School me on the 6.8SPC

[Double-O-Dave]

Good afternoon:

Tomorrow, I'll be purchasing a NIB PSA 6.8SPC upper receiver from a local guy. I intend to buy a completed lower for it, and use the rifle for hunting medium sized game (feral hogs, deer). The upper has a 16 inch barrel with a 1:11 twist rate. My question - which are preferable for hunting, the 90 gr. bullets, or the heavier 110 gr., 115 gr. , or 120 gr. bullets?

Your advice is greatly appreciated.

Regards,

Dave

 

[DWalt]

What are you hunting? For larger game such as deer (and I'll include feral hogs), I'd recommend going with the heaviest bullet available. For small game and varmints, go lighter. The 6.8mm is an excellent and versatile round and has always deserved to be the replacement for the 5.56mm NATO for military use. That hasn't happened yet.

 

[gdogs]

I like the 110gr Pro Hunter, and have taken several deer with it. Both my rifles shoot it well, and I usually go with a heavier soft point in my hunting rounds. That said, I think you'll find most of the 6.8 guys that are shooting hogs are using the lighter bullets, mainly the TTSX and VMAX. Check out the 68forum, tons of info and lots of ready to share knowledge - just like here.
On a side note, one of my 6.8's wears a Palmetto lightweight 18" barrel, and it is extremely accurate.

 

[alwaysoutdoors]

Well I was going to say that you don't want one.

Edit: it's not replacing the 5.56 . The military has dropped it. It may be a good round anyway.

 

[Muddyboot]

My Bushmaster 6.8 seems to like 110 gr bullets the best for shooting anything over 200 meters or more, not sure why...Here is a friend shooting it last weekend...

 

[Wyo]

I've taken a number of deer and antelope with the 110 gr. Prohunter and a few with the 110 gr. Nosler Accubond. The Sierra is sudden death on deer, the Accubond opens more slowly and would, I think, be the better choice for hogs. I've also used the Barnes 95 gr. TTSX with good success. It should do really well on hogs and would probably even do well on elk. Honestly, any of these bullets should do fine on deer and other medium game.

 

[model70hunter]

My son built a 6.8 and took some deer with it. He is quite the rifleman, USMC trained and sandbox proofed.

The 6.8 performs great up to 250 yards. Deer killing machine.

On longer shots he felt it was stretching the cartridges ability to kill cleanly due to more wounding and tracking. The shots hit where he wanted, not enough expansion or penetration.

We both built 6.5 Grendels last year, he was successful at well over 300 yards. I did not get a shot with mine.

My Grandson used the 6.8 and bagged a nice little buck under 100 yards.

My son said the shorter range, like under 100-150 yards, shots perform like a 270 WIN and are pretty awesome.

Also while researching to see if I wanted a 6.8. I read that bbls longer than 16" do not increase the velocity much if any. So a 16" bbl is all you need and it is quite the handy size.

I believe he used the 120 gr Hornady.

 

[Double-O-Dave]

Thank you to all who responded. I purchased the 6.8 SPC upper and BCG last Friday without incident. The previous owner said he had purchased the upper with the intent of turning it into a hunting rifle, but decided to stay with the 5.56mm platform. It fits my Colt CRE-18 lower beautifully. I have a Vortex Crossfire II 2x7 scope on order, and I need to saw the front sight tower off. Photos and range report will follow. I hope to be able to use it on a hog hunt in a few weeks.

Again, many thanks for your advice, photos, and guidance.

Regards,

Dave

 

[Big Cholla]

Dave; you did good and you are going to come to really like this cartridge in the AR platform. I have found mine is very accurate with factory ammo and even more so with my handloads. The original design was around 110/115 grain bullets, so I would stick with that weight. I would just buy bullets of the appropriate design with respect to my hunting requirements. All of my magazines are 'C Products' and they have proved to be totally reliable. I understand the C products name has been changed. .....