Fort Fletch

What is 223Wylde?

+  The 223 Wylde is a new chambering created by a man named Bill Wylde -   The 223 Wylde is a new chambering created by a man named Bill Wylde about six years ago. The chambering design still allows the use of both 556 NATO ammunition and the 223 Remington. What he did was decrease the free bore space by half from the 556 in order to facilitate more accurate shooting of the 223 ammo. The best part is there is no downside. As long as the 556 NATO ammunition is within specs, it should function flawlessly in the chambering. About 95% of the 556 ammo available falls into this category. You also find that the 223 Wylde chambering is often offered in the 1:8 twist. This is beneficial in allowing people to shoot a wider range of ammunition more accurately.

What is 6.8 SPC?

+   The 6.8 SPC (special purpose cartridge) was developed in 2000 -   The 6.8 SPC (special purpose cartridge) was developed in 2000 by the US Army marksmanship unit and Remington. It was designed as a replacement for the 556 NATO round. There has been many arguments over the effectiveness of the 556 round. Honestly, the 556 performs just fine as long as it is fired out of its originally designed barrel length, 20 inches as with the M-16 A1 and A2. In the early days of Vietnam, armorers messed around with the idea of making the M-16 a more compact unit by lopping off the barrel. Thus the M4 was born. The only problem is the cartridge suffers terrible ballistic performance. Out of the 20 inch barrel, the 556 55 grain round achieves over 3300 ft/s. With a 16 inch barrel that is brought down to around 2800 ft/s. As energy is an exponential function of velocity, ballistic performance is severely depleted. Many people make the mistake of looking at a ballistic table and seeing the performance of a 556, and not paying attention to the test barrel length. Combine that with using 223 Remington ammunition, and many consider an M4 platform an underachiever as far as a hunting platform. In addition to this, in order for the projectile to tumble, pitch, and yawl as it was designed to do, it has to be traveling at 2500 ft/s upon entry. Much of the 556's projectile effectiveness is reliant on its ability to act as described above. The M855 62 grain steel core was developed to address this with debatable results ...

The 6.8 SPC, however was developed specifically to address the concerns of shorter barrels. It was purposely designed to perform best in a 10'' to 18'' barrel. With a 90 grain tactical load traveling at 2850 ft/s, it delivers 1600 foot-pounds of energy at the muzzle with a 16 inch carbine barrel. With an 18 inch hunting barrel, and a 110 grain projectile traveling at 2700 ft/s it's capable of producing 1850 foot-pounds, while still caring 1200 foot pounds out to a range of 230 yards. That is plenty of oomph for any medium-size game. That's why the 6.8 SPC has been the cartridge of choice for most professional pig hunters/eradicators. You get the accuracy and range of a 556 with the knockdown power of an AK round. Very impressive indeed. In chronograph testing I was able to achieve 2300 ft/s out of an 8.5 inch barrel with a 90 grain load and 2100 ft/s with a 110 grain load. The 6.8 SPC is also well supported by the industry. There are over a dozen offerings in ammunition. There are even a couple of bolt action rifles out there available for medium-size game with very modest recoil. If you can't already tell, I'm a big fan. Note to the fans of the 6.5 Grendel. It's a great performer at long distances, however it is not very well supported and functional issues with the AK parent cartridge case causes many issues.

What is the difference between 6.8SPC and 6.8SPC II?

+   6.8 SPC II corrects an issue with chamber dimensions and allows for a slightly more powerful load. -   6.8 SPC II corrects an issue with chamber dimensions and allows for a slightly more powerful load. Typically you gain 100 to 150 ft/s. This updated specification also stipulates a maximum rate of twist of 1:10. Most ammunition currently available is 6.8 SPC, however there are a few offerings often called "tactical" loads in 6.8 SPC II.

What about the 300 AAC blackout ?

+   300 blackout. This is a great cartridge due to its versatility. -   300 blackout. This is a great cartridge due to its versatility. It can be fired either subsonic or supersonic without needing to change the gas system. As a supersonic cartridge, the 300 blackout is a modest performer which I do not recommend for game further than 100 yards. Although on paper its ballistics are very similar to that of a 556, because of its larger caliber and payload, it will have better terminal ballistics. Where the 300 blackout really shines is in subsonic. Carrying up to a 220 grain projectile, it carries slightly more knockdown power than a 45ACP pistol. Its extremely efficient ballistic coefficient allows it to travel through the air with very little resistance therefore slowing the projectile down modestly over its trajectory. This allows it to maintain most of its energy. The complex part of the 300 blackout is compensating for its rapid drop. There are a few scopes available with bullet drop compensation reticles currently on the market, however most are in the thousand dollar plus range. As this cartridge's popularity grows, I'm sure we'll see more reasonably priced options.