This is something new for this old dog ! Tell me me about the availability of brass and bullets please .
There's plenty of both to be had. I've got a ton of the old SSA brass. They've since been bought by Nosler. I've not used any of that however. The Hornady 6.8 brass is fine as well. Stay away from Remington anything with the 6.8. There are plenty of good bullets out there as well. Currently produced bullets I've had good results on game with include the 85 gr TSX and 100 gr Accubonds. The 6.8 kills deer the way a .243 or .250 does.
hornady brass, 30 grains of Benchmark, 95 TTSX, kills deer.
Used to reload a lot for the 6.8. H322 powder worked better than any other kind I tried. Wasn't even close, at least in my rifle.
I still have a bunch of the old SSA brass that I load, although I understand Starline makes good brass now that they got the wrinkles worked out. 95gr. TTSX over a max load of Rl-10 for deer. A 100gr. Accubond with Rl-10 is most accurate in my rifle, but only if I want to load two grains off max.
I have not tried the Starline brass yet. I use Remington and Hornady brass. Tried Federal brass, but the primer pockets loosen up pretty quick on them.
One thing to note with Hornady brass, is they have a few different batches/head stamps that have different case weights. Not sure if that makes much difference, but I have 2 different head stamps and keep them separated for two different loads.
Remington brass uses large rifle primers. I have no issues using this brass, works well with my 110 hpbt load.
H322 works well with Hornady 110 hpbts, and Nosler 110 Accubonds. Doing some load dev on 110 Vmax, but getting inconsistent results.
Been testing IMR8208. Getting slightly higher velocities and groups almost as well, but more testing is required.
I've had really poor results from Nosler 6.8 brass. The case heads seem soft, and primer pockets loosen up more easily than other headstamps (much like some FC brass in 223), even accounting for different case capacity of the different brands. I won't buy any more of it in 6.8 myself.
I have used Hornady and starline with out any issues.
I used mostly H-322 powder with 90-110 grain bullets.
I really like the 6.8 SPC, I have this in a mini 14, my favorite gun. I Hornady brass and it shoots well with 100-110 gr bullets of any brand, I use RL10 and H4198.
I imagine the 6.8 in the mini 14 would be a good deer rifle for many areas of the country. I am quite fond despite its less accurate than I like of my 6.8, I hunt with that gun and my 257 Roberts more than anything else these days. I keep a 10 round magazine in the 6.8 gun, if pigs show up I treat them accordingly.
Starline & Hornady brass has worked well for me too. Also use lots of H-322