M8Ball,
Youi asked for opinion, so here goes.
I like my Ruger Mini-14 Series .223 rifles. Also like my Ruger Mini-30 RR. They are adequately accurate and handle great. I would not buy a Ruger 6.8 SPC, and here is why.
The 6.8 SPC cartridge:
Will never be adopted by the military and the ammo is already expensive and hard to get. The brass is unique and requires purchasing this expensive component. The bullets are standard .277. The cartridge ballistics are not great and it offers less performance than a .30-30 for hunting.
The Ruger 6.8 RR:
5 shot magazines are all you will ever get from Ruger.
If you must have a 6.8 SPC (why?
), I would advise looking at an AR 15 derivative.
I say if you want it, get it. I just looked at Midway's website, and ammo for the 6.8 doesn't cost anymore than any other premium ammo, and is actually cheaper than some. Who cares if the military adopts it? If that was an issue with cartridges, all we would be using is the 45-70, 30-40 Krag, the .223, .308 and 30-06. I think that it might just make it on it's own merits. Remington chambers it, Ruger does, T/C does too, along with several of the AR companies. Several companies make ammo as well. I just bought of the Remington 700's to use for predators, deer, and other medium game.
The ballistics are fine for the purpose of the round, actually better than most factory deer loads for the .243 and .257 Roberts at long range. It has less recoil than any other round you could (should) use to take deer. Maybe it offers less performance than a 30-30 at close range, but past 200 yds, it outdoes most loads except the Leverevolution.
As for mags, I don't know what to say about that. In CZ 527 bolt action rifles that are being built as 6.8's, they use the 7.62x39 action and mags to do it. The extractor gets tweaked a bit, but the mags work as is. Maybe the same will be true for the Ruger. A quick call to them could verify that.
As for the Ruger Mini, if you want extreme accuracy, the factory gun isn't the one you want. The custom guns are capable of astonishing groups, on par or better than AR's. In a factory gun, the AR's will outshoot a Mini just about everytime. Of course, you could throw a Mini in the creek, let it sit there for a month, and it's going to fire and cycle without any issues. An AR probably wouldn't.
