I recently leased some land in South Georgia for this coming deer season that seems to have quite a few hogs on it. So I'm thinking about getting a new AR type gun to hog hunt with but in a bigger caliber than the .223. Right now I've limited my options to a Bushmaster in 6.8 SPC with a 16" barrel or a DPMS LR-338 chambered in 338 Federal. I'm really leaning towards the 338 since I don't think there's a thing as too much gun but I'd like to know which of these two you guys would choose to hog hunt with.

I've never really been one to go with the newest latest and greatest calibers but the ones above do bring something new to the table and since I reload all my ammo, finding ammo or cost won't be too much of an issue to me. The 6.8 is really a 270 bullet and has about 500 lbs of energy over a .223 and the 338 Federal is like a semi auto canon with almost 3000 lbs of energy shooting 200+ grain bullets.

Not familiar with those calabers....

But I have found with hogs that the heavy lead nosed or non-jacketed
lower velocity puts them "down" better....

IE - 38 solid 150 grain out of my Contender seems to work much better
than the 138 grain hollow point jacketed 357 mag.... Also 308 subsonic
works better than standard 308 - especially if suppressed too - LOL

If you're buying an AR-type rifle go with a 308 and the ammo options are limitless and CHEAPER plus an AR-10 will have a lot more add ons that don't have to custom. When you inviting me to shoot a pig?

Chico, looks like you found some land, congrats, hopefully it holds some game for you. My .02 on hog hunting, go with a .22 mag or .17. there fun and you wont run everything off in your lease. My experience in S. GA is if you shoot alot or spend much time in the woods, ur game will find another corn pile. Good Luck whichever way you go.

P.S. Sounds like you just want another gun!

A 308 is all you need.

I thought 338 was a 300 necked up?

Take head shots..............

Price ammo for the .338 before you decide. Personally I'd just stick to 5.56 and 75g Tap or 70g Barnes solid copper. If you insist on going bigger, then 6.8 is the way to go. 5.56 works fine for killing hogs though.

Nathan

I've been reloading all my own ammo for a while now and if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't even consider those calibers above. The price on that ammo is ridiculous, almost $2.50 a round for the 338 and about $1.30 each for the 6.8. With my reloads I'll be at about $.60 cents each or so. Same thing with my .270 WSM, love the round but wouldn't shoot it if I didn't load my own.

If you don't like the 223, your way better off with the AR10. They are expensive. I would love to have an AR10 243.

between the two choices mentioned, I'd suggest the 6.8. I haven't seen ammo prices on the .338, but I'm guessing they're a little bit higher. You buy an AR to go hog hunting because there's no recoil and you can stay on target and put multiple rounds down range easily. I suspect the 6.8 is probably going to be better at doing that, with cheaper ammo,less recoil, and a much smaller gun that is lighter and easier to carry around if you do a lot of walking.

I have one. I really like it. With 110 grn regular soft point bullets, it's put a smack down on every hog so far. I'm used to shooting hogs with bigger, more powerful rifles, but this one does the job very well. Good luck!

Thanks Crews, thats what I wanted to hear. Since you have first hand experience with the 6.8 and I've never shot one, how does it compare to the .223 as far as knock down power goes? Do you notice the power difference between the two rounds?

Those bullets you're using are the same ones I was looking at thinking they would be perfect for hogs. I bet with a 110gr soft point you could take a deer quite easily as well.

There's a negligible difference in felt recoil when you're shooting the two side by side. The 6.8 definitely has more knock-down power. So it's a pretty good choice for a dedicated hunting gun. To be fair, I've seen plenty of people kill hogs with a .223.

I've been shooting SSA 110 grn Sierra tactical load. Puts em' down pretty good. But the guy who built my rifle has been getting lots of good feedback from guys using the 115 grn Hornady rounds. I'm going to try those next.

Sounds Good Chico, glad it worked out with Plum Creek. now lets see some pics of those boys with some hogs down.

Crews has never killed a hog before.

Went to the gun shop today and compared both rifles side by side and bought the DPMS LR-338. It's about the same weight as the AR-15 6.8 with the 16" barrel I was looking at but with a lot more firepower. Once I work up a load, I'll let you guys know how it shoots. Thanks for all the help.

Well, I shot my 338 yesterday and even though it's accurate with my handloads, it jammed like crazy. After researching it a bit, it turns out these guns have some sort of issue with the magazines being defective and the gas system leaking so much that it causes the bolt to short stroke and not pick up a new round of the mag. This is what was happening to me so maybe I should've gone with the 6.8 instead. I'll keep you guys posted.

Good choice with the .338 Federal....

Once you get bored with that load you can upgrade to the .338 Lapua; heck of a kick and more yardage. Since you reload your own you can save alot more monies than the a guy buying off the shelf loads. Since the cheap stuff for the 338 lapua is about $75 for 20 rounds and about $150 for the Corbonds

30 Remington AR seems like it might be a good one also.

Look up SSK industries at 300 whisper or just look up cal also called 300-221 corbon makes ammo but for 6.8 spec or 338 fed ammo will be hi

Well, I got my 338 fixed and runs like a sewing machine now. Turns out that the factory gas port is .081 and I enlarged it to .086 and it runs perfect now. I also built me a 6.8 SPC upper and the round is very nice and has more noticeable power than the .223 but no where near what the 338 has.

I'm sure the 6.8 will drop any hog in it's tracks but the .338 Federal is a canon next to it. I can't wait to take it into the woods this deer season and see what it can do.

I think you will be happy with the 6.8 as well... I had good luck with the 110 grn Sierra soft point bullets on hogs... Since you reload, the guy that built my rifle has been loading up some rounds with 130grn bullets. It's a compressed load, but from what he says, they're bad mamma jammas for hogs.

Yeah, I would love to try some 130 grain loads but haven't been able to find any data for them anywhere. Right now I worked up a load with the 110 grain Sierra Pro Hunters that I can keep in a 3" circle at 100 yards using a 1x red dot scope. I know if I put a higher power scope on the 6.8 those groups will shrink by half but since I'm not planning on shooting anything further than 100 yards, it's fine the way it is.

If you can find out where your friend is getting his data from, I'd appreciate you letting me know but I don't want to experiment with unknown recipes.

My sks 7.62 works mighty fine on hogs.....wish I had an ar 223, low recoil would make it easier to target more than 1 or 2 hogs outs a group of them. If your shooting long range, just use your deer rifle.