Thoughts on the 6.8 AR

I would like some thoughts on the 6.8 AR. Anybody own one? Like it? Drawbacks?

I have an upper sell but thought about keeping it. Just don't know much about the cartridge.

I have one. I like the way it shoots. Have not hunted with it yet. Go to 68forums.com for all the info you need about the 6.8

jbpmidas wrote:I think the 6.5 Grendel is similar balistically, but I know Wolf manufactures reloadable ammo for it. Don't know if they load for the 6.8. There's a really good article in the current Shotgun News on the 6.5 Grendel.

A friend of mine from Jackson that I shoot with has a Grendel. It is superior to the 6.8, depending on the platform you're shooting. He bought an Alexander Arms complete rifle in 6.5 w/ the 16" barrel. I think he's a tad disappointed with it, since with the shorter barrel it really doesn't live up to the claims that Alexander makes for the Grendel. That said, I think the Grendel probably DOES live up to Alexander's claims when fired from the longer barreled variants.

The 6.8 is a .277 (same as .270 Winchester) bullet fired from a modified .30 Remington case; the .30 Rem. being just a rimless .30-30. Bullet weights are rather light, so you're not getting the ballistic advantage of heavy-for-caliber bullets that you can get in a lot of other calibers. Basically, considering the origin and other specifics of it's design and construction, I think of it as a suped-up .30-30 using spitzer bullets. From what I understand it's pretty much a 300 yard round as far as practical effectiveness.

The Grendel is superior when fired from a 20-24" barrel, making use of it's better ballistic capabilities due to the higher velocities generated from the longer barrels. With the 6.8 I don't know if going to a longer barrel makes a significant difference in performance, since there's only so much performance you're going to get from the light-for-caliber bullets it fires. And, keep in mind, the 6.8 was designed from the get-go to be utilized in a 14.5-16" barreled platform.