Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles 6.5 Grendel or 6.8 SPC for best all round AR caliber.

Range, power, hunting ability, accuracy, magazine capacity. I am leaning towards the 6.5 Grendel. Which do you say and why?

To be used for Deer and hog hunting. However I want the ability to defend against two legged predators and possibly occasionally coyote hunting. Maybe someday elk and antelope hunting.

6.5 Grendel without a doubt. Why? Range, power, mag capacity, bullet selection, and fits perfectly for all your intended uses.

5.56 with 77gr SMK's or maybe 64gr Noslers for hunting.

I just spent a bit of time running an LWRC 8.5in 6.8SPC. Not my idea of a defensive carbine. A LOT of recoil to manage. It kicks more than an AK. I don't have any trouble dumping an entire mag from a full-auto AK into a close range target. I had to back off and "dig-in" to do that with the 6.8.

You know, you CAN own two uppers, one for hunting and one for defensive work. Owning an AR and not having a 5.56 uppper ain't too bright, IMO.

Two peas in a pod. You can't go wrong with either cartridge. For me it's a no brainer to go with the 6.5 Grendel cause I had a stash of 6.5mm bullets on hand.

I have two 223's/5.56's. One 1:9 twist, one 1:8.5 twist. I have loaded 62 grain bullets for hunting, but wanted something with a little more umpth.

My vote is for the 6.8. There's a lot more ammo available out there for it than the 6.5 and more manufactures seem to be offering it every year. Winchester is the lone holdout right now as Federal and Privi have commited to it (actually just bought some 6.8 at WalMart). There's also Hornady, CorBon,Remington,Silver State, S&B, BVAC, Barrett, Double Tap, and several other small producers. I probably missed a couple. I think there's only about three or four makers of 6.5 (Hornady, AA, Wolf?).
As for recoil I really don't see that much of a difference from the 223. I don't know what barrel length or gas system others are using but my 16in barreled AR Performance DI has light recoil and shoots great. I'm running a Magpul stock with enhanced recoil pad so that might help a little.
If you want a shorter barreled carbine I'd go with the 6.8 also as it's optimized for the 14 to 18 inch length. The 6.5 is more at home in the longer tubes.
If you really want to find out about the 6.8 and learn more than you would ever want check out this forum: http://68forums.com/forums/forum.php
The guys on hear are really knowledgeable and friendly. There's no such thing as a dumb question on there. Believe me, I should know. Hope this helps.

6.5 has recently been SAMII or SAMMI? speced. So there should be a lot more mfg's getting into making it. I read somewhere that it could be made from 7.62x39 brass. I reload anyways, so I would obtain a lot of brass and bullets and make my own.

Toss up really. Neither will you have ammo laying around for at Walmart.

6.5 is a longer range cartridge, so that might make it more all around?

Though there isn't really much at normal distances that can't be done very well with the 223 and the right choice of bullets... especially with the ttsx and tsx bullets rounding out the hunting line up and retaining 100% of weight typically...

I"ve shot a LOT of stuff with 223, out to almost 600 yards, deer included, with "non" hunting bullets and never had an issue FWIW.

Since you narrow your topic down to deer and deer hunting, 6.5 hands down over the 6.8.

Not a poke, but the local Wal Marts (only two stores-FWIW) has been getting Federal 6.8 SPC MSR Fusion ammo in pretty regular for the last four weeks, don't know how long it will last.

Interesting, ones here, wouldn't have a clue what 6.8 is.

The grendel still makes a better LR round than the 6.8 IMHO, but thats only ONE part of the formula for best WT round.

And LR most folks can't hit or even define what LR actually is.

I have the 6.8 and I am very happy with the cartridge. I do not intend to use it past 300 yards anyway and I have other dedicated LR rifles so the long range aspect is a moot point to me

i went5.8 because i had 1000 bullets in the cabinet. if not for that i may had tried the 6.5 just because of the accuratcy of other calibers using that diameter bullet,but my old 270 is pretty accurate to so .277 diameter bullet do just fine.

FWIW I have the 6.8 necked to 6mm. Its fine to 300. I suspect the 6.8 woudl be fine to that distnace too.

Especially since I"ve dinged things much farhter with smaller rounds....

I know the 6.8 was SAMI speced first, thus got a head start over the priority 6.5 of Alexander Arms. However, because the 6.5 has longer range, flatter shooting, and still fits the AR platform, and was popular, Alexander finally let it be SAMI speced to be sold by anyone. I'm hopeing a lot of the ammo companies start selling it to make it even more popular. From what I read it beats the 308 from about 300-800 yards in power and accuracy. Under 300 the 308 is best, but the 6.8 is a little better in power but not much. It would make a good Pronghorn antelop rifle, good deer and hog rifle, and long range varmit rifle. That is one reason I like it better than 6.8.

I have also decided my big thumper would be the 458 Socom because it uses 45-70 bullets and I have a 45-70. I do not have a 270 to share bullets with for the 6.8, and I don't have an inbetween rifle from 223 to 308. I had a 243 once, but didn't like it. It was a Winchester Automatic that kept breaking firing pins, a weekness of that particular rifle.

I also have been interested in a 6.5 Swedish Mauser. There is also the 260 Remington that uses 6.5 bullets that is becoming popular. So bullets shouldn't be a problem, and I have heard of people making 6.5 Grendel brass from 7.62x39 brass. I think just buying new brass and bullets would be ok with the reloading dies. I would have to do the same with 6.8 if I went that route.

OH what the hell... buy one of each... don't know why I didn't come up with that earlier...

I used to say I wanted one of every upper eventually, instead of the 15 or so 223 ones I have.... but now there are SO many choices....

50 beowulf works really well on deer to about 200 yards. I had a 300ish yard shot on a hog once... but never took it as I was still trying to run an app to figure drop out... and he was gone.

Grendel, FWIW, is basically a 6.5 PPC.. hence the x39 brass can be formed... but why. If you dont' have grendel brass then get PPC brass and neck it up. One expander and done.

Its what I do for my 284 brass... buy 6.5x284...

Also the 260 is an AR10 platform, and that opens an whole other can of worms...

FWIW don't dis a 243 just because yours broke firing pins, its a capable little caliber. Even down loaded I use it for quiet deer rounds...

So the 6.5 Grendel is a 6mm PPC necked up. I though the cartridge was a little longer. Maybe not. I don't have the dimensions on it. The 6mm PPC is the most accurate round ever created or so says my Lyman reloading manual. I have necked up 30-06 to 35 Whelen with two passes. Hmmm. I heard the wildcat 6mm based on the 223 cartridge was also a very good round. Hits harder, but a little shorter range. Someone said they didn't understand why the military didn't go for a 6mm or 243 base on the 223 case, made more sense for a little harder hitting round under 300 yards.

Both are great calibers for medium game and patriot rifles but the Grendel is more accurate and farther shooting. They are about equal 300 yards and under but after that the Grendel takes over. The cool kids shoot the Grendel:) The 6.8SPC is well more Walmart. Not that's theirs anything wrong with that.

You have proven the Grendel to be more accurate, how did you prove this?

How much farther shooting is a Gendel and how did you prove this??

The Grendel is more accurate because the inherit low drag high BC bullets. They have less drift in the wind which makes them more accurate. Longer range? Geeze dude just look at the ballistics. The Grendel smokes the 6.8SPC.