Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 6.8 SPC

Not too hard to understand why, it's stuck up his azz.

The puzzling part isn't.... at least to me its really clear, hogs ain't hard to kill, i've killed many with an MK2 and 22 hps. A 223 serves that purpose and standard deer purpose just fine. Now large deer or trophy deer as I"ve mentioned... different story. But anything 200 pounds and under is gravy.

The otehr point I see, the 6.8 is simply not a large enough step up from the 223 to make it totally different. I agree on that to.

Does the 6.8 work? Oh hell yeah. But for me... once I leave the 223 realm, PERSONALLY... I"m thinking 7.62x39 as the next step up OR one of the 243 or 25 wssm... as a minimum step up.

I know this much, the 6.8/necked to 6, running 85 tsx doesn't do anything much any better than the 223 running 62 tsx.

BUT I don't mind having a myriad of calibers to play with.

I suspect, just checking GeneL's Ranger tab there.... he may well be tired of folks saying the 223 isn't enough on the battle field either... when he realizes it is fine. Like most of our AMU competitive friends said when shooting for real life... its not that the 223 is lacking, its that the shooters are lacking. To the trained shooters I've talked to, unless you are talking beyond midrange, none have wanted anything more than a 5.56 round for combat use. Though they were very happy when the 77smk was allowed for use.

To add one more comment, reading all this... I'll have to grab a full on 6.8 and toy with it some. No direct need, but if I can see that it flattens animals that much harder from just a bit of ballistics improvement, then I'll agree, but from my wildcat off it, I just don't see that happening.

Isn't this what you do for a living?

Well... in theory, yes. BUT, when we're talking about AR15's, which obviously we are here, there's an inescapable cartridge size limitation we're stuck with in order for the cartridge to function in the platform. The 6.8 SPC, 6.5 Grendel, and similar cartridges represents a nice balance between providing significantly greater terminal performance than .223 offers while not producing much more recoil, not over-gassing the DGI system, having reasonably good high cap magazine capacity, and still functioning flawlessly in an AR15. In order to meet all those requirements without having to significantly modify the basic components of the rifle, fit within the diameter limitations of the AR15 bolt head and the COAL limitations of the AR15 mag well, you end up with a case dia and length in the ballpark of the PPC or .30 Rem case. Given a case of that size, if you then want reasonably good retained velocity at medium distances along with reasonably good bullet mass, that pretty much dictates you end up with a cartridge very similar to if not exactly like the 6.8 SPC or 6.5 Grendel. 6.5 Grendel is superior at long range, but 6.8 is less expensive to shoot and just as effective at short to medium range. Take your pick.

Now that's truly a mind boggling comment.....

Kinda like saying a Porsche ain't enough nicer than a Vette to bother with, but you would step up to a Ford Taurus.

Come on, Rost, just admit what's you've admitted a 100 times on the AR board, you are an avowed hater of all things .277.

Read the link I posted earlier. It explains what SOCOM found when it tested various bullet diameters in developing this cartridge. They found through extensive testing that 6.5 - 7mm was the "sweet spot" for maximizing the performance of what that size case was capable of yielding. They found that 6.8mm was the best compromise between the attributes of 6.5 and 7mm bullets.

7.62X39 is a step DOWN. 6.8 outperforms it.

Again, read the article in the link I posted earlier.

I've shot hogs DEAD with a .22LR, a .380 auto, a .40 S&W, a .204 Ruger...

In most cases, they ran off to die a lingering death, but die they did.

What does that prove?

Should I then conclude from that that you don't need a .223 for critters of that size when a .22LR will do?

Technically, no they ain't hard to kill.

They are hard to kill quickly without having them run a long distance, however. If you dispute that, that only tells me you either haven't killed very many hogs or you haven't killed very many large hogs.

I've killed somewhere north of 150 hogs, ranging in size from 5 lb piglets to 380 lb boars. The small ones die pretty quickly. The big ones don't give up the ghost so easily unless you shoot them in the brain. They are extremely tenacious!

I think you hit the nail on the head with "bullet mass". I've shot adult hogs from every different angle, at various distances, and the 6.8/110 AB plain FLATTENS 'em.

I was at the gun store this afternoon looking at rifle scopes, I really like the Leupold 1.5 x 5 IR with circle dot that thing is really a nice rifle scope! I asked if I could look at some 6.8 Cartridges while there. They are sure bigger than a .223, then the 25 year old kid behind the counter told me he had killed over 300 deer in his life and that he would never shoot a deer with a .223 as a .223 would not even take down a 150 pound man which was why the army was dumping it. He told me that if I knew anything about deer hunting I would never consider a 223 for the job. These were all good points I thought.

maybe I need two new toys a ranch rifle in 6.8 and a .223 upper for target practice.

If you didn't buy anything you should have at least paid him for the advise

Advice like that is hard to find.......




fortunately.

jimmyp, after using a 3-9 Trijicon the first day, I swapped it for a VX-III, 1.5-5 Circle Dot the second day. It is an awesome hunting scope. Very fast to get back on target after the previous shot. I'm going to leave it on for good. No problem on that 200 yard running shot.

But unfortunately, all to common behind the gun counters at the large chain stores...

I was flat sold when I looked through it! The 2 x 7 VXR is OK but that 1.5 x 5 circle dot IR is better.

Gene,

The difference is that when I write about some aspect of shooting or hunting, I have some experience with the subject.

Rost, agree like you I suspect GeneL's ranger tab there means he has shot more than hogs with the 223.

I am also sure it does, and we appreciate his service!

But how it pertains to the OP is another question.