New Caliber for me - 6.8 SPC

[DarrellM5]

I ordered a 6.8 Extreme from AR15Performance.com a couple of months ago. It should ship here in the next 3-6 weeks so I figured I'd better start getting some ammo for it. I took one look at the prices and decided that reloading is the only affordable way to shoot 6.8. Everything seems to start at $1 a cartridge and goes up from there.

So I ordered a set of Lee dies to get the ball rolling. Even unfired brass runs about $0.50 a round, so I ordered four 20 round boxes of loaded Silver State ammo from Palmetto for starters. It looks like any .270 (actually .277) bullets up to 130gr will work, so there should be quite a bit to choose from.

Anyone else have experience loading this round?

 

[Ropadope]

Haven't loaded it, but I recently purchased the LWRC M6A2 and purchased the SSA 115 grain Sierra OTM rounds. It's damned expensive, but I started with an order of 500 rounds just for the purpose of reloading the brass.

Good luck. I love the terminal ballisitics of this round and have now stopped shooting my 556/223 AR's, at least for the moment.

I need the dies also for this round, so I may have some experience with loading it in the near future to expand this thread.

 

[BigSlick]

What is the advantage of the 6.8 ver's the .308. I have seen many AR platforms that shoot the .308 and ammo seems to be at a better price. I have considered adding one to keep my 5.56 company.

 

[SpaceFrank]

6.8 seems to be a good compromise between the .223 and .308, both in recoil and terminal ballistics. So to answer your question, the advantages are that it is smaller, lighter, and produces less recoil. :biggrin:

 

[Lunkhead]

I highly recommend a site where I continue to learn about this topic. I have been shooting for 30 years and reloading for 15, and there are folks there that know way more than I ever will about it.

..::68FORUMS::..

 

[LVLouisCyphre]

The 6.8 SPC will fit in a standard AR-15. The .308 Winchester/7.62mm NATO requires a longer magazine well to accommodate the longer round which is the AR-10. If you have a multicaliber AR-15, all you need to do is change out the upper (or barrel if you have the MGI QCB upper) and the magazine and you have a 6.8mm Rem SPC AR-15.

I own an RCBS Rockchucker, it can only reload cartridges that will fit in a standard AR-15 magazine well (COL is almost same as .223 Rem), so I'm much more apt to want to use 6.8 SPC over .308 Winchester/7.62mm NATO since I'd have to use a different press when I'm prototyping my loads. I prototype my loads in my Rockchucker then mass produce them in my Hornady Lock-N-Load AP.

The 6.8 SPC was designed to be a compromise between 5.56mm NATO and 7.62mm NATO while being usable with the AR-15/M4/M16 platform. You also get 25 rounds with 6.8 SPC. Another caliber if you like playing around with the AR-15 platform is 6.5 Grendel. There's a bit of rivalry between 6.5 Grendel and 6.8 SPC. You also can get 7.62x39mm AR-15 uppers and magazines. I think those calibers plus .223 Rem/5.56mm NATO are the best rifle calibers for the platform. Granted, there isn't much of anything that can't be put through an AR-15 these days since it's the most tricked out rifle platform out there. If it can fit in a magazine that can go into a normal AR-15 magazine well chances are someone has designed a barrel, bolt and bolt carrier for it if not a complete upper that fits on a standard AR-15 lower receiver.

One of the reasons the AR-15/M4/M16 is more popular is because if the increased capacity of the firearm over the AR-10 and M14. You only have 20 rounds for the 7.62mm NATO rifle, but 30+ for the 5.56mm NATO rifle; 40 round 5.56 AR-15 magazines are not uncommon.