Which is easier to reload for? 6.8SPC or 6.5G

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Re: Which is easier to reload for? 6.8SPC or 6.5G

Postby tbirdman74 » Sun Jan 12, 2014 11:08 pm

TSD and Hoot, can you tell me what brand(manufacturer), barrel length, and gas system you guys are running? Looking into the Grendel, and want some first hand knowledge from reputable sources.
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Re: Which is easier to reload for? 6.8SPC or 6.5G

Postby Hoot » Mon Jan 13, 2014 5:17 am

tbirdman74 wrote:TSD and Hoot, can you tell me what brand(manufacturer), barrel length, and gas system you guys are running? Looking into the Grendel, and want some first hand knowledge from reputable sources.


For a while, Midway was selling ER Shaw production overruns for Alexander Arms in their AR Stoner 6.5g bolt/barrel combos. That's what my 24" barrel is. It uses a rifle length gas system. To date the bore of that barrel was the nicest finished AR barrel I've ever gotten. Didn't even need a break-in. The outside wasn't as finely finished but after bead blasting it, you wouldn't know. I'm not that hung up on aesthetics anyway as long as they paper. Still shoots like a laser.

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Re: Which is easier to reload for? 6.8SPC or 6.5G

Postby Texas Sheepdawg » Mon Jan 13, 2014 11:45 am

My barrel is the Alexander Arms Stainless, bead blasted 24" barrel. It uses the rifle length gas system.
More on my Grendel here. It does have a different scope on it now. A Nikon.
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Re: Which is easier to reload for? 6.8SPC or 6.5G

Postby 45r » Sun Jan 19, 2014 11:21 pm

Seems like the 6.5G is getting more popular.

Lots of barrels and bolts available.

A lot of reloading stuff for it is out of stock.

I'd like to find some 123 grain hornady's but can't find any.

They're supposed to be accurate and good for long range.

Guess it doesn't matter for a while.

It's so cold out I'm in no hurry.

Got a MB from Ross to cover the threads and it looks good on my liberty barrel.

Think I'm going to like the 6.5G when I get a chance to try it out.
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Re: Which is easier to reload for? 6.8SPC or 6.5G

Postby Texas Sheepdawg » Sun Jan 19, 2014 11:42 pm

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Re: Which is easier to reload for? 6.8SPC or 6.5G

Postby tbirdman74 » Mon Jan 20, 2014 12:21 am

Dawg and Hoot, I'm gonna have a passel of questions for both of you when I get home next weekend, I got two boxes of parts waiting to be put together. Went with the dpms slick side upper, 18 inch at stoner barrel bolt combo, AO precision bgc, troy alpha handguard, and a vltor gas block. Want to go with a longer barrel, but couldn't find much for availability, but can always go longer later. Hoot, did you have any issues with the dpms upper? Have read mixed reviews as far as fit and finish. Also, with a 18 barrel, mid length gas, what should I be looking at as far as buffer weight? Gonna try to run it on my bone stock 223 varminter A2 lower, until I build a dedicated lower for it. Gonna be my first complete upper build from scratch, so the questions might come quick.
Last edited by tbirdman74 on Mon Jan 20, 2014 8:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Which is easier to reload for? 6.8SPC or 6.5G

Postby Hoot » Mon Jan 20, 2014 7:10 am

tbirdman74 wrote:Dawg and Hoot, I'm gonna have a passel of questions for both of you when I get home next weekend, I got two boxes of parts waiting to be put together. Went with the dpms slick side upper, 18 inch ar stoner barrel bolt combo, AO precision bgc, troy alpha handguard, and a vltor gas block. Want to go with a longer barrel, but couldn't find much for availability, but can always go longer later. Hoot, did you have any issues with the dpms upper? Have read mixed reviews as far as fit and finish. Also, with a 18 barrel, mid length gas, what should I be looking at as far as buffer weight? Gonna try to run it on my bone stock 223 varminter A2 lower, until I build a dedicated lower for it. Gonna be my first complete upper build from scratch, so the questions might come quick.


I have not had a lick of trouble with my slick side DPMS receiver. I am using an RRA A2 lower with standard buffer in my 6.5g and it works fine. The 6 inches of additional barrel and a rifle length gas system is enough of a difference between our two rifles to make the two not entirely apples for apples. My setup liked AR Comp powder though I gave up 5% top end velocity for accuracy and a soft recoil component. It, being a little slower than the ball powders, needed the longer barrel. 8208 is a good choice and though I've not tried it, I believe I read that CFE 223 worked well also. I was very active in the 65g forum while I was actively developing loads for my rifle. Now that is behind me and I'm not nearly as active.

If you search the 65g forum back a couple of years, you'll fine a series of range reports I put up, much like here. I haven't looked at them in a while, so hopefully Tiny Pic hasn't discarded them for lack of viewing frequency like it did here. One of my regrets was that I didn't host my own images in my ISP provided storage space. A lot of good work documentation has disappeared.

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Re: Which is easier to reload for? 6.8SPC or 6.5G

Postby Texas Sheepdawg » Mon Jan 20, 2014 11:33 am

Seeings how Hoot is my mentor on the Grendel, I am going to defer most of your questions to the mentor, but I will say that I am using a standard rifle buffer and spring and I've had no issues so far. Mine is a rifle length gas system and I still have so much experimenting to do with handloads, I will let Hoot answer those questions as well. But from what I've learned so far, I am going with the 120 grain projectiles. Here in TX, our deer are a bit on the lighter side of the whitetail spectrum so the Hornady, 120 Grain AMAX #26172 is going to be my medicine for whitetail and coyotes. For hogs, I've decided to use the Barnes 120 Grain Triple Shock X (TSX) boat tail #26441. Right now, I've not had the chance to get much bench time so I have yet to load and test my choices.
For initial sighting in and break in of the barrel, I've been using the Wolf Gold 120 grain MPT round, (since I bought a whole case of the stuff). Their performance has been acceptable, but the powder burns a bit dirty. Accuracy is good enough to put meat on the table, but I believe that handloads will easily outperform the Wolf stuff. The Wolf brass is boxer primed but they don't use the small primers like the Hornady and Lapua brass. From what I've read, the Wolf brass will not last near as long as the higher quality brass with small primers and the reason is that the primer pockets on the Wolf stretch faster. So after just a few reloadings, the Wolf brass wears out due to loose primer pockets.
When I do finally get around to testing, we will find out for sure how the Wolf brass holds up.
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Re: Which is easier to reload for? 6.8SPC or 6.5G

Postby 45r » Mon Jan 20, 2014 2:55 pm

Anybody that got the AR stoner barrels might want to check out the discussion going on about tight freebore in chambers at the 6.5 Grendel forum.

Seems the 123 and 129 SST's are working good but other bullets are not chambering well at the right COL.
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Re: Which is easier to reload for? 6.8SPC or 6.5G

Postby Hoot » Wed Jan 22, 2014 5:18 am

45r wrote:Anybody that got the AR stoner barrels might want to check out the discussion going on about tight freebore in chambers at the 6.5 Grendel forum.

Seems the 123 and 129 SST's are working good but other bullets are not chambering well at the right COL.


Despite being designed for the AR15, the 6.5g is not a military inspired caliber. It utilizes a match chamber designed around the Hornady 123 Amax profile. I know from experience that you can not load Nosler 120gr BTs to 2.26 COL or they will be into the lands. That having been said, they do fit at 2.22 COL, so it's not like their unusable for that four hundredths of an inch. It does highlight the achilles heel of the caliber and that is the case's powder capacity. It's always begging for just a little more powder with the heavier bullets. Many successful hunters load them with different 100gr bullets. The Barnes 100gr TTSX is popular for white tails.

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