Hunting experiences with the 6.8 SPC?

jbmauser

jbmauser

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So my son just turned 11 today. He's a slim young man and doesn't have a ton of experience with shooting anything larger than a .22LR but he is interested in hunting and its time to start him on a center fire and get him an appropriate rifle. The rifle has to be small, low recoil, quality, and CRF. Not interested in anything else.

When my daughter turned 11 I bought her a Ruger Hawkeye Compact in 7.62x39 and would like to get him the same rifle but in a more versatile round. I know the 6.8 is discontinued and finding one might be really hard but if a used one popped up I would be interested in buying it for him. I know I can handload a 7mm-08 down or something as well but the 6.8 kind of sounds interesting and I wouldn't mind fooling around with it.

So, is it a better round than the 7.62x39 for hunting? Would you recommend using it on deer or even larger game at reasonable distances with handloaded ammo using premium bullets?
 
When you mention deer or larger are you talking "deer hunting and a bear wanders by". Or are you talking a week long bull moose hunt?
 
jbmauser said:
So my son just turned 11 today. He's a slim young man and doesn't have a ton of experience with shooting anything larger than a .22LR but he is interested in hunting and its time to start him on a center fire and get him an appropriate rifle. The rifle has to be small, low recoil, quality, and CRF. Not interested in anything else.

When my daughter turned 11 I bought her a Ruger Hawkeye Compact in 7.62x39 and would like to get him the same rifle but in a more versatile round. I know the 6.8 is discontinued and finding one might be really hard but if a used one popped up I would be interested in buying it for him. I know I can handload a 7mm-08 down or something as well but the 6.8 kind of sounds interesting and I wouldn't mind fooling around with it.

So, is it a better round than the 7.62x39 for hunting? Would you recommend using it on deer or even larger game at reasonable distances with handloaded ammo using premium bullets?
Click to expand...

Check out Savage light weight hunter in 6.5 creedmore.

Meets all your requirements.
 
cciphantom said:
Check out Savage light weight hunter in 6.5 creedmore.

Meets all your requirements.
Click to expand...

Not CRF. Also I'm not sure if they have a reduced LOP?

Really I'm pretty much sticking with the Ruger Hawkeye compact and will probably get one in .260 or 7-08 but I wanted some opinions on the 6.8 if one did happen to pop up for sale.
 
MaxKW said:
When you mention deer or larger are you talking "deer hunting and a bear wanders by". Or are you talking a week long bull moose hunt?
Click to expand...

For his first hunts we will be doing some stand hunting for both deer and bear. Most of the deer hunting will be hiking. Probably weekends and half day hunts. Nothing serious or hard core to begin with.
 
When the 6.8 first came out, there was a guy on Accurate Reloading that used it for polar bear. In a Mini 14, no less.

I would load it with a TTSX like Max says, and kill the heck out of deer and black bear. Obviously the 260 and 7-08 are good choices too.
 
I have one season under my belt hunting with 6.8SPC. I used a 110gr Sierra Pro Hunter to harvest a whitetail doe and while it did the job well, I never had an exit hole and thus zero blood trail. I wasn't fond of that so I searched for something better and came up with the 95gr TTSX. No harvests with it, but I think this should be a much better projectile. My young nephew fired his first shot from a center fire rifle with my 6.8SPC and he didn't seem to mind it all. It would make a nice first time rifle if you could find one. As others suggested .260rem would also be a beauty and you probably couldn't go wrong with a .243 either :)
 
I've shot 3 mule deer with my now sold Robinson Arms XCR-L and 1 blacktail deer with my 23" barreled T/C Contender carbine in 6.8spc loaded with 95gr TTSX all were DRT max shot distance was 130 yards.

I now have the 23" barreled Contender and a 22" barreled Rem 700 Light Tactical.

Loaded with 95gr TTSX @ 2880fps (18.6" barreled XCR-L) or 2960fps (23" barreled Contender) with a top load of AA2200 powder (H322 is my second choice) I feel that if the shooter can do his part and conditions warrant I wouldn't hesitate to take deer at 300 yards.

My 8 year old son shoots my 6.8 rifles now recoil is minimal.
 
What is important when hunting with the 6.8 is to understand the performance levels of the bullets that you are shooting.

Example when I first started shooting/hunting with the 6.8 I used 110gr Prohunters turns out these bullets were not designed to expand beyond 125 yards at 6.8spc velocities if I remember correctly that was 2200fps.

Then I discovered the 95gr TTSX they were specifically designed for the 6.8 cartridge by Barnes they will expand down to 1600fps making it a 300 yard + bullet.
 
Barnes has been pretty good with stuff like that,. For the 6.8, 300BLK and maybe others I dont' know of. Who wouldn't want a TTSX tailored to their cartirdge?
 
I use Barnes TSX for almost all of my hunting loads and we use the 123gr TSX, which is tailored to the 7.62x39, with great results so if I do happen to pick up a Ruger Compact in 6.8 I'll definitely be going the TTSX route.
 
Check out Home of the 6.8SPC forum http://68forums.com/forums/ it is the base for the developers of the cartridge and has the very best experiences/load data/bullet contruction info available.

Another hunting bullet that is really making a good showing for itself is the far cheaper 6.8mm/.270" 120gr SST's they come 100 to a box for about the same price as 50 95gr TTSX I have a couple boxes on the shelf but haven't had time to work up a load for them yet.

I am also loading 110gr Accubonds, 110gr TSX and 110gr V-Max all are giving me 2750fps out of my 22" barreled Rem 700 Light Tactical these are all designed for 6.8spc velocities I tried a box of 110gr TTSX until I found out they are designed to expand at higher 270 Win velocities like the 110gr Sierra Prohunters.

Here is a pic of my T/C Contender carbine in 6.8spc the barrel is 23" I am planning on getting it shortened to 18.75" to make it handier & less front heavy its now sitting in black T/C factory Rynite butt stock and forend.

House_2012_124.JPG


Rem 700 Light Tactical it now has a Leupold VX111 4.5-14X40mm LR (30mm tube) Varmint reticle scope installed sending it into Frank @ Hope Cerakoting getting the barreled action Cerakoted satin black so I don;t have to worry about that matte finish rusting on me. Also thinking of buying a used wood stock that I can cut the butt stock shorter to fit my son.

Rem_700_6_8SPC.jpg
 
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