6.8 western

[Possumslayer]

Anyone gonna rush out to buy a new rifle to shoot this new round?

my YouTube feed is full of videos on this new Winchester/Browning collaboration.

[KahrMan]

I need to read up on it some more but I am always up for buying a new rifle. 

[pop pop]

I would wait for a while to see if they have bugs. 

[A.J. Holst]

I don't shoot long distance or hunt, but have been interested watching the development of rifle rounds in the 6s vs. 7s

Pretty cool stuff.

[1gewehr]

Ho-hum.  Not compatible with any existing semi-auto platforms.  So bolt-action only.  That limits it's usefulness and appeal.  I'll stick with 6.5 creedmoor in larger platforms and 6.5 Grendel in the smaller one.

I'll be very interested to see if it's still around 10 years from now, and who it appealed to.

[gary_boom]

If it was compatible with a semi auto would it be 6.8 Western Auto?

[pop pop]

Saw a review on the 6.8 on Gun's and Ammo TV yesterday. Basically it is a caliber that has a 100 yard advantage over the 556. Supposed to be more accurate out to 600 yards instead of the 500 yards for 556, for the military. Was developed for the special forces military. So it's advantage is a slight distance advantage. 

No I don't plan to purchase one of these rifles. My 7MM 08 will be sufficient for me. 

[leroy]

Most of this stuff is " old wine in new bottles " engineered so as to bring more insider dollars into the small weapons side of the " Military-Industrial Complex "... It's the way of things...

isolationist leroy...

[gregintenn]

Cool! Another cartridge we won't be able to find.

I'd prefer they design a new primer....one that can be found on dealer shelves.

Edited January 22, 2021 by gregintenn

[mikegideon]

It's a 270 Winchester Short mag with a better bullet. Pretty big yawn.

[deerslayer]

1 hour ago, mikegideon said:

It's a 270 Winchester Short mag with a better bullet. Pretty big yawn.

That may be true, but a recent trend is to get better performance at long range by moving the shoulder back on an existing or similar cartridge and making it easier to use heavy-for-caliber/higher ballistic coefficient bullets at the same OAL.  This method is what made the 6.5 Creedmoor so popular.  .277 has been ignored by the high BC bullet makers, so I don’t know why this cartridge popped up.  Maybe they know something I don’t.  
 

Whatever the case, I can’t imagine that it extends a 5.56 only 100 yards.  A .277 caliber 175 grain bullet @2835 fps should destroy a 5.56 range-wise. 

Edited January 22, 2021 by deerslayer

[mikegideon]

2 hours ago, deerslayer said:

That may be true, but a recent trend is to get better performance at long range by moving the shoulder back on an existing or similar cartridge and making it easier to use heavy-for-caliber/higher ballistic coefficient bullets at the same OAL.  This method is what made the 6.5 Creedmoor so popular.  .277 has been ignored by the high BC bullet makers, so I don’t know why this cartridge popped up.  Maybe they know something I don’t.  
 

Whatever the case, I can’t imagine that it extends a 5.56 only 100 yards.  A .277 caliber 175 grain bullet @2835 fps should destroy a 5.56 range-wise. 

My brother shoots and reloads 6.5 Creedmoor, And I shoot and reload 6.5 Grendel. That's why it's a yawn to me. Short case and high BC is our regular stuff. My Grendel loads are supersonic past 1000 yards out of an AR15 mag. Maybe they are trying to put a little more lead into an animal.

[Handsome Rob]

6 hours ago, pop pop said:

Saw a review on the 6.8 on Gun's and Ammo TV yesterday. Basically it is a caliber that has a 100 yard advantage over the 556. Supposed to be more accurate out to 600 yards instead of the 500 yards for 556, for the military. Was developed for the special forces military. So it's advantage is a slight distance advantage. 

No I don't plan to purchase one of these rifles. My 7MM 08 will be sufficient for me. 

I think you might be confusing the 6.8 Western with the 6.8SPC. The Western is specifically designed around 175gn+ super high BC bullets. In essence, it's a .270WSM, without any of the .270's inherent constraints (short throats) The WSM is pretty much limited to 150gn bullets without taking up masses of powder space. By moving the shoulder back, shortening the neck and making the case ever so slightly wider, powder capacity is retained, burn efficiency is improved & by partnering with rifle manufacturers, willing to increase throat length, the 6.8 pretty much retains our improved the velocity of the WSM, with a heavier, higher BC bullet. 

I'll admit, this is a super niche cartridge, pretty much specific to western hunters where lightweight, effective long range rifles rule. 

 

[deerslayer]

1 hour ago, mikegideon said:

My brother shoots and reloads 6.5 Creedmoor, And I shoot and reload 6.5 Grendel. That's why it's a yawn to me. Short case and high BC is our regular stuff. My Grendel loads are supersonic past 1000 yards out of an AR15 mag. Maybe they are trying to put a little more lead into an animal.

Right but nobody’s done much with short case/high BC in .277.  Everything I read about it talks about more downrange energy, so maybe they are catering to 600 yard moose hunters.  
 

What is your Grendel load?  What bullet?  I’m building a 6mm ARC, which is basically a Grendel necked down to .243.  I picked a lousy time to build an AR, but I never was the smartest kid in the class

Edited January 23, 2021 by deerslayer

[mikegideon]

24 minutes ago, deerslayer said:

Right but nobody’s done much with short case/high BC in .277.  Everything I read about it talks about more downrange energy, so maybe they are catering to 600 yard moose hunters.  
 

What is your Grendel load?  What bullet?  I’m building a 6mm ARC, which is basically a Grendel necked down to .243.  I picked a lousy time to build an AR, but I never was the smartest kid in the class

123 grain Lapua Scenar with 29+ grains of Accurate 2520. This Quickload screen shot is close...  

Edited January 23, 2021 by mikegideon

[mikegideon]

1 hour ago, Handsome Rob said:

I'll admit, this is a super niche cartridge, pretty much specific to western hunters where lightweight, effective long range rifles rule. 

 

Yeah. They named it right. Our friend Kahrman recently killed an elk at long range. I figure he posted it here too. He used an old school 300 Winmag. Hard to do better than that except for the recoil.

Edited January 23, 2021 by mikegideon

[deerslayer]

32 minutes ago, mikegideon said:

123 grain Lapua Scenar with 29+ grains of Accurate 2520. This Quickload screen shot is close...  

That’s pretty cool.  My load data usually looks more like this:

 

[mikegideon]

15 minutes ago, deerslayer said:

That’s pretty cool.  My load data usually looks more like this:

 

Yep. My paper is packed away. I just moved