Semi-Auto Carbines in 6.8 SPC and 308 Win: Socom II Wins

Semi-automatic carbines have become enormously popular. Applications range from law enforcement and home defense to competitive target shooting and hunting. The most popular platform is the AR15-based weapon chambered for 223 Remington. But if you visit your local shooting range, you will find AR-style carbines, circa the 1960s, shooting alongside historical battle-rifle actions made popular in the 1940s.

For this evaluation we acquired three different solutions to the self-defense rifle equation, mixing midrange and top-of-category

The most popular caliber for the semi-automatic carbine is .223 Remington, but our military continues to be on the lookout for guns chambered for harder-hitting ammunition. Left: Our $2090 Springfield Armory Socom II did a good job handling 308 Winchester ammunition. The Socom II could be described as the hot-rod son of the M1 Garand. Fit with a comfortable synthetic stock, a myriad of accessory rails, and a very effective muzzle brake, we’d choose the Socom II first for serious firepower. We tried a $1502 AR10 A4C 308 Win. carbine from Armalite and found that the shooter had to be prepared to deal with increased recoil, a by-product of an increase in power. Recoil made the gun slower from shot to shot, and it could be hard on the shooter, too. The level of accuracy available from this carbine was not impressive, either. A step up in pop, the 6.8 Remington SPC offers a substantial increase in power, and the 6.8’s compact size should allow for high-capacity payloads, too. We’ll look at more 6.8s in the future, but our first test was of the $894 Ruger KMini 6.8/5P. To date, however, lack of available high-capacity magazines will likely limit the Ruger to the role of an all-round handy rifle—not a bad thing.