About a month ago a friend bought a Cooper rifle in the new Remington 6.8 SPC chambering. As is with Coopers the rifle is outstanding, but try to get ammo for it. My friend had the rifle dies, and everything ready to test fire but getting loaded ammo or casing was next to impossible. I located a box of Remington factory loads after searching for nearly three weeks in every place that I could, yes on the internet also. So it was with a box of 20 factory rounds we took the new Cooper to the range for a test firing. The results were less then satisfactory! Out of a box of 20 rounds two were duds, they failed to fire. The 100-yard 3-shot groups ran 3.5". At the end of the testing only two things were acomplished, one the rifle and scope were on paper at 100-yards, and we now had some casings to work with. The casings were given a going over to prep them for accuracy, trim to lht., neck turned, primer pockets milled, and the flash holes de-burred. While de-burring the flash holes it was noted the there was present a large burr inside each of the casings, larger then I've ever noted in 40 years of reloading in any casings. Once the casings were prep. they were loaded with the Hornady 110-grain V-Max bullet and H322 powder, and the test firing resumed. This time the groups were most acceptable running in the low .200s" to .300s" at 100-yards. Rumor has it that all the ammo that is being produced by Remington is now being sent over seas to test in the field by our brave troops. It's about time that there is something being done for our troops to hace a round that is more potent then the .223, however I hope that the ammo being sent there is better then what we had to sample. Rumor also has it that Remington is going belly-up soon. Looks like history is repeating itself once again. What happened to Winchester back in the mid 60s is what is happening to Remington. We can only hope that Remington will have a come back and start to produce products as good as they once did. They need to get back to the basics of building quality firearms again, after all that was what established their place in the world of firearms as it did for Winchester.
Posts: 259 | Location: up state New York USA | Registered: 25 December 2003
I know many life long Remington product users that have stopped using Remington within these past few years due to poor product and quality control coming from Remingtom.
Yes, it will be sad to see them go, but once you get a bad name, it is 10 times harder work to get it back then it was to loose...
last year i bought 100 257 remington brasses &lost all but 11 in the pre loading sizing process, silly me did not inspect each round as i processed them but the neck wass off center or the neck was thick on 1 side ine every brass.. The only remington brass I use is 35 whelen(only they make it) and 280 because winchester is nicle plated..
Posts: 1125 | Location: near atlanta,ga,usa | Registered: 26 September 2001
Is it really that bad? All my Remington stuff is years old so I have not noticed the decline.
No, Even the new stuff is good. They still produce the same Model 700 Tack Drivers they've offered for years. Triggers still easy to Mod, Stocks easy to mod, Multitude of aftermarket Parts available, yada yada......
Reloader
Posts: 4146 | Location: North Louisiana | Registered: 18 February 2004
I can't understand what practical purpose the 6.8spc would have in a sporting rifle? It does not seem to be powerful enough for big game, and it is too slow to make a top notch varmint rifle. It may be excellent as a military round for selective fire rifles that are controllable, but it seems that it's best sporting purpose may be in handguns like the Contender, where it would probably be a pretty efficient cartridge.
Whats not to understand? The 6.8SPC has the same energy at 100yds as the 30-30 has at the muzzle, and with very mild recoil, kind of like the .250 savage. Accurate, quiet, no recoil, effective on deer sized animals to 200yds, sounds like the perfect deer cartridge to me.
Posts: 498 | Location: New Jersey | Registered: 22 May 2004
Simply speaking, it is a 6.5mm PPC. I have one, a CZ527 in 7.62x39 that has been rebarreled. Joy to carry, easy to shoot little groups, brass and factory rounds are readily available, as are uppers for the AR15 platform...
Posts: 454 | Location: Califon, NJ USA | Registered: 18 January 2002
