Choose Your
DownloadGet a digital revolver magazine when you sign up for our FREE email newsletters and store specials.
AR-15 Review: Wilson Combat 6.8
Categories:: Gun Reviews • Rifles • Tactical Guns
Patrick Sweeney | Jan 22, 2013 | Comments 1
Add to favorites
The Wilson BUIS is spring-loaded. Press the lock button and it pops up on its own.
If you want to do the work yourself, Bill is more than happy to accommodate you. You can order up a 6.8 barrel, in one of six length/profile/fluted or unfluted combinations, and a bolt and carrier combo made for Wilson by LMT, complete with NP3 plating. Magazines, ammo, flash hiders, and case gauges for the reloaders are all available from Bill. As I said, he’s a really good businessman.
The LMT-manufactured bolt, combined with the SPC II chamber, means many years of trouble-free 6.8 shooting lie ahead.
The two things that jumped out at me when I had a chance to handle and shoot the Wilson 6.8 were the handguards and the front sight. The new FUFS is a sleek and clean folded sight that locks in either the up or down position. When it is folded, it is not just unobtrusive, it is almost hidden. And when it is up, it is locked there. The button to unlock it is guarded, so it is highly unlikely that you will accidentally brush the button and partially fold your front sight.
If you are wedded to sights on the rail, Wilson also offers a folding front sight that fits there, too.
The Combat Quadrail has full-length top and bottom rails, but the side rails are sculpted on the rear two-thirds or so. This gives you a firm hold without the “bite” of rails on the sides. It also give you a better index on the front hand, so you know if the rifle is vertical as it comes up, and you don’t have to hunt for the sights once you’ve shouldered it. As a bonus, there are eight threaded holes (1/4″X20) where you can bolt on something that needs more than just a rail or that can be bolted on and take up less space than a quick detach system requires.
Made from 6065 T5 and hard anodized, you’re going to have to work to wear this one out.
How did they shoot? Do you really have to ask that? With a Trijicon 3-9 on one Tactical Custom and an Aimpoint M4 on the other, the results were as expected: lots of easy fast, close-range hosing on drills, and nice, even, small clusters on the 100-yard targets. The Wilson triggers made shooting a breeze, and the rifles ran flawlessly.
You really do owe it to yourself to shoot a Wilson. You won’t be disappointed.
This article is an excerpt from the The Gun Digest Book of the AR-15 Vol. III.
More Recommended AR-15 Resources:
New! - The Gun Digest Book of the AR-15 Vol. IV
The Gun Digest Book of the AR-15 Vol. III
The Gun Digest Book of the AR-15 Vol. II
The Gun Digest Book of the AR-15 Vol. I
Gunsmithing the AR-15, How to Maintain, Repair & Accessorize
New! The Gun Digest Buyer’s Guide to Tactical Rifles
Find more gun books, DVDs and downloads at gundigeststore.com.
Related Posts:
About the Author: Patrick Sweeney is the author of many of Gun Digest books' best-selling titles, including Gun Digest Book of the 1911, Vols. I & II; Gun Digest Big Fat Book of the .45 ACP, Gun Digest Book of the AR-15, Gun Digest Book of the AK and SKS, Gun Digest Book of the Glock and Gunsmithing: Pistols and Revolvers, among other titles. A master gunsmith, Patrick is also Handguns Editor for Guns & Ammo magazine.
Same old advertisement hype: Newer is better, run out and get two right away.
Competitive shooters I have interviewed tell me that the 6.8 and 6.5 clones are actually less accurate than the standard .223.
How about lethality? Since the days of the king of charlatans “Elmer Keith”, who beat the big bore drums for years, the public has been brain washed into believing such hog wash. Real hunters have known for the last century that bullet diameter is quite meaningless. Shot placement and penetration are what counts the most.
Real hunters of yesteryear like Jack O’Connor, Agnes Herbert, W.D.M.Bell and a host of others proved beyond doubt that small bore rifles with long heavy bullets penetrated far better than slower moving less penetrating big bore calibers. Roy Weatherby once stopped a charging African Buffalo with one shot from a .240 Weatherby. W.D.M.Bell who used big bore and small bore guns reported only his 6.5mm was able to consistently shoot right through an Elephants skull. He should now as he shot over 1,000 elephants, far more than Keith’s one or two.
The .223 when used with the long heavy bullets has plenty of penetration and lethality and it does it with less recoil and the ability to carry more ammo. The only the thing the U.S. military should do is scrap the AR-15 system as it is one of the most unreliable military rifles of all time, it stands shoulder to shoulder with the horribly unreliable WWI French Chauchat. I could also mention the Rashid and others like it that used the same unreliable gas impingment system the AR-15 uses.