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.

[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.

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