Has anyone made a comparison of comparable bullet weights and best bc's in order to help a newbie make a wise choice here? The 300 is tantalizing, but my gut says 6.8 is best overall though factory loads appear shy of full potential.
Dutch
"Sometimes by losing a battle you find a new way to win the war."
i doubt youll notice the difference in killability. i shot a 6.8 for a few years before going to the hamr. the vids look pretty much the same, just diff scope. all i ever shot out of the 6.8 was 120gr sst.
Nether are long range cartridges. Factory 6.8 ammo is fine. You can hot rod the round a little but it’s not as big a difference as some will lead you to believe unless you are talking about a bolt action where you can load out longer than AR mag length. I have bolt action in 6.8 with a 2.4 mag box so it does make a difference. In my AR, not really.
I doubt you will notice much difference at the ranges intended. I've killed a ton of stuff with the 6.8. The only thing I really noticed is that energy drops off a fair bit once you get past normal woods ranges and you get less wounding, fewer exits, reduced blood trails if any. If you're removing nuisance pigs it doesn't matter, if you're trying to recover an animal for meat it might matter. After several years with the 6.8 I went back to using cartridges with more powder.
I came into the 6.8mm trying to find a "pig rifle". I started with a Ruger "Ranch" but was u happy because of the difficulty in locating hi-cap mags. Took deer and coyotes with the Ruger. Then I built an Anderson AR in 6.8mm. The 30 round mags proved to make the little rifle cumbersome (to me!). So I backed down to 10 round mags They barely protrude from the "mag well".
The 6.8mm was actually designed with lighter bullets in mind. I'm not sure where the preference for heavy bullets came from, but light bullets do just fine. My first "kill" with my 6.8mm AR was about a 300 pound sow. Ammo was a handloaded Sierra 90 gr HP. D.I.R.T. (Dead! Instantly! Right There!) Couple of days later, I took down two more ferals. Both about +/- 175 pounders. Both DIRT with a single Sierra 90 gr HP. Not something any handloader would normally select for ferals. Later in the season, after running out of 90 gr HP's, I loaded up some Hornady 110 gr V-Max. Took a doe and another feral with that bullet. All one shot kills.
In today's world of expensive, hard to locate loading components, I finally located a box of Speer 90 gr "Gold Dots". Can't wait to try some of those. I'd REALLY like to try the Nosler 85 grain SP's.
BTW! Look into 68forums.com. Lots of good, up to date info on the 6.8mm Rem SPC.
I’ve been using several 6.8 rifles for years….mostly deer and coyotes in the southeast. A few hogs mixed it. 110gr Accubonds and 90gr Gold Dots are mostly all I’ve used. Neither has ever failed me. It’s a great combo in the AR, for typical deer/hog hunting. Having said that, I WANT to build or buy a HAMR….just because. I just have sooo many 6.8 loads and ammo to use up, it doesn’t make sense to ditch the 6.8. Also, as much as the HAMR can do, displacement is displacement, and the 6.8 has more case capacity, and more potential….all else equal. 30 herett/AR will naturally upstage the HAMR, but it takes bolts, mags, and loading only to do it. Yes, there are more 308 bullets for different HAMR loads….but I’ve only ever needed two in 6.8 and could probably just have the 110 NAB and be happy.
Bottom line? It’s a coin flip…..the 6.8 may, may give you more past 200, with the right loads, but gam won’t know any difference to 200 with either, I’d think. Sometimes, bullets have intangibles, and I find the 6.8 killed faster for me than the Grendel, all else being equal. The same might be true in jumping to the 300 HAMR. BW says so. I can’t know….but he’s killed far more stuff with both than I have and likely far more than most around.
