Having been a 6.8 SPC fan for use in the law enforcement world almost from its introduction, it has been exciting to see it begin to take more of a hold in the police world. Its use is certainly not widespread in the law enforcement and military world yet, but it is growing, albeit slowly. As the logistics of the ammunition is sorted out and the availability of both ammunition and weapons platforms grows, this will likely increase, at least in the police world.

The logistics hurdles in the military world are exponentially huge as compared to the police environment and I doubt it will ever see widespread duty with our armed forces. This is especially true as 7.62x51mm semi-auto platforms become more reliable and available given the military’s huge inventory of this round. That being said, the 6.8 SPC is still very popular among elite Special Forces units in most any of the military branches, and in my honest opinion has tremendous potential for police officers and tactical teams.

Early on the biggest issue was ammunition availability, something that comes with the introduction of any new caliber, especially one based on an already popular design. Simply because a particular round proves to be better does not mean it will ever catch on outside its strongest advocates. For every new and improved round there are several that fail rather miserably. Some may stick around in small numbers for a long time but never break into the law enforcement world with significance.

Two perfect examples of that are the 10mm and .357 Sig rounds. Both have their proponents for sure, myself being a huge 10mm fan. To this day my primary carry pistol is a 10mm pistol. I have believed in and carried that caliber for at least the last 10 years in one platform or another and have been willing to do so at my own expense. Although gathering some new life here and there, it has never caught on in the law enforcement world with any consistency (and never really will in my opinion). To a certain degree the same can certainly be said for the .357 Sig round. It has much greater acceptance in the LE world for sure, but it has in no way supplanted the mainstream calibers (.40 S&W, .45 ACP and 9mm) and probably never will.