Will This Dog Hunt?

Over the years, U.S. Army ordnance engineers have produced marvelous sporting cartridges. The .30-06, .308 and .223 are by other names infantry rounds. Their popularity in the field is due to the fact that they're all really good cartridges--efficient, adaptable to a variety of rifle mechanisms and intrinsically accurate--and the .30 calibers rank among the most versatile of big game rounds.

So it was with interest that I've followed the development of the latest combat round, the 6.8mm SPC (Special Purpose Cartridge). The project began some years ago when the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit and 5th Special Forces Group set out to add muscle to M4 and M16 rifles. They wanted a new cartridge that would hit hard up close but deliver lethal energy and rib-cage accuracy to 500 meters, plus be compatible with the existing M16 platform.

Instead of fashioning something new, ordnance gurus turned to something old: the .30 Rem., essentially a rimless .30-30. Introduced in 1906 for Remington's Model 8 autoloading rifle, the .30 sold well enough between the wars that it made the list of most popular elk rounds in a 1939 survey conducted in my home state of Washington.

To bring the .30 Rem. case from follower to chamber in an M16, engineers lopped the hull from 2.05 inches to 1.69. The .223 case mikes .07-inches longer. The 6.8 SPC and .223 both measure 2.26 inches loaded, though the 6.8 has 17 percent more capacity than the .223.

But wait a minute, you say--a .30 caliber bullet is 7.62mm, not 6.8. The next change reduced the .30 Rem. neck to .277 (inside), same as a .270 Win. A 23-degree shoulder joined a 1.295-inch body to a .290 neck.

The bullet had to be lighter than a standard 130-grain .270 spitzer, which would have gobbled the limited powder space and started too slowly. Hornady's 115-grain open-point match bullet made the cut. It jets away at 2,800 fps, unleashing a ton of muzzle energy.

Downrange, this bullet chronographs 2,535, 2,285, 2,049 and 1,828 fps at 100, 200, 300 and 400 yards. At 100 yards it delivers 78 percent more energy than a 55-grain .223 bullet. At 300, it still carries more than 1,000 ft.-lbs., or 400 more than a 125-grain bullet from the 7.62x39.

Given a 200-yard zero, bullet drop is 8.7 inches at 300 and 25.6 inches at 400 yards. Despite its compact profile, the 115-grain Hornady in current Remington 6.8 factory loads packs about as much punch to 500 yards as a 100-grain bullet from a .243 Win.--which hits you with 20 percent more recoil and drops only an inch less at 300 yards. You can also compare the 6.8mm SPC with .257 Roberts 117-grain ammo.

Marketing the 6.8 as a sporting round apparently didn't occur to the Remington engineers who joined the military design team in 2001. But gun scribes and other incorrigible cartridge addicts soon bent the company's ear. Now Remington chambers the M700 and the Model Seven Alaska Wilderness Rifle in 6.8 SPC. Besides the original Hornady bullet, there's a Sierra MatchKing and a metal case spitzer.

Remington has also loaded pointed Core-Lokts that at this writing are not cataloged. All weigh 115 grains.