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6.8 SPC For Whitetail Deer
A Gunshots regular asked me the other day about the suitability of a particular bullet chambered in 6.8 SPC for whitetails. The bullet in question is the 110-grain boat-tailed hollow-point from Hornady. He settled on this bullet because the other factory loads he tried either didn’t group well in his AR-style rifle or, in the case of one cheapo brand, misfired frequently.
I don’t have any hunting experience with the 6.8 SPC, but it certainly has caught on with a small but devoted group of fans. One of them is Steve Johnson, who happens to work for Hornady and has quite a bit of field experience with the 6.8, mostly on hogs.
Johnson says the 110-gr. BTHP works very well on game, particularly at 6.8 SPC velocities. He said that bullet will expand reliably on deer-sized from point-blank ranges out to 200 yards.
“Impact velocity is the critical thing with that round. At 6.8 velocities that bullet will hold together very well. Drive it at .270 Winchester speeds, though, and that’s a different animal,” he said.
So as long as the bullet is exiting the muzzle at 2,500 fps, versus the 3,000 fps you’d see with a 130-gr. .270 round, this bullet should turn the lights out on any properly hit whitetail.
—John Snow
That is what I heard when researching the 6.8 before buying one. Granted, I've not hunted since I was a kid, I've been wanting to recently and figured an Evil Black Rifle in 6.8 would satisfy both my need to buy things that make anti-gunners wet themselves as well as something that I can use for home defense and possibly hunting.
If through some miracle I ever bag a deer, I'll let you know how it worked ;)
Posted by: Robb Allen | October 30, 2008 at 06:05 PM