available die options. There are three factory loaded options; .223 WSSM, .243 WSSM,
.25 WSSM. Since I intend to use this weapon to hunt deer sized game the .223 WSSM was not considered. Virginia has a minimum requirement of
.243 caliber for deer. So then I was left with deciding on what bullet weight I wanted. The .243 is limited to 100gr bullets and lower, for the most part. If
I wanted larger than 100gr bullets there was only one available option; the .25 WSSM. Now don't get me wrong, I am really happy with this cartridge and
am really excited to see it perform on the AR-15 platform. Why you ask? Just take a look at a couple pics:
(.223, 6.5 Grendel, 25 WSSM, .50 Beowulf)I believe that the .25 WSSM, with the right bullet, will be able to cleanly and consistently take any game I intend to hunt, from deer-sized game to any varmint that may stray into my sights. And for those that the 1/4 bore may be a little too small, then I will bring along the 1/2 incher, the .50 Beowulf. What do you think?
So have I convinced you to get one of these uppers yet? If no. Well congratulations. You have stuck to your "guns" and have different reasons for making your choice than I did. I hope you find the cartridge you are in search of. However, if I did get you to convert, then HELLO, and welcome to the world of the WSSM AR!! Just as I have done with my other cartridges I will update the reloading page as I have new data available. You can access the reloading data page of my website by clicking HERE.
I will update the page as I get more info and pictures. The upper should be here this week so check back then to see the completed rifle. For now, you will just have to settle for a few pics of the the camo leather covering I made to cover up the A2 stock, that I hate. I don't hate the design of the A2 stock, I just hate any plastic stock. I think I am really liking this covering. Might make one for the forend to match. Just have to wait and see. Anyway, thanks for visiting and taking a look. If I can help in any way with concerns or comments about the .25 WSSM, "shoot" me an email and I'll see if I can help. Now, here are the pics as the rifle is right now:
Well it finally arrived!! Yahoo! Sorry it took me so long to get the updated pics up but we have been burried by snow. Been stuck at work with snow removal duty for almost 2 weeks straight. I love Winter and I like snow, but I am tired of it and had enough for this year!! Ready for springtime so I can go out do some real shooting with this new setup. I did some preliminary testing with 100gr bullets. The data and results can be found on my reloading page if you want to check it out. Ok, so I've kept ya in the dark long enough. Here are some pics of my new favorite rifle.
Here are a few Pics of what this upper did on the first day of testing. I tried 18 different loads. Target was at 75 yds. Weather was nasty and snowing, so I didn't have a great opportunity to wring out the accuracy of this upper. Hope to find a really good load soon to try at some distance.
0.52"
0.14"
0.47"
I bought two Olympic mags with my upper. I was not impressed, to say the least, with their quality and function. These magazines can be made to be reliable, but at the price they charge you might as well make your own. Don't waste your money on the factory Olympic magazines. The upper is top knotch but their magazines need some work to be reliable. I have made up a page that discusses converting standard .223 magazines to be used for the .25 WSSM cartridge. I have pictures and descriptions on how to modify MagPul and steel/aluminum 20-round magazines. Metal mags are by far the easiest to convert but with a little time and a Dremel tool you can also modify PMags to work just as well. All you need to convert metal mags is some MagPul anti-tilt followers and a file. A Dremel tool will make conversions easier and faster but is not absolutely necessary.
Magazine Modification Page
