6.8 spc build suggestions

[Mattj4867]

Hi all I’m in the market for a decent 6.5 Grendel upper and lower. I was looking at the Ruger elite lower. It has very high remarks. I would like to keep the lower around a $100 and $500 for an upper. Any suggestions thanks

[bedlamite]

ARP Barrel and bolt

Aero Precision upper

[ed308]

Another vote for ARP. Love his barrels and bolts. His super bolts are the best you can buy IMO. If you buy the bolt and barrel together, he'll make sure they are headspaced.

For the other parts, I typically use Aero parts.

[Mobuck]

I can't fault my ARP 6.8 barrel/bolt. Functions perfectly and is as accurate as the optic will allow. I think that one is on a Brownell's upper with "parts box" small parts.
The lower? AFAIK, a lower is a lower and there's just not that much diff these days.

[stagpanther]

Yet another voice for ARP's 6.8 barrel--I don't believe anyone in the industry has put as much effort into perfecting the 6.8 spec barrel as Harrison has.

[ed308]

I'm hoping he does the same with the .224 Valk.

[stagpanther]

I'm hoping he does the same with the .224 Valk.

I do not speak for him--but if you look through the body of material on both the 6.8 forum and the 224 talk forum I think you can see that this whole experience has been a very frustrating one for him; to some extent pitting his expectations of an industry complying with the original engineering designs vs what actually transpired--which to put it mildly have apparently turned out to be two different things in many cases.

[ed308]

I agree. But Harrison likes to tinker. I don't think he tinkers with cartridges as much since he's relocated ARP to South Fla. But it's his nature to do so. As we all know, he played a big part in making the 6.8 into what is. Would love to see him do it again with the .224 Valk.

[dean1818]

https://palmettostatearmory.com/psa-...th-bcg-ch.html

AND buy an ARP barrel to swap in
(Same bolt)


You also end up with a Valk Barrel as well

[ed308]

Too bad PSA is out of 6.8 uppers. My PSA 6.8 groups only slightly larger than my ARP.

[Mattj4867]

Since I made this post, I am now leaning more towards the 6.5 Grendel because of better b/c and bullet weight. Any more suggestions for an upper

[stagpanther]

I've built more than a few grendels since it's introduction--great little cartridge and I have hand-loaded thousands of cartridges for it. However, within the meaningful "hunting killing distance" of the cartridge I don't think there's much difference between it and the 6.8. Between the two, the 6.8 tends to cycle slightly more reliably over the long haul in my experience.

[PlatinumCore16]

Stag, correct me if I'm wrong but interwebz experience shows that the shoulder difference between the 68 and grendel makes the reliability difference?

OP, what is your goal for this rifle? Paper punching, yea you might see a little less drop from the grendel, but with the advent of the SPC II chambers, that difference is pretty minimal. Hunting, I think you'd be better off with the 6.8 due to the larger selection of hunting bullets.

[Mattj4867]

Originally Posted by PlatinumCore16

Stag, correct me if I'm wrong but interwebz experience shows that the shoulder difference between the 68 and grendel makes the reliability difference?

OP, what is your goal for this rifle? Paper punching, yea you might see a little less drop from the grendel, but with the advent of the SPC II chambers, that difference is pretty minimal. Hunting, I think you'd be better off with the 6.8 due to the larger selection of hunting bullets.

I intend to use it for a little bit of both deer hunting and range practice. I’ve got a Ruger mpr, but it’s illegal to hunt deer in VA with a 22 caliber. Also I don’t want to use 5.56 for deer anyways. Of course I could use one of many other deer rifles but I just want something unique. I am a reloader and have no problem with oddball cartridges. Most shots would probably be no more than 250 yards. Do most manufacturers specify that a rifle is in spc II vs spc? I’m a little worried about this as some threads claim that it could be dangerous to get things mixed up. Thanks

[PlatinumCore16]

At this point, you would have to buy used/specify a custom barrel to get the original SPC spec. All barrels marked as "SPC" at this point, are Remington 6.8 SPC II specification.

[stagpanther]

Stag, correct me if I'm wrong but interwebz experience shows that the shoulder difference between the 68 and grendel makes the reliability difference?

Off the top of my head here are a few of my opinions--not claiming that these are valid reasons to accept/reject either one.

Because the grendel shoulder is set further back than that of the 6.8, generally speaking that gives you the opportunity to seat the longer, higher BC bullets of the 264 with more of the bullet forward of the case mouth compared to the .277 in the 6.8--this gives you the advantage of less case volume encroachment as well as "getting the base of ogive out there" to reduce the jump to lands. No such thing as a free lunch, as they say--this can potentially create issues such as the bullet's meplat/nose not getting lifted adequately to allow good alignment with the chamber face, occasionally resulting in a damaged or jammed bullet. Sometimes I've had to back the bullet further into the case to prevent this even when there was plenty of "jump" to the lands.

The 6.8 with the further forward shoulder is somewhat limited in respect to the size of the bullets simply because you only have so much space between the case mouth and the lands--and the higher SD designs will necessarily go down into the case further. On the other hand the cartridge tends to get good lift and alignment to the chamber seeming regardless of what bullet you use--so that's what I mean by a slight advantage in cycling reliability.

The "meaningful" velocity and energy at the muzzle is going to be very close between the two; the .277 makes a slightly bigger hole but the 264, by virtue of it's higher efficiency design will begin to pull away from the .277 at 300 yds +/-, but theoretically if you're going after medium sized game the grendel advantage is marginal if you're staying within "1000 ftlbs ethical energy" limits.