I’m a 6.8 SPC fan as well. I pretty much only shoot the Hornady 120 SST factory loads. I don’t know the exact MV, but with an ARP 16” barrel, my drop at 500 yards is 4.1 MIL. They have been great on numerous deer and hogs. It’s the only gun I hunt with when I’m hunting 300 yards or less. It suppresses well with a TBAC Ultra 7. I do not shoot subs. As others have mentioned- I think it’s not enough to be ethical (Except maybe less than 50 yards). I feel that if I wouldn’t try and kill it with .45 ACP, I should use more gun.
As to the “long range” aspect of 6.8- I think it’s fine out to 500 for targets, 300 for deer. Further than that and I’m shooting 6.5 Creedmoor or bigger.
One thing that has always appealed to me about 5.56 for home self defense is the lack of wall penetration given appropriate bullets. Are there any such loads available for 6.5 or 6.8mm?
Ive gotten stuck in similar thought experiments in the past.
What I generally arrive at is that trying to make the AR shoot bullets it wasn’t meant to is not ideal, and boutique calibers aren’t worth the headaches.
Give me a proper AR in .223 and a m70 featherweight in .308 or, if you must, .30-06 for bigger game.
There may be lighter stronger/faster/cheaper/better but it’s not worth the effort imo. Of course, if the journey is the point (as it so often is)...
Last edited by rob_s; 05-07-2019 at 06:23 AM.
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Not another dime.
I have increased my hog sample size with the .300Blk. What I am finding is that when the distance/optic allow for me to pick a spot, I'm dropping them with one shot. When distance equals a dot-on-pig instead of dot-on-spot, I have to go looking for them. We found one. I had one at roughly 50, and it was DRT. I was running a 3x magnifier with a PRO.
I had an ER nurse in a class. I noticed she kept taking all head shots. Her response when asked why, "'I've seen too many people who have been shot in the chest putting up a fight in the ER." Point taken.
I was looking at .224 Valk ballistics the other day, and unless you go past 70gr, I don't see what it does that the 5.56 doesn't.