6.8 SPCII vs 6.5 Grendel

For what reason would you pick one over the other. The Grendel may have a bit of a range advantage but under 200 yards it looks like a toss up. And you can get cheap steel cased ammo for the Grendel.

You've already got it figured out.

Which do you need more, longer range, or cheap ammo? That should lead you to one or the other.

Depends on what you want to use it for. Under 300 yards, I really doesn't matter.

This is an interesting article on the subject. I think it's fair. If you want a 16" barrel or shorter, I'd recommend the 6.8.

http://abesguncave.com/6-5-grendel-vs-6-8-spc-a-different-perspective/

I have both! Think I will put a night vision scope on the 6.8 and a thick crosshaired scope on the Grendel. I do like having the 6.8 bullets around as I can use them for light loads in my 270 also. Another plus for the 6.8 is that with certain bullets it will give less penetration than the Grendel which is nice when shooting in an HOA with hog problems.

Pretty good link!

If you are shooting under 500, look at barrel length, gun price, ammo price, reloading price.

I don't shoot far and like my barrel short for hunting so 6.8 won. I don't plink with my hunting guns either.

Bad part about it is 6.8 mags are expensive but only need one so not bad.

ASC mags have worked fine for me and others.

http://www.ammosc.com/6-8-spc/

That is a valid point about not target shooting with hunting rifles.

That's not the case for me. If I own it, I shoot it.

I have first round feeding issues with ASC mags. The neck of the case gets caught on the front lip of the magazine. It can be fixed by just grinding away a few .01" with a dremel.

I did this with a 6.5 Grendel magazine and it works perfectly.

Both my uppers are fitted with 16 inch barrels and they both shoot better than expected. I just don't see how a couple more inches would make that much difference. The 6.8 has proven to be less picky as it doesn't seem to have an accuracy node, it just shoots everything well so far.

I had the same choice and went Grendel. Not gonna lie, objectively they seemed like a wash as to which is "better." The Grendel just seemed cooler to me. No better reason than that for me

My 6.8 is my go to. Really enjoy shooting it and almost never have a shot over 200 yards.

I like em both, the 6.8 is a bit heavier so it will get the NV when the time comes.

I have no experience with either but have been jonesing for a grendel

I have a 6.8. When I bought it, everything pointed to it being the better round. However, 3-4 years later, I believe the Grendel, unless SBR, is likely the better round. Inside of 200, though, it’s a wash and that’s where I use my AR.

I love my 6.8s, we have several..
Great hunting rifles inside a few hundred yards.
they just work, ammo is easy to get

The Grendel is "technically" a better round because it performs at short range and long range better than the spc, however it just seemed like there were more options available and ammo was a little easier to get with the 6.8. I am not interested in reloading so I bought the 6.8. The 6.8 with SST's in my gun are deadly accurate and lethal. Im happy with my choice especially since I hunt the forest and every one of my kills with the spc has been under 80 yards mostly.

You really cant go wrong with either one. If you are making 200 to 500 yards shots its a no brainer but if you are shooting under 200 it really is a toss up. I would definitely get at least an 18 inch barrel with the grendel.

When I was choosing, I found cheaper 6.5G factory ammo, so I went that direction. A buddy researched and liked the 6.8 so he went that direction. Now he wants a 6.5G and I keep asking him why. He just wants another gun.

I've had both 6.8 and 6.5 Grendel. Inside 300yds you'll never notice a difference. I just bought another 6.8 mainly due to ammo availability in my area. Grendel runs out fairly quickly and 6.8 is always in stock.

Shots under 250 yards and if you want a shorter 16-18" the 6.8. If you want a longer barrel and better BC bullets and a longer range then Grendel. If both in a 16" barrel the 6.8 has a little more energy inside of about 150 yards.

It won’t make a difference most of the time. For most Texas hunting (feeders at 200 yds or less) I’m of the opinion that any rifle with a barrel over 18” is unnecessarily long. What you lose in a few FPS you make up for it handiness. Getting it in and out of the truck and in and out of a blind window is so much easier with a 16-18” barrel than it is with a 22-24” barrel.

Oddly though the 6.8 is supposedly the more popular round it seems easier to find uppers and magazines for the 6.5 and someone should bring out cheap blasting ammo for the 6.8.

yep, had 16 and 18" 6.8s, 16s were every bit as effective out to 300 yards.
My favorite barrel is the Wilson Combat lightweight hunter.

My brother has an 11.3" WC barrel and clean kills out to 200 yards.

I have a pistol build 11.3 as well, only shot a few pigs with it.

Out to 300 yards not much difference at all. I get 2425 fps using hornady 120 sst and 2775 fps with the federal xm6.8 90 grain gold dot out of my 6.8 spc ii 12.5" ARP barrel in my sbr. Both kill nicely! I was going to build me a 18" upper also, but after seeing the velocity of the 18" barrels getting a whopping 100-125 fps more then my 12.5" i decided against it. Very efficient down to 12" i must say.

I have tried to talk myself into building a 6.5 Grendel for a couple of years and just haven't been able to convince myself I need one. I built two 6.8's, one for deer hunting and one set up for night hunting hogs and coyotes. I have more ammo than I will live long enough to shoot, let alone brass and bullets for reloading. Either one will fill the need and I don't get into the huge argument that arises when fans of each caliber go nuts about which is better. Shoot what you want and don't worry about how someone else feels about it.

I went looking for something better than my 223 AR and SKS and found the 6.8.
I've used 6.8's for years exclusively for pig hunting and average 70 pigs a year with it.
Once I found AR Performance and their excellent barrel/bolt/chamber, I never looked back.

98 percent of my shots are between 75 and 130 yards and the 6.8 serves this purpose quite well for me.
I would like a 6.5 to play with but am heavily invested in 6.8 so it will have to wait.

I chose the Grendel over the SPC for the potential to use bullets with higher SD. It just so happens that SD is a part of the BC equation, but external ballistics is low on my list. Terminal ballistics is high on my list.