There are many reasons it has become so popular. Generations of riflemen are familiar with its upkeep and operation, thanks to the fact that the platform has been in military service for more than 50 years. It requires no special tools to disassemble and maintain. The rifle’s ergonomics make it comfortable to shoot, even during prolonged range sessions, and there’s no end to the number of aftermarket items available for those desiring to customize it.

While AR-pattern rifles are extremely popular, they have reached a plateau where most new developments result in a negligible increase in quantifiable performance. Until recently, that is. Efforts by LWRCI, Magpul and ATK now provide the venerable Stoner design with its first significant performance increase in decades.

The obvious step toward solving the problem is to enlarge the mag well and make a bigger magazine to put in it. LWRCI took the very sensible approach of looking at the AR-15 bolt carrier and determining how far they could enlarge the mag well without having to redesign the bolt carrier.

That’s a smart move. Since the bolt carrier works just fine, it’s best to leave it alone. Once they enlarged the magazine well, they also added a small shelf inside the front of the mag well to prevent “overinsertion” of the magazine. This little feature ensures that no problems will arise should the shooter decide to use the rifle’s magazine as a rest to steady the rifle.

The new LWRCI M6.8-A5 also has a fully ambidextrous lower receiver that makes it possible to manipulate the rifle with minimal gun juggling. With traditional AR-15s, the shooter has to remove his firing hand from the pistol grip to pull the charging handle to the rear so that the support hand can manipulate the bolt catch and lock the bolt to the rear. This is the first maneuver for doing everything from loading and unloading the rifle to clearing malfunctions, so it gets repeated often.

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New Magazines…
Part of the AR-15’s popularity comes from the inexpensive 30-round magazines that feed the rifle. Many of us remember the 1994–2004 magazine ban and like to keep plenty of magazines around for our ARs. This has been no problem for those whose rifles are chambered in 5.56, but it has been hugely problematic for those with rifles chambered in 6.8 SPC. Up until Magpul’s intervention, the only viable choices for 6.8 SPC magazines were Barret and PRI. These magazines cost approximately $40 each, so keeping several on hand quickly became an expensive proposition.

As part of a joint venture with LWRCI, Magpul designed a new version of its popular PMAG to fit the newer, larger magazine well. While the COL of the 6.8 SPC is 21/4 inches, the new PMAG offers 2.32 inches of internal volume. This enables bullet manufacturers — and reloaders — to use longer bullets with better ballistic coefficients, further stretching the effective range of the cartridge.

That was not the case. The rifle functioned flawlessly. I was able to shoot two different Hornady loads through the rifle. Five-shot groups for the 110-grain Hornady Tap averaged 1.7 inches, with the best group measuring 11/2 inches. The Hornady 110-grain BTHP load would consistently put three shots into one to 1.3 inches, then the next two rounds would open up the group to right around two inches.

My Oehler 35P had the TAP load moving at 2,567 fps out of the 16-inch barrel. The 110-grain BTHP had a muzzle velocity of 2,393 fps.

What LWRCI, Magpul and ATK have done is take an AR-15-pattern rifle and bump its combat-effective range from 200 meters to 400 meters. This change is possible thanks to the 6.8 SPC chambering. Along the way they’ve addressed the problem of expensive and heavy magazines and costly ammunition. The efforts of these three companies has breathed new life into the 6.8 SPC.