What's wrong with stores/manufacturers/industry and 6.8?

[yellowfin]

I've asked several times around various places and never gotten a satisfactory answer or resolution, so here goes. What in the heck is going on with the tweedling around regarding the 6.8 SPC and mainstream stores and full scale ammo production and availability? Why all the stupid delays, false starts, etc? It's pretty obvious that the AR15 platform is mainstream and for sale everywhere any and all rifles are sold. It's pretty obvious also that calibers beyond 5.56/.223 are at least half as in demand, and the remaining holdouts of old gaurde "I don't hunt deer with .223" Fudds could swiftly be answered by 6.8---IF they could find it in a store they shop at. If you can't find ammo at the places the average person gets .22LR, .223, .30-06, .30-30, etc. then the rather sizable chunk of people who aren't gun forum geeks simply aren't going to buy it.

All I hear from stores is "Well, all the people buy is .223 AR's." Well no s*** Sherlock, that's the only thing you put on the shelf to sell! Yet any bolt rifle offering has 3 or 4 calibers no exception.

So what's going to get rid of this stupid circular logic pattern? What is holding things back? Or if 6.8 isn't what's going to win out, what will, and why the holdup? Is it really going to be the .300 Blackout, or is this another tease like the others have been, where I can find ammo NOWHERE in real stores and only online half the time? Whatever it's going to be, I want to buy it. But not until they make up their minds and actually get on with the program. This stupid game of whack-a-mole is really annoying.

[Clint]

Not sure.

All I can say is my local ACE hardware, which is also a very good gun shop, had 3 flavors of 6.8 ammo available last time I checked.

Cabellas also stocks Hornady 6.8 in most stores I've seen.

Can't seem to ever find it at Gander Mtn, though.

For most places, it's too easy to just keep doing the same old thing.

No purchasing agent is going to get in hot water for ordering a few too many boxes of 30-06 or .223.

FWIW, The last back woods grocery store I stopped at had .22 LR, 12 ga slugs, 30-06, 30-30 and 308.

[Black Jeep]

Having been bitten by the Black Rifle Disease bug, I thought about building a carbine from the ground up and considered the 6.8. However, since I'm not into reloading at the time and I've looked into cost/availability of ammo I decided to wait a bit until it picks up more. I guess, in that regard, I'm playing into the same circular pattern.

[mark5pt56]

Do a quick search and you will find it online everywhere. It's not going away.

[rsilvers]

It would probably be bigger if they had called it 270 AR or something non-metric, as most red blooded Americans know that the Metric System is the tool of the devil. And I am not joking. 6.8 is just a weird number.

I believe 6.8 will continue to grow with time, steadily. This is in contrast to something like 10mm, which I don't think will grow over time.

[Nevermiss]

Do a quick search and you will find it online everywhere. It's not going away.

+1

I purchase all of my ammo on-line now. I doubt if Wal Mart will ever carry 6.8. Just like most things, it's about supply and demand.

[Strider5.56]

I know my brush with the 6.8spc in an LWRCi rifle was enough for me to understand why the 6.8spc has not caught on. Not sure if it was the Remington, Hornady, or SSA ammo that sucked, or the rifle. But it was the worst $2500.00 waste of money I every spent. I think next time I will just light $2500.00 in cash on fire and watch it burn. That would be less headache. I tried various grain weights and switched brands. Never had any luck. Now I only buy military calibers, seems to work better. It seems like if you want a heavier caliber in an AR platform .308win is the way to go.

[VooDoo6Actual]

Nothing wrong with the round or it's efficacy.
Far more efficient terminally than the 5.56 w/ comparable recoil impulse. I own several & I'm completely content w/ their performance.

I have zero difficulty finding the species of ammo I like & use.

Lack of military committing to the round is the major reason it has not taken off. The .308 seems to be preferred by military at this juncture.

That's a whole other can of worms.

HTH...

[rsilvers]

Meaning what - it was not accurate?

[bkb0000]

the market dictates what "takes off" and what doesn't. since people aren't jumping up and down with credit cards in hand, nobody is really mass producing 6.8 rifles or ammo. as soon as there was a big call for it, there'd be a big answer.

and that's just the way it is.. you could ask this same question about ANY caliber the AR has EVER been chambered in. it's more useful than most novelty chamberings, but it's still just a novelty chambering.