A new cartridge and -- maybe -- an epiphany.

As some of you may know, I have never owned a firearm and never will, since the government will protect me, the police are my friends, and besides, guns kill people. However, I do have a close friend who is a right-wing gun-nut, and although I simply cannot see why he believes such, he has been building up his armory for whatever may happen when we are revisited by Hard Times.

My friend, usually a traditionalist when it comes to firearms, has recently undergone what he considers an epiphany. For years he built his armory around the concept of as few different firearms and calibers as possible to do whatever he thinks is necessary.

For that reason, he owns a 12-gauge shotgun with three different barrels (including a rifled barrel for firing Brennecke slugs); a bolt-action rifle and autoloading pistol, both chambered in .22 LR caliber; and a lever-action carbine and a double-action revolver, both chambered in .38 spl / .357 magnum. He claimed that those five firearms provide him with all the necessary tools while requiring only three different types of ammunition (although he seems to have several different loads for his shotgun).

Some time back, realizing that he hadn’t bought a firearm in a good while, my friend procured a privately-owned 16-inch AR-15 carbine chambered in 5.56 x 45 NATO. He considered it as primarily a toy gun, since he felt that the 5.56 x 45 round was too small for big game and the accuracy would be pretty poor.

However, after test-firing it for several weeks with several different cartridges, he found that the gun was very accurate, shooting 1” groups at 100 yards (from a rest, of course). Being completely ignorant of the little NATO cartridge, he started to do some research on the subject, as well as for his carbine, and found to his surprise that the manufacturer of his carbine builds an upper half (barrel, charging lever, bolt, bolt-carrier) in a hitherto-unknown-to-him chambering: 6.8 mm SPC.

It turns out that this bullet (which is typically 115 grains) has a muzzle velocity of about 2800 fps, and has about 81% of the energy at 100 yards with only about half the recoil compared to the NATO 7.62 (.308) bullet.

He now plans on buying an upper in the new chambering with a 20” heavy barrel with 1:11 rifling. Most of the people with whom he has spoken say that gun should be every bit as accurate as a typical bolt-action rifle, and he will have two excellent rifles of the price of one and a half. He believes that the heavier upper would take any big game he’d be likely to encounter in Arizona, and the original upper inn 5.56 x 45 would be for smaller game, although he did not mention which smaller game he had in mind.

However, none of the people with whom he has talked actually owns or has even fired a rifle in that chambering. If anyone here has any actual experience with this new cartridge, I’m sure my friend would be most anxious to find out.

Hmmmm... my main concern with it would be if "hard times" ever came - how available would ammo be?

I've not used it, however a bit of digging found a couple of things..

6.8SPC FAQ

The next one offers more of a hunting view..

The 6.8mm Remington SPC

..and it told me something I didn't know -

The long-rumored .270 military cartridge is fact.

Hmmm - the existing .270 is one of the better deer calibers around. I wonder if the .270 and 6.8 are interchangeable at all?

reply to post by Frogs


I am certainly not one of those "gun people", but I believe the .270 Winchester is a necked-down .30-'06 case, while the 6.8 mm SPC is quite a bit shorter.

The 6.8 mm SPC (also developed by Remington) is the same caliber bullet (0.277 in), but the cartridge is the same length as the .223 so it can use the same lower receiver (and, so I've heard, in a pinch the same magazines!) as the 5.56 AR-15 variants.

If you're interested in reaching out and touching someone the 6.5 will be better than the 6.8. The 6.5 is flatter further and harder than the 7.62.

Ammo availabilty will be a problem with either.

The 6.8 is more comparable to 50 Beowulf as an intermediate round.

If you want to take down an elk at 800+ yards in an AR platform the 6.5 is what you want.

Of course you could always get a 50BMG upper for it and take out elephant at a mile.


Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

Originally posted by thisguyrighthere
If you're interested in reaching out and touching someone the 6.5 will be better than the 6.8. The 6.5 is flatter further and harder than the 7.62.

Ammo availabilty will be a problem with either.

The 6.8 is more comparable to 50 Beowulf as an intermediate round.

If you want to take down an elk at 800+ yards in an AR platform the 6.5 is what you want.

Of course you could always get a 50BMG upper for it and take out elephant at a mile.

 

Posted Via ATS Mobile: m.abovetopsecret.com

 

The 6.8 which is between 80-115 grains , is in NO WAY comparable to the Beowulf .50 which is between 300-400 grains.

An analogy would be comparing a 115 grain 9 Mil , to a 325 grain S&W .500 round.

The Beowulf drops like a rock , its good for hitting hard inside 150 yards.

Although I was Forced to use it for 4 years , I'm not an AR guy , I'm an AK guy. so I'm good all day inside of 300 yards with the 7.62x39 (Preferably inside of 200 yards) Anything more than that and its time to step up to a 308. Personally I consider the 5.45 , 5.56 , 6.5 , 6.8 & 7.62x39 intermediate rounds for assault rifles. Main battle rifle cartridges are 308's and above. That being said i wouldn't want to get hit with any of them.

Hey OTS... you know me as someone else from way back when on here.

and yes I've fired 6.8 and 6.5... They are good rounds but in said hard times availability is going to be dicey at best....

Now seeing as you have an upper and etc in standard 5.56 you are covered because 5.56 will be around once you run out of your hitter rounds if necessary.

It's a good buy I guess if you have the money to afford a sufficient quantity of the ammunition it's a nice idea... now to me a sufficient quantity is measured in can I shoot the rifling out of my barrel with my ammo stock on hand

Very interesting I have heard of .50 uppers and that you buy the rounds form the same company but never this.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Could you perhaps be meaning the 6.5 Grendel round? Obviously, there's a close literary relationship between the two LOL!!

The idea of firing a round with the ballistics of a 45-70 sounds interesting, but my friend already has a ".67 caliber rifle" -- well, actually, it's a 12-gauge shotgun with a 24" rifled barrel.

reply to post by Off_The_Street


Why would your friend fire Brenneke slugs out of a rifled barrel? I Use my 18.5" smooth bore to send my K.O.'s down range. (Because the slugs themselves are rifled) Wouldn't you use a Sabot in a rifled barrel (to take advantage of the rifling?)

(Say it with me, "Say-Boh" ... the guy in my local ammo shop calls them "Sabits" and it drives me Nuts)

What do you think about the 338 Lapua? a 300 grain round screaming along at 2900 fps is nothing to sneeze at

There most certainly are some hot rounds out there, Ive heard great things about the 6.x family when topped off with a blended metal slug and fired out of a HK 416, however I'm a traditionalist and stock only common calibers because its far easier to scrounge up some 30-06 in a pinch than it is to obtain something like 5.7 (for those FN guys out there). That being said anybody who wants to hook me up with a Cheytac .408 are more than welcome to, its the only off-caliber I would contemplate owning at this point.

6.8SPC makes more sense to the military, especially in Afghanistan, because they are:

1. Shooting people at long range

2. Shooting FMJ only 5.56mm ammunition; and

3. Using a 14.5 inch barrel

You are not restricted by any of these considerations, unless you plan on shooting people out past 200 yards (unlikely, even zombies can safely be allowed closer in than that).

A 16 inch Colt 6920 loaded with Winchester Ranger 55gr SP or 69gr Ranger HPBTs is just about as good as it gets in a defensive rifle (until of course the HK MR556 debuts on the civilian market) and will chew very large holes in soft squishy things out to 200 yards.

I would tell your "friend" to forget the increased recoil, increased price, lack of widespread availability, cost of an additional upper and new magazines, and the reduced capacity of the 6.8SPC cartridge in favor of the aforementioned combination.

Bushmaster is making a .450 upper. They say it will stop any North American large animal but it is not a good round for reaching out very far. I shoot a 6xc round in my Tubb and it is very accurate to 600yds. What I really like about this rifle is I can change the barrel in 10 minutes and shoot .308.