Printable View
Well our bear population is getting a little much here, and while i don't have problem a popping cats with the old .223 in heavy brush, it might be better to have a little heavier round for those nose to nose bear encounters that are happening here. So basically i have been looking at 6.8 uppers to throw on one of my brush ar's. I will be using it out to probably 300yds from time to time as well. I simply wonder if anybody here is using one, and how you like it. blue
So were is here
Here is northestern oregon.
6.8 is a good cartridge for hunting medium sized game, now i dont know about using it on pissed off bear, but everything that my 6.8 has shot at has died right there. from doe deer to 300 lb plus boar.
If worried about bear, I would pack a large caliber wheelgun, .45 Colt with hot loads (in appropriate pistol), .454 Casull, or .460 S&W Magnum.
The 6.8 does not give me enough warm & fuzzy against bear.
Then again, you always go with a .458 SOCOM or .50 Beowulf. I like my Beowulf. ;D
I'd have my doubts about a 6.8 on bear. That caliber was speciifically designed to dispatch camel jockeys hopped up on opium. Probably good as it gets for small gas gun, but I would prefer something larger for bear. ;)
I had a couple of 6.8 uppers and my dad now has a mini 6.8 and he loves that gun.
Quick dispatch of most any deer or hog.
We have killed about 20 hogs and none of them have run over 20 yards.
A lot drop on the spot.
The goto bullet for hogs is ether the 110 gr tipped or 85 gr barnes tsx.
I would want something bigger for a bear personally, but there is a guy on arfcom, I believe he is a teacher that killed a black bear with his 6.8 with 2 shots 110 gr barnes tsx bullets. There have also been a couple of Elks killed with one. One was a 5x at 380 yards in colo with a 110 gr accubond I think.
The 110 gr barnes is way overkill for deer. The 85 gr is good though.
110 gr prohunter is also good for deer.
A 458 socom or a 50 beowulf would make a better bear gun.
Popping an unsuspecting bear in the vital at 100 yards, I would use a 6.8 in a heartbeat. It may be abit light on a bear running at you. That being said, I think it is a lot more lethal and capable cartridge than many realize.
Those 85 grain Barnes TSXs at 3000 fps are vicious when they hit meat and bone.
My 6.8 :
[img width=600 height=450]http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b109/IV_Troop/CityOfRocks165.jpg[/img]
Perhaps it will help to put it in a better context, i hunt in very heavy timber/brush and most of the time i am sitting down when calling. It isn't practical to have a big long barrel rifle when crawling along on my belly. Thus i use my .223ar, while i don't have much trouble removing bears with that rifle in the 10-25yd shots that is the norm, the last one got a little close before going down.
After looking at the rem30, the 6.5grendell, i settled on the 6.8spc for my close up round. I have a bison armory upper on order and it will work fine, i am simply looking for feedback from other owners to see how they like theirs. blue
Did you get the bison lightweight 16" barreled upper ??
I set one up, cardinal though before it was sold to bison, and my rig on a cav arms lower with a clark foregrip, leupold scope and mount weighed 6#4oz.
Probably the handiest rifle I have ever used.
BTW, Barnes is supposed to be coming out with a tipped 100 gr TSX bullet just for the 6.8 SPC soon.
I had planned on the 16" recon, but after talking to ben, i ended up with the 18" recon instead. I know that 50-70 extra foot pounds doesn't amount ot much, but i thought i would try it anyway. The 6.8 should work out well for my use, and after looking at the ballistics between it and the .223 at 300yds, it became a easy decision.
Now i'm doing the kid at christmas dance waiting for it to get here. blue
Nothing wrong with an 18" barrel, just a bit heavier.
That 16" 6.8 rifle I had or either the 16" 7.62x39 I had on a cav II lower was the handiest rifle I have ever used.
With the cardinal 16" barrel and cav II lower it was just stupid light with iron sites and a carry handle, IE less that 6# and that was with nothing special. If I had kept on going IE like a alum carrier and a few other odds and ends it would have been close to 5#.
After I started testing the 6.8 110 gr TTSX loads I was not quite where I wanted to be, but it still worked fine. I went to a 20" barrel and wished I had kept the 16 because it became more hassle inside a truck, and front end heavy. I did pick up a few more FPS, but IMO it was not worth the trade. For you hunting bears maybe yes.
It is actually a very underrated cartrige. Anybody that has actually hunted tough animals like hogs with one loaded with tsx bullets knows what it is capible of.
The 85 grain TSX bullets are good too , but too little SD for a bear IMO.
That said they are running those bullets at close to 3000 fps out of 12" barrels I think.
For your bears load up some 110 gr TSX of TTSX bullets for that.
The go to load for the 110 gr TSX bullets is a case full of RL10x. More specifically 29.5 gr but be sure to work up from about 27 or 28.
That 29.5 load was ultra hot in my 11 twist, like the brass was trashed and I would suggest backing off to 29 gr unless you have a DMR chamber and a 13 twist then maybe try it out.
At 29.5 gr I was getting about 2750 fps out of my 20" barrel.
That said I just loaded some 270 weatherby magnum shells with 85 grain TSX bullets I had left over.
Should get about 3800 out of that. Cant wait to try them out on a Hog
FYI, I chronoed the factory 110 gr prohunter load out of my dads 18" mini and got about 2550-2600.
One thing I will say is I am definately going to build a 20" barreld bolt action 6.8 savage one day when I get tired of recoil.
I would also like a TC contender pistol in 6.8.
Thanks tammons, i loaded up 50 to start the break in with, 25 of the 110 prohunter and 25 of 110 vmax just to get started. That should at least give me a idea of where i want to go to. I used 28grs of H322 to start with as well, i found a couple of pounds of it, can't find any re-10x here. I'm hoping that the extra 2" of barrel will help a little with the 2550-2600. There are some 115gr smk's coming as well, just for grins. I'll try the tsx's once i get things settled down, hopefully before the snow gets here. blue
H322 works pretty well with that round and 110 gr weight of bullet from what I understand.
I tried H335 but I just could not get it up to speed with the tipped 110 gr TSX.
Problem with that bullet is its so long, and I think thats why it worked well with 10X.
10X is good but my feeling is it might be too slow for the 100 gr TSX, but not sure yet.
Reloading the 6.8 is so maxed out that you are basically always working with a case full of powder, IE too slow powder and a full case before you hit max vel, too fast powder and high pressure too soon.
H322 looks to be about the right speed for the new 100 gr tipped TTSX bullet.
I am pretty sure H4198 would be too fast. Not sure about benchmark.
Whatever it is the guys over at 6.8 forum will get it dialed in PDQ.
H4198 or RL 7 are good powders for the 85 gr pill. I got around 3130-3150 with a case full of H4198 with a 20" barrel. That was hot. NEver could hit 3200.
Just make sure you use SSA brass.
I haven't been able to get anybody at 68forums to comment on their benchmark recipes even though some of them use it. I have a fair amount of it and would like to know how it stacks up to H322. Ben at bison armory has used it, but didn't check to see how fast it was. I'm not trying to really see how fast i can make it run, i really want to see if i can make bug holes with it.
Once i find what it will do, then i'll switch over to some lighter bullets and see what kind of zip i can get. At any rate, between this and the 12fvss i just got it should keep my busy through the winter. blue
Lost river thats a good looking rifle, i need to pick up a vented float tube for mine. blueQuote:
Originally Posted by Lost River
Benchmark will work, just dont know the recipe. It is faster than H322 so you may hit high pressure faster.
Here are some benchmark loads for the 110 vmax.
http://demigodllc.com/~zak/firearms/6.8SPC/loads.php
Looks like he is running tham at 28 gr and 50k. You could probably run it up to 28.5 if you have a sammi II or later chamber and a slow twist barrel.
As far as bug holes with the 6.8, I consider it mostly a waste of time unless you build the gun with match parts from the start. The 6.5G or a 6mmAR (6PPC basically) is a much more inherently accurate round.
Just the the way the barrel is fitted is not too inspiring although bedding the barrel helps.
Also you cant mag feed and dial into the lands with an AR15 unless you single feed them.
I have had about 8 different barrel/upper combos and none of them would shoot under 1/2-3/4"
Some better than others though.
That said, It seems like I have read that people got good accuracy with the 6.8 and H322 powder.