If you wish to introduce a profitable new big-game cartridge today, it’s bought to be the quickest, hottest, hardest-hitting, new load ever created, proper? Well, really, no. Browning and Winchester’s 6.8 Western rifle cartridge works off the idea that when you take an extended, modern, heavy bullet and fireplace it at an affordable velocity, you’ll get simply nearly as good down-range efficiency as ultra-fast bullets which are much less streamlined. And, you’ll get that efficiency with much less recoil.
So their engineers took a have a look at the .270 Winchester Short Mag., which got here out in 2002, earlier than the pattern of longer, extra aerodynamic bullets took off. They lowered the case shoulder to permit for an extended bullet in a short-action rifle. That additionally meant much less propellant loaded into the spherical.
“The challenge in 6.8 Western was all about balance,” says Kyle Masinelli, director of New Product Development for Olin Winchester. “It was the balance of taking a parent case in .270 WSM and actually taking away powder capacity to make it more powerful down range. It seems counterintuitive, but that was exactly what was accomplished. If we compare it to our top performing 270 WSM cartridge, the 6.8 Western has 10 percent less propellant, but has 12 percent more energy at 500 yards. It seems that we cheated physics somewhat, but we really just used it to our advantage by optimizing case capacity and bullet weight. Less propellant also equates to less muzzle blast.”
It’s additionally notable that the rifles chambered for this cartridge have quicker twist rifling than the previous .270, utilizing both 1:8 or 1:7.5 twist.
Browning and Winchester are touting this cartridge as a long-range searching and goal capturing load, prone to attempt to seize a number of the pleasure created by the 6.5 Creedmoor and 6.5 PRC, and clear up for a number of the criticism (albeit misplaced) that these cartridges don’t provide heavy sufficient bullets for taking down bigger sport like elk or moose. With the 6.8 Western’s heavier bullets, Winchester says it’s bringing 16 % extra power than the 6.5 PRC at 500 yards and 67 % extra power than the 6.5 Creedmoor. And the 6.8 Western can tackle a number of the large boomers at lengthy vary as effectively. In reality, Browning’s 175-grain Long Range Pro load has extra power at 500 yards and past than most 180-grain manufacturing unit masses in .300 Win. Mag.
Winchester is claiming 24 ft-lb of recoil in an 8-pound rifle, which is about the identical as a 7mm Rem. Mag., which is its true ballistic competitor (primarily based on bullet weights, diameter, and muzzle velocity).
6.8 Western Ammo and Ballistics
When it was first launched in 2021, there have been two bullet choices, the 165-grain Accubond Long Range and the 175-grain Sierra Tipped Game King. Now, there are a number of extra choices, however Winchester and Browning are nonetheless the one ones loading it. Factory 6.8 Western manufacturing unit ammo choices embody:
Below you’ll be able to see the ballistic tables for the Sierra Tipped Game King and Accubond Long Range masses.
6.8 Western Accuracy
A key to creating a profitable long-range searching cartridge is accuracy. Without that, all else is null and void. Fortunately for the 6.8 Western, it delivers. We’ve achieved accuracy testing with two totally different Browning rifles chambered in 6.8 Western—the light-weight X-Bolt Mountain Pro, and the heavier-barreled X-Bolt Western Hunter. We used a five-shot-group accuracy protocol for every rifle, utilizing a minimal of 5 teams whole for an accuracy mixture.
Freel used the X-Bolt Mountain Pro on an aoudad hunt within the border mountains of Texas and in addition did accuracy testing at ten beneath zero in Alaska. The light-barreled Mountain Pro averaged 1.18-inch teams with the Browning 175-grain Tipped SGK load and 1.27-inches with Winchester’s 165-grain Nosler ABLR load.
We additionally examined the X-Bolt Western Hunter totally, recording 20 teams as a part of a take a look at of mid-priced searching rifles. The high 50 % of recorded teams averaged .93 inches, and the general common group measurement for these 20 teams was 1.28 inches. The Browning 175-grain Sierra TGK load averaged 1.21 inches total however displayed a good customary deviation in group measurement.
For five-shot teams out of hunting-weight rifles, these outcomes are good, and we imagine the accuracy potential of the cartridge is even better—if extra producers get within the sport or hand loaders tweak it to their liking.
Has the 6.8 Western Succeeded?
Just a little greater than a yr after its introduction, Browning has 18 rifle variations chambered in 6.8 Western and Winchester has greater than a dozen on high of that. So clearly, each firms are working onerous to assist the brand new cartridge. But the 6.8 Western hasn’t changed veteran cartridges just like the 7mm Rem. Mag. or the .270 WSM simply but.
“The 6.8 Western is definitely one of our fastest growing in regard to cartridge sales, but with a new cartridge like this it takes several years to get enough firearms produced to meet demand,” says Nathan Robinson, advertising and marketing supervisor for Winchester Ammunition. “Having just announced the 6.8 Western in 2021, we are very much still within the growth period for this cartridge, yet demand has exceeded our expectations and we would be selling much more if we could make more firearms faster.”
Also, it’s a difficult time to introduce new searching cartridge. Ammo availability has been scarce for years and lots of shooters are extra all in favour of getting ammo for weapons they already personal than they’re with experimenting with a brand new rifle and cartridge. Finding ammo on cabinets has additionally been a problem for all however a handful of searching masses. A fast on-line search confirmed that many on-line retailers have been nonetheless out of inventory on 6.8 Western ammo.
“Due to the recent growth in hunting participation and overall ammunition demand, availability has been spotty for most types of ammunition for the last two years or so,” Robinson says. “While the 6.8 Western is no exception, Winchester is committed to supporting this new cartridge and has been producing a sizable amount to ensure that those who have acquired new guns chambered in 6.8 Western will be able to use it for upcoming hunting seasons.”
Field Testing the 6.8 Western
Since the 6.8 Western has been launched, we’ve have the ability to shoot quite a lot of totally different masses on hunts everywhere in the nation. We’ve taken a number of large sport animals with it. Here’s an outline of area efficiency with the totally different masses and rifles.
175-Grain Sierra Tipped Game King in 6.8 Western
Just days earlier than my moose hunt, I opened a pre-production field of ammunition because the fumes from the supply truck nonetheless hung within the air. I plucked one of many cartridges out of the field and rolled it round in my hand, trying on the 6.8mm (.270 cal) 175-grain Sierra Tipped Game King bullet. That’ll do, I believed.
This newer Sierra bullet has a G1 B.C. of .617. It’s designed to hold power at lengthy vary, however constructed to carry collectively for shut photographs on large animals. Sierra broke into new .277″ territory with this bullet, as earlier chamberings didn’t have quick sufficient twist charges to stabilize such an extended projectile in that caliber. Their Tipped Game King requires a tighter twist fee—1:8 within the Winchester rifles or 1:7.5 in Browning rifles (lighter .270 bullets are adequately stabilized in a barrel with a 1:10 twist).
I took a fast journey to the native rifle vary to zero my gun. I used to be capturing a Browning X-Bolt Western Hunter, and as traditional, I instantly eliminated the muzzle brake. With my very first shot, I used to be pleasantly shocked on the delicate recoil of the cartridge, regardless that it was pushing that new 175-grain bullet at a recorded 2835 fps. I zeroed the rifle at 200 yards and the manufacturing unit masses averaged slightly below 2-inch, 5-shot teams at that vary.
There’s loads of of us who will argue that any .270 caliber cartridge is just too small for moose. They’re mistaken. Alaska Yukon moose are large, however they aren’t very troublesome to kill. They have large bones and thick hides, however additionally they have gigantic lungs, and though they often don’t drop instantly (even with large cartridges), they aren’t indestructible the best way some individuals make them out to be. Now, I ought to level out that the actual load I used to be utilizing was positively greater than “just another .270”. With this new 175-grain bullet, on the velocity I measured, from an power standpoint on the muzzle, it might actually sit between a .30-06 and .300 Win. Mag. capturing 180-grain bullets. But the 6.8 Western has a greater B.C., and higher sectional density than a .308 diameter bullet. I had no doubts within the cartridge, however I used to be interested in bullet efficiency, which in addition to shot placement, is probably the most essential issue in relation to placing down large animals.
A pair weeks later, I held the rifle regular atop a tripod as a bull grunted his approach via a stand of burnt timber towards my delicate cow calls. My buddy and I had been trying to find eight days, we’d handed up a number of small bulls, and he killed a dandy. I wanted meat for the winter, and at this level within the hunt, I didn’t have the posh of passing one other bull. I tracked the moose via my riflescope, solely about 100 yards away now, ready for a gap via the patchwork of charred spruce timber. I moaned out a cow name and the bull stopped, with a gap concerning the measurement of a basketball exposing the again of his entrance shoulder. I shot and the bull spun and took a number of steps. I shortly shot once more, after which as soon as extra. Finally, with solely his shoulder uncovered, I fired a fourth shot, dropping him. A volley like this might sound extreme or indicative of less-than-lethal efficiency, however that’s simply how moose are, they not often go down instantly (even when the primary shot is deadly). Especially in such tight quarters, its greatest to maintain capturing in case your first shot wasn’t nearly as good as you thought. When we walked as much as the bull, I discovered that my first shot had been excellent, with one other a number of inches away, additionally via the lungs. The third shot had hit a department and ricocheted into the bull’s antler. The fourth shot punched sq. via the scapula.
I used to be completely satisfied to see that each lung photographs have been full pass-throughs. It appeared that the bullets held collectively effectively—even at comparatively short-range—as a result of I didn’t discover any petals or shrapnel within the physique cavity. The remaining shot had utterly damaged the scapula, however didn’t yield the type of catastrophic meat injury on the impression aspect that you just’d anticipate from a bullet coming aside. In reality, I recovered the bullet underneath the disguise on the again aspect, and it nonetheless weighed 102 grains, a weight retention of 58 %. Considering the vary, velocity, and what it impacted via (a bull moose’s shoulder), I used to be impressed. —T.F.
165-Grain Accubond Long Range in 6.8 Western
I acquired my 6.8 Western ammo in nondescript preproduction field final summer season, a few month earlier than heading to Alaska for a blacktail deer and mountain goat hunt. And similar to Freel, I used to be capturing a Browning X-Bolt Western Hunter, and mine was topped with a Leupold VX-3i 3.5-10mm scope.
The Accubond Long Ranges are bonded, boattail bullets with polymer ideas. As their title implies, they’re designed to broaden reliably at lengthy ranges and decrease velocities, (all the way down to 1,300 fps.) The 165-grain ABLRs have a muzzle velocity of 2970 fps and a G1 BC of .620. From the bench I used to be in a position to common simply over 1-inch, 5-shot teams at 100 yards.
On the vary the rifle dealt with and functioned properly, as you’ll anticipate from an X-Bolt, and I felt assured within the rifle and cartridge going into my hunt. From there, I proceeded to place the platform via the wringer.
Southeast Alaska was on tempo to set rainfall information by the point I arrived in August. And just some hours after stepping off a airplane in Juneau, I used to be climbing up via the Tongass forest’s old-growth timber after blacktail deer. By the time we reached the alpine, the rifle and optic have been soaked, and so they stayed that approach for the following a number of days. My searching associate Bjorn, an expertise southeast Alaska outdoorsman, carried a hefty Ruger .338 Win. Mag.—his go-to rifle in bear nation. Half the time he used it as a strolling stick within the steep, slick terrain. The X-Bolt weighed proper round 7.5 kilos and was a lot simpler to hold within the mountains, although I nonetheless used it as a strolling stick every now and then and managed to slide and fall simply as usually as Bjorn.
On the final day of our hunt we lastly noticed a blacktail buck on a hillside beneath us. He was about 200 yards away with a doe, on a steep downhill angle. As I bought set as much as shoot, the doe slipped into the woods however the buck paused on the treeline, quartering away from us onerous, trying towards his doe. It was now or by no means. My shot took him squarely via the hip and he tumbled right into a strip of timber beneath. Bjorn discovered him piled up nearly 150 yards downhill. The bullet had handed clear via the deer.
Later within the fall I took the 6.8 Western to northern Wisconsin for the deer season opener. Just a number of hours into opening morning I noticed a pleasant buck following some does via a stand of thick popple about 90 yards away. He disappeared for a number of moments however I may nonetheless hear him crunching via the leaves. I noticed a flash of antler after which I gave a loud bleat and the buck stopped in a capturing window for simply lengthy sufficient.
At my shot, he bounded about 30 yards and crashed down. The bullet entered behind his entrance shoulder and buried into the far shoulder. I discovered it, completely mushroomed, simply beneath the disguise on the offside—glorious efficiency at medium vary. —AR
162-Grain Winchester Copper Impact in 6.8 Western
In November 2021 I hunted for elk in Colorado with Browning’s X-Bolt Mountain Pro Long Range rifle loaded with Winchester’s Copper Impact 162-grain masses. The bullet is strong copper, and it designed for what Winchester calls an “oversized impact diameter.” The spherical as an marketed muzzle velocity of 2875 and a G1 BC (Ballistic Coefficient) of 0.564.
On my hunt in Colorado I shot a pleasant 5×5 bull inside 100 yards whereas he was on the transfer. As he walked via the junipers, I floated my crosshairs over his shoulder and fired. The first shot broke each shoulders and exited. Incredibly, there was minimal meat injury, proving the bullet stayed collectively as a copper bullet is designed to do. I shot the bull as soon as extra, a coup de grâce shot fired from 20 yards. We discovered that slug whereas quartering out the bull and surprisingly, it didn’t absolutely mushroom at such an in depth vary (given the impression velocity), however it did maintain collectively.
As fro the rifle, the X-Bolt Mountain Pro Long Range simply may be the perfect X-Bolt I’ve ever shot. In 6.8 Western with a 26-inch barrel, the rifle weighs 6 kilos 12 ounces. The carbon inventory, Cerakote barrel, and crisp set off carry customized options to a inventory rifle. A soft butt pad and the Recoil Hawg muzzle brake take the chew out the gun. —A.R.