Army to Replace 5.56 and 7.62 with 6.8.

Well the military doesn’t like cheap, they want high mark-ups (and high fail rates) so everyone involved can get healthy ammo for their bank accounts. It’s how the military industrial complex works.

:money:

Triple-down effect, the semi-heavy goes to SWAT and your local police now.

It's going to be a newly designed 6.8 cartridge called XM1186. Lake City is prime contractor expected to be at full production no earlier than 2020. Technical info on the cartridge still classified. Supposedly between a 6.5 Grendel and 6.5 Creedmoor.

Meh, I'll keep my .308/7.62. Yes, I know the 6.8 is flatter shooting and makes a better sniper round, but within the 300 yards I shoot from the .308 is just as accurate and more versatile for hunting. Plus, it will take them 10 years to develop the prototypes.

Last Edited by The Ghost of Comedian on 10/12/2018 02:43 PM

sounds like some Senior Officers and pentagon officials couldn't get cut in old old contracts and needed to come up with something new. rinse repeat

7.62 is a 30 caliber but a smaller powder charge.

I don't know why they don't use 30-06.

You take a 30-06 80 grain varmint bullet and it will reach the f*ck out and touch something.

We used to do our own reloading.

I had a Winchester model 70 .270 I used alot and that round with a 100 grain bullet and we would pop ground hogs at 300 yards easily. Get much more than 300 yards and they are too hard to spot in hay fields.

What the enemies of the state are forgetting is...most hunters are amateur snipers. We can hit a pretty small target a long way off. I have never trained for extreme distance but the variables are the same...distance, elevation, wind.

Oh man! How can you shoot a groundhog! Boo!!

yeah let some multi-thousand dollar head of cattle break a leg instead - go eat your vegi you soy boy.

Correct, mostly it was for our "South Vietnamese Recruits"

Last Edited by Andrzej on 10/12/2018 03:52 PM

What's the maximum effective range of 6.8?

6.8 would excel at distance.

6.8 would be considerably less effective as a suppressed sub-sonic round than either the 300 BLK or the 7.62x39. 140 gr at 1050 fps vs 220 grain at 1050 fps, and 343 ft.lbs vs. 539 ft.lbs, but still capable of being lethal. Similar difference between getting hit with a 9mm and getting hit with .357 mag.

Last Edited by MarPep on 10/12/2018 05:22 PM

Gotta love the Pig!

Ooops I got carried away - here ya go!

Actually, pretty STUPID choice....

The .260rem or 7mm-08 have better ballistics and similar kinetic power. Not as many bullet choices with .277 (like .270win) which 6.8mm is...

Even worse, this is likely a small frame round; something like a necked-down .300 whatever that round is called.

What works?

Look at the M249. It is a rip-ass weapon because it's loaded with Sierra 77gr match bullets. This bullet, or Nosler/Hornady bthp is THE Choice for Service Rifle ammunition, if you're loading all match stages with magazine-length rounds. 80 or 90 grain VLD bullets are even better; but get into mandatory fast twist barrels...

The 77gr 249 rd delivers moa accuracy to 100yds and will do for greater distance.

None of this 62gr or 55gr bullshit.

And then there's the 7.62x51mm .308win.... Not really any more proven accurate military rounds out there.... I deliberated longtime over going .260rem or .338fed for an AR-10 (Armalite) upper. No real reason to prefer either over the .308win.... I load 180gr Grand Slams for game. The 175/180gr match bthp (not VLD) rounds are optimum.

Going 6.8mm is just plain Stupid!

All about the bullets.... Match bullets are tougher than any game bullet, unless Titanium or Steel. Match bullets penetrate and hold-together. My 75/77gr .223 loads get me to 2750fps. All bullets I've recovered from my gravel & dirt shooting backstop hold together; they might have bent like a pretzel but they're in 1pc, not pcs...

Pretty amazing to use a 20" barreled, free-floated AR-15 with match 77gr loads. With a heavy barrel and a match float tube, the 10sec rapid fire stage of SR at 200yds is an eternity of time. No recoil or bounce, have to discipline yourself to use the full 10sec to take your best shots. 10 shots in 7sec with a group of 1.5" at 200... Not bad...

The ammo is proven. Going to anything more powerful in a semi-auto burns barrels and requires much more armory time.

Army might look at the AR-10 shooting a .338/300 SAUM. There is your 1.5mi semi-auto and only need to do a new bolt and barrel for the Knights and other AR-10 variants they're using already. The .338 has the best ballistics for distance, just the .338fed hasn't enough powder capacity to do a 225/230gr bullet justice.

6.8spc is step-back from the 77gr match loaded 5.56x45

77gr loaded 5.56x45 has more kinetic energy at 500yds than a factory full-power .357mag with 158gr bullet (fired from an 8" barreled handgun), does at 25yds.

Most on this forum fawn and awe over the .357mag as a defensive handgun; and 25yds is within defensive range. All about the bullet.... Precision and Knock-down power go hand in hand with the 20" barreled AR-15/M-16 firing the 77gr M249rd.

Prick.

They do fuck up yards and gardens!

Dodged a couple of 7.62 NATO. Mattis was right. Dodging a bullet is the best best feeling in the world.

7.62 goes through you while 5.56 bounces around tearing shit up. That is at around 450 meters!

What do I know I was in when they had steel pots. They issued those kevlar ones when I ETS'd.

They are vermin...aka....varmints.

Guess you never lived on a farm.

they are damaging little cusses. They eat your gardens and dig holes that can hurt your livestock.

They are not "cute little critters"....they are a nuisance

Last Edited by Manosteel on 10/12/2018 06:28 PM

Will this be a sabot in a plastic case?

Textron video:

One grain of sand will fuck you up with an M16. How does the new shit tackle that problem and does it?

they showed you the gun but didn't say a word about it

I knida doubt this... there's a reason that all NATO countries use the same ammunition. The US might be able to afford converting all their rifles to 6.8 but most NATO countries can't or won't.

But maybe there's an more sinister motive... everybody and their brother in the US has a 5.56, if the military converts to 6.8 in a civil war there won't be the same opportunity to reclaim ammo.

Screw NATO. America First!

In a civil war, both sides will have factories pumping out whatever ammo they want. Ammo won't be a problem, it will be food and medicine, the biggest killers in war is attrition not combat.