[MULEMAN]

I have been thinking about a mid range AR caliber. I have a .223 and .458socom already. I am not sure any one of these mid range cartridges can be argued superior based on ballistics alone. What other factors are to be considered?? Which one will still be here and in commercial ammo production 5 or 10 years down the road. Does remington have the edge because of the corporate backing on both the gun and ammo side of things??

 

[chipper]

I sold my 223's and 450 bushmaster AR's and just went the 308 win AR. Pretty much figure that one AR could do everything that both of those could do and more. Of course I reload and it depends on load and bullet weight. Opened up a lot of cash for other toys and ammo/reloading supplies are sure easy to find. Probably not the answer your looking for, just an idea.

 

[jimkim]

How about one in 35 Rem? It'd be one heckuva' hog gun.

 

[Charlie98]

I think the jury is still out on the 6.5mm vs 6.8mm popularity contest. I'm not very familiar with the .30Rem, but as long as it remains a proprietary Remington cartridge, there is little hope for it.

I'm kind of with chipper on this... the 7.62mm/.308 has been doing everything right for quite a few years. That being said, the downside is bulk and weight.

I have an AR lower I'll be building up soon, I still haven't decided which caliber I'm going to go with...

 

[MULEMAN]

I think one or more of these will catch on, enough to stay for a while anyway. There is a lot of marketing dollars being spent and honestly most of the reviews I have read has been positive on these mid range cartridges. As for the 308, nothing wrong with that except that it don't fit in a Ar 15. As you have said Charlie, it is probably still to early to really tell which will take the market share and stick around. I guess a guy just has to pick one and hope he is right at this point.

 

[mushernut]

Mule man
I went with the 6.8 after deciding I wanted a mid range cartrige that had more umph than the 223 Remington in my AR15. The 6.8 is not without it's drawbacks one being the original chambers (spec 1) were not correct due to Remington submitting incorrect specs. Wich creates pressure spikes in those barrels and limits the 6.8's performance because the ammo needed to be loaded down. However, most barrel makers now use an updated chamber (spec2) and cartige developement is progressing. There are a few different ammo manufactures, Remington being one of them, for the 6.8. Silver state armory being another and they load ammo to higher pressures in their "combat" loads for use in the spec2 chambers. This "mistake" by Remington gave me some pause when I was deciding on what cartrige I wanted. The plus is that the 6.8 was desinged around a carbine lenth barrel which, from what I heard, ment that you get great performance out of a short barrel. The 6.5 grendel being a proprietary cartrige gave me even more pause eventhough claimes of it's excellent balistics intrested me very much.
So wich cartrige will win this debate?? Who knows I decided on what I thought was best for me and I hope you do the same. Oh on a final note I just read a little bit about the .30 blackout cartrige, wich I belive Remington will be offering. A necked up 223 casing to .30cal wich is suppose to be simular to the 7.62x39 ballistically and will only require a barrel change for use in an existing AR15.Same mags and bolt just new barrel. I might have considered this round if I knew about it sooner. Because cost of changing over would have been lower.

 

[chipper]

Thought I'd mention that you can load 86gr all the way up to 240gr bullets for the 308. "IF" one really thinks about it what more does someone need??? All right maybe a 22mag and a 50bmg. I think a lot of the other calipers are just for marketing hype just to get us to spend money on something we don't really need. Just to have the new latest thing. In my humble opinion. Yes, your right, 308's won't fit in a AR-15 but they do fit in a AR-10.

 

[MULEMAN]

If all I was going to buy was guns that I NEEDED, I would have been done buying guns long ago. Ballistically you can compare most any caliber to another and always find something better, if that is what you are wanting to do. The fact remains that these three are still the only mid range cartridges available for the AR 15 platform. I am simply interested in trying to figure out which one will come out on top in terms of longevity and market share. The 450 bushmaster has a large share of the big bore AR market due to several factors, but mainly due to marketing and having the financial backing to make it really accessable to the public. I choose the 458socom, because there are lots of different bullets available that the other Big bores just don't have. I also am a big 45-70 fan and can use the same bullets in both. That was the deciding factor to me, along with the fact that it uses standard magazines. So far I have been unable to find any such redeeming quality in any of these mid-range cartridges that would really set one apart from the others. I was hopeing someone had.

 

[miatakix]

I love the design of that 6.5 Grendel, but I just don't think it's going to make it to large-scale use, and will go the way of the .260 British (a fine cartridge...which the Grendel is amusingly very similar to).

 

[MULEMAN]

The 6.5 is still a Alexander Arms proprietary cartridge isn't it??

 

[miatakix]

Yes and no. The name is proprietary, the cartridge design is not. Others such as Les Baer are starting to market it under other names, such as the .264 LBC-AR.

See here:

http://www.lesbaer.com/264LBCAR.html

 

[koathmann]

6.5 grendal is the most versital of the 6.8 vs 6.5 as for as selection of bullet weight and bullets. Or get a AR10 in 260 remington