6.8 SPC AR15 build sheet/prices, pics and range report.

DJones2987 · Mar 1, 2017

DaemonAssassin said:
Wait till you try it, you'll fall in love with the bloody thing.

No doubt in my mind lol.

3paul10 said:
Text me bro when you shoot her!

Pete

I'm thinking Saturday, supposed to head out with the father in law. Once I get my membership card to the range, we'll have to go shoot too. Should be in a few weeks.

olddawg · Mar 1, 2017

Nice setup, congrats. For the 6.8 guys, S&B has a new 115 grain HPBT they are offering. I just picked up 200 rounds from SGAmmo for $160 shipped. I like the S&B stuff. Figured I'd give it a try. Looking forward to your range report.

DJones2987 · Mar 2, 2017

olddawg said:
Nice setup, congrats. For the 6.8 guys, S&B has a new 115 grain HPBT they are offering. I just picked up 200 rounds from SGAmmo for $160 shipped. I like the S&B stuff. Figured I'd give it a try. Looking forward to your range report.

Thanks man, I'm pretty excited about it. I had seen that on the 6.8 forums the other day. I'm going to make a bulk order here soon and grab a dozen boxes or so of the regular FMJ for plinking ammo. Maybe I'll try out a few of their new stuff too.

People also say the S&B brass is awesome for reloading.

jimbobborg · Mar 2, 2017

I don't think I've ever shot any 6.8 using S&B brass. 90% of my 6.8 brass on hand is SSA, the rest is a mix of Remington and Federal.

DJones2987 · Mar 2, 2017

jimbobborg said:
I don't think I've ever shot any 6.8 using S&B brass. 90% of my 6.8 brass on hand is SSA, the rest is a mix of Remington and Federal.

I'm planning on shooting mostly Federal due to people saying the brass is pretty consistent and good for reloading.

Also, the federal fusions are said to be one of The most accurate factory rounds out of the ARP barrels.

I'm probably going to try some of the newer 110g Accubonds from Nosler/SSA too just to see how they do.

But, i've always been a fan of lighter and faster bullets, and guys are seeing around 2900 FPS out of the Federal 90g bullets. And only about 2500 FPS out of the 115g Federals.

Oh and you guys may get a kick out of my "gun stand." Lol.

olddawg · Mar 2, 2017

I don't reload but the folks on the 6.8 forum that do love S&B brass. It sells quickly when offered. One way for us non-reloaders to recoup some of the cost of our ammo. Wish I would have picked up some of that Gold Dot when it was plentiful. Kicking myself now. There's a ton of it in private hands so I'll just continue to keep my feelers out.

jimbobborg · Mar 2, 2017

DJones2987 said:
But, i've always been a fan of lighter and faster bullets, and guys are seeing around 2900 FPS out of the Federal 90g bullets. And only about 2500 FPS out of the 115g Federals.

I get close to 2800 fps with 110gr Accubonds using original SSA brass. Some of the older loads pushed 3100 fps with the 90gr bullets.

olddawg · Mar 2, 2017

That's respectable out of a 6.8. Wish I could buy that round commercially.

jimbobborg · Mar 2, 2017

olddawg said:
That's respectable out of a 6.8. Wish I could buy that round commercially.

The original SSA brass had more internal volume than the newer SSA brass and all of the other brands brass. I have another 600 cases, prepped and primed, socked away here

I also managed to purchase 1,000 rounds of the 115gr SMKs that SSA made. These are loaded to Spec II, not the original specs from Remington :rolleyes:

I believe that everyone but SSA loads the rounds to the original specs, which is a few hundred fps below what the round is really capable of.

DJones2987 · Mar 2, 2017

Pretty impressive numbers. I'm getting into reloading so I'm definitely saving all my brass. Excited to play around with some different loads and see what works best.

DJones2987 · Mar 13, 2017

Well, I was able to put 5 shots in a 3/4" dot from 100 yards with the federal 90g factory loads. I'm beyond thrilled.

Deciding between 6.5 Grendel or 5.56 for my next build. Gonna build one with a long barrel, bipod and high magnification scope for long range target shooting and varmint hunting.

Suggestions?

Biggfoot44 · Mar 13, 2017

If you already have 6.8, the 6.5 will be significantly redundant.

DJones2987 · Mar 13, 2017

Biggfoot44 said:
If you already have 6.8, the 6.5 will be significantly redundant.

I want to build something to shoot 500+ yards, mainly shooting from a bench or prone. The cost of 6.5 plinking ammo is less than half what 6.8 is. However I'm not opposed to building a 5.56 instead.

DJones2987 · Mar 13, 2017

Double post.

Mike3888 · Mar 13, 2017

DJones2987 said:
Well, I was able to put 5 shots in a 3/4" dot from 100 yards with the federal 90g factory loads. I'm beyond thrilled.

Deciding between 6.5 Grendel or 5.56 for my next build. Gonna build one with a long barrel, bipod and high magnification scope for long range target shooting and varmint hunting.

Suggestions?

We want to see group size pics.. J/K. Glad it worked out for ya.

DaemonAssassin · Mar 13, 2017

DJones2987 said:
I want to build something to shoot 500+ yards, mainly shooting from a bench or prone. The cost of 6.5 plinking ammo is less than half what 6.8 is. However I'm not opposed to building a 5.56 instead.

Depending on the accuracy you want, the barrel price is going to go waaaaaay up. Look at a Shilen barrel for the AR-15 to see what I mean.

DJones2987 · Mar 13, 2017

DaemonAssassin said:
Depending on the accuracy you want, the barrel price is going to go waaaaaay up. Look at a Shilen barrel for the AR-15 to see what I mean.

Yeah I've seen the 6.5 barrels are salty. I'm super impressed with my ARP 16" 6.8 barrel so I'm thinking of trying his 20" 6.5 Grendel barrel. Trying to find reviews on it now.

Biggfoot44 · Mar 14, 2017

My point was that anything a 6.8 can do at close to medium range, a 6.5 Gren can do at least as well ( other than feeding in belt feds). But a 6.8 can't keep up with Grendel at 300yds and out.

If "average deer hunting" or "average gunfight" distances are your perameters, flip a coin between the two. If long range was your concern, yoi should have built a 6.5 Grendel instead .

In the * midbore, larger than 5.56 case body * there is only room for one fairly popular commercial ctg. Whichever first has reasonably priced ammo widely on shelves will be the equiv of .250Savage in the marketplace for at least two generations, the other an obscure footnote, mainly use by gun cranks who like obscute ctgs just to be different. Kinda like .257Roberts today. A small core of true believers, 90% of shooters going "huh, a what? " .

DJones2987 · Mar 16, 2017

Biggfoot44 said:
My point was that anything a 6.8 can do at close to medium range, a 6.5 Gren can do at least as well ( other than feeding in belt feds). But a 6.8 can't keep up with Grendel at 300yds and out.

If "average deer hunting" or "average gunfight" distances are your perameters, flip a coin between the two. If long range was your concern, yoi should have built a 6.5 Grendel instead .

In the * midbore, larger than 5.56 case body * there is only room for one fairly popular commercial ctg. Whichever first has reasonably priced ammo widely on shelves will be the equiv of .250Savage in the marketplace for at least two generations, the other an obscure footnote, mainly use by gun cranks who like obscute ctgs just to be different. Kinda like .257Roberts today. A small core of true believers, 90% of shooters going "huh, a what? " .

I built the 6.8 as a carbine length hunting rifle with the ability to shoot fast and hit hard. I researched 6.5 vs 6.8 extensively and the reason I went with 6.8 over the 6.5 was because initial velocity for the first 250 yards or so is higher out of the 6.8 along with energy. Also, there were more commercial hunting loads for the 6.8.

Now I want to build another rifle for varmint hunting and target shooting out to about 1000 yards with a 20-24" barrel, a bipod and a heavy stock. The 6.5 is ballistically superior after 3-400 yards, and now has cheap ammo available for plinking as well as some commercially available hunting loads.

I understand the ballistics are very similar between the two, however this second rifle im planning to build would serve a completely different purpose.

So from what you're saying it seems you feel the 5.56 would suit my needs?

I appreciate your feedback.

OrbitalEllipses · Mar 16, 2017

DJones2987 said:
I built the 6.8 as a carbine length hunting rifle with the ability to shoot fast and hit hard. I researched 6.5 vs 6.8 extensively and the reason I went with 6.8 over the 6.5 was because initial velocity for the first 250 yards or so is higher out of the 6.8 along with energy. Also, there were more commercial hunting loads for the 6.8.

Now I want to build another rifle for varmint hunting and target shooting out to about 1000 yards with a 20-24" barrel, a bipod and a heavy stock. The 6.5 is ballistically superior after 3-400 yards, and now has cheap ammo available for plinking as well as some commercially available hunting loads.

I understand the ballistics are very similar between the two, however this second rifle im planning to build would serve a completely different purpose.

So from what you're saying it seems you feel the 5.56 would suit my needs?

I appreciate your feedback.

Target shooting out to 1K? No, 5.56 does not meet your needs. I like shooting 5.56 out to about 500 yards, beyond that wind becomes a big problem for me and by the time I get to 800 yards I'm not hitting anything. If you want a small frame, the 6.5 Grendel fills that role well. If you're willing to go large frame there are better cartridges, though I don't personally want a large frame gasser for throwing 6mm+ pills 1K yards.

6.8 SPC AR15 build sheet/prices, pics and range report.

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